Vertical Formation Skydiving

Sunday, January 3, 2016

The body flight position of head down is one of the most technically challenging positions to master because of the limited amount of surface area (your head) to the wind. Unlike belly flying, head down is more 3-dimensional as head down flyers may pivot on multiple axes and transition from a head to a sitting position all while carving (sliding from left to right or right to left). If that sounds technical, it’s because it is! While skydivers have flown in a head down position for many years,

Vertical Formation Skydiving is the discipline of multiple skydivers flying together in a head down body flight position.

While skydivers have flown in a head down position since the 80s, very few skydivers were able to master it, especially while skydiving, because of the lack of a fixed object by which to measure or gauge different control inputs. Indoor skydiving transformed this discipline to allow for faster feedback in a controlled space which accelerates the learning curve.

Young boy smiles while flying in the tunnel at the Paraclete XP youth league.

The entire staff is extraordinarily professional and gracious. They are extremely safety conscious while at the same time giving everyone as much freedom as they can safely manage. A rare combination. While we (adults) were there, our instructor also suited up and trained a 2-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.

Jack Berry