Skydiving Spain 2005
james@miracleofmeditation.com Basic Requirements - before attempting any freeflying Category 8, FAI ‘A’ Certificate, BPS ICI plus, demonstrated flat fly skills to the equivalent
of WARP 7, confident and competent at recovering from instability, altitude aware, able to track
effectively, cleared in writing by the Chief Instructor. Not that learning to sit-fly is a good way to achieve better control and awareness before
attempting the more disorientating and faster paced freestyle and vertical flying.
BPA Freestyle/Freefly Grade 1 (FF1)Is required before you try two-way freefly or more (other
than with an approved Coach). FF1 first requires basic competence in flat-flying skills (you must be fully altitude aware
and able to track effectively) and then demonstrating controlled solo sit and stand skills.
Head-down flying is covered by BPA FF2. Full requirements FF1 and FF2 are in the BPA Operations Manual, Section 2 Paragraph 6. FAI ‘C’ licence (red) and good grounding in basic flat skills as well as stand-up flying
is essential before starting sky surfing. Every freeflyers nightmare is a premature deployment. This is a much more serious situation than
in conventional face-to-earth flying. Firstly the jumper may be changing body orientation and
become entangles. secondly , they may well be falling at a speed way in excess of the maximum
recommended deployment speeds for the canopy. Bottom-of-container (BOC) throwaway or pull-out deployment are a must. You must not do any
freestyle, sit or vertical flying with a leg strap throwaway. If the body is in a vertical
position, the leg strap pocket and the pilot-chute toggle and bridle line will be aligned
to the wind such that they may actually be lifted out of the pocket creating a premature
deployment. Main and reserve flaps should have tuck tabs or 'crocodile teeth' to keep the flap covers
closed and so guard against premature deployment. Keep your closing loop tight and inspect
it regularly to make sure that it is not worn. Closing loops and Velcro must be replaced
if an y sign of wear becomes apparent. A strap connecting your leg straps together under
your bum helps prevent the leg straps sliding down your knees - scary or dangerous. Whilst it is obvious that equipment items such as bridle, risers etc should be secure, even
minor items need to be tight. Loose shoe laces and or helmet straps can create extreme
discomfort and friction burns at the higher speeds of freeflying. Altimeters can be worn wherever you find it comfortable as long as you can actually read it
in the flying positions you are using. Many believe that there is a 'burble' (low pressure area)
created above the chest whilst sit flying, hence a jumper should not wear a chest mounted
altimeter. This is only true if the jumper is reclined on their back. This tends to be a
problem with low experienced sit-flyers, so be careful if chest-mount altimeters - an
altimeter in a burble reads higher than you really are. If in a genuinely vertical
position there should not be any noticeable burble. An audible altimeter is a very good
backup device! Sit-flying, freestyle and vertical flying can be done in whatever clothing you feel comfortable
with, even nude if you insist. When starting to learn however, there are several options that
can help: For sit/stand, tight legs and baggy top create low drag on the lower body and high drag for
the upper body. This helps keep the body vertical. Tuck your top into your bottoms, and tie
very tightly with a drawcord at the waist - to prevent your top blowing up over your handles.
If you are going to wear an ordinary jumpsuit do not wear booties. The air will hit the feet and
try to take you head down or into a back loop. Baggy bottoms can inflate similarly, so make them
tight at the ankles or fit 'stirrups'. If you can afford it, special jumpsuits and accessories can help you: 1) Freestyle and Skysurfing suits generally have the tight legs and baggy top as mentioned above
and the materials are designed to give much more drag in just the right places than simply
jumping with jeans and a t-shirt. 2) Free-fly suits have drag pretty much everywhere and are popular because it means that a
jumper transitioning from sit to stand to head down does not radically change the amount of
drag and hence air speed. Beginners may find them difficult though because there may be too
much drag on the legs to maintain a comfortable sit position. 3) Winged sit suits: These are specifically designed for sit flyers and are ideal as they
catch the air just under the arms holding the jumper upright and have no drag on the legs.
Sit suit wings are designed for your fall rate characteristics - so someone else's may not
be good for you. Sit suits offer general better control than other suits, but: if you are
not in a symmetrical position a sit suit can put you into a terrifying spin and hence may
not be ideal for early attempts. When jumping a wing suit make sure none of the material
is caught under your harness - jumping with only one wing inflated will create problems.
