You’re Long. Now What?

Long spots come down to awareness, glide performance, and decision-making. This breaks down how to manage all three before and after deployment.

So, you’re long. Now what? Easy answer? Don’t put yourself there. Thanks for reading.

But seriously, you probably know the feeling. Great skydive. Audible goes off. You track, deploy, look around, and think, “Where the ____ am I?” You finally spot the DZ. Dang, there goes my beer-line swoop. Now we’re just hoping to make it back.

I think most of us have been there. I know I have.

The best way to deal with a long spot is to know it’s coming before you ever leave the plane. Long spots usually aren’t surprises—they’re pretty predictable, if you’re paying attention.

How to Know You’re Going to Be Long

Some Clues:

• Groundspeed faster than anticipated
• A bunch of smaller groups ahead of you
• The green light has been on a really long time before the first group exits
• You’re last on a student-heavy load

We shouldn’t rely on vibes or spidey senses. Personally, I prefer to use a GPS, and I know how far the landing area is before I even climb out. I also know how far I can comfortably go in light (0–5 mph), medium (10–15 mph), and strong (20+ mph) winds.

If I think I’m long, I’ll open higher. I’ll trade a few seconds of freefall for altitude all day. A little extra altitude provides options. In my opinion, we as a community don’t stress the importance of making it back to the DZ nearly enough.

What Is a Long Spot?

Let’s define a “long spot.” Here’s my slightly over-simplified definition: If I can’t make it back to the DZ in full flight and still have altitude to fly a proper pattern, I’m long. At that point, the answer is pretty simple: I need to do something to improve my glide ratio.

Understanding Glide Ratio

Glide ratio is a simple relationship: horizontal (ground speed) over vertical (descent rate). Example: A canopy with a 2.3:1 glide ratio travels 2,300 feet forward for every 1,000 feet down.

Glide ratio can be improved by:

• Increasing horizontal speed
• Decreasing vertical speed
• Or finding the best balance of both

There isn’t one specific tool for maximizing glide ratio. There is no blanket rule. “Always use rears” and “just go to brakes” oversimplify the problem. Your canopy’s true glide potential, combined with how effectively you fly it, decides.

What Determines the Right Input

We effectively have two options: rear risers or brakes (½ to ¾). Somewhere in there will be your best glide ratio. With most modern skydiving wings, effective use of rear risers is often the best option. With proper input, we can maintain near full-flight horizontal speed with a reduced descent rate.

The drawback to rears is that they require training and practice to figure out how much input produces the best descent rate. If rears aren’t engaged enough, we’re not slowing the descent rate sufficiently. If we go too heavy, we slow forward speed and vertical speed can actually increase—not to mention getting close to the stall point.

The benefit of using brakes is that they don’t require any special skill beyond what we learn in AFF and the B License canopy course. In brakes, we sacrifice some forward speed for a slower descent rate.

Less than ½ brakes won’t slow the descent rate enough to be effective. More than ¾ slows airspeed too much. Many canopies also have a tipping point past ¾ where descent rate increases with sustained input.

Many skydivers are nervous to fly that deep in brakes. It’s crucial to know where the stall point is, especially since many jumpers shorten their brake line length.

Body Position Matters More Than You Think

The canopy pilot is a major part of the aerodynamic equation. The one input that has a major, undeniable effect: body position.

If you open up in the next county and fly back in a “big” body position, you’re adding drag. Drag reduces airspeed, and reduced airspeed hurts glide. Get small. Knees together and up out of the wind. Bring your elbows close to your body. Be as efficient as possible. You can gain extra airspeed without giving anything up.

No Tailwind? Now What

Now consider winds that aren’t at your back. You may be long because the forecast was wrong. A headwind subtracts the same amount of forward speed from every flight mode but does nothing to your vertical speed. That makes penetration the priority.

When flying upwind or crosswind to get home, slowing down usually makes the problem worse. In a headwind, airspeed wins. If we can maintain airspeed and reduce descent, that’s the best option (rears).

So:

• Tailwind rewards true glide improvement
• Headwind rewards speed
• Body position always matters
• Your canopy determines the right input

Landing Off Isn’t Just Inconvenient

It’s unknown terrain and obstacles.

Power lines you didn’t see from altitude.
Fences. Irrigation ditches.
Livestock. Traffic.

No wind indicators. No one on the ground watching for you. And most importantly, no nearby medical attention if you need it. A long spot by itself isn’t dangerous. Poor decisions after realizing you’re long are.

When You’re Not Making It Back

You do this long enough, and sometimes you’re not going to make it back. If you’ve done the math, used the right input, stayed efficient, and still aren’t sure you’ll reach the DZ, take an out while you still have altitude.

Shift your focus from making it back to making a smart off-DZ landing. And the first thing you should do? Slow your descent rate down.

Buy Yourself Time

The faster the ground is approaching, the worse decision-makers we become. When altitude disappears quickly, people rush. They fixate. Time equals options.

Reducing descent rate buys you time to:

• Scan for wires
• Identify wind direction
• Evaluate terrain
• Pick the biggest, safest area available
• Build a simple, conservative pattern

(Yes, we still need to fly a pattern, we’re probably not the only one landing out.)

Once it’s clear you’re landing off, stop forcing glide and start maximizing decision time. A controlled landing into a chosen field beats a rushed low turn toward something that looked close but turns out not to be suitable. Making it back to the DZ is secondary to making a good decision.

Practical Takeaways

• Know you’re long as early as possible
• Deploy slightly higher if needed
• Measure your canopy’s real performance
• Learn the most efficient use of rear risers

A good canopy coach can help you with the last two.

What This Really Means

Long spots aren’t emergencies, they’re fairly simple math problems. If you understand your canopy, the winds, and make the correct inputs, you can turn a potential off-field landing into a boring canopy flight home.

Being long isn’t an insurmountable mistake. Not recognizing it early enough, and not knowing what to do, might be.

Learn more about how your canopy performs with winds in this article from Flight-1’s Cara Madeley.