270 Hub — everything about the 270 in one place
Curated education from trusted sources (PD, Flight-1, USPA, Skydivemag, AXIS, JYRO) combined with your own data. Nothing here tells you what altitude to turn at — that number belongs to you and your canopy coach. The tool shows you what your data says; the sources explain the ideas.
How this app maps to a 270
Setup → gate rows 1200–600 ft on the pattern vs baseline table (position and speeds vs your norm) · Initiation → the swoop badge (rotation + start altitude) on each jump · The dive → turn-rate and descent charts on Canopy Analysis · Rollout → rollout altitude + max speed after turn in Compare · The swoop → glide ratio last 70 ft and distance below 15 ft · Accuracy → target adjustment banner and dashboard scatter.
Patterns coaches write about — and where to see them in YOUR data
Turn started lower than planned
What it looks like in data: The rotation finishes with little or no rollout segment; descent rate is still high close to the ground; the glide-ratio chart shows no flat section before touchdown.
Where to look here: Compare your turn-initiation altitude (jump page badge) across jumps, and look at the 'pattern vs baseline' rows for 300–100 ft.
Coaching material (PD High Speed Flying, Skydivemag Low Turns) describes building a repeatable initiation altitude with large safety margin, moving lower only under coach supervision — never chasing a missed setup.
Turn started higher than usual
What it looks like in data: Rollout begins high, then a long shallow final with decaying speed; time from turn start to touchdown is longer than your norm.
Where to look here: 'Turn start → touchdown' in Compare, plus the side-view profile — the curve flattens early.
Sources describe this as the safe direction to miss — energy bleeds off early. Data shows the difference; the fix is a setup conversation with your coach.
Setup drifting position jump to jump
What it looks like in data: Gate rows (600–300 ft) show distance-to-landing varying a lot vs your baseline; landing scatter is wide.
Where to look here: 'Pattern vs your baseline' table and the dashboard landing scatter.
The 8 Principles and Flight Plan articles emphasise a fixed, planned pattern with the same physical references every jump.
Digging out with toggles
What it looks like in data: A burst of positive (up) acceleration and turn-rate spike in the last seconds; speed collapses before touchdown.
Where to look here: Playback readout near the ground; the turn-rate chart on Canopy Analysis.
Described in low-turn education as the emergency response that must be trained up high — if it appears in your data, coaches treat it as a stop-and-review flag, not a technique.
These are descriptions from published coaching material, matched to app features — data observations to bring to your coach, never instructions to act on alone.
This is Swooping
What trained high-performance landings look like.
Canopy piloting exercises
Drills coaches use to build canopy feel up high.
Katana 107 — beginner 270 (WL 1.1)
A pilot's own learning progression, with coaching.
Carved speed course
Competition swooping through entry gates.
Reading list
- Canopy Piloting — 8 Principles (Skydivemag)
- 5 things to master BEFORE downsizing or swooping (Skydivemag)
- Low Turns — why they hurt and what coaches teach (Skydivemag)
- A Safe Return to Swooping (Skydivemag)
- Landing Patterns — how a big DZ runs them (Skydivemag)
- Making a Flight Plan (Skydivemag)
- High Speed Canopy Flying — Performance Designs (PDF)
- Building speed, performance turns & gates — AXIS Flight School
- When can I learn to swoop? — JYRO help centre
- USPA SIM 5-9 — Canopy Piloting
- Competition classes & scoring (FLCPA) — where a 270 sits
- Flight-1 courses (101/102 → performance)
The numbers behind the caution (verified sources)
- In 2024, 44.4% of US skydiving fatalities were landing problems under a working canopy (20-year average ≈35%); 22.2% were intentional low turns — USPA 2024 fatality summary.
- 64 skydivers died attempting high-performance landings over 2005–2024; fatal swoop turns in recent years were 270–450° rotations, often after rapid downsizing or currency lapses — same USPA source.
- A 25-year study of 2.1 million jumps found 73% of injuries happen at landing; of those, 31% involved an incorrect flare — Damhuis et al., World J Emerg Surg 2024.
- Overall skydiving is at record-safe levels (9 US fatalities in 3.88M jumps in 2024) — the swoop category is where the remaining risk concentrates.
Shown as published statistics, not predictions about any individual. They are the reason this tool measures consistency instead of encouraging bigger turns.
The one rule every source repeats
Every organisation above says the same thing: high-performance landings are learned through a formal canopy course, under a coach, moving down in rotation and altitude only when the previous step is consistent. Competition rules (FLCPA) literally cap intermediate pilots at a 270. Use this app to measure consistency — let your coach decide progression.