Deployment altitudes

So, you've done your first flight and had the 5000 foot canopy ride that went with it. In fact, you've done a few flights now and you're wishing that you could bring your deployment altitude down a bit, after all every deployment has been perfect, you haven't needed the extra margin that pulling high gives you, and you'd much rather spend it flying the suit. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the high pull is so that you've got time to deal with any problems that might happen on deployment, such as a malfunction in the suit as it's likely to take you longer to deal with the unfamiliar situation. But as you put more jumps on the suit, and particularly if you're a high-experience jumper in the first place, it is acceptable to start to bring deployment altitude down a bit.

So how much to bring it down by? Well, 500 feet at a time would be sensible, maybe doing a couple of jumps with each new deployment height depending on your experience and the canopy you're jumping. Talk to me if you're unsure.

And how low can you go as a hard deck? Well the BPA says that all experienced jumpers must be open by 2000 feet (except on demos), and my advice is that you should have a fully open canopy with all your post-opening procedures complete by that same 2000 feet. So you should have opened, adjusted the suit, taken off your booties, unzipped or unclipped your arms, stowed your slider, loosened your chest strap, opened your visor and done any other faffing that you may choose to do, and STILL have your toggles in your hands on full drive by 2000 feet.

From my experience, I know that if I set my Pro Track to beep at 3500' and pull when I hear it, I will normally be taking my toggles off at about 2200' which is just right for me. I'm on a fairly slow canopy (Pilot 124) so I have quite a lot of time to do all my faffing whilst steering on rear risers, and I do do a LOT of faffing!