getting down - safety

[The111 1]

A week ago I was doing some flocking and one of the video guys, who exited well after the rest of the flock, showed me on his video how he "did a move" to get down to the flock fast. The move was a steep carving 360. It was certainly effective, but I started wondering how safe it was.

I'll admit I've done the same thing on small (3-4) flocks when I know where everybody is. I've also played with steep, sharp S-turns back and forth to get down. They feel a bit safer in some ways since you keep a mostly forward perspective (and are never flying in the OPPOSITE direction as the flock), but on the other hand, I'd rather have 5 people all doing a 360 in the same airspace than 5 people doing zoomy sashays in the same airspace. While sashays may not turn you 180 to the flock, two people turned 90 to the flock are 180 to each other, and less likely to see each other since they're both focusing on the flock.

The obvious concern is a head-on collision. Or even a 90 degree collision. Or even less, or more. But obviously headon would be disastrous, I'm not even going to try to speculate how bad collisions at various degrees of incidence would be, but I think it would be safe to assume that most of them can kill you (like most things in this sport).

For me, these S-turns seem to be the most efficient way to get down (although I am no good at steep straight dives and I'd guess a steep dive could be VERY efficient), but as I said before, I only feel safe doing them on small flocks where I KNOW everyone is well below me. If a bunch of people on a large way were all thinking "I'm near the top, I am pretty clear to carve down to the bottom", they could very easily sashay into each others' airspaces (and faces).

Anybody else ever thought along these lines before?

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[SkymonkeyONE 4]

A quick little front flip is marvelously effective in dropping altitude as well.

[LouDiamond 1]

Matt, you make a good point and it goes to show you that people will do the one thing you least expect, which is why dirt diving and going over things like heading and people either zooming or popping while in a flock is important. The 360 works great, if you know there is no one else in the air you could potentially run into, as in a small flock and you know your the last man out. Diving to the flock is by and far the safest way to go on big flocks. Try keeping your leg wing completely open and moving your arms back into the classic delta position to work on your dives. If that doesn't work for you try putting both arms behind your back and your feet up on your ass. You will fall like a rock vertically. But if diving is your weak area, I recommend you work on that as it is by far the easiest and most efficient way to get to down to the flock or a student

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[riggerrob 643]

That move sounds as exciting - and unpopular - as 360 in the "cone of approach" to big-way freefall formations and 360 turns under canopy, near the bowl.