Dynamic flies best in small groups

No national body sets a standard for dynamic flying in the sky. There is no crest, no grade and no rating at the end of the Dynamic track. That leaves the flyers to set the standards themselves, and the first one is to keep the group small.

Two to four, and why

Dynamic in the sky flies best with two or three people, and four is the practical maximum. Beyond four, the line starts to fall apart, the leader’s tempo stops reaching the back of the line, and each extra flyer adds traffic during the transitions, when the whole group is swapping orientations at speed.

Groups of more than six are for dedicated, current competition teams, and they treat those jumps as serious work.

Small groups also help you learn. Dynamic skill comes from repetition and quick feedback. A 3-way flying lines with video gets more practice in an afternoon than an 8-way that spends its jumps sorting itself out.

Grade the jump by its transitions

Grade a dynamic jump by how many orientation transitions it asks for. USPA’s guidance for movement jumps uses three levels: no transitions, one to three, and four or more. The top level calls for an expert leader. Brief the jump in those terms, and everyone knows what they are getting into before the door opens.

Learn the competition vocabulary even if you never compete. It gives the group shared words: snakes, verticals, mixers, in-face and out-face carves. A leader who can call “snake, then out-face carve, switch on my key” briefs the jump in one line.

Set your own entry standards

Nobody outside the group sets an entry standard, so the Dynamic track sets its own. Before mixed-orientation group work, everyone on the jump should be able to:

• fly belly and back
• bail out from belly to back on cue
• fly head-down to crest standard, if the jump passes through vertical, because everyone on a line through vertical is briefly head-down

Fly an evaluation jump with agreed abort points before the fun ones. Brief the lost-leader plan every time: go to your back and follow from below.

Dynamic governs itself more than any other part of freefly. No regulator checks these entry standards, so the group holds them as firmly as it would a signed rating.

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Advisory, educational content. Group sizes and prerequisites are guides, and your drop zone’s movement-jump policy applies. Follow your federation and drop zone.