Andrey Kan

Spot Assist is used by hundreds of skydivers every day. It can help to visualize landing pattern in current wind conditions. It allows to manually set landing direction, and some jumpers just play with this feature. What happens next is a question: why Spot Assist doesn’t set the pattern directly upwind?

Well, if direction is set, Spot Assist is going to keep it and will ignore the wind, which sometimes is not optimal.

This was a pretty big source of confusion, and here is why.

All Dropzones are different

Lets take a look at two very different dropzones.

Skydive Sebastian. Big, square - ish landing area. It allows to land pretty much any direction. Landing directly upwind? No problem.
Skydive Sebastian. Big, square – ish landing area. It allows to land pretty much any direction. Landing directly upwind? No problem.
THT Brothers dropzone has very narrow long landing area parallel to the runway. Therefore landing must be in one of 2 directions only, both parallel to the runway.
THT Brothers dropzone has very narrow long landing area parallel to the runway. Therefore landing must be in one of 2 directions only, both parallel to the runway.

Looks like the rule “Always land upwind” is not always the best. Sometimes we are just limited to established dropzone conditions.  How can Spot Assist help?

Enters the new Feature

Landing Corridor

Landing Corridor is a way for jumper to lock the landing direction for specific dropzone. If the direction is locked – Spot Assist will still consider the winds, but will calculate a pattern to either locked direction, or the opposite one.

For TNT Brothers - pick direction
For TNT Brothers – pick direction
Press the Button "Make Corridor"
Press the Button “Make Corridor”
Landing Corridor is all set. From now on Spot Assist will consider this direction to land
Landing Corridor is all set. From now on Spot Assist will consider this direction to land

What happens for a big dropzone, like Skydive Sebastian?

Skydive Sebastian doesn't have Landning Corridor set, so it will always adjust upwind, unless you manually set different direction
Skydive Sebastian doesn’t have Landing Corridor set, so it will always adjust upwind, unless you manually set different direction
There is an option how to pick landing direction is Settings
There is an option how to pick landing direction is Settings

Let me know your thoughts, drop me a line.

For those who are interested in the parachute aerodynamics and math – here is the Flying Formula, used by Spot Assist

Happy jumping and Blue Skies
Andrey

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