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## Estimating Height and Movement 

During the approach, roundout, and touchdown, vi- sion is of prime importance. To provide a wide scope of vision and to foster good judgment of height and movement, your head should assume a natural, straight-ahead position. Your visual focus should not be fixed on any one side or any one spot ahead of the powered parachute, but should be changing slowly from a point just over the powered parachute’s nose - wheel to the desired touchdown zone and back again, while maintaining a deliberate awareness of distance from either side of the runway within your periph- eral field of vision. Accurate estimation of distance is, besides being a matter of practice, dependent upon how clearly objects are seen; it requires that vision be focused properly for the important objects to stand out as clearly as possible. 

Speed blurs objects at close range. For example, con - sider the view from an automobile moving at high speed. Nearby objects seem to merge together in a blur, while objects farther away stand out clearly. The driver subconsciously focuses the eyes sufficiently far ahead of the automobile to see objects distinctly. In the same way, the distance at which the powered para- chute pilot’s vision is focused is normally adjusted automatically. 

If you attempt to focus on a reference that is too close or look directly down, the reference will become blurred, and the reaction will be either too abrupt or too late. In this case, your tendency will be to over- 

control, round out high, and make drop-in landings. When you focus too far ahead, accuracy in judging the closeness of the ground is lost and the consequent reaction will be too slow since there will not appear to be a necessity for action. This will result in flying into the ground without flaring. 

## Roundout 

The powered roundout is a slow, smooth transition from a normal approach descent rate to a landing de- scent rate, gradually rounding out the flightpath to one that is parallel with, and within a very few inches above the runway. When the powered parachute is in a normal descent, within what appears to be 10 to 20 feet above the ground, the powered roundout should be started. Once started, it should be a continuous pro- cess until the powered parachute touches down on the ground. 

As the powered parachute reaches a height above the ground where a timely change can be made into the proper landing descent, power should be gradu- ally applied to slowly decrease the rate of descent. [Figure 11-3] 

The rate at which the roundout is executed depends on the powered parachute’s height above the ground and the rate of descent. A roundout started excessively high must be executed more slowly than one from a lower height to allow the powered parachute to de- scend to the ground. The rate of rounding out must also be proportionate to the rate of closure with the 