It can be awkward to pull using wings. Rather than extending your left arm (which can
inflate a wing), pull your left arm in close to your torso, and keep your right arm
close in while reaching for your toggle. Do practise pulls during your early jumps. 4) Webbed gloves: These are another device to help increase upper body drag, they
also help fine tune the fall rate. If you are jumping with webbed gloves make sure you can
get your hands into your handles and toggles before you make the jump. Do practise pulls
during your early jumps. Have a plan. Always decide what you are going to try on exit and in freefall and determine
break-off and deployment altitudes before you get anywhere near the aircraft. Don’t try to achieve too much too soon. Spend a few jumps on just one move until it becomes
second nature. Only do solo jumps until you are skilled in the positions and can track
away properly. Two ways between inexperienced freeflyers can be dangerous - there is a
very high risk of high speed collisions. There is a huge debate as to who goes first and who goes last. Actually there’s more disagreement
than debate, but here are the arguments: Freeflyers out first: Their higher fall rates means there is a danger of them catching up or
even overtaking the group before them, hence they must go first. Freeflyers out Last: The higher fall rate of free flyers implies that they will be spending
less time in freefall than flat flyers. If this is the case then flat flyers getting out after
free flyers will be having more freefall drift and so move across the sky horizontally,
ending up directly above the earlier-leaving free flyers. Once the free flyers have opened,
that will then start to fly back to the drop zone directly under the group out after them.
This could be particularly hazardous if a flat flyer has a malfunction cutting away directly
above the open freeflyers. There is no clear cut answer . My personal view is that freeflyers should get out last
because of the danger of losing horizontal separation is more serious than the risk of
losing vertical separation. One breaks off from a freefall formation load by flat horizontal
tracking, not by pulling at different heights. More importantly free flyers need the warm
comfortable seats at the back of the plane. Now all you have to do is convince the jumpmaster!
The good guys in the States recommend going out last, especially for lower experience free flyers,
with break-off at 5000 feet minimum. On your first sit jump the easiest way to exit is to step out facing the tail with your back
to the prop blast. Then ride down the slip stream like a slide into the sit position. It is important that, soon after exit (so that you have plenty of altitude), you make sure
that you can easily flip over face to earth in order to get a stable position to pull. You
don’t want to discover this is a problem when screaming through 2,000 feet at greater-than-normal
freefall speeds. Some useful skills to learn are: If you get into a spin, flip over, get stable, check your altimeter and, if height permits,
try again. Try new skills in bursts of 10 seconds max: you tend to drift across the sky , so
turning around after 10 seconds and going back the other way will help. It is helpful to practise being ‘unstable’: your body needs to learn that face-to-earth is not
the only way to fly. For example, if you do get into a spin and are confident enough to handle it,
why not throw into a barrel roll as well? The overall object is to be in control any way up
whatsoever - that’s what ‘stable’ really means. One of the most common early problems in sit-flying is a reclined body position. If you let it,
the air will catch your legs and push them up towards your waist. Push down hard with your feet
and you should find yourself sitting upright. Once comfortable in this position you simply
extend our legs to fly in a stand-up. On your early jumps, if you are out of control or experience any other problem:
GET FACE TO EARTH, IT'S WHAT YOU'RE USED TO! Free flying can be as much as 50% faster than belly flying, so it's particularly important to
keep good track of altitude if you have developed a 'bodyclock' based on belly flying. Break off heights need to be much higher than before as you need time to (a) get face to
earth (b) slow down and (c) track away, before you pull. Furthermore the old break off
heights were designed for much slower closing speeds than are inherent in today’s zero-p
elliptical canopies. We recommend breaking off at 5000 feet, particularly while you are
low-experience. Make sure there is no one above you before you go face to earth or you run the risk of creating
a funnel at break off. DON'T CORK: When a cork is placed under water it want to jump rapidly
back up to the surface. This is analogous to what happens to a free flyer going face to earth.
He/she will rapidly 'pop-up' (relatively) and collide at a dangerous speed with anyone above.
This is why it is essential that you are comfortable recovering into a sit position before
you go on to two ways or bigger. Vertical relative work requires a whole new set of skills, do not assume that you Have these
skills just because you are an experienced belly flyer. Master the skills mentioned on the
previous page before you go out on your first VRW jump. Brian Germain (of gold medal-winning team 'Z-Air Time') recommends that your first 500 vrw
jumps should be no bigger than 2 ways. Whilst 500 jumps may be a little bit excessive, it
does underline the point that with the addition of a third dimension of flight, the chances
of a zoo become all the greater and so it is best not to have too many people straight away. Most freeflyers find freeflying is all about exploring 3-D movement rather than trying to
build the biggest formation. Most freeflying instructors recommend that you become proficient
at sit and stand-up flying before you go head down. Just as in conventional formation flying
slow gentle dockings are preferred. Fly into your slot, don't crash. Most importantly - have
fun. VRW gives the unique opportunity to fly your body in any direction through any
orientation, enjoy it. If you have any questions or need advice;
ASK
The CCI and Instructors who will point you in the direction of people who can help.
Written by Phil Halper, with additional material by Tim Porter, Giles Fabris, Matt Law
and Tony Danbury. ******** |
