T R A C K I N G T E A M S

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IT SOUNDS COUNTERINTUITIVE, BUT TRACKING FOR LONGER IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO OTHERSCAN AID SEPARATION ON BIG-WAY BREAK-OFFSW O R D S BRIAN CUMMING D I A G R A M S P3SKYDIVING.COM

“ LET’ S GET THE HELL OUT OF DODGE”

TRACKING TEAMS – WHY AND HOW

1 Even with highlyexperiencedskydivers, trackingteams still takepractice to get right.Here the teams atsix o’clock haveformed well, butthere is someconfusion towardsthe right of the photo.By Dave Major

Every skydiver knows that you need separation to be able to open your canopysafely. On a big-way, withmany people in the sky, space

is at a premium. Tracking teams evolvedto give everyone a greater amount ofseparation. This article will explain howbigger formations use tracking teams, why staying together helps separation and why you should learn on smallformations first.

THE BASICSTracking teams divide the act of gainingseparation into two halves. The first halfconsists of a group who track in closeproximity to each other, from the break-off altitude, away from the main formation.The second half consists of the skydiversfanning out and tracking solo to createsufficient separation before deployment.

By keeping each team of people inclose formation for the first half of thetrack, it is easier to know where everyonearound you is and where the people inthe groups either side are. It may help ifyou think of tracking teams as splittingthe larger formation into many smallerformations. The smaller formations thenmove away from the original formationand each other, before fanning out at a predetermined altitude.

GET TOGETHERBreak-off is not the end of the skydive –it is the time to form another ‘point’, the tracking team. The group shouldassemble before moving away and buildingup speed. Each tracking team will have a team leader and it is their responsibility to gather up the members of the team.Time is precious at the business end of a skydive and every skydiver in a groupshould know which way to turn into thetracking formation. You need visuals of the team leader, the new base of your newformation, as soon as possible. The groupmay form an arrowhead with the trackingleader at the point or a wedge with thetracking leader off to one side but, again,slightly in front. It is vital that the leaderknows the direction to go in and is able to see the groups to either side.

People are different shapes and weightsand because of this they track differently – different methods, different speeds,different angles.The team leader should set a pace that makes the best possiblehorizontal progress while compensatingboth speed and angle to avoid losing theslowest person in the group.It is theresponsibility of the team leader toencourageheavierskydiverstotrack as flat as they can.Lighter skydivers will often need to relax their body position to maintainproximity, which may feel counterintuitive.

The desired distance between skydiversin a tracking team is an arm’s length.This keeps you close but allows enoughroom to track without interference andmeans burble from minor level differencesor small direction changes should not bean issue.

HEAD FOR THE HILLSAs the tracking team fans out, this is thesignal to max out your track – assumingyou aren’t already. You will have 1,000-1,500 feet of flat-out tracking at the end of every freefall. In small groups, youshould have built up sufficient speed at the halfway point of a long track sothat you need relatively little time toeasily assure you of the space you need.

When moving into the second half of the track, it is important that youonly ‘fan’ out and do not turn excessively,which would only set you on a collisioncourse with the group beside you. The key concept here is a ‘fan out’, not a ‘bomb burst’. It is important that you can see the group next to you while tracking so that you can avoidencroaching into their airspace. If youcan’t see the group alongside you, it isbetter to err towards being closer to therest of your tracking team that you cansee rather than closer to people youcannot see. Ô

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1 All jumpers turnand move towardtheir trackingleader. You mustform the group first,before tracking off

2 Tracking leaderstarts moving slowly and everyonecontinues movingtowards trackingleader, forming a close group

3 Tracking leaderstarts going faster.Group should beclose enough totouch each other

4 Tracking grouptracks away

5 Group continuestracking away

6 Group starts to spread out atspecified altitude

7 Outside peoplestart to slow down and let the group track away from them

8 Centre peopleaccelerate

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For very large formations (e.g. 200-waysand up), the tracking teams become solarge (e.g. 10-15) that there is simply noway for everyone to fan out at max trackspeed and gain enough separation fromeach other without conflicting with thegroup next door. For this reason, thepeople on the outside of the group will be asked to track slower. This increasesseparation from those in the middle,who will be at full speed.

