TI's..."Flying" your student.

[Kimblair13 0]

Just curious...
Who all actually hooks their students legs and arms thru the skydive?

Who does nothing but out-fly the student yourself?

Who hooks students when it's an extreme body position but leaves them alone if not?

I've seen people hook their students and it not work so well...just curious what the general theory is.

[slotperfect 7]

I was taught early on to fly myself and not worry about the student's body position, especially on exit. I do make adjustments, but I don't get engrossed in making the corrections.

I fit two of your categories. I outfly the student, and I only wrap their legs in extremely erratic situations (once the drogue is out).

Arrive Safely

John

[Samurai136 0]

Quote

Just curious...
Who all actually hooks their students legs and arms thru the skydive?

Who does nothing but out-fly the student yourself?

Who hooks students when it's an extreme body position but leaves them alone if not?

I've seen people hook their students and it not work so well...just curious what the general theory is.

I out-fly the student. I've had students doing all kinds of crazy free-style garbage in front of me. I've always be able to fly the tandem to a quick belly to earth position and deploy the drogue.

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[livendive 8]

Quote

I was taught early on to fly myself and not worry about the student's body position, especially on exit. I do make adjustments, but I don't get engrossed in making the corrections.

I fit two of your categories. I outfly the student, and I only wrap their legs in extremely erratic situations (once the drogue is out).

What he said. I'm pretty sure I've hooked a student's legs once or twice, but I don't specifically remember any since right after I got my rating (at first I thought it was something important to do).

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[diablopilot 2]

Out fly the student.


You're not gonna fix much wrestling them into position, you risk hurting them, and you're not flying as well when you're wrestling.

I find good briefings, and proper harness adjustment do more to produce good body ositions out of students.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[weavermc 0]

I'm on the band-wagon.... I was taught to "Fly Big" and worry about myself. That seems to work about 95% of the time. The other 5% are those jumps that make you realize why not everyone is a Tandem Master and why you have to have some experience first. I've hooked legs when I feel the student has "crazy legs" that are making me less-stable than I like. On a very few rare occasions, I've grabbed arms and hooked legs.

So far - I've only had one I dumped high because the student's position put me in a continuous and fast turn that I could not control from above.

Weaves

[AggieDave 6]

Sometimes I'll fix my student's legs and/or arms after the drogue is out. Not always though, probably only 1/8 of the time I will. Typically though, time spent teaching the neutral body position to tandem students leaves the students with much better body positions in the air.

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

[riggerrob 643]

Back in 1986, I was taught to "fly the student's body" by grabbing their wrists and hooking their legs with mine, but after a 100 pound girl got a death grip on thumb my pull time (this happened long before Cypres or secondary drogue releases were invented), I gradually quit that foolishness.
In the long run, I found that it is easier for me to do a really big arch -as wide as I can get - and largely ignore whatever foolishness my student is doing.

Nowadays I teach them a small, relaxed arch.
If the student is stiff, I often shake their elbow to remind them to relax.
The only time I touch their legs is when stupid students insist on bending forward at the waist. The I jam my heels into the tops of their knees until they do something vaguely resembling an arch.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Wrestling with a student wouldn't work well for me; I am pretty small as far as tandem instructors go. I have always just flown my body. It helps that I have a solid exit as well.

Chuck

[DanglesOZQld 0]

I fly my own body on exit never trying to control the student and then generally leg lock for the remainder of the skydive once the drogue is out.

I have seen more than one bad jump from those who leglock after drogue, start spinning and remain in this position. If this happens then UNLOCK and counteract the turn - your legs as a Tm are a good device for doing this but if still holding the students legs you are pushing poo uphill ;)

BSBD!! -Mark.

"A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

[JohnMitchell 16]

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Who hooks students when it's an extreme body position but leaves them alone if not?

The wild kicking ones I'll corral before they make me airsick. It can get annoying trying to correct this way, then that way for a wild ass flailer.

[FlyinseivLP2 0]

I shot alot of tandem video before I got my rating. I watched 2 TM's that would always wrap the students legs at the first sign of a bad body position. They both would take 10 sec to get the drouge out on a regular basis. When I got my rating I didn't want to do this and just flew my body. I have never had a problem that I couldn't out fly yet. I have never been taken close to 10 sec before getting the drouge out. Now If I had one I couldn't out fly I might wrap their legs just to cange their position and then fly us stable.
I think wraping the students up only causes you to be unstable longer in most cases. Fly your body and you won't go wrong.

[scrublink 0]

I think that the exit is the most important part. Solid exit and the rest of the dive is pretty easy. I am short and fat. Not the optimum body type for tandems so I just fly my body. Sometimes it looks pretty stupid but I can get almost every jump to fly straigt. Only once did I have a student that kept us spinning after drogue toss. He was big, burly and frozen. Nothing would make him arch and be symetrical. I couldn't budge any of his limbs. I opened at about seven thousand so I could deal with the line twists. Other than that I have never had a problem out flying a student without hooking them.

For whats its worth.

Ed

[billeisele 130]

- solid exits prevent most of the junk, after that just fly
- I hook the legs on that very rare occasion when their legs are swimming around and their shoes are beating my legs to death
- I generally stay away from their arms, grasping their hands (maybe repositioning their arms) and then releasing will oftentimes help them relax
- mother nature made it easier for me - 6'2", 210 lbs., ATD

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.