Andrewnewell 0 #1 June 15, 2004 Hey everyone, Just wondering if there are any basic rules or guidelines for bigish head down formation flying. I.e. Set up in the door, control in the base, approaches and rules for break off. Any info' would be great. Me and some other bro's are trying to get some formation stuff together and we don't get much practice doing that type of thing in the UK. cheers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflydrew 0 #2 June 15, 2004 QuoteHey everyone, Just wondering if there are any basic rules or guidelines for bigish head down formation flying. I.e. Set up in the door, control in the base, approaches and rules for break off. Any info' would be great. Me and some other bro's are trying to get some formation stuff together and we don't get much practice doing that type of thing in the UK. cheers. Get an experienced organizer... hire a coach... or go to a boogie... start small... turn 180 at break of and track on your back away from the group... be patient... start simple... One less experienced skydiver in a group of experienced skydivers will be much safer than an entire group of less experienced flyers... (by less experienced, i mean unfamiliar with hd "big" way jumps, not lack of jump numbers)... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freakydiver 0 #3 June 16, 2004 Actually you'll find alot of the ideas applied to large belly formations can be applied to large freefly formations. Slow approaches, smooth flying, smooth docks, follow the breakoff plan or get lost, etc... -- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." -- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrewnewell 0 #4 June 17, 2004 ***You can’t expect to improve your jive by disjiving other jivers, all that does is interrupt the flow of the universal jive, to which we all serve, by our own individual jive patterns, unique to our area's funkadelic aqua-groove. Sucka! fair one, thanks for clearing that one up bro! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freakydiver 0 #5 June 17, 2004 Hey I try -- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." -- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jmfreefly 0 #6 June 22, 2004 I was working with Mike Ortiz a while back on larger formation HD flying (12 ways, which is big for me). He had some really good briefings about safety and flying, and we did many drill dives to bring people up to speed and flying well together. If you can work with Mike at all, I recommend it. BUT, one thing that I didn't get while we were dirt diving the exit is how he was positioning people in the door. He was building a 4 way base, and positioning people inside and outside the plane based on who was floating and who was diving. But after we practiced the exit, he started turning the base and swapping around! I didn't understand what the heck he was doing. It just didn't make sense to me. I asked him about it, and he told me the answer, but it didn't click. The whole deal is that depending on how you are taking the base off the plane (either line of flight, or perpendicular to the line of flight), different slots 'swap'. Trying to organize the exit is problematic, as where the floaters and divers are is not always intuitive. * If the base is going out head to line of flight, the front and rear positions 'swap' for purposes of determining divers and floaters. * If the base is going out perpendicular to line of flight, the inside and outside positions 'swap' for purposes of determing divers and floaters. These rules still just didn't really work in my visually-oriented brain. Determined to figure it out, I spent a lot of time turning my head upside down, over and over. Finally I figured out what visual tool I needed to better understand the mechanics of it. So, I patented the 'Head Down Base Configurator'. Ok, ok. no patents, and it is just a piece of paper taped into a loop. But it works well (for me) to visualize which is the floaters side, and which is the divers side. Dirt dive the formation, and figure out where everyone docks on the base (or on another person docking on the base). Keep the reference of who is docking on which person (or between which people). Take a strip of paper, tape it into a loop. Make little stick figures to represent the people in your base. Label them. Now put the base upside down (head down) based on how you want it flying (oriented to line of flight). Determine which slots are now on the 'divers side' (line of flight and plane side) and which slots are on the 'floaters side' (tail and opposite the plane). Match the people to their slots, and you have how you should set up in the door. Remember that it makes a difference which way you take the base off the plane. Once I did some visual representation with the the little loop of paper representing the base, it all made sense. Hope that all made sense.. j Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrewnewell 0 #7 June 24, 2004 Cheers guy's, will probably go abroad and get some first had experiance from some one who knows the score. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
