Tunnel progression

[Ironmanjay 0]

Kind of like a canopy progression thread, I wanted to see how long it took people to progress in the tunnel. How many min on there belly, back, sit then to HD? Or if your just on your belly, how long till you were doing 4 ways in the tunnel?

[jamiem 1]

I started in the tunnel when I had around 150 jumps. Here is what my progression looked like:

10 min - back
15 min - 4way RW
30 min - 4way RW
30 min - 4way RW
15 min - back

And the last 15 minutes of back I was cleared for sit.

Not sure if that was a fast progression or what.

[millertime24 8]

1hr-belly/formation stuff
30min-back
the last 20min have been walking in the tunnel then transitioning to a sit (from standing position). I held my sit for several seconds, but was very tired by the time I got it and had little time left to do much more.

Muff #5048

[rehmwa 2]

25-30 hours belly/mantis/coaching the same (probably about 20 minutes bootie flying in there too) - 4-way was the first camp (hour 2)

12 minutes sit (1 minute to demo backflying, 11 minutes of sit - basics moves, carving, vertical drills, front flips)

now I want more - of both

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[punkd 0]

15 mins belly flying
15 mins back flying
2 1/2 hours sit flying and transitions

[Lokhmaty 0]

16 hrs in wind tunnel since last year December. Just 10 skydives almost 3 years ago and I do not jump anymore.
So far:
- Belly, forward/backward/side movements, turns 90/180/360, tracking into the middle while circling around - don't know how that move is called correctly, little RW;
- Front flips;
- Barrel rolls;
- T - just started to learn;
- Sit - can't get off the net though - I am the heavy one, 250 lbs;
- Back - can't figure out right body position yet.
- Belly to Back transitions - half back flip, half front flip, half barrel roll.

My home tunnel is AAC. I have never flown any enclosed WT. Looking forward to try Indoor Skydive Rosendal in the Netherlands in the middle of July.

[hparrish 0]

Started off with 1300 Freefly Jumps.

Took me about 20 Hours to get signed off on Level III Freeflying.

Been working on Level IV Freeflying for about 10 hours. Probably close to sign off on Lvl IV, but wont consider myself proficient until after around 40-50 total hours in the tunnel.

It takes time and patience to fly well in the tunnel. And there's a big difference between checking off sqauares on a website and actually flying well in the tunnel.

Check out the IBA website if you want to see the official Sky Venture Tunnel Progressions.

http://tunnelflight.com/pages/flyers/flyerRatings.php

[skreamer 1]

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And there's a big difference between checking off sqauares on a website and actually flying well in the tunnel.

Well said. My progressions is similar to yours, slow but steady and nailing the fundamentals before moving on. I got a bit frustrated at first, seemed like I was the slowest learner to get to HD in the tunnel, but now I get a deep satisfaction from having learnt all the basic positions and transitions properly. This bears repeating :

Quote

It takes time and patience to fly well in the tunnel.

Money matters, but it takes perseverance too.

[rhys 0]

started with 5000 jumps, mostly belly but a bit of FF experience (bad position).

got the belly stuff done in 2 minutes or less;

then 20 mins on back,

Now I am doing sit and back flying to mix it up(walking in between) , I have 45 mins now and beginning docking in sit and hopefully forward loops next monday.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[Ironmanjay 0]

Thanks for everyones post's;
My progression so far goes as;
20 min belly
30min back
10 min standing on net/ sit flying

I just got a stable lift off the net in my sit the last 2 min so now Ill just work on stability and docking. Im still going to get more proficient on my back too

[GrahamClarke 0]

You can see a summary video of my wind tunnel progression over 20 hours at

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=7256

[Aizxana 0]

I've done about 8 hours doing 4-way / 3-way belly flying, and about 2 hours freeflying. Learnt backfly, transitions, sitfly in those two hours. I've got two sessions next week in the tunnel ... and hopefully will get cleared for HD!

I sort of split my money with half going towards 2/3-way head up freefly for fun, and half solo with a coach to work on specific skills (which is also fun as well!).

-- Aizxana --

[zachvantonder 0]

i'm a skydiver from south africa. i was wondering what you think is the most time a person could do in a tunnel over a 4 week period. reason being i would have to travel and make the most of the visit to the country i choose. was hoping to do around 10 hours tunnel time in the 4 weeks. do you think it is realisticly posible?

