What causes orbiting

[Broke 0]

The other day I did a no pressure 2-way where we were just going to do forward motion and docking.
After I blew the exit. I recovered to match fall rate with my jump buddy and he set a heading for us. As I was moving toward him I seemed to keep orbiting.
What causes this, and how can I correct it?

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[quade 4]

Well, this might sound a little too obvious, but it's your inability to stay in one place.

A piece of this is that you're focusing on the other skydiver to the exclusion of your heading. Dare I say "tunnel vision"? Pick a landmark on the horizon behind your buddy and keep it behind him.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[gemini 0]

I could be that your partner is not holding still or moving toward you as you apprach. If he turns slightly and you turn slightly, it will result in both orbiting each other. Not an uncommon problem.

Use better pre jump planning and try having him turn 90 to you and you side body him. Then you turn 90 to him and he docks. This will help reinforce that only one moves at a time.

Blue skies,

Jim

[Broke 0]

So basically looking through the target instead of dirrectly at the target.

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[quade 4]

Quote

So basically looking through the target instead of dirrectly at the target.

Try it and have your partner try it too. At the very lest you'll be more aware of the issue and you'll have a frame of reference as to who is doing what.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Broke 0]

Well considering I orbited totally around him, and he kept facing one direction. I would say for that jump the problem was definitally me

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[tripleflip18 0]

im having exact same problem, seems like im always flying in 5-15m orbits around each other lol. What exactly do you have to do to fix it?

[butlerhr 0]

The cause of orbiting is that your body position in freefall is not neutral. It does not take much to cause movement. Sometimes video can show the problem if the cameraman gets the appropriate angles. A good freefall coach (Skydive U trained or similar) should be able to help you diagnose and correct the probably small problem(s) with body position. Wind tunnels are really good for these problems because the problem is apparent in an instant(you run in to the walls if you don't sit still), and the coach can give you feedback to try right away. Good Luck

[billeisele 130]

jump with a good coach or an AFF instructor, tell them the problem you have, they should be able to do some ground prep to prevent the problem and can design a dive to reinforce what was taught, if you orbit they should be able to tell you how to fix it

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[billvon 3,029]

>What causes this, and how can I correct it?

Orbiting is caused by not stopping, and trying to correct the lack of stopping by tracking towards your target. Come to a stop (a complete stop, no motion at all) 10 feet from your target, then come the rest of the way in. If you can't stop, some additional coaching on sidesliding is in order.

[popsjumper 2]

Oooo, Ooooo

Two good suggestions that can be combined - Quade's and BillVon's.

First you have to have a jump-buddy that can actually hold still and fall straight down that elevator shaft without turning.

Use BillVon's suggestion on first stopping in front of him while holding a heading and then put Quade's suggestion into play by picking a background reference behind him and holding that line as you approach.


When the jump-buddy is moving around, you wind up chasing him (orbiting). You can help yourself if that happens by not chasing. Think in terms of intercepting instead. Using Quade's suggestion will help with that.

It's kind like a quaterback throwing to a receiver. He throws to where the receiver is going to be when the ball gets there...not to where the receiver is at the time of the throw.

You'll see a lot of orbiting on low-skill formation dives where the base is turning and people are chasing their slot around and around the base as it turns. This is not good and you'll find out why if you don't watch out for it as you approach the base.

In your circumstance, it very well may be that your jump-buddy is not holding still for you and you wind up chasing. Stop chasing and intercept or get a jump-buddy that, for sure, can hold still for you.

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

[yarak 0]

orbiting is related to the gravity of celestial masses.
I believe your problem is a function of magnetic attraction. try alternatly changing your and your partners body mass and make a graph from the results. Then consult this graph to calculate your success rates on future jumps.

hope this helps. heres a example equation. the formula used is called TC's theory of freefall relativity.

G is the gravitational constant and r is the separation distance between the two masses. W is the wieght of the jumpers.
g=F/M=GM/R squared X Wa+Wb

Or you could just take billvons advice, because he was right too.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll burn your fucking packing tent down.

[mdrejhon 8]

Quote

The other day I did a no pressure 2-way where we were just going to do forward motion and docking.
After I blew the exit. I recovered to match fall rate with my jump buddy and he set a heading for us. As I was moving toward him I seemed to keep orbiting.
What causes this, and how can I correct it?

Tunnel time -- the cure-for-all for orbiting problems. In the tube, the walls forces all members to learn how to fall straight down the tube!

I just did my first 3 and 4 ways in the tunnel with no coach in the tube (except watching through the window)

Barring any tunnels near you, just keep jumping as always. Eventually you'll get it -- make sure you include coaches and instructors in your jumps so they can make comments.

[DrewEckhardt 0]

Quote

The other day I did a no pressure 2-way where we were just going to do forward motion and docking.
After I blew the exit. I recovered to match fall rate with my jump buddy and he set a heading for us. As I was moving toward him I seemed to keep orbiting.
What causes this, and how can I correct it?

Instead of moving straight towards your partner you're moving diagonally opposite the direction of the orbit and then turning to face them as you go by.

IOW, if you're orbitting clockwise you're always moving towards a point to your left of the other jumper.

Since you're always moving towards a point a few feet to one side you never actually get there.

Wind tunnels are completely unambiguous. Stopping might help. Trying to move inwards (IOW, if you're orbiting clockwise, move more towards your right) might help.

[firstime 0]

Quote

orbiting is related to the gravity of celestial masses.
I believe your problem is a function of magnetic attraction. try alternatly changing your and your partners body mass and make a graph from the results. Then consult this graph to calculate your success rates on future jumps.

hope this helps. heres a example equation. the formula used is called TC's theory of freefall relativity.

G is the gravitational constant and r is the separation distance between the two masses. W is the wieght of the jumpers.
g=F/M=GM/R squared X Wa+Wb

Or you could just take billvons advice, because he was right too.

I took your advice this morning and crunched some #'s and wah la it worked

[rushboy 0]

I think you forgot to take "Dark Matter" into account in your calculations...I tried your numbers and ended up in an alternate reality by going head-down into a black hole that was created by orbiting at light speed around a 600 pound tandem student rubbing a balloon on his head and trying to stick it to a non-existent wall...no, I didn't fail my last drug test....

42 is the answer...anyone remember the question? Don't ask the mice...they are taking advice from a bad Monty Python skit....

If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space.

[jsaxton 0]

That's a durn good way to teach that Bill, I'll remember that!