Today, we will learn how to get out of line twists under a stable canopy. I’ll show you a video and explain the step-by-step procedure for fixing the issue. This was explained to me when I started wingsuiting, and it has worked consistently for me. Shout out to Marie Clark for teaching me this one. I also hear this advice from others, and it seems to be fairly universal for wingsuiters. Those belly guys need to figure this one out, kicking out of line twists is just dumb once you learn the right way.

At the end, I will also show you some line twists that this technique won’t work for (i.e. cut it away!!).

1. You’ll see in this video as I flare to my deployment, and I keep my gaze to the horizon, that my canopy opens with a twist already in it. By the time I see the lines, they are already twisted. This could be due to body position or a funky pack job. Most likely it’s a body position issue that caused my D-bag to twist during extraction. Either way, it’s my fault because I packed it.
2. Then you may notice the canopy is slightly turned downward to one side while it fully inflates. This had me worried that it would turn down and begin a spiral. Luckily, it did not. Thank god (and Atair) that I’m flying a 7-cell. (check out the video below for 9-cell performance during line twists)
3. As usually happens, the force of your body continues the spin a little bit. To stop this, put your arms out wide and make yourself big. I did this, and I stopped spinning.
4. It looks like it wants to correct itself when it untwists a little bit. I thought it would go all the way at the time, but it apparently did not. My first mistake was thinking it would correct itself, and I didn’t unzip my arms right away.
5. Second mistake happens immediately following, I only unzipped one arm. I try to reach my left hand through the risers and spin myself free. Instead, I put some input on that riser and turned the canopy, no bueno. I could have induced a dive, lucky again.
6. You may notice the risers are offset by a decent amount, couple inches. Looking back, I am amazed that the canopy was flying straight and level. And my idiotic self pulled on the low riser, making it more likely it would dive, and it did a little bit. See that horizon, hear me say “Whoa!”? Bad sign when the canopy starts turning down.
7. Now, we get to what I did correctly. After using one hand did not work, I turned on the risers to bring the twists from the lines to the risers. I then unzipped the other arm. This is the opposite order, and I should have done my arm first. The thought process was I wanted to stop that dive, even if I only had one hand to do it (wrong!)
8. Magically, a second hand appears in the frame. After the twists are moved to the risers, instead of the lines, it becomes much easier to use the risers to turn your body.
9. Pushing on the riser farthest from you will cause you to spin in the correct direction. This is the riser that is on the backside of the twist. Reach above the riser twist and push on the far riser. It worked so easy in this video, and this has been my experience every time using this technique.
10. You will also notice that one push did not get me all the way around. I had to push on them again to keep myself spinning in the right direction.

That’s all folks. Hope you learned something, and that you will be prepared when line twists happen to you.

Blue Skies,

-WingsuitLearn