KEYINGIt becomes natural for an experiencedskydiver to hear an audible alarm andimmediately track as fast as they can.This is one of the main reasons whytracking teams may not work on a jump.It can be difficult to retrain brain and/ormuscle memory so as not to take flight as soon as an audible alarm is heard.

You may find it easier if you let thebreak-off be signalled from the base.This allows you to set your first audiblewarning for when the tracking team is due to fan out and your second audiblewarning for when it is time to pull. Thetracking team leader should also performa small wave/flap of their arms at the timeto fan out, but this can be hard to see.

Another method that you may prefer is to set your audible for the hard deckaltitude and the second alarm at the fanout. You would then choose your methodof pulling at the right altitude, eithercounting or by visually checking your

altimeter – assuming it can be seen whileyou are in your best ‘head for the hills’tracking position.

Since this article was written, L&B havereleased the Quattro audible altimeter, which enables the user to set FOUR audiblealarms – increasing your options even further.

WHEN TRACKING TEAMS GO BADTracking teams are not easy – they taketime to master, perhaps as much time to master as getting to the formation.When they go wrong, it is usually due to indiscipline or inexperience.

Tracking teams are often onlyemployed when they are “needed”. Due to this, it’s likely that you may be on yourlargest-ever formation when you firstexperience them, which isn’t the besttime to learn a new skill. Preparation and practice on the ground should not be rushed. They need to be practised on smaller formations and perhaps evenentire skydives should be devoted to them to fully consolidate the skills.

Too many people see a formation asthe goal of each jump and everythingafter that as secondary, yet getting to theformation is the safer bit – it’s the gettingaway into your own clear space that is themost critical. There is an argument fordirt diving the tracking teams first beforelooking at the build of the formation. At least the first attempt at any big-wayevent, if not several more, should have a higher break-off than normal to allow

time to form your teams for the first time and to gel effectively.

With a free-for-all break-off scenario, it is easy for one person to cut across thepath of many people and head off in thewrong direction. If this same numpty wasinvolved in a tracking team when they fanout, they may still get it wrong but thenthey are encroaching on less people.

The worst case scenario is that thetracking team leader may be the personwho gets it significantly wrong or theymay not be there at all. This is the mainreason that some people do not feelcomfortable with the concept.

SUMMARYThe bigger the formation, the morediscipline required getting to theformation AND leaving the formation.Safety is no accident. Relying on a free-for-all at break-off means that you’repushing the big sky theory to its limits.Using tracking teams brings control to what is a dangerous situation and is a skill that should be practised andacquired on small formations beforebeing tested on massive-ways.

Happy tracking!

Brian CummingEscondido 4-way FS and WSSky dive Choreography Big-way FS

I like tracking teams in theory ...as with any thing, they require practiceand,more importantly , discipline towork wellCraig Pox on, 400-way World Record holder

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Tracking groups done correctly

Formation

Tracking groups done incorrectly

This tracking groupstays togetherlonger and hasmuch more room to deploy (safer)

Tracking groupseparates too early Tracking

groupneverforms

Ends of thetracking groupseparate at toowide an angle

Sky div e Choreography ’ s Big-w ay BeginnersIX is on April 27-28 at Langar and t rackingt eams w ill be pract is ed on ev ery ju mp.

R e g i s t e r h e r e : h t t p : //a l t u r l .c o m /n h 9 s t

Get involvedIt is possible to identify clear

tracking teams in a good big-waybreak-off. Here, the high solos are

cameramen and most of thegroups have formed well. By

Terry Weatherford

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We are all pioneers in the world of big-way break-off and, as formationsget larger, we have started to realise that it is the break-up of the formationthat is proving to be the most complex partDave Lewis, strollerweb.co.uk

Freefly large format ion records hav erecent ly progres s ed mas s iv ely , as w it h all as pect s oft hedis cipline in t helas t fewy ears . The firs t freefly record t hat broket hree figu res w as t he w orld record 108-w ay in Chicago in 2008, w here part icipant st racked180 degrees fromt hecent reoft heformat ion in s t ages bu t w it hou t formingint o grou ps .The firs t t ime t racking t eamsw ere u s ed in freefly w as for t he 80-w ayEu ropean record organis ed by Babylon in2011.Tracking t eams w ere als o u s ed fort he mos t recent w orld record 138-w ay inChicago las t y ear.

