Freefly 101 — Fly your back

Application

Covers back-fly as a piloted orientation: the neutral back-fly position, the range of motion around it, fall-rate range, heading changes, forward and backward drive, side slides, and the back-to-sit transition flown in both directions. Freefly 100 establishes back-fly as the recovery position and proves a usable fall-rate range. This unit takes the same orientation and makes it something the flyer can steer.

That matters for three reasons the curriculum relies on later. A flyer who can drive and slide on their back can hold a slot without rolling to belly to fix it. A flyer who can change heading on their back can keep a group in sight through a recovery. And the de-arch used to fly fast on the back is the same input that drives head-up out-face carving and layouts, so range built here is spent for the rest of the progression.

Applies to flyers who have completed Freefly 100.

Environment: tunnel for acquisition, sky for validation. The tunnel is the strong recommendation for this unit, because back-fly drills are cheap on the net and every fault is visible to an instructor standing beside you.

Supervision: coached, with the coach as reference, fading to solo consolidation jumps flown under the Freefly 100 solo protocols.

Pre-requisite units

FFP-F100 (Establish freefly foundations), in particular the back-fly standard: a stable neutral back-fly holding a heading, a 360° each way stopping on the spot, a barrel roll back to belly, and a fall-rate follow staying on level as the coach moves through belly, fast-knees and sit fall rates.

RPL route into this unit: tunnel records showing back-fly drive, slides and heading changes at the IBA Static Level 2 standard or above, plus one coached sky jump flown against the criteria below.

Elements and performance criteria

1. Plan the jump/session

1.1

State the session's single declared objective and its success criteria (one movement skill per jump).

1.2

Confirm currency, conditions and the planned drill sequence with the supervising coach.

1.3

Brief the load on the working heading, set 90° off the stated jump-run heading, and the direction any drive is expected to take you.

1.4

State the altitude for ending work and the planned deployment altitude (breakoff guides: 5,000 ft up to a 4-way and 5,500 ft for 5 or more, noting most modern jumpers set 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft).

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a freefly-specific gear check: handles clear, BOC pouch condition, bridle fully covered, riser covers and pin flaps secure, closing loop tight, chest strap and harness tight, hard helmet, goggles.

2.2

Verify audible altimeters are set and functioning; two functioning audibles should be regarded as mandatory best practice before any solo freefly, because an audible is a hidden device that can fail silently and a soloist has none of the altitude redundancy a group provides.

2.3

Rehearse the neutral back-fly and each planned drill on the ground, five times with eyes open and five with eyes closed.

2.4

Confirm exit order and separation with the load.

3. Perform

3.1

Establish a stable neutral back-fly within 5 seconds of exit or of release by the coach.

3.2

Hold the neutral geometry: shoulders and hips level, a shallow extension through the hips, knees bent toward 90°, shins and the soles of the feet presenting to the wind, arms out to the sides and slightly back, eyes toward the horizon.

3.3

Hold heading within ±45° for 10 seconds in the neutral position, finishing in the same quadrant.

3.4

Check altitude between each manoeuvre or at least every 5 seconds.

3.5

Fly a range-of-motion pass: from the neutral, move deliberately toward the edge of controllable range in one direction, stop before control is lost, and return to a settled neutral. Repeat in a second direction.

3.6

Move through slow, neutral and fast back-fly, holding each for 3 seconds with even, symmetrical pressure, and name the input used for each.

3.7

Perform a 90° and a 360° heading change in each direction, stopping within ±45° of the reference heading. Heading changes may be initiated from the arms, from the legs, or from both together; demonstrate at least two of the three and state which was used.

3.8

Drive forward a briefed distance (guide: 5 to 10 m) and arrest the drive completely, finishing on heading with no residual movement.

3.9

Drive backward a briefed distance with gradual, controlled input, arresting without a fallout to belly.

3.10

Side-slide left and right a briefed distance, stopping on heading after each slide.

3.11

Transition back-fly to sit and back to back-fly, re-establishing a settled neutral within 3 seconds of each.

3.12

Arrest any unplanned drive on recognition, before it accumulates, and correct back toward the briefed working area rather than letting successive drives carry you out of your own column.

3.13

Recover to a stable neutral back-fly on any loss of control, resuming drills only once settled and back on the working heading.

4. Complete

4.1

Cease work at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).

4.2

End the jump per the briefed protocol: on a coached jump, transition to belly, slow to belly fall rate and track 90° from jump run while checking airspace; on a solo consolidation jump, end the work without tracking (turn 90°, pause, slow down, transition to a belly orientation), dissipating speed over at least 1,000 ft before deployment, because a soloist's movement risks are already the dominant hazard.

4.3

Deploy at the planned altitude, at belly fall rate, after clearing airspace.

4.4

Fly the planned opening heading and canopy traffic plan.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief against the declared objective using video.

5.2

Name the direction in which control ran out first, and its body-position cause, using the reference table below.

5.3

Log the jump with a reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "F101 back-fly drive and slides"), the criteria results and one correction for the next jump.

Bold criteria are safety-critical. Within FFP course assessment a coach should not sign the unit off while a bold criterion sits at Not Yet Satisfactory, however good the rest of the flying. Outside a course they are strongly recommended best practice with the reasoning stated. Regulation remains your federation’s and your drop zone’s.

