Fast Descents; Spiral Dive - Team 5 GREEN Betriebsanleitung

FAST DESCENTS

Due to the very low sink rate of the GREEN, problems with "getting down" can occur in trim flight
when the lift situation is very good or when the weather changes unexpectedly.
There are three possibilities of rapidly reducing altitude in such situations.
Caution: These methods of fast descent are emergency manoeuvres which can expose the struc-
ture of the canopy up to its limits of strength. Therefore, they may only be used in training or in
emergency situations.

SPIRAL DIVE

The spiral dive is the most effective form of fast descent: With a little bit of practice you will achieve a
sink rate of 15 m/s and more with your GREEN. It is absolutely necessary that you gradually approach
these values the first few times! Constant pulling on one brake narrows the radius of the turn and forms
a spiral rotation in which high sink rates can be reached. As soon as the GREEN is in a spiral dive (clear
increase of sink rate and turn bank), the outside wing should always be stabilised with the outside brake
and the desired sink rate should be controlled with great delicacy. In an average spiral dive both brakes
are equally applied with about 35 cm. This way, the GREEN will not become nose-heavy, is more stable
in the spiral dive and eases out more harmonically.
Caution: When this is initiated too fast, there is a great risk of spinning! In this case, release the control
and try again.
Caution: The GREEN speeds up very quickly when in a spiral dive and reaches values over 15 m/s as
well as high g-loads. Values above 10 m/s may only be flown in immediate emergencies and with the ap-
propriate pilot qualifications since the pressure on material and pilot could surpass the safe range! You
recover from a spiral dive by gently releasing the brakes and by controlled counter-braking in order to
avoid excessive swinging but also because the GREEN may show, as all modern, drag-reduced paraglid-
ers, the tendency for retarded turning out of high speed (sink rates of more than 12 m/s). So you must
clearly differ between initial phase (only the brake on the inside wing is being applied plus weight shift
control) and the spiral phase (inside brake is being released, the outside brake is being applied and the
weight is in neutral position) and the recovering phase (gradual release of both brakes, the inside brake
may be released a bit faster, weight shift towards outside wing according to tendency)! The pilot must
always be aware of the high energies, which are essential for controlled, smooth recovery from strong
spiral dives. Impulsive counter-steering out of full speed with the purpose of interrupting the phase of
retarded turning can lead to very dynamic, highly dangerous swerving movements ("looping") and is

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