With the 200-way Vertical World Record attempt and the 250-way State Record attempts just around the corner, two of our top bigway leaders Andy Malchiodi and Dan BC, share a few bigway reminders. In part 2 below, Dan shares from his wealth of knowledge and experience in flying bigways.
Awareness
Some safety factors in skydiving are simple math. Regardless of the discipline, a solo is safer than a 2-way. A 2-way is safer than a 20-way. A 20-way is safer than a 100-way. The more skydivers there are, the more opportunities there are for things to go off-plan, and the more situations that could become dangerous if we don’t see them coming.
Because of this, awareness is a necessary skill for safe skydiving. On a big-way, there’s so much more happening that your awareness needs to be exponentially greater compared to smaller jumps. Take the time to truly look around you, everywhere. There’s more to see, and you need to take the time to see it. However much you “looked” on smaller skydives, you’ll have to look much more on a big-way.
Never go on automatic. See what needs to be done, then do it. I’ve never heard anyone in a freefall or canopy collision say, “I saw that coming.” They thought they were looking, too.
Expectations
I can’t count how many times I’ve had skydivers on 100-ways say to me, “Wow, there were people really close on break-off and under canopy.” Of course there were, it’s a 100-way! Where else did you expect them to be?
Getting from exit frame to stadium is going to be crowded and busy. It never goes exactly as planned or exactly the same twice, so don’t expect it to. It will, however, almost always be close enough to “as planned” for it to work, if you see everything and know what you need to do.
Break off is going to be crowded; don’t expect otherwise and track off like it’s a 20-way. There are a lot of people to be aware of, and there will be canopies everywhere. They may turn toward each other on opening, giving us only fractions of a second to avoid one another. If we’re expecting this to happen, we’re already one step ahead.
On every break off, I expect to have a lot of people around me and I make sure I see everyone, especially the closest person. When I deploy, I know exactly who that closest person is and I’m ready for our canopies to turn right at each other (and many times, I’ve been right). By expecting these things to happen, you’re ready for them.
To our community involved in the upcoming records, we at Skydive Mag wish you safety and success!
