Rodeo dive...STOP THE MADNESS!!!

[mountainman 0]

Hey all.....Laura and I did 2 jumps this past Saturday and they were awesome. The first one was a rodeo dive. Now, I'll go through this step-by-step and if you have a piece of advice, I would really appreciate it (especially for the spinning). Here goes:
First, I sat on my knees right in front of the door and faced out. She crouched behind me, holding on to my shoulder straps. I just leaned forward and she followed me out and held tight. We went upside-down and flipped back and forth. I managed to get us stable and flat and she had her legs around my waist/chest. We were very straight and then after awhile, she lifted one arm up to "complete" the rodeo look and we started to spin. I tried to stop the spin with my legs, arms and twisting, but it just got faster and faster. Finally, she just let go and we finished the dive trying to dock, but we can't fall the same.
If you guys can give us some pointers, that would be awesome. We really would like to get pictures/video someday soon and want it to work good. Thanks all!!
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[billvon 3,085]

Here's how I do it:
Rider gets next to horse, takes grips on both riser covers over horse's rigs. (It's a stretch.) Next, the rider swings herself up and over the horse so she's now lying directly on top. Both will start to accelerate. Wait a moment, then the rider swings her legs over and around the horse's waist. Horse has to be prepared for this - it won't be very stable, and he has to fight the tendency to "flatten out" due to the higher fall rate. RIder then pushes herself up to arm's length. If that works, she can let go and sit up.
-bill von

[mountainman 0]

Thanks Bill......we got the launch OK and she held on and we flattened out, however it is the spinning that really got out of hand and I could not correct. Any ideas?
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[skycat 0]

I did a kind of hybrid rodeo dive with 2 of my friends a few weeks ago. What they did was get outside the plane and line up like they were going to do a sit train, but instead faceing the tain, they were facing the props, when they exited she was already on his back and since one leg was wrapped around him, all she did was bring the other one up. They patato chipped for a little bit, but once stable they were able to fly around and do turns, I docked on them several times in a sit. Another thing is Cyndi was wearing an RW suit, but she didn't haven't the booties on, she folded them under so they wouldn't catch air. I don't think she was holding on with her hands, but I can't remember. They held it to almost 5K, I broke off at 5.5 to give them time to get away from eachother.
Kelli

[mountainman 0]

Sweet! That is what we want to do, but could not get the spin stopped. Any ideas? Is there a certain position the "rider" should be in?
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[skycat 0]

wait now that I think about it, she had her arms out like she was sitflying.....she actually can sitfly, so it was easier for her to do it with out causing a spin, and her legs were kind of like she was kneeling, except she had his container and body pinched between them. If the rider is going to put thier arms out, they have to pay alot of attention to making them the same or the rider can easily cause a spin, Also greg said he was doing most of the flying with his upper body, that his legs were not helping out to much.
I guess it's just a matter of practice, also the rider may want to go a try a few sitflys cause once she can do that without spinning, a rodeo is a peice of cake.
Kelli

[quade 4]

Helps a LOT of the horse is a fat boy (like myself) and the rider is a floaty feather.
Rodeo Picts HERE
ltdiver and myself made a few rodo dives and it took us about three times to figure out what worked for us.
In the twin otter, I would take the front position facing the prop and she would get behind me and hold onto the riser covers. I would exit like a student AFF and just look at the prop for a couple of seconds while she pushed up into a kneefly position with her knees at my waist. By exit plus 5 seconds we'd be fairly stable. The key -seemed- to be to get the rider up fairly quickly and for the horse to arch like crazy. a normal RW suit seemed to work best for the horse -- something baggy for the top of the rider doesn't hurt.
The rider has a fair amount of input with the arms, but the horse should be able to correct for just about anything as it stabilizes just like a normal boxman.
Fall rate in the stable mode ***FOR US*** was about 135 mph.
The reason we choose to NOT have the rider wrap legs, but rather kneefly instead was MY fear of hooking a cutaway or reserve handle. I believe that the kneefly position also helps slow down the fall rate somewhat.
quade
http://futurecam.com

[Tee 0]

Quote

We were very straight and then after awhile, she lifted one arm up to "complete" the rodeo look and we started to spin.

Hey mountainman. Tee

• Quote

[wildblue 7]

Same as some other people have said - have here 'pinch' you with her knees, not wrap her legs around. Besides the obvious possibility of snagging a handle, I guess one leg lower/more wrapped around than the other could cause a spin.
That, and have her keep her arms straight out.
Then be a real man, and fly on your back while she straddles you.. that's much more fun!
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine, in a bag

[AggieDave 6]

I rodeoed a friend of mine without him knowing it prior to the jump as a joke. What I did was setup a dive for us where we would be launching what looked a lot like a sit train out of the Otter. I had my right hand on his right riser cover, when we went off, I jumped forward and wrapped my legs, and grabbed the other riser cover with my left hand. Held my right hand up and it was cool, should have brought my cowboy hat...I wrapped my legs around, but it was more around the waist/bottome of the rig, away from the handles. If I hadn't have done that, I probably would have fallen off since it wasn't stable for a little bit. It got stable, then went into a high speed spin, eventually ejecting me from the "bronco."
Definately a very very funny dive, the other jumper didn't know what was going on until I yelled "rodeo" in his ear. He had thought that I funneled the exit really really badly.
Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.-General George Patton-

[skymama 37]

When I did my rodeo, we got into a spin after the exit too, but were able to recover from it. I was in position on my horse's back, and I layed as flat as I could, with my legs still around his waist, and just held onto that, hoping that he would be able to get stable, which he did. After I sat up, swung my arm around, and slapped his ass, was when I started slipping off and we got into a spin again. But, the ass slapping was worth it!
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[E150 0]

We launched a side body. The person that was to be underneath, gave a signal, arched hard, then I jumped on. Simple. Took the shoulder straps and wraped my feet under her thieghs. She spun it and stoped it. It worked sweet and held for ages n ages.
Fun.