This is how you land...

[jimrooney]

This cropped up on Oz and Hanggliding.org
It is nice to see good landings... but I'm reposting this here because the first landing is such an excellent example of how to land.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGA2JbxTg2Q&fmt=18

The first one is spot on perfect. Good speed (above trim!), good transition (one hand, two, good positioning), nice arched back the whole time, slow to trim, at-trim-and-flare (good solid flare). Absolutely textbook (this is how everyone should be landing).
Notice how Rob's landing (the very next one) is exactly the same... and works exactly as well.

I feel that it is so important to have a good mental image of your goal.
Landings like this are not hard... they're just not always taught. There are intermediate steps in the learning process too that can help get you there. I'll be detailing more about this after I get back... but this is a good place to start.

The others are decent (some excellent), but burn that first one into your brain.
Jim

[Lauren Tjaden]

Nice, Jim -- thanks! I agree that having a clear, correct, mental picture is vital.
Lauren

[Flying Lobster]

They'd be plowing furrows at Lookout landing like that...hah hah.

marc

[Matthew]

Okay. Maybe I'm crazy. But those approaches on final all looked really, really slow.

Or... maybe we're all just flying too fast on final around here. Need to bring out the video cam next time.

Matthew

[CraginS]

Have to agree with Matthew - they looked like they were boating in, at least in terms of ground speed. Maybe there was a lot of wind, and airspeed was higher than apparent?

[Batman]

Or it could just be very still air that they are landing in. No problem boating it in if you don't have to worry about turbulence or a gradient. The reason most of us have been trained to land with extra airspeed is most of our LZ's are surrounded by trees and/or to allow us to overcome turbulence on landing.

[jimrooney]

I'm not talking about all of them... just the first.
If you want to be technical, the second too... that's Rob McKenzie flying tandem... he has forgot more about hang gliding that I know.

The rest are a mixed bag of flying at Marshal Peak... both mixed flying skills and conditions. (one is roudy as hell). Who cares? Watch the first one. It's perfect.

Jim

[Matthew]

I like the arched back position idea. I've been walking around with my back arched and playing "flare". With the arched back you can't push your arms out (mostly horizontal). Your arms automatically go upwards. I'll have to try this next time out.

Matthew

[jimrooney]

My new favorite landing saying....
Show me your arm pits!

Seems to work well.
Jim

[Matthew]

Hmmm. If that's the case, I'd avoid volunteering to coach the French Women's World Team.



Matthew