### Answer the following questions using the value of the answer provided in parentheses.

Experience and Currency

• Number of jumps: 26-50 (5); 51-200 (4); 201-500 (3);

501-2,000 (2); more than 2,000 (1)

________

• Years in the sport: Less than six months (5);

six months to a year (4); more than a year to three years (3); more than three years to five years (2); more than five years (1)

________

• Number of jumps last year: Fewer than 25 (8); 26-50 (5);

51-200 (3); 201-500 (2); more than 500 (1)

________

• Number of jumps last month: 0 (5); 1-9 (4); 10-25 (3);

26-49 (2); 50 or more (1)

________

• Number of jumps at your current DZ: 0-10 (6); 11-25 (4);

26-50 (3); 51-200 (2); more than 200 (1)

________ 

### Canopy Information • W ing loading: .6-.9:1 (1); .91-1.1:1 (2); 1.11-1.3:1 (3);

1.31-1.7:1 (6); 1.71-plus:1 (8)

________

• Canopy square footage: 260-plus (1); 210-259 (2);

170-209 (3); 135-169 (4); 120-134 (6); 119 or smaller (8)

________

• Canopy design: Low aspect ratio, rectangular (1);

rectangular (2); elliptical (3); high aspect ratio, elliptical (6); cross-braced (8)

________

• Number of jumps on your current canopy: 0-10 (5);

11-25 (4); 26-50 (3); 51-200 (2); more than 200 (1)

________ 

### T

raining Experience

• Structured lessons or competitions on your canopy:

0 (5); 1-3 (4); 4-6 (3); 7-9 (2); ten or more (1)

________

• Hop-and-pops above 5,000 feet dedicated to

canopy practice (no RW, etc.) on your current canopy: 1-5 (5); 6-10 (4); 11-25 (3); 26-50 (2); more than 50 (1)

________

• Give yourself one point for each maneuver you have

NOT performed on your canopy in the last 50 jumps:

Braked turn

________ Flare turn

________ Reverse turn

________ Braked landing

________ Riser flare (high or on landing)

________ Extended glide

________ Flying a pre-planned pattern

________ Accuracy within two meters

________ Crosswind or downwind landing

________ Induced-speed landing

________

Add up your entries to determine 

### Y

our Canopy Quotient: 

# W ondering where you fit in with all the talk about canopy piloting? Complete this questionnaire, and see where your score falls on the canopy risk scale.

UNITED STATES P

ARACHUTE ASSOCIATION 

# T ake a moment to calculate your11-25: ComfortableYou appreciate your canopy’s capabilities andhave been getting training from a coach andpracticing on a target or course regularly. You’restaying current and enjoying your canopy’sperformance, maybe making lots of different types oflandings and approaches. You’re good with accuracyon that canopy and practice with a target on almostevery jump.If you’re keeping your canopy skills and equipmentin the comfortable range, that allows you to explorenew avenues in freefall, like larger freefall groups orDZs at higher elevations. Being in the comfortablezone might reduce the risk of exploring moreaggressive canopy maneuvers, if that’s the directionyou want to take.25-36: Average RiskIf you’re on the high end of the score for this group,you might be jumping fairly conservative gear butwithout a lot of training on it. As long as you don’t getinto a difficult situation, you might be OK, but you cannever count on that. Be especially careful when youtravel, and you should probably put off that decision todownsize for a while until you can get with a coachand make some more jumps.You might earn a high average-risk score if you’revery experienced and well trained on a small wingbut not too current or not too current at a certain DZor with your current canopy. Be careful until youregain your edge with more experience and training.If you find yourself uncurrent a lot, you might want toupsize a little.36-50: High RiskThis is a bad place. The combination of attributesthat add up to high risk were derived from profiles ofjumpers involved in the many scores of canopyrelated accidents reported to USPA. This isn’t abouta bunch of old people telling you not to do somethingfun. It’s for you to see for yourself how you compareto the people in those reports.You may have gotten to this point with the bestintentions, but you should assess how to reduce youractual current risk. You can start by getting training,upsizing or both. Also, after a bad spot, you shouldnot be one of the jumpers who tries to stretch it outto the last couple hundred feet to make it back to theDZ. Pick a safe alternative early.Jumpers who want to learn performance landingsand get ready for swoop competitions should notmove into the high-risk category by getting smallercanopies to train with. To reduce your risk beforetrying high-speed landing maneuvers, start jumpingmore, make only high hop-and-pops, and considerdownsizing only after your score fits you into a lowerrisk profile. Before going big on landing, train with acoach. Always keep your risk low when learningperformance moves.51-76: ScaryNo matter how you got this score, you and thejumpers around you are in trouble. You’re jumping acanopy that’s too advanced for your experience andcurrency, and you haven’t been trained well enoughto fly it safely. You probably should not continue tojump your current equipment, and you definitelyshould not visit other drop zones. Overly aggressivecanopy pilots new on the DZ have become one of aDZ manager’s biggest headaches.At home, your friends should insist that you landby yourself, away from them. You really should putyour current canopy away for a while, upsize tosomething safer and work with a coach until he feelsyou have the skills to handle your current gear. Andplease don’t try anything fancy on landing.If you feel that you got this score unfairly becauseyou bought gear that some people told you would befine if you jumped it conservatively or were careful untilyou got used to it, then those people have simply notgotten the message. Advice a lot of people in the sportused to consider a little aggressive but reasonableturned out to be dangerous. Sometimes, it takes awhile for people to get the word. Not only does thescary profile describe those in the accident reports, butthe accidents themselves have severe consequencesfor the jumpers and others around them. Frankly, therest of the jumpers in the sport are sick of it.This isn’t a scientific survey, and you have to consider what you did to getyour score. Your canopy risk quotient can change up or down depending onyour circumstances on any given day. Look especially at the number of jumps inthe last month or year and the number of jumps at a particular drop zone or ona new canopy. Visiting a new DZ with a brand-new canopy or signing out ademo at a boogie can really punch up your canopy risk quotient. And althoughnot on the survey, fatigue and health figure in, of course ... Make sure to factorin that hangover.What does your score mean?What does your score mean?