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Foundations · Stability · The brief

Freefly 100

Establish freefly foundations

Back-fly and the recovery position, the base every freefly track is built on.

What this unit covers

Freefly 100 is the entry unit for the whole curriculum. Every track (Head-Up, Head-Down, Angles and Dynamic) builds on it. It applies to skydivers entering freefly from belly flying, and to tunnel-trained flyers converting to the sky.
The unit covers the ground knowledge and air skills a flyer needs before any freefly progression: the freefly gear audit.
The rest of it
Corking and speed differentials.
Exit order and separation.
Breakoff.
The solo protocols (position rules, the static-turn plan, the solo end-of-jump protocol, dual audibles and progressive altitude assurance).
Tunnel-to-sky discipline.
The freefly incident case studies.
Back-fly control.
And the vertical recovery position, practised until it is automatic. The static turn is knowledge here and is flown and assessed in HU101 and HD101. Environment: sky. Tunnel drills prepare the back-fly and recovery skills, and tunnel evidence can substitute for some skill-development jumps (see Performance evidence). Supervision: coach-briefed and coach-observed. The flying itself is solo, or with a coach as a passive reference. This unit comes before all relative freefly work.

What comes before it

Nothing in this catalog comes before it. This is where the freefly path starts.

Screen 2 · What to watch

What to watch

The same short list the flyer sees on their card, in the same words.

3.2
Maintain heading ±45° and level with the coach for 10 seconds in the neutral back-fly.

Can you hold a neutral back-fly on heading, finishing in the same quadrant, and stay on level with someone else for ten seconds?

3.5
Follow the coach through the fall-rate range, from belly through fast-knees to sit-fly speeds, staying on level on the back throughout. Back-fly is the recovery position for both head-up and head-down, so its usable speed range needs to be large; staying on level through the coach's whole range is how that range is proven.

Can you stay on level on your back while someone else moves through the whole speed range, from belly speed up to sit speed?

3.6 Safety critical
Adopt the vertical recovery position immediately on the briefed coach signal or on any loss of control, resuming work only when stable.

When you lose control, do you go straight to the vertical recovery position and wait until you are stable before starting work again?

Screen 3 · What blocks a sign-off

What blocks a sign-off

A safety-critical criterion marked not yet stops the sign-off, however good the rest of the flying was. There is no averaging across this line, and no trading a good jump against it.

Safety-critical criteria on the short list

3.6
Adopt the vertical recovery position immediately on the briefed coach signal or on any loss of control, resuming work only when stable.

When you lose control, do you go straight to the vertical recovery position and wait until you are stable before starting work again?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
State the breakoff/end-of-work altitude (guides: ≥5,000 ft up to a 4-way; ≥5,500 ft for 5 or more, most modern jumpers plan 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft), the deployment altitude, and the hard deck.
2.1
Complete the freefly gear audit on own equipment against the published checklist: hand-deploy BOC or pull-out with a genuinely tight pouch, bridle fully covered, riser covers and pin flaps tight, closing loop in good condition, cutaway and reserve handles secure, leg-strap bungee fitted, harness and chest strap snug, suit secured clear of the handles, hard helmet, goggles, visual altimeter, AAD recommended.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), ceasing all working manoeuvres.
4.2
End the jump per the briefed protocol. With a coach or on any group jump: transition to a track 90° from jump run, washing off vertical speed before reaching deployment altitude. On a solo jump: end the work without tracking, turn 90°, pause, recover to back-fly, slow down, then transition to a belly orientation, dissipating speed over at least 1,000 ft before deployment. A soloist's movement risks are already the dominant hazard; movement at breakoff belongs in formation jumps, where it is practised and needed.
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude after checking airspace above, below and behind.

Recording a sign-off says what you saw on one jump. It is not a rating, it is not a permission to jump, and it does not replace anything the drop zone requires.

Screen 4 · Conditions

Conditions

Where the evidence is allowed to come from, and how much of it there needs to be.

Assessment conditions

Sky jumps from a recommended 10,000 ft minimum (APF006 3.2 guide).
Tunnel evidence is an acceptable route for the back-fly and recovery-position skill criteria where genuinely equivalent to this unit's criteria; the candidate flies the assessment jumps, including the breakoff, track and deployment criteria, in the sky. Video of assessment jumps is required for a valid assessment (coach-flown or outside/ground-to-air video; candidate identifiable).
Required equipment: gear passing this unit's own freefly audit, visual altimeter, functioning audible (two functioning audibles for any solo assessment jump), AAD recommended. Conditions within the candidate's cleared limits for a valid assessment.
Assessor: a freefly coach current in foundational freefly coaching, using the published FFP-F100 checklist with each criterion marked Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory.
The assessor checks knowledge evidence by structured oral or written questioning against the published case-study set, before the assessment jumps.

Performance evidence

Ability evidenced across at least 6 sky jumps applying this unit's full plan–prepare–perform–complete–review cycle, of which at least 4 include the back-fly air-skill criteria (3.1–3.7). Tunnel time may substitute for up to 2 of the skill-development jumps, but not the assessment jumps.
The suggested guide is 10+ minutes of back-fly covering the same standard (neutral, fall-rate range, heading control) plus the recovery-position drill. The evidence should also include:
at least two different days/conditions.
at least 2 consecutive jumps meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts.
one unassisted freefly gear audit on a rig seeded with at least one discrepancy which the candidate identifies.
The vertical recovery position demonstrated on every assessment jump.
All within a recommended 6-month currency window. These numbers are a guide to how long the unit usually takes. Competency decides the sign-off (Mason Corby's mantra): sign off when the flying meets the standard, and adjust for the individual and local conditions.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

Safety first, then fun, then learning. In that order, every time.

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project's priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Hold bold safety criteria to the best-practice standard described above. Design the session to be enjoyable: participants choose this expensive hobby, and enjoyment sustains both the student and the sport.
End each debrief on a win with one improvement focus. Deliver ground and air together as one unit, theory in the morning, then structured air work (the flight-101 course pattern). Encourage students to write coach jumps up in their logbook with a reflection on what was learned, naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g.
"FFP-F100 skills assessment"), the curriculum gives log entries meaning.
Deliver the solo-protocols module as harm reduction: solo freefly is not encouraged, and coached progression remains the recommended path, the protocols exist for flyers who will jump solo regardless. Progression doctrine (Mason Corby, discipline-first). From here the flyer branches into a track, and the period coaching wisdom is consistent: choose either the vertical path (head-up/head-down) or the angles/tracking path as your first direction, both reach the same end, and commit to it before switching, doing at least 8 consecutive jumps of the same type before changing discipline so a skill has room to assimilate.
Practise what you cannot do; treat body mechanics and aerodynamics as equally important; and pick one coach and stick with them. The mark of the right coach is that "a good coach explains why, a bad coach just says 'this is how it is done'", the reasoning-first delivery this curriculum is built on (ASM 82 pp.21–22).

One fault, one correction

Ask for their read before you give yours. Then leave them with one fault and one correction, in their words if you can get them. Six points is six points forgotten by the next load.

A jump marked not yet is a jump to re-fly, not a failure, and saying so out loud is part of the debrief.

Record this jump

Your notes for this unit

Saved on this device only. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is nowhere for it to go, and no account is involved. They will be here next time you open this card.

This card is a summary. The full Freefly 100 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.