Top Landing a Paraglider on Marshall Peak

by Jérôme Daoust, revised 2022/8/29.

Different Approach Paths

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Wind. Indicates a typical wind direction.

Lift areas, any of which can be a combination of thermal and ridge lift:

Max Lift. Where you can expect to find the strongest lift (during thermic part of the day), also known as the "house thermal" area.

Lift. An area where lift is usually found.

Buoyant. Enough lift to make it challenging to sink enough for landing.

TURBULENT area. It is to be expected due to being downwind of the lift (thermal and ridge) and expect sink due to the descending terrain behind launch.

Approaches for landing:

	Pros	Cons	Advice
Left Rear	Shortest path from house thermal. Final is almost aligned upwind.	Flying in turbulence behind house thermal and significant amount of time in turbulent area behind launch. If sunk on final: Trapped.	Avoid.
Full Rear	Longest final into the wind.	Longest amount of time inside turbulent area. If sunk on final: Trapped.	Avoid.
Right Rear	Can use smoother air in Venturi to the West of launch to lose altitude. If sunk on final: Can avoid to the West and re-try.	Some time in turbulent area. Helps to turn into the wind at end of final.	Best compromise for most pilots. Still has risk.
Right Front or "side hill"	Smallest exposure to risk of turbulence.	Timing critical: Need to do a sharp turn into the wind at end of final, which increases sink. If sunk on final: Close call with terrain.	An option for pilots capable of timing a landing turn. Has its risks.

Keep in mind: Top landings are optional, do not feel obliged to do it to look cool or to facilitate a vehicle recovery. Many pilots (some with high experience) have been injured from a top landing. Highest risk is when conditions are thermic. Best time to practice is 1 hour before sunset (when conditions are mostly smooth) and start with trial passes having extra altitude.

Big Ears and Other Bad Ideas

People who use Big Ears (Execution) for top landings, focus on its advantages:

The degraded glide makes the approach easier.

Wing less likely to collapse, due to higher angle of attack.

But do NOT use Big Ears (Problems) for top landing while there is thermal activity, as the benefits are outweighed by the problems:

Closer to stall, dangerous when traversing a turbulent area (behind launch) during thermic part of the day.

Lost ability to control wing pitch, which is required following a near stall due to turbulence.

Limited/slow steering, as one can only weight shift.

Other bad ideas to degrade glide on final:

Flapping.

Butterfly.

Deep braking.

Fly it in, don't use crutch techniques, made more dangerous when combined with an approach from the rear of launch during the thermic part of the day. Seeing others get away with it does not make it OK.

Related Questions

Question: But my instructor (or mentor) recommends the "Full Rear" approach (and use of Big Ears (Problems)). Who should I listen to?

Answer: You are my main motivation for writing this article. My recommendation is as per the above, but ask instructors at other schools operating at Marshall and ask them to share their personal experiences. Your (or any) instructor can be mostly good and you get along great with him, yet offers bad advice on some topics. There is no doubt in my mind that approaches from "Full Rear" (and "Left Rear") places you at greater and unnecessary risk. So why does your instructor promote something different? Many people do not want to change a viewpoint that they held for a long time in their life, since they feel invested in it and worry about what others may think if they changed now. This unwillingness to change can be amplified if that instructor had a student get injured while following his advice in the past, so he may be relying on rationalization: A defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors are justified and explained in a seemingly rational manner to avoid the true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable.

Question: How can you still recommend a method after I saw someone get hurt doing it?

Answer: There is no safe top landing method while there is thermic activity. Pilots also get injured launching. To select a landing approach, what matters is to understand the risks involved with each method (2^nd motivation for this article), and then get confirmation over a long observation period (20+ years and thousands of top landings) but this happens too late. On a given day and time, the randomness of the air and pilot skills, can cause an accident while following a generally less risky method. I see bad behaviors get reinforced regularly after high risk-taking and pilots gloating "nothing happened so this is fine". Read Why can't we get a handle on this safety thing?

Question: Are you enabling/encouraging pilots to take risk at top landing and/or avoid instruction?

Answer: One could also blame paragliding books or videos for enabling self-teaching, but the more knowledge is shared the better. Some will try things regardless of having received proper instruction, just duplicating what they see others do, but without the background understanding. What others do may or may not be appropriate, so best to provide knowledge and point out the risks. There is bad advice being shared, so this article serves a corrective purpose.

Question: Are you against top landings because you had an accident doing so?

Answer: I broke my right wrist in March 2003 at Marshall Peak, after doing a series of top landings with on-purpose ground-skimming half turns prior to touch-down in smooth late day air, and on the last one (obviously) I skimmed the ground too low while doing a quick half turn and my right hand touched the ground during the turn. My fault for goofing off, conditions or the site were not the cause. Full recovery made, and I continue to do top landings.

Question: I see pilots top landing all day at other sites like Torrey Pines, what's the difference?

Answer: Torrey Pines is a coastal ridge soaring site, with mostly smooth/laminar air flow, rarely a thermal in front of launch to disturb the air for your approach. Top landing Marshall Peak is safer 1 hour before sunset, than earlier when the sun is more intense and thermals generate downwind turbulence during your approach.

Question: When is it OK to use Big Ears (Execution)?

Answer: When high over terrain, as a descent technique, for example to stay below cloud base. Do not perform or release Big Ears when 20-200 feet (6-60 m) over the ground, because the transition shape has an even greater angle of attack than the stabilized wing shape with ears. If you had them on final for landing, only release for flaring (brake application) at touch-down, not during your final glide.

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