Standup vs Buttslide tandem landings

[sartre 0]

Forgive me if this has been addressed in another thread, but I did search and didn't find the exact question I have. When landing a tandem, what factors does the instructor use to determine standup vs sliding in on the butt?

[Kimblair13 0]

For me...usually the size of the student. If they're as tall as or shorter than me...stand up. If taller, I'd be hanging off their back...so I have them sit down.
Some TI's believe all to stand is most safe.
Some TI's believe all to sit is most safe.
Me? 550+ tandems and I still haven't decided. I mix and haven't hurt anyone yet and hope to never hurt anyone.

[jonstark 8]

One thing to factor in is whether the pax is concious or not.

You may have to land/twist and have them lay on top of you.

I never got comfortable with the butt slide but it is an option that works well in certain conditions.

[sartre 0]

"pax"? passenger?

[bob.dino 0]

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"pax"? passenger?

Yes.

[Peej 0]

Not being a TI myself (am a vidiot tho) i think it has a lot to do with the wind as well. Some TI's that i've seen prefer to slide in when jumping in no wind conditions and stand up when there's a breeze blowing.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[AggieDave 6]

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Some TI's that i've seen prefer to slide in when jumping in no wind conditions and stand up when there's a breeze blowing.

Its practically reversed for me. A lot of the times I can stand up in no wind with most passengers. Its when the wind is up at my DZ that it gets hairy. Especially since it tends to get gusty when the wind gets up around 15mph and up. So In those situations I tend to sit my tandems down just so I don't get launched off our feet. It has happened to me before...not fun.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[sartre 0]

Sounds like each TI has their own criteria for determining type of landing.

Thanks for the info everyone!

[deadcentre 0]

4000+ tandems. General standup in mod breeze sit/slide in nil wind if in any doubt go for slide landing if they aint touching the ground the cant break anything

[tombuch 0]

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4000+ tandems. General standup in mod breeze sit/slide in nil wind if in any doubt go for slide landing if they aint touching the ground the cant break anything

I think it also depends on the student. Alert students who are in good physical condition, and responding well under canopy are better candidates for a stand-up. Students who are out of shape, distracted by surrounding events, or slow to respond to instructor commands are better suited for slide landings.

My position has been to use the slide landing as the default, and if weather conditions and the student are a good fit, to consider the stand-up.
.

Tom Buchanan
Instructor Emeritus
Comm Pilot MSEL,G
Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

[Ron 7]

1. Wind. If there is no wind I tend to slide it in. If there is 10-15 MPH winds I tend to stand. Higher than that and I tend to slide again since If I get drug due to not collapsing the canopy soon enough or lack of catchers, I'd rather slide than fall.

2. Students condition. If I have a fit person, or a small person I tend to stand since if they are small I can hold them up, or if they are fit they can stand on their own. If they are out of shape I tend to slide to protect them.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[freefalle 0]

Depends on the winds, I plan and prepare my student to slide in the landing, If the winds are high and were comming straight down or nearly straight down Ill stand it up. But I would say 80% of my tandems have mowed the grass

[AFFI 0]

One important aspect to the slide in landing is for the TI to make contact with their feet before the students butt to help prevent tailbone injuries.

In a tandem progression method, one habbit that is hard to break solo freefall students of is to PLF rather than lifting thier legs up as they were instructed to do on tandem landing. Tailbone injuries are easy to obtain and very painful to recover from.

There has been threads of postings where some young jumpers believe that a slide in landing is safer than a PLF - which is in my opion not the case at all. Slide in landings takes skill that a newbie have not yet acquired.

MAke a search on the subject, there has been a lot of connumication on this subject in the past...

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[sartre 0]

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Tailbone injuries are easy to obtain and very painful to recover from.

This is exactly what happened to me on my second landing. I've been wondering all along if I did something wrong to cause it; perhaps pulling my legs up too high, so instead of my butt taking the impact, my tailbone did.

Also wondering why we didn't try a stand up landing; I tried to ask details after the second landing but my TI was being pressured to take off for another load and really didn't have time to elaborate.

He was quite a bit bigger than me, prob 6ft, I'm 5'4'' and 130 lbs, am in good physical shape, more or less. The winds were calm.

I'm just bummed because it does take a long time for a coccyx to heal, and I can't really even do the tunnel right now. Just made it back to the gym once this week and had to be reallly careful.

It didn't discourage me from wanting to progress, however. I just don't like the delay while my tailbone heals.

Thanks for the info~

Yvonne

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

The intent of getting your legs up is NOT so that your ass will impact first. We actually want your legs up a bit, knees bent, toes up (like barefoot waterskiing). In that position your legs are going to act as both shock absorbers and and your feet will be set up to slide. We want your feet to touch the ground either right after or at the same time as ours. Taller tandem instructors get over in this regard because your legs will pretty much rest on top of theirs if they want to keep their knees in. Smaller TM's, like me, do the best we can to sit the pair down easilly. I would never ask a passenger to "pike" their legs straight out so their butt hits first.

Like most everyone else has stated, if there is enough wind I will stand straight up. If there is little or no wind I am going to slide, slide, slippity slide, then end up standing. If they are heavy drops, I am going to slide farther and faster, then end up on my butt.

Chuck