Tracking

[riggerrob 643]

The guy in the first picture is not even TRYING to track, because he still has his hands above his head. If he wants to cover any distance, he should swing his hands back near his waist.

Heck! Even an Iron Cross Track has arms extended straight out from the shoulders.

[riggerrob 643]

Re the second photograph.

Someone should explain to Mr. Weird that his mantis arm position is great for flying inside the formation, but useless when leaving the formation.
Also, his coach should remind him to tuck in his belly/stick out his buttocks while tracking.

When tracking, de-arching the torso lifts you above mere mortals, allowing you to better view their flailing and get out of their way. De-arching might also give you an extra second before deploying.

I found it fascinating to watch video of Arizona Airspeed team members coaching at a recent boogie in Kapowsin. The first thing they did - at break off - was to de-arch. They de-arched and turned simultaneously, then extended their legs and tracked out of the frame before many of the weekend jumpers had finished turning away from the center of the formation.
Just goes to show you which habits 1,500 jumps per year can ingrain!

[BenediktDE 2]

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when tracking do you look at the horizon or directly below you? and does it matter?

As others stated it matters because of the body position.
An other advantage if you keep your head down and track flat you can see the one(s) you track away from an know where they are.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

[pilotdave 0]

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The guy in the first picture is not even TRYING to track, because he still has his hands above his head.

That's what Guy Wright teaches for beginning a track... "superman track." That's not a great example of it, but Guy can shoot away from the formation with a very flat track with his arms starting in front and then quickly brought into a normal position. I think the idea is to avoid starting the track in a steep dive, which happens to a lot of people when they bring their arms back as they turn. Works VERY well when done correctly. Arms are only out front for the first couple seconds, starting in the turn to pop up.

I've found tracking with my arms in front works really well on tracking dives too. More like the mantis forward movement arm position. I can control fall rate and forward speed that way, and it leaves my hands out front to dock on the leader. Won't work on a very fast tracking dive, but most of the ones I've been on are pretty slow.

Dave

[recovercrachead 0]

Toes pointed. ASS tight. ROLE THE SHOULDERS AND HAVE THEM UP TO YOUR EARS. Arms low to your side pushing down with your hands. Head level with body putting rolling it a little side to side for traffic but keep a heading. Im not sure if that is right because I have only have a couple of jumps back after a 2 year brake.

Track high, Pull LOW!!!

[JohnMitchell 16]

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I've found tracking with my arms in front works really well on tracking dives too. More like the mantis forward movement arm position. I can control fall rate and forward speed that way, and it leaves my hands out front to dock on the leader. Won't work on a very fast tracking dive, but most of the ones I've been on are pretty slow.

You just made the point for me. Hands in front works on slow tracking dives but not fast ones. When breaking off from a dive, the goal is to get as much separation as possible in the remaining altitude before the pull. That calls for a flat, and usually fast, track. Most people don't track as well as they could.

[Scrumpot 1]

Sparky hasn't told you about my twin orange suit (a Sparky-in-training? ) John? (*Darn, can't find any pictures at the moment on my harddrive to post up here, too bad the shots of us from a few yrs back in the tunnel Mike, did not come out ) If you've got your most recent Parachutist though, take a look at page 30, top left corner.

What I really want now though is the helmet! Of course I'd prefer the ORIGINAL Sparkster 1st, BACK in the sky with us. He needs to reconsider the "retirement". That's what we've got to start bidding on to encourage. I've got way too far to go to catch up to a living icon like him! ...Mr. Owen?

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[popsjumper 2]

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Harder to gauge straight-line tracking even with a road to follow.

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Not in Texas! Not really sure why you think this is harder.

Ahhh yes, Texas.
IMHO, looking at the ground is harder to tell straight line - deviations are harder to detect as compared to a point on the horizon. Plus, how many times have turned to track and actually been on-line with a straight road?

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Looking at the horizon doesn't necessarily mean you are tracking in a straight line especially if there is movement on the horizon (like fast moving clouds).

For the period of time you are tracking, a distant cloud would have to be moving really, really fast to cause a deviation that would affect others in the breaking formation.

Jim, please note that I am not saying that this is the only way to keep a heading...as always, the heading is the important part, the method of keeping it varies with mileage, eh?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[tbrown 26]

Interesting picture Mike. Reminds me of a weekend about 15 years ago, not in CA, but on the west coast, where Jerry Bird was organizing some 54 way attempts from an Otter and a fleet of Cessnas. I wasn't an active jumper at the time, but went out to watch, as some old friends were in town to take part.

The breakoffs were ALL bad tracking, the formation broke into a lot of people doing graceful delta swan dives - nobody going much of anywhere. As I was not jumping at the time I didn't feel like I had any credibility to stand up and ask where the hell these people had learned to track, so I begged my jumping friend to say something before somebody ate a canopy.

By contrast, out at Perris yesterday some formation loads of similar size were jumping from two planes. Breakoff was like an exlosion, jumpers flying to every point of the compass, huge seperation. Like it should be.

As for looking down, you have to be able to see the ground, it's your only reliable altimeter. And people below you do have the right to pull first, it's your obligation - and a very smart thing to do - to get off their backs as fast as you can. Because even the careful ones who actually bother to look and wave off might not see you. There are blind spots over your back you simply can't see and in a crowded sky barrel rolls and back tracking are not safe. You need to see who's down there.

But the fun part is that if you're doing it right, it feels a lot like body surfing a really good ocean wave, you get a yee-ha feeling that tells you you're really cookin'.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[bigdad510 1]

I had an incidient this weekend that validates looking towards the ground when tracking (it possibly saved me). I was in a 4 way belly, second group to exit after another 4 way belly. We gave the goup plenty of seperation time. We exit, do the skydive all goes well. At 5 G's we all track away, I'm tracking hard (shoudlers to ears, arms cupping air swept back, legs and toes out head down.

At 3500 I was ready to throw out and notice three seperate jumpers opening below me very close together. Since I saw them, and I was above one of them, I was able to stay in my track for another second or so to get out of the way. I was thankful I was looking down.

I was looking all around as I tracked. But somtimes its not as easy to see other skydivers below you. People for whatever reason, don't always pull at the altiture they say they are going to. You always have to be prepared to react. I was taught to look all around and pay special attention to below.

Anyway, it saved my butt.

Brad

[kallend 2,027]

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I had an incidient this weekend that validates looking towards the ground when tracking (it possibly saved me). I was in a 4 way belly, second group to exit after another 4 way belly. We gave the goup plenty of seperation time. .

You did? Your story suggests that you didn't. You may want to take a look at the stuff on separation on:
www.iit.edu/~kallend/skydive/

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[bigdad510 1]

How does my story suggest that we didn't? Because one skydiver endd up over the first exit group? It was the first jump of the day and after that, the rest of the jumps were adjusted due to the uppers and lowers.

Are you suggeesting it's not possible to track hard enough to be over another group? It happens all the time in skydiving. Basically because different jumpers have different experience levels and ability. Even with "good seperation" there is always a chance that because of "tracking" and the "winds" you can end up over another group.

Exit groups plan ther dive and make the best attempt to dive their plan. But things happen in freefall to change the plan during the skydive. It's always possible, which is why I support be aware while tracking and definitely looking down.

Brad

[kallend 2,027]

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How does my story suggest that we didn't? Because one skydiver endd up over the first exit group? It was the first jump of the day and after that, the rest of the jumps were adjusted due to the uppers and lowers.

Are you suggeesting it's not possible to track hard enough to be over another group? It happens all the time in skydiving. Basically because different jumpers have different experience levels and ability. Even with "good seperation" there is always a chance that because of "tracking" and the "winds" you can end up over another group.

.

Your separation should be adjusted for the "winds" and allow for "tracking". The very fact that you ended up over another group shows that you did NOT leave enough separation for the conditions of your jump.

It does NOT happen "all the time in skydiving". If it happens to YOU all the time, you need to think some more about how you determine your exit separation.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[bigdad510 1]

It was the first jump of the day. Exit strategy was changed after that and there wasn't another case of it.
That was the first time its ever happened to me.

Brad

[Scrumpot 1]

On that 1st jump of the day Brad, did you get a pre-jump brief of what those "uppers" were, and what course the A/C was going to fly in relation to them? What was the initial "strategy"? Do you KNOW?

"The prof" here is worth listening to in this case!

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It was the first jump of the day.

NOT an excuse!

Please, "HEAR" what the prof (kallend) is trying to say to you.

Blues,
-Grant

coitus non circum - Moab Stone