Parachute Landing Fall

A Parachute Landing Fall is a safety technique devised to reduce the incidence of injury for those deploying a parachute.

A PLF distributes the landing shock along the five points of contact: 1) balls of feet, 2) side of calf, 3) side of thigh, 4) side of hip, and 5) side of back ("push-up muscle"). During a PLF, the jumper's chin is tucked, and the risers are grasped in an arm-bar protecting the face and throat and the elbows tucked into the sides to prevent injury. The PLF is executed in one of six directions (left front, left side, left rear, right front, right side, right rear), depending on the direction of drift of the jumper, terrain, wind, and oscillation. With repeated practice PLFs into a sawdust pit from an approximately 1-meter platform, parachutists can learn to automatically make smooth PLFs with a reflex action. Experienced paratroopers can naturally assume a PLF position when taking an accidental fall and have reduced or prevented injuries.

In paratrooper slang, to say one has "his head up his fourth point of contact" is self-explanatory.

Reference: FM 3-21.220, Static Line Parachuting Techniques and Tactics, September 2003.

External links

* [http://www.sportparagliding.com/?p=education&ed=PLF How to execute a Parachute landing fall] , sportparagliding.com