A couple of questions for discussion:
What (generally speaking) are optimal winds for a cliff that is:
a)500 ft.?
b)3000 ft.?
(in terms of direction and velocity)
What are "less than perfect, but jumpable"?
What are definate "no go" winds?
Obviously, each cliff can be potentially different, but, let's just assume that said cliffs are dead vertical to the ground from the exit point
Here's the important part of the answers: WHY?
thanx.
cliffed
Yo !
Let's assume you know what you are doing, cliffs are dead vertical and you can land right where you open. In that case:
From the point of object strike, winds will be irrelevant: you should be open far away from the cliff and low enough to land before you make it back to the wall. This is obvious for 3000ft cliff, but even 500' is definitely high enough to get a lot of separation. Dwain can probably comment on this a bit further ;-)
Regarding the landing: any wind faster that your canopy's forward speed may be unpleasant. If LZ is tight and surrounded by turbulence-creating hazards your wind envelope may narrow down even further - this will be a personal preference, most likely.
To sum it up: ideal winds are no winds at all ;-) No-go is a wind you don't want to land in. Anything in between is jumpable.
Additional wind restrictions will apply if you open high and/or close to the wall (i.e. you do serious aerials, or you don't know what you are doing, or you are generally a#####).
Most real low cliffs will be less tolerant regarding the wind, because you cannot pull right over the landing area and have to clear the talles, etc. Once you are forced to pull high and expose yourself, life gets tough. Many rocks will create rotors, unpredictable turbulence and so on, making any generalizations rather useless.
bsbd!
Yuri.
There's a cliff that I jump that has such differing characteristics with differing wind directions that it can kill you if you go without knowing the scoop. A tailwind from the right is fine but from the left will get you big time here. It's not even obvious why until you experience it. Get the poop from the locals on how winds can affect the cliff in question's jumpability.
Try to determine how far away from the cliff you will be when you open. Now assume an off-heading between 90 and 180 degrees. Now put the (current wind) into the equation. Add the winds, your canopy speed and your evasive abiliities using risers. Now picture the results. If you see yourself turning it around in time and landing ok (now that you have used up a little altitude) then the winds are ok.
M.B.
It's not quite as simple as you let on. Turbulence can give you more than a complete line twist in no time. Rotors can dump you out of the sky in a heartbeat.
Get the scoop on that particular cliff. If you can't go for zero wind.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks