As a canopy manufacturer, we’re all about helping skydivers get the most out of their parachutes. And while we love a good swoop, there’s more than one way to enjoy flying a canopy. Canopy flocking is a form of non-contact group canopy flight that builds canopy control, awareness, and confidence under canopy.
We caught up with JYRO athlete Zack Rosser and teammate Niall Saunders to answer all your canopy flocking questions. With Zack’s Canopy Course becoming one of Australia’s most sought-after canopy courses, we picked their brains on everything from getting started and choosing the right wing loading to avoiding common mistakes and progressing safely. Flock on!
“The best flocking pilots aren’t the fastest. They’re the ones who progress one step at a time.” — Zack Rosser
Jump to the Questions
- What Is Canopy Flocking?
- How Do You Get Started?
- Does Wing Loading Matter?
- What’s the Best Canopy for Flocking?
- How Do You Progress Safely?
- Top Do’s and Don’ts
- Equipment You’ll Need
- What If Your Wing Loading Doesn’t Match?
- Should You Take a Course?
- Getting the Most From a Course
- Common Mistakes to Avoid
- What’s Next for Zack’s Canopy Course?
- Keep Learning
What Is Canopy Flocking?
Zack
In my opinion, canopy flocking is flying your sports canopy in group relative non contact flight, whilst flying in a specified slot.
Niall
Non contact canopy relative work, either flying static (holding slot for entirety of jump) or dynamic (moving slots through-out jump).
How Do You Get Started With Canopy Flocking?
Zack
I’d recommend doing a couple 1-on-1 high pulls with an experienced instructor or coach. Go through all your canopy inputs and how they react flying relative to another person. During this you should learn about spotting, your inputs, approaches and most importantly, about canopy wraps & entanglements.
Niall
Getting into flocking as early as you can is a great way to start unlocking your canopy’s full potential. If you don’t meet the course requirements, then speak to a canopy coach and start doing some one-on-one jumps. This is a great way to get practising for when you do meet the course requirements.
New to canopy progression? Read Flying Habits of Highly Effective Canopy Pilots to build good routines before joining a flocking group.
Does Wing Loading Matter for Canopy Flocking?
Zack
I wouldn’t say there’s an ideal wingloading for flocking. However, there’s definitely only so much range your wing has to be able to fly with other people. For instance, if you’re at 1.0 wingloading you’re going to struggle to fly with people on a wingloading of 2.0+. For our camps, we have the following bracket which we’ve found works well for those groups. 1.2-1.5 1.6-2.1.
If you’re looking at doing some intro flocks, try matching the wingloading as best as you can rather than matching the same size canopy.
Niall
It’s more about being compatible with the other pilots you are flying with, that’s why there are wing loading brackets for the flocking camps.
Try our handy wingload calculator to find out your wingloading on our canopies
Not sure what your ideal wing loading is? Read When to Downsize Your Canopy (and When Not To) before making your next canopy decision.
What’s the Best Canopy for Flocking?
Zack
Obviously JYRO wings! For the advanced camps, I’ll fly my JFX2 84 loaded at 1.9 (I’m a little boy, alright). It gives me the ability to comfortably fly with people on a Katana 135 down to a JFX2 72 and still have plenty of range. I’m very excited for my new Leia 74 to arrive to take the camps up a couple levels!
However, for the intro camp, I’ll fly a demo Crossfire 3 109 or 99. Again, I’ll have canopies such as Safire 2 190’s down to Crossfire 3 129s and all flying relative in a nice formation with plenty of range too.
Niall
Anything JYRO (previously NZ Aerosports) makes 😉
Compare the full JYRO range in our Parachute Buyer’s Guide to find the right canopy for your progression.
How Do You Progress Your Canopy Flocking Skills?
Zack
Don’t skip any steps, start off with small simple jumps. We’ve made mistakes of progressing too quickly and jumps haven’t gone to plan. On our camps where we stick to a progression plan without skipping the essential steps, people progress at a much higher rate. Which makes everything a lot more enjoyable!
My favourite jumps have been 2 ways. It takes away the stress of having lots of canopies around to try out complex jumps or I’ve found 6 ways to be the perfect number for dynamic jumps.
Niall
It doesn’t matter where you are in your canopy piloting journey; coming to a flocking camp will improve your canopy skills!
Have a read of our blog ’10 Examples of Skydiving Mistakes‘ where jumps haven’t gone to plan, or check out 25 Ways to Become a Better Canopy Pilot to start building skills and habits.
What Are the Top Do’s and Don’ts?
Zack
Small simple jumps are more frothy than bigger technical jumps, don’t wrap someone, what Niall said.
Niall
Fly within your limits, cater for the least experienced, have fun, F%*k knows.
What Equipment Do You Need?
Zack
For all our flocking jumps, both leaders have a Garmin GPS. This allows us to know which bearing we’re heading towards and then a distance from a set target. I’ll generally use this to gauge how far past we’ve gone from the DZ as well as how far we have to go. I can then decide whether to add another drill in or rather just relax and keep flying towards the DZ.
Niall
Hook knives are a must as with any canopy relative flight as well as preparing your gear such as disconnecting RSL’s. For me personally, I wear 2 hook knives, disconnect RSL prior to emplaning and keep my chest strap done up. I also fly a range of crossfire 3’s and it still amazes me the range of canopies I can fly with!
Understanding your equipment is part of safe canopy flying. Read Emergency Procedures: Staying Out of the Danger Zone.
