Finding vertical: how head-down starts

Head-down is the fast end of freefly, with working speeds from around 270 km/h to well past 400. Everything about how it is taught follows from those numbers, starting with when it is taught: after head-up control is established, so that the flyer arriving at vertical already owns a recovery reflex and a wide back-fly range.

The shuttlecock principle

A stable head-down position works like a shuttlecock: mass low (the head and shoulders leading), drag high behind (the legs presented to the wind). Get the geometry right and the position wants to stay pointed. The first jumps are spent finding that axis: exits that present the head and shoulders to the relative wind, a horizon reference to hold, and wide, patient inputs while the body learns where vertical is.

The straddle, legs spread wide, is the standard first position, with the daffy (one leg forward, one back) close behind for solo work. Both give big, forgiving control surfaces. Refinements can wait; the early work is holding the axis and knowing your heading.

Cork-proofing comes first

Before any relative head-down flying, the flyer proves the failure mode. Losing the head-down axis at speed means decelerating hard toward belly fall rates, which is exactly the corking hazard that makes an uncontrolled flyer dangerous to anyone above. So the drill is deliberate: fall out, recover to back-fly, re-establish, again, until the recovery is boring.

A head-down flyer who has never practised losing the position has a rehearsal scheduled for a jump with other people around.

Transitions from back-fly to head-down and back build the same insurance in both directions. The back is home base; head-down is a place you visit with a reliable way home.

What waits until later

Carving, and any turning flight with drive in it, is deferred until the static position is genuinely controlled. A carve adds horizontal speed to vertical speed, and the consequences of losing it scale accordingly. The same patience applies to group flying: two-ways with a coach come first, and the level-slot-dock discipline that governs approaches is built there before group jumps raise the stakes.

The tunnel accelerates all of this where it is available, and calibrates nothing that matters most: exits, altitude, breakoff and deployment are sky skills, and the sky assessments are flown in the sky.

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Advisory, educational content. Head-down training runs under coach supervision with jurisdictional requirements attached; in Australia, head-down training descents have specific prerequisites and briefing requirements. Comply with your federation and drop zone.