Why engage in canopy piloting?

Canopy piloting and landing should be safe at all times when required and not as luck would have it, with full control over the speed and direction regardless of the skydiving discipline you prefer more: RW, freefly, large formations, or you are a newcomer who has just completed an AFF course.

Correct canopy piloting is an integral part of skydiving and should be paid special attention to; comprising different levels our courses are specially designed for this.

First Level: Basic Course (1-2 days)

This course lasts one day. It covers basics of piloting with jumps and includes video analysis of each landing made by you. At the end of the course, by the 5-8th jump, you will reconceive the canopy piloting process, grasp the differences between flight modes and parachute control techniques (especially at low speeds), gain more confidence in piloting, improve your accuracy and get rid of nervousness and fussing around when landing. We will also discuss landing issues out of the airfield and talk about how to effectively deal with it.

Second Level: Skills Enhancing Course (3 days)

This course takes much more time and aims at learning to accelerate canopies to a maximum speed with quick long and excellent landings that at the same time are safe both for self and others.

To accelerate a canopy, it is necessary either to accelerate along a straight line or turn 90, then 135 degrees, or do 270-630 degree turns. If you already practice high speed landings, we can help improve your technique and achieve better results. To master canopy piloting, one has to make hundreds or even thousands of jumps, but our experienced instructors will help you achieve results much faster, more consistently and correctly from the very beginning.

We will teach you all these skills; however, a 3-day course allows mastering one type of turn only. This is followed by practicing, reconceiving and moving to the next step.

Third Level: Further Training for Skilled Pilots (Advanced)

This is a course at which highly skilled pilots master carving, freestyle and prepare for swoop competitions in each discipline separately.

How to start training?

If you got interested in any course on canopy piloting, you are welcome to send your application to the head of Aerograd CP School, Igor Pugachev: skyigor3007@mail.ru

In the application you should indicate the following information:

• period (dates) of your intended studies
• total number of jumps, average number of jumps per year
• your experience and a parachute type, number of jumps with this type of parachute
• your weight

On the basis of all submitted applications, a group will be formed and you will receive an electronic confirmation of the beginning of your training course.

Daily routine:

Basic Course

• 8:30 – meeting at the manifest
• 9:00 – first ascent (jumps are performed from an altitude of 1,700 meters)
• Video analysis and then jumps and analyses, again jumps and analyses based on the number of people in the group.
• Price – RUB 4 000 per person per day + costs of the jumps.

Advanced course

• Minimum one Air to Air jump from 4,000 m with an instructor.
• Private lessons by prior arrangements.
• Price – RUB 4 000 per person per day + costs of the jumps.

What is canopy piloting (SWOOP)?

Swoop – a swift descent (especially of a bird of prey on its victim); Swoop down – move rapidly downwards. The term "swoop" is becoming more widely used as an alternative name of the discipline instead of the official "canopy piloting". Spectacularity and freshness of impressions of this kind of parachuting can be hardly compared with any other sport!

Swoop is one of the youngest and most extreme disciplines of parachuting. For spectators, swoop competitions are like action-packed shows because, as opposed to other types of parachuting, its essential elements are performed not somewhere high in the sky, but very close to the ground. More specifically, water. It is a distinctive feature of swooping (considering the complexity of tasks and for safety reasons, the landing area is a special pond).

Sportsmen sweep past judges and audience at immense speeds at an altitude of less than one meter. Experienced pilots can accelerate their canopies to a speed of more than 100 km/h. It is somewhat of a kind of parachute "Formula 1" with swoopers being the undoubted parachuting elite.

Competitions are held in three categories: distance, landing accuracy, speed.

Distance. If a swooper manages to enter the gates, his task is to fly as far as possible and land in the zone with a maximum number of points. To do this, a horizontal speed of a swooper must be very high.

Linesmen watch that feet and other parts of a swooper's body do not touch the ground or water.

Accuracy. In this discipline, a swooper needs to enter the gates and touch water in all zones gaining points. Then the swooper should fly up in the restricted zone and land in the right area without missing it. Linesmen record all touches made in the water and ground zones where points are gained.

Speed. The speed at which a swooper passes the distance from the gates to the finish line is measured by a special device. Touching water or ground is forbidden in this type of flights.