Tandem Instructors: Student Upper Body Position at exit

[PhreeZone 15]

What body position do you train your first jump students to use? Return students?

If you choose other please describe.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[AggieDave 6]

Arms holding on the student harness' MLW, not crossed. From what I've seen (in my limited experience), it helps promot a good arch (that and their head back), where as it seems that crossing their arms tends to help promote dearched positions.

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

[Nightingale 0]

my TM told me to cross my arms, but he didn't tell me to grab the harness.

[skydog 2]

I am now in the habit of getting the student to put their hands together with their thumbs under the chest strap. Sort of like a praying position, hands not grasped together.

That way their is less chance of them grabbing anything, as they still have the "security" of holding something on exit. Also their elbows are not stuck out if they hold onto the MLW.

Seems to work OK....

Bryn

Journey not destination.....

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Sort of "Farmer John": not neccessarily "under" the mudflap, but below it with thumbs under the MLW. If I am doing cat B, then I will have them in the door just like my AFF students.

[riggerrob 558]

The important issue is tucking their elbows in so they don't whack the door frame on the King Air.
What they grab is insignificant.

[slotperfect 7]

Quote

Sort of "Farmer John": not neccessarily "under" the mudflap, but below it with thumbs under the MLW. If I am doing cat B, then I will have them in the door just like my AFF students.

I am exactly the same. I prefer this position to the crossed arms position.

Arrive Safely

John

[skydiver30960 0]

Cross arms but don't grab the mudflaps or MLW. If the grab on it's just that much harder to get them to let go. As soon as we're out the door, go to the boxman. If they forget (probably 50% of the time) assist them into the boxman.

Elvisio "tandems rock" Rodriguez

[skydiverton 0]

Hand on harness (not x-ed), After droque and handle check to boxman

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Using your droque to gain stability is a bad habit,
Especially when you are jumping a sport rig

[Voluptuosa 0]

I like arms crossed for two reasons.

(1) When their arms are crossed and they tense up, they tend to grab onto themselves which makes them too preoccupied to grab me.

(2) And this is really my favourite reason... In King Air's or larger where you basically walk to the door, I have my passengers cross their arms long before we get to the door. If they are particularly nervous passengers, I put my hand over their shoulder and grab onto the top of their two crossed hands. This way, I not only make physical contact with them while saying a few last words of encouragement, but I hold their hand to their chest and that hand holds the other hand down and, voila! They can't grab the door.



Blue skies,
Charlene

[peek 20]

Like this [attached photo].

Thumbs up / smiling = not nervous / no need for extraordinary measures.

Head jammed back/hands tightly gripping (anything) = "time to be scared/oh-my-god, don't do anything wrong" position = tense on exit.

Hit elbows on King Air door? Not when I tell them to grab the side of the door and _pull us out_ when I say go/arch!

I teach them _skydiving_ exits, not passenger exits.

[lug 4]

I like the student to cross their arms, be loose, and relaxed. I have not used hands on main lift webs, but I will. Just sitting at my desk and trying both positions of hand placement seems that having my hands over the MLW area spread my shoulders out more and seems more comfortable.

As for the upper level tandems the student set up at the door as close as possible to the AFF.

Memento Mori

[riggerrob 558]

Hit elbows on King Air door? Not when I tell them to grab the side of the door and _pull us out_ when I say go/arch!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Students grabbing door frames or struts only slow me down.
That is why I prefer them to keep their hands - loose - on their chests until after we are outside the airplane.

[wmw999 2,121]

I'm not a TI, but my dad was a tandem student who wasn't flexible enough to put one hand under each side of his harness.

So he stood in the door, holding on with one hand, trying to the other hand under the side of the harness, until the jumpmaster had to peel it off.

With older students, it might be worth while making sure they can do it with the harness tight, or making sure they're already holding on when they start walking down.

The video is pretty funny

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)