What If Your Wing Loading Falls Outside the Usual Range?
Zack
Unfortunately, as much as we try, sometimes people fall outside of the requirements for our camps. Don’t let that hold you back, though! Seek out guidance from a canopy coach to create a progression plan to work towards up-skilling yourself to meet the requirements.
If you’re too heavily loaded for our camps, we’re working on up-skilling ourselves so we can keep progressing our camps to a higher level. Be patient, we’re on our way!
Niall
Speak to local canopy coaches and do some one-on-one jumps. This will allow you to fly your canopy relative to someone else and prepare you for when you do make the course requirements.
Should You Take a Canopy Flocking Course?
Zack
I’d strongly recommend if you haven’t done any flocking before, try to seek an experienced instructor or canopy coach to do some 1-on-1s. Then after that find out where our next flocking camps are being held and come sign up! You’ll learn everything you need on the camps to be able to go home to your local DZ and execute flocking jumps safely.
Niall
I always suggest coming on a flocking course before you start doing jumps by yourself. Flocking can be very dangerous, but can be done safely with the right training.
How Do You Get the Most From a Course?
Zack
Come into the course with a fresh mindset of being a blank slate and eager to learn something new.
Niall
Turn up on-time, ready to go, be a sponge and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve with your canopy.
Alethia Austin gave some great advice on how to ‘manage your energy levels in skydiving‘
Common Canopy Flocking Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake #1: Matching the Base Flyer’s Inputs
The first mistake I often see is participants copying the body position and flight mode the base flyer is in. This can result in participants reaching the formation, relaxing by mimicking the base flyer’s flight mode and then falling behind. Usually, the base flyer will try to set a neutral speed which is in 1/4 to 1/2 brakes. Then when they get to the ground, they’ll either ask what they did wrong or state “the formation was flying too fast, I couldn’t keep up”. The solution is to use less brakes or transfer to rears and actively fly their wing.
Key Takeaway: Fly your own canopy. Don’t simply copy the base flyer, understand your own inputs and actively manage your wing.
Mistake #2: Letting Ego Get in the Way
To put it bluntly, the second mistake I see would be ego. Typically, someone who lets their ego get in the way will either have a lot more jumps than some on the camp or they’ve done a couple flocking jumps previously so they “know what they’re doing”. From jump one, they expect to be flying their slot, tight and relative to the base. They’ll usually have an idea in their mind of what they need to do so won’t listen to new advice or techniques. Then when they struggle, there’s always a reason as to why they’re struggling, other than them refusing to learn or listen at the start.
Key Takeaway: Leave your ego on the ground. Progress comes from listening, learning, and building skills one step at a time.
Ego is one of the biggest barriers to progression. Our article 10 Skydiving Mistakes Even Experienced Canopy Pilots Make explores how world-class athletes learned that lesson the hard way.
Imagine jumping into any discipline for the first time, is that your automatic expectation to be good from the get-go? Or are you expecting to struggle for a while until you’ve learnt the lessons needed to be learned? No one aces their first angle jumps chasing the formation, it’s just the way things go! Just because we fly a canopy every jump we do and have X number of jumps under a wing that doesn’t mean we’ve had the same number of jumps utilising all our canopy’s potential. Usually, we’re just flying it safely down to the ground.
More often than not, trap one and trap two link up together and are routinely the same person. I’ve found the least experienced people are consistently progressing at a faster rate because they’re aware of their lack of knowledge and far more willing to learn. The more experienced flyer who thinks they know but really doesn’t know and so has not only more to learn, but needs to unlearn bad habits. Leave those egos behind!
My advice (and I guess applies to all aspects of skydiving) is go into learning something new as a student, be a sponge and absorb new information. If you’re one of the more experienced people on the camp don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are struggling. Learning something new is meant to be fun. Enjoy the process.
What’s Next for Zack’s Canopy Course?
From 2019 to now I cannot believe how much ‘Zack’s Canopy Course’ has grown as a brand. The places it’s taken me, the people I’ve met and the stories made so far are incredible. I’m so grateful for all the help and guidance along the way!
So what’s next? Excellent question! I’m running my first international event next year (2023) over in New Zealand, the homeland for JYRO (Previously NZ Aerosports)! I am so F@#$EN excited and it’s hopefully a small step into the international market for the brand!
Both flocking camps (What the Flock!? & Lets Flock Sh!t Up!) will continue around Australia which is a step in our plan for growth. Whilst growing the discipline of flocking in Australia and creating some flocking good canopy pilots, it’s all working towards an event I’ve been planning and working towards for 2024. It’s still in the works and being refined so we can go bigger and better! Small hint would be we tested it out on a smaller scale at our What the Flock event at SA Skydiving, watch the event edit and see if you can work it out 😉
JYRO athlete Zack Rosser (right) and Niall Saunders (left), sharing their experience and advice on canopy flocking. Photo: Cameron Puttee.
All photo credit goes to Cameron Puttee, who is one of Zack’s Canopy Course official videographers. Cam is also a JYRO (Previously NZ Aerosports) Athlete & a badass flyer. Check out his socials. You won’t regret it.
Keep Learning
Want to keep improving your canopy skills? These articles are a great place to start:
18 Levels of Swooping: Which one are you?
If I was a beginner skydiver again…
Best Skydiving Stunts: 3 Examples from NZA Athletes
Flying Habits to Start for Highly Effective Canopy Pilots
25 Ways to Become a Better Canopy Pilot