The bas ic idea is t he s ame as for FS.How ev er, du e t o t he v ert ical nat u re, s ome as pect s hav e had t o be dev eloped for t his dis cipline.The ou t s idepoint oft heformat ion w ill lead off a t racing(head-dow n s t y le t racking angle s t eeper t han45 degrees )grou p w it h t he leading pers onat t he t ip of an arrow format ion.The pers onleading w ill be on t he belly angle and t heot hers follow ing w ou ld be on t he backangle.Thegrou p w ill t hengradu ally and,informat ion, change t he angle from t he s t eephead-dow n angle t o t he regu lar flat t rackangle t oget her. Once flat t racking, t he backt rackers t hen barrel roll ont o belly w hilemaint aining heading cont rol, t hen t hey bu rs t from t here u nt il deploy ment .

A l l y M i l n e

Freefly

Break-offs from a large w ings u it flock hav e t he s ame object iv e as t hos e of FS and FF big-w ay s , bu t w it h s ome added complicat ions .

Becau s e of addit ional pos t -deploy ment procedu res of u nz ipping s u it s , more s eparat ion is requ ired t han w it h FS. This is part ly offs et by w ings u it ers u s ing canopies t hat t end t o fly flat and lev el, ev en w it h t w is t s , and is helped by t he fact t hat w ings u it s can fly fu rt her, bu t organis at ion and dis cipline are s t ill v ery mu ch requ ired.

The fact t hat t he format ion it s elf is mov ing forw ards at abou t 80mph means t hat break-off has it s ow n s pecialcons iderat ions . For ins t ance, t he people at t he t ail of t he format ion cannot ju s t t u rn 180 degrees and go backw ards in cas e t here are s t ragglers behind t he format ion. A clos ing s peed of 160mph does not giv e mu ch t ime t o react !

Flat w ings u it flocks hav e been ev olv ing t he u s e of formed break-off grou ps s ince t he USPA big-w ay record of 2009, w heres t aggered grou ps w ere u s ed t o s plit t he main format ion. Fly ers w ere as ked t o maint ain a lev el, and not div e ou t or floatabov e ot hers in t he grou p.

Du ring t he 2012 100-w ay record bu ild-u p, t he firs t s t age of break-off left t he bas e mov ing forw ards w hile grou ps at eachs ide peeled off at 45, 90 and 135 degrees – s t ay ing in format ion for 1,000 feet . Each grou p may hav e t rav elled 400 y ards in t en s econds and, if t hey s t ay t oget her, t hey are 300 y ards from t he grou p 45 degrees nex t t o t hem.The s econd s t age ofbreak-off inv olv es t he front row of t his grou p max ing ou t for s peed and lift and t he grou p behind t hem s low ing dow n, w hichals o means los ing height fas t er and reaching t he pu ll height long before t he people in front of t hem. The ou t s ide fly ers cou lds omet imes hav e anot her 20 s econds in fu ll flight aft er t his t ime, giv ing anot her is s u e in t hat t he left and right fly ers cou ldbe 2.5 miles apart on deploy ment . This is w here large landing areas like Perris come in handy .

Vert ical and t hree-dimens ional w ings u it format ions (i.e. bot h flat and v ert ical)requ ire s pecifically t ailored break-off plans t o av oid bu rble is s u es , bu t fly ing grou ps aw ay from t he main format ion remains a key principle. Ex pect t o s ee break-offgrou ps in mos t big-w ay s y ou t ake part in – FS, FF or WS – and enjoy t he challenge t o be ex cellent at t hem!

Es condido-organis ed w ings u it big-w ay s at Hibalds t ow t his y ear w ill be pract is ing t racking t eams at break-off.

R o b G r a y

Wingsuit

These trackers have turned awayfrom the centre of the formationand are now looking left and rightto move into their formationtracking teams. By Dave Major

When done correctly , I feelthere is no safer way to leave a100- to 500-person formationTony Domenico, P3

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