How does tunnel time work

[ataltitude 0]

Hi I'm going to perris and arizona in october and I will have about 300-400 jumps, before I get in a tunnel for the first time. I'm doing doing 1hr with coach.
What I wanna no is, do you have to do so long on your belly before you move on to back then sit and head down.
I can fly pretty good on belly, ok on back and can take docks in sit.
What I want to spend my time getting good at sit and then work on head down transitions.
Hope that makes sense.
cheers

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[brettski74 0]

There will be a learning curve. While your skydiving experience does give you skills that are transferable, the tunnel is still new to you and like virtually all skydivers, you will probably find the tunnel humbling when you first try it. The tunnel can be much less forgiving of mistakes than the sky. The sky doesn't have solid walls to slam into. You will need to prove your abilities before you will get the higher airspeeds required for sit or head down flight. This will include back flying and walking the net at a minimum. It's highly unlikely that you would progress far enough to work on head down flight within your first hour of tunnel time. Whatever you do get to work on, however, you will likely develop some skills that are transferable to the sky.

This isn't a new topic. If you do a search, you should be able to find plenty of discussion about tunnel progression on here and other sites.

[Fast 0]

I don't know that anyone really follows this to a T or not, but the general idea of the progression is here:

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

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[mdrejhon 8]

1 hour in a day is strenous for a first-timer. Split it up throughout the day and you'll be OK. 15 minute blocks sharing with some other people (so that it takes 30 minutes to do 15 minutes). With about an hour or two breaks in between for debriefs.

You'll likely be VERY sore. My first half hour in a tunnel in one day, made me more sore, than my last two hours in a tunnel in one day.

[CornishChris 5]

I'm sorry to say it but it is extremely unlikely that you will be doing HD transitions in an hour. I recently did an hour (over two days) in a tunnel and a friend of mine with similar jump numbers did an hour as well. The first 30 mins was belly & back with some belly-back transitions. The next was back to sit, walking in the tunnel and then sit flying with him able to do sit front flips at the end of the first hour. I have 12 hours in tunnels now and was impressed with his speed of progression.

I am now flying HD launching from the net and am working on the HD transitions, which incidentally I hate!

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[Master_Yoda 0]

WOW! I had no idea it took so long to learn FF in a tunnel. I would have thought it's faster than in the sky. And maybe it is... I dunno. But an hour in the sky is a lot of jumps. And they wouldn't really have on the spot corrections from coaches like in a tunnel.
Damn, I'm kinda shocked. I guess FF is a lot harder than it looks.

[brettski74 0]

Generally speaking, you will learn faster in the tunnel, however, when it comes to sit flying and head down, you really need to be fairly good at it to do it in the tunnel. The wind speeds are high enough that you could seriously injure yourself if you lose control. Those walls are hard and very unforgiving when you hit them. When you learn in the tunnel, you'll probably spend more time on fundamental base skills which you can build on later.

Tunnel time is generally cheaper, too. If we assume that you pay around $20-25 per jump, 60 skydives is $1200-1500 dollars. You can get an hour of tunnel time for much less than this. If you live somewhere where the jumps are more expensive than that, then the margin becomes even bigger. When you get into team training in the tunnel, this also increases the margin.

[ataltitude 0]

Hey cheers heaps guys for all the input I have received.
Yeah going to try split the hour over a day.

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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WOW! I had no idea it took so long to learn FF in a tunnel. I would have thought it's faster than in the sky.

It is. No one on my first sit 4-way which built had fewer than 500 skydives which would be 10 hours of tunnel time by yourself or 40 hours split four ways.

[theonlyski 3]

Here is what you do:

1 Put the tunnel time in my name.
2 Watch me show you how to use it.
3 Use it when I get out.

I wont even charge for the service.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[Zymurdoo 0]

FYI - When booking tunnel time in Eloy, if you book the time through a coach, rather than through Skyventure, you will get the hourly rate even if you book 10 or 15 mins. Coaches generally charge $200/hour for coaching. Skyventure AZ has a list of coaches that work for them on their website and most have email addresses to contact them directly.

http://www.skyventureaz.com/Staff/Default.aspx

Blue Skies and Happy Tunneling,
Rick

Blue Skies, Soft Docks and Happy Landings!
CWR #23
(It's called CRW, add an e if you like, but I ain't calling it CFS. FU FAI!)

[ataltitude 0]

So does anyone have first hand experience with the coaches at arizona

[Zymurdoo 0]

I have some experience with Ray Kubiak and Jim Stengell. Ray instructs instructors and coaches all disciplines and levels. Jim is an awesome coach but I am not sure if he coaches head down. I can highly recommend either.

Blue Skies, Soft Docks and Happy Landings!
CWR #23
(It's called CRW, add an e if you like, but I ain't calling it CFS. FU FAI!)

[likearock 1]

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So does anyone have first hand experience with the coaches at arizona

Some great freefly coaches at Arizona:

Ray Kubiak
Jason Peters
Steve Curtis
Ty Losey
Friday Friedman

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I've actually worked with.