You will advance quicker with a slalom ski - 13 m side cut radius good for this purpose. More turns per run. To learn and exploit the ski, with sl ski you should keep speed below 45 mph, below 30 mph is better.
Make sure you don't do any pivoting at transition.
Focus on tipping that inside ski; I'm not telling you not to tip the outside ski; you need to do that too, but it's usually the inside tipping that needs work.
No need to jump on that outside ski; just allow the weight to get there on its own; most of it will be there once some g force gets generated.
You just have to get used to the new relationship between tipping and turning.
IFF you were carving on straight skis, you should pick this up quickly.
Your problem has as much to do with 20 years of rust as with new equipment. I made the switch quite late from 208 cm SG skis to Fischer RC4 World Cup SC (one step down from FIS SL) with no problem, but also no 20 year gap.
I would just like to say that everything you wrote was right on the money.
*Atomic X9 WB's at 168 cm x 13.5m have been much better to progress on. These are not a race ski...more of a recreational tweener...with a high load ceiling.
*As I noted in another post, if you tip the inside ski, the outside follows, so just focus on the inside ski. The opposite does not hold true at all
*When you initiate a carve from the start by tipping, you end up with almost all the weight on the downhill ski naturally. It just progressively loads up as you pass through the fall line into the high load part of the turn.
My timing and body anticipation are gradually getting better, but still not there. Some things I have noticed:
*The best drills/exercises I have found to practice tipping initiation is Garlands, and linked RR tracks on easy slopes. In both cases, I have to concentrate hard on foot/ankle feel. Knees don't work for me. Knee's follow the foot pressure
*Are there any other drills that are suggested? I did some one ski work on cat tracks, and was able to make some turns, but the edge angles were low. Reps will improve my balance.
*When doing RR tracks very slow, or Garlands, there is a unique balance I am still struggling with. You can not be aggressive tipping the inside ski unless you anticipate the acceleration of the ski, otherwise the ski will squirt away from you without pushing on your overall body. You will "lose the ski". There are a number of things I have to do to make it work. #1 - Good forward pressure on boot tongue. #2 - Feel my feet/ankles #3 - Lean/cheat the body to the uphill a bit. Or you can think about it as letting the skis drift down during the flat portion of the Garland, just enough so you are getting out of balance. #4 - A bit of the "banana position" with hips/shoulders aligned square to the DOWNHILL ski tip. Do all these...then you "catch yourself" with the inside ski initiation before you get off balance. I have found these translate to linked turns as well. These steps are required to initiate with stronger edge angles. Note I did not say strong...because my edge angles are still probably pathetic.
*I am more right foot leg dominant than I knew. I have a harder time with Garlands with Right ski downhill. The left knee just does not want to follow instructions. My ski tracks look good...and people who have watched me say they look the same as the other way, but they are not even close. Going right (left ski DH), I can feel my weight balance is 50/50. But when going left (Right ski DH) almost all my weight is on the DH ski. So even if I try hard to initiate the tip with my left ski, most of the time I am very DH ski heavy. The ski tracks do not show this, but I can feel it is the same at all.
*The endless Garland drills have translated to ability to make solid linked RR tracks on moderate slopes. But I am still making very large radius turns, and I think this is because my initiations, while technically OK, are still slow and my early edge angles are very low. So the turn takes forever to start, and I and up with very large turn lines.
*When I take it to steeper slopes, I get going so fast (again...the ski is not really loading up till I am well past the fall line) so quick that things break down pretty fast. A few of the times I got going really fast, I was able to, perhaps through sheer luck, get into an aggressive high edge angle stong/stacked position with the DH leg barely bent, and the inside ski pulled up....so there is hope.
*Any suggestions? My guess if you are going to say keep doing what I am doing. No substitute for reps...