Making sky diving patterns
 

How do sky divers meet up to make those hand held patterns when they all exit the plane at slightly different times?

the early exiters will spread their arms and legs to become as big a cross sectional area to the air, thus descending slowly. the later exiters will tuck in arms to become more streamlined and thus fall faster.

Training, skill and practise. And wot he ^ said.

As stated above, the body can be made to fall at different rates by extending or retracting limbs.

Movements forwards, sideways and backwards can be achieved through deflection of the airflow - e.g. legs extended and/or arms retracted will result in forward movement, arms extended and knees bent will result in backward movement. Extending an arm and leg on one side will result in sideways movement in the opposite direction. Fine trimming can be achieved by deflecting the airflow with forearms- like little control surfaces. And numerous variations on the above.

It takes a lot of practice, but after a while becomes instinctive.

(It's called freefall relative work, by the way.)