Speed skydiving - head down

[pr3d4t0r 1]

Greetings.

I'm training for a speed skydiving event. I've logged about 30 skydives (13K-5K) trying to fly head down, with mixed results. About 3 hours of iFly tunnel work.

I can stand upside down in the tunnel or use the corners (octagonal tunnel) to transition, have a very hard time transitioning to head down and maintaining that for more than 5 seconds without tumbling when flying in the real world. Not sure how to correct at this point. Instructor on tunnel has me modify head and hips position, but I don't "feel" my head and hips in the sky during a real skydive - I suspect that the container might throw me off in the sky.

Do you have any recommendations on drills to practice in the tunnel and/or in the sky over the next few days to learn the correct head/body position? Head down in the tunnel is hard on the neck after 10-15 minutes because once I drop I have to keep flying on the top of my head against the grate, legs straight, arms tight in the front, but I can maintain it. Instructor and I are trying to figure out how to improve, all recommendations welcome.

Planning on 40 minutes of tunnel (2*10 min session, two days), and between 15 and 25 skydives this coming week (more if time allows).

A million thanks in advance for your advise!

Background: 2,700 skydives; 105 skydives practicing for speed, ~30 of those trying to go head down (I had misread the rules and missed that they judge VERTICAL, not TOTAL speed). Several documented (FlySight + ColorAlti) tracking speeds of 280+ mi/h at a 45º to 70º angle. 1,900+ tracking skydives apart from the speed skydiving misfires, no free fly experience, so-so RW, about 125 CRW, 8 BASE.

Eugenio, home: Bay Area Skydiving, CA USA

[EnricoPalazzo 1]

Hi!
Speed Skydiving is almost completely unrelated to headdown freeflying. I actually know some guys who have almost no freefly skills but are good at speed. This is a very steep track, not headdown, and as you know by now, the main difficulty in headdown flying is to fly slow and stable.

If you have not discovered it on your own by now, watch this:
https://youtu.be/b3Ts_4pB4WM
Max is one of the top speed skydivers at this time and he has a very entertaining way of explaining things.
My favourite quote of his is: "If everything is under control, you're just not fast enough", and that sums up speed skydiving perfectly for me. Brake as little as possible, just enough to be barely stable through the skydive until that dytter starts to blast and you need to slow down.

And you did read the rules right.
It is vertical speed from 2700m to 1700m above ground.

Cheers!

[kat00 11]

That is a good video. There isn't much in the states about doing this so I always thought it was more head down to be competitive. I figured a steep angle might work and that looks more like what is being done with different body position for stability.

[pr3d4t0r 1]

Hi!

Rewatched it today again, after over a 100 jumps and 3 months since the first time I watched it, now groking the technique better.

Angle flying coaching on Friday all day to work on the transition to almost-head-down (we did some math with my instructor at the tunnel and we figure ~80º should do the job), then it's all practice jumps and learning to relax and go with the flow until the competition.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Blue skies!

Eugenio, home: Bay Area Skydiving, CA USA

[Kiwi55 0]

Any chance you can wear your rig in the tunnel?

[pr3d4t0r 1]

Quote

Any chance you can wear your rig in the tunnel?

No -- but our local iFly has a "stunt rig" that we can use in the tunnel; it's a mockup with the right straps, reserve/cutaway handles, weight, etc. I used it last time, it helped me stabilize and feel the difference between front/back of my body closer to how it'll fee in the air. I should've taken some photos - very cool idea.

Cheers and blue skies!

Eugenio, home: Bay Area Skydiving, CA USA