[Metekanya 0]

I have done 3 1/2 hours in the tunnel. IMO the best way to progress is doing 1/2 hour and thereafter watching the video of the session for weeks before doing another session, at least before you are at a very high level, where a lot of practice is the only way to progress further.

Even with the best coach, there are many things you miss in every session or not fully understand, and you only fully realise after watching the video (sometimes after watching it a lot).

If you start another session without getting all the juice out from the previous one, you might be doing exactly the same errors again, getting habits you later have to get rid of, wasting money and.. (everything needs to be said) having lots of fun! but your progresion will not be as good. It is only my opinion.

[LloydDobbler 2]

I've got about 16 hrs in the tunnel...and about 13 of that is 4-way.

It took me a good 30 mins to get comfortable on my back. But I stuck with it, and it helped tremendously with my sit (I actually was cleared for sitflying, then went back and just worked on the back for a while. Made a HUGE difference).

Probably now have an hour of sit, 1.5 hrs of back, and 30 mins' of transitions.

Again, I'd highly recommend getting comfortable on your back. Everyone wants to move on to sitflying...but it makes SUCH a difference when you can bail to your back and be in control. There's a level of confidence in that which can't be attained any other way, IMO, than getting good on your back.


Oh, yeah - and as for belly stuff, I probably had a good 45mins to an hour before getting into 4-way. If I was flying 4-way with 3 MUCH more experienced people, though, it would be a different matter. But instead, I started with people of my skill level. THAT was entertaining.

Signatures are the new black.

[base698 1]

The only way to really learn head down is from a back carve, so learning really well on your back is essential.

hour belly,
3 hours sit
3 hours static head down
4 hours transitions
20+ hours carving head down

[Dougiefresh 0]

15 min belly, 30 min back, several hours sit, have about an hour of HD now and am just beginning to be able to hold it off the net.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams

[JSE 1]

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The only way to really learn head down is from a back carve, so learning really well on your back is essential.

While I don’t disagree with the importance of backflying, around here they seem to train hd by having people do headstands on the net.

I’d be curious how other people learned as that is where I’m at in my progression right now.

[base698 1]

You have 2 options. Learn static head down by doing head stands so you can be cool and tell all your friends you flew head down in the tunnel only to realize you can't really do anything but sit there after you learn OR you can spend a lot of time back carving and at the end youll likely segway right into transitions because the sight picture will be normal to you.

The people that do static head down first end up having to learn carving anyway and the whole process takes a longer time.

[hparrish 0]

I'd AGREE with this statement. I learned HD Static first and am now focusing on Carving, since that is what is really teaching me how to FLY HD in the tunnel.

Again.........There's a HUGE difference between being signed off on progression steps for your tunnel rating..........and actually flying well in the tunnel.

There are no Short Cuts, if the goal is to become a solid flyer.

Also Justin was a Tunnel Instructor for a little while, and got to learn from the best in the business. So he understands the PROPER steps in Tunnel Progression.

[stormywinters 1]

I would never teach carving first... static first. They would not teach a flyer to carve from back fly up into HD. I teach carving from HD(just like sit), Turns then froward movement, then add together. Static HD is the recovery to HD carving, but if you cannot stop in HD then you recover to another orientation. THIS IS A VERY VERY BAD HABIT, it should stop and control in HD. Carving on the back is important, moving in HD is important, but flyers that learn Back carving to HD takes the long road(ME!). It makes carving out facing(wind on belly) harder, and backward movement in HD harder(that is ur brakes), flyers become comfortable with wind on the back, but not the belly. I learned carving from back fly into HD first, I wished I had not!! I think Static is stability, not cross controling with wind on the back. I see lots of flyers that cannot even put their arms to their sides while in HD. I think it all is imoprtant to learn, but HD first for sure. I teach forward, backward, L/R turns, and side slides, just to learn how to sit static.

Unless you like dizzy?

[VanillaSkyGirl 6]

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Again.........There's a HUGE difference between being signed off on progression steps for your tunnel rating..........and actually flying well in the tunnel.

Agreed 100%.

[hparrish 0]

Well I suppose you know a little more about Tunnel Progression than I do.

Guess I have the wrong Idea but still did it the right way.