In sonic 3 for Sega genesis there is a level where tails carries sonic and sonic can jump attack at a boss in the air

But if sonic falls tails is able to pick him up and catch him

So tails must be falling faster than the local acceleration rate due to gravity in order to fall from the air fast enough to catch sonic who is falling below him

How is that possible if tails can spin his pair of tails faster to go up but has no mechanism to go down faster?