Psychic? Not so much

How is your plane captain so fast? What looks like speed is oftentimes an uncanny ability to predict where the formation will eventually end up. By waiting patiently in precisely the right spot skydiving superstars look almost psychic. With the secret below, you can be a superstar too!

 

Big ways, but smaller stuff too

This trick is visible on big ways, but it shows up on a smaller scale too. In a 4-way or 8-way you can see a coach waiting precisely in a certain spot while the rest of the group chases its tail around. When the dust settles and the music stops, the coach is in the perfect position.

What happens when an arm wiggles

 

Enough of the setup, how is this done?

When something goes amiss in a formation, levels or a crash for example, it introduces momentum. If the formation flyers all resist perfectly, nothing much will happen. It is hard to find a perfect formation though, and usually this undesirable force will cause a motion anchored around a hinge point.

If you think of a big way’s arm or spine, the hinge point is likely going to cause that whole section to move off their line.

 

Wait in your spot superstar

Now to let you in on the magic. If you are approaching a line on your radial and it wiggles away, just stop and wait where it was originally (where it was supposed to be!). Don’t keep approaching at full speed of course, just yield for a second.

 

Waggle into place

And voila! It will move right back. The motion that caused the arm to wiggle will eventually dissipate. And unless it was a legendary issue (like an infamous 100 person funnel), the force on that one arm will get absorbed by the whole formation. The formation itself will want to snap back into a stable shape with the help of the skydivers fighting their way back to their line.

What wiggles, will waggle.

If it doesn’t – readjust

But what if it doesn’t?!? Sometimes it doesn’t!

In rare circumstances the formation might move the base or the whole big way. There is a small chance it will stay put. Easy to solve though – after you are positive it isn’t moving back, move to your new radial and resume. Nothing lost!

 

Looking and slot flying is critical

The requisite to performing this trick is looking. This is where most new flyers fail. They are focused on their slot locally, so they aren’t even aware that the wiggle occurs. From their narrow vision’s perspective they might even think they moved. Add a sprinkle of over-excitement to get into the formation, and you end up chasing the wiggle. And you end up chasing the waggle back to where you were the first time. That is assuming you don’t crash, get burbled, or have some other motion related hiccup.

 

 

In short, the secret to looking fast isn’t always moving fast. It is about knowing that a formation that moves out of place will often correct itself. Save yourself some trouble and look great by waiting for it swing right back to you!

 

Become a wiggle jedi! Sign up for Big Way Basics, Frikken One Shot Bigways, or P3 Big Way Camp to give it a try.