Coaching reference table for the fault patterns (element 5.2):

Coaching note: the fault the coach should correct first is almost always the one the flyer has not noticed. Call a range-of-motion pass (criterion 3.5) to make an unnoticed limit visible; it is the cheapest way to find one. If what you see is not on this table, stop the session and refer to a rated coach rather than guessing at a correction.

Foundation skills

• Briefing and debriefing communication.
• Altitude and working-time numeracy.
• Planning and organising a drill sequence around a single objective.
• Self-management under stress (noticing before correcting, moving gradually, holding a recovery as a reflex).

Performance evidence (suggested sufficiency, adjust locally)

Ability evidenced across a suggested guide of 6 sessions, counting tunnel sessions and jumps together. The number is a guide to how long the unit usually takes; assimilated skill against the criteria, not the number, is the standard.

Because this unit’s skills are almost entirely position and movement work, tunnel time may substitute for up to half the skill-development evidence, though not for the altitude-awareness, breakoff or deployment criteria, which are sky-only.

Evidence should span at least two different days or conditions, including two consecutive sessions meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts, within a recommended 6-month currency window.

Suggested tunnel accelerators: neutral back-fly off the net, fall-rate range, heading changes each way, forward and backward drive with clean stops, side slides, and back-to-sit transitions in both directions.

Knowledge evidence

At this tier the candidate is asked to state, describe and explain:

• Describe the neutral back-fly geometry and explain what each surface contributes: why the shins and the soles of the feet carry drive, and why the hips set the fall rate.
• Explain why back-fly needs a wider usable fall-rate range than any single working orientation, given that it has to catch a recovery arriving from both head-up and head-down.
• State the three ways a heading change can be initiated on the back (arms, legs, or both together) and describe what each feels like and where each is useful. Note that combining the two is generally the fastest way to turn.
• Explain the difference between a real drive that needs correcting and the common-mode wind drift the whole airmass shares, and state how a heading change reveals which one you have.
• Explain why the flyer corrects an unplanned drive on recognition and why successive uncorrected drives are what carry a flyer out of their own column and toward an adjacent group.
• State the freefly breakoff guides and the altitude-check discipline, and explain why the shorter freefly working time demands more frequent checks than a belly jump.
• Describe corking and explain why arresting a backward drive badly can produce it.
• State the solo freefly protocols and their reasoning: two functioning audibles, a working heading 90° to jump run, the briefed drift direction, and ending a solo without tracking.
• Explain how the range built in this unit is spent later: the de-arch used to fly fast on the back is the input behind head-up out-face carving and layouts, and back-fly drive and slides are what let a flyer hold a slot in an angle group without rolling to belly.

Assessment conditions

Sky jumps from a recommended 10,000 ft minimum for the sky-validated criteria; tunnel sessions acceptable for the position and movement criteria. Video of assessment sessions is required (coach-flown, helmet-mounted, ground-to-air or tunnel video, candidate identifiable), because the debrief loop and the evidence both depend on it.

Required equipment: visual altimeter, functioning audible altimeter (two on any solo jump), hard helmet, freefly-suitable gear to the Freefly 100 standard. Conditions within the candidate’s cleared limits.

Assessor: a freefly coach current in coaching back-fly and head-up; tunnel components may be evidenced under an IBA-rated or equivalent instructor. Assessment against the published FFP-F101 checklist, each criterion marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.

Declare shoulder history before this unit. Back-fly carries load through the shoulder when the arms are out and back, and the back-to-sit transition loads it further. A candidate with a history of shoulder dislocation, instability or reconstruction should raise it with the coach so arm position and the recovery sequence can be adjusted and medical clearance sought where appropriate.

A shoulder that cannot reach the BOC is a deployment failure.

RPL evidence set

Experienced entrants may evidence this unit by any sufficient combination of:

• (a) tunnel records showing back-fly drive, slides, heading changes and fall-rate range at the IBA Static Level 2 standard or above (per third-party summaries; verify against IBA source material).
• (b) a logbook showing coached freefly jumps with back-fly movement work endorsed by a coach.
• (c) a video portfolio showing a settled neutral, drive and slides with clean stops, heading changes each way and a back-to-sit transition, candidate identifiable.
• plus, in all cases, one sky challenge jump assessed against the full FFP-F101 checklist, including the altitude-awareness, breakoff and deployment criteria that a tunnel record cannot evidence.

Holders of a national freefly crest or grade (e.g. Australia: the head-up crest; UK: FF1) may credit the air-skill criteria and complete the solo-protocol knowledge check and the sky criteria only.

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project’s priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Hold bold safety criteria to the standard above. Design the session to be enjoyable: participants choose this expensive hobby, and enjoyment sustains both the student and the sport. Set one declared objective per session to keep cognitive load light, and end debriefs on a win with one improvement focus.

Brief the unit in terms of what it buys: every skill here is one the flyer will use inside a formation, and the flyer who owns their back can fix a slot instead of leaving it.

Watch: Back-fly neutral position (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=uNgvf6GJgxw

Watch: Back-fly turns (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=CkjFA7ZY7f4

Sources