What is Canopy Piloting ?

Canopy Piloting (also known as swooping) encompasses several disciplines, all involving the flight of a skydiving parachute either at high altitude or close to the ground.

"Swooping" is one form of canopy piloting and is a growing activity in the skydiving world. Many think the reason for this is that it is one of the few skydiving related events that are, for the most part, spectator friendly.

Swooping entails the canopy pilot deploying their canopy at 5000 ft, piloting their canopy to an "initiation" point over the swoop course, then turning into a rotating dive dramatically increasing the canopy's speed. The canopy pilot stops the canopy's rotation on the proper course heading, while at the correct altitude allowing their canopy to recover from the dive and level out with maximum speed before entering the course, Maximum speeds regularly reaching in excess of 145kph.