Freefly 101 — Fly your back

The checklist

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.

Criteria in bold are safety-critical: they protect the flyer and everyone else on the load. A coach should not sign off the course while a bold criterion is Not Yet Satisfactory, however good the rest of the flying. Outside a course they are strongly recommended practice. Regulation stays with your federation and your drop zone. The reference table for criterion 5.2 is the “Common mistakes” table above.

Assessment conditions

• Sky jumps from 10,000 ft or higher (recommended) for the sky criteria. Tunnel sessions are acceptable for the position and movement criteria, and can count for up to half the skill practice.
• Useful tunnel drills: the neutral off the net, fall-rate range, heading changes each way, forward and backward drive with clean stops, side slides, and back-to-sit in both directions.
• Video of every assessment session, with the flyer identifiable: coach-flown, helmet-mounted, ground-to-air or tunnel video. The debrief depends on it.
• Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (two on any jump flown on your own), a hard helmet, and freefly-suitable gear to the Freefly 100 standard.
• Conditions within the flyer’s cleared limits.
• The assessor is a freefly coach current in coaching back-fly and head-up. An IBA-rated or equivalent tunnel instructor can sign off tunnel work.
• Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory against the published F101 checklist.
• Ask about shoulder history before the course. With a history of dislocation, instability or reconstruction, adjust the arm position and the recovery sequence, and seek medical clearance where appropriate.
• As a guide, it takes about six sessions, coached then solo, over at least two days or sets of conditions within six months.
• Up to half can be tunnel sessions; altitude checks, breakoff and deployment are flown in the sky.
• If you already fly your back, your coach can assess you on one coached sky jump, using tunnel records at International Bodyflight Association Static Level 2 or above, your logbook or video.
• A freefly crest or grade, such as the Australian head-up crest or British Skydiving FF1, credits the air skills; you still fly the sky items and talk through the solo protocol.

Coaching priorities

• Safety first, then fun, then learning. Hold the bold criteria to the standard above.
• Plan sessions to be enjoyable: flyers choose this expensive hobby, and enjoying it keeps them in the sport.
• Set one objective per session to keep the flyer’s workload light, and end each debrief on something that went well, with one thing to improve.
• Brief each skill by where the flyer will use it in a formation. A flyer who can steer their back can fix a slot without leaving it.
• Correct first the fault the flyer hasn’t noticed. Call a range-of-motion pass (criterion 3.5) to make an unnoticed limit visible.
• If what you see isn’t in the fault table, stop the session and refer the flyer to a rated coach before trying a correction.

• APF Freefly and Angles Guide (APF006, August 2023): gear, planning and breakoff guides (§3.1–3.3), and corking and the vertical recovery position (Part 4).
• AXIS Flight School, Foundations of Flight back-fly series in Parachutist (Niklas Daniel and Brianne Thompson): the basic position, range of motion, fall-rate changes, turns, forward and backward drive, side slides, and the back-fly to sit transition. This course follows the series’ order.
• Lesley Gale on the AXIS back-fly turns column (Skydive Mag, April 2018, demonstrated by Brianne Thompson): turns started from the arms, the legs or both, with both together usually fastest.
• Lesley Gale, “Sit Flying” (Skydive Mag, 2014): uneven pressure as the cause of spinning, carried into the fault table.
• Australian Skydiver Magazine, Jonathan Townsager (issue 73): belly, back-fly, sit and head-down as the order of learning, and the back-fly de-arch carrying into head-up out-face carving.
• USPA Skydiver’s Information Manual 6-1 and 6-2: back-fly first, corking and exit order.
• AXIS Flight School videos on the back-fly neutral position and back-fly turns.
• APF Operational Regulations (V01-2026), APF Training Operations Manual (V01-2025) and British Skydiving Operations Manual 6.6, as jurisdictional context.
• IBA Static Level 2 as the tunnel route, taken from third-party summaries still to be checked against IBA material.

Regulations change, so each rule is given with its document edition, as context for where you jump.

• Australia (APF). Freefly training requires at least a Certificate Class B, freefly-suitable equipment and a course of instruction per the TOM (OR 9.2.1). Training descents are briefed by an APF Freefly Coach (TOM 5.7.3) under DZSO authorisation and CI supervision (OR 11.1.4–11.1.5).
• A functioning audible altimeter is mandatory on every freefly descent (OR 9.2.3).
• UK. Back-fly sits inside FF1 training, entered from FS1 (British Skydiving Ops Manual 6.6.1–6.6.2).
• Elsewhere. Coaching sits with the national or drop zone equivalent of a freefly coach.

Acronym key. APF, Australian Parachute Federation. OR, the APF Operational Regulations. TOM, the APF Training Operations Manual. CI, chief instructor. DZSO, drop zone safety officer.