Head-Down 101 — Find and hold vertical head-down

The checklist

1. Plan the jump

1.1

State the jump's single objective and its success criteria.

1.2

Confirm exit order and separation with the load.

1.3

State the work-cease altitude and the deployment altitude. 5,500 ft is standard practice for the work-cease; ≥4,500 ft is the bare guide, and it is always at least 1,000 ft above planned deployment.

1.4

State the solo protocol for the jump: daffy-only head-down, continuous slow static turn, and the cork-response sequence (recovery → rotate 90° → re-transition → resume the turn) (FFP-F100).

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a freefly-specific gear check on own equipment: BOC pocket condition, bridle fully covered, riser covers tight, closing loop tight, handles secure, hard helmet, chest strap and harness tightened for vertical flight.

2.2

Confirm two functioning audibles are fitted, set and checked before any unaccompanied solo head-down jump.

2.3

Dirt-dive the exit presentation, the first transition and the recovery sequence on the ground.

2.4

Confirm the jump plan against the jump card with the briefing coach.

3. Perform

3.1

Exit presenting head and shoulders to the relative wind, adopting the planned head-down position.

3.2

Establish the vertical orientation within 10 seconds of exit (guide), keeping the horizon level in the line of sight ("the body follows the head").

3.3

Hold a neutral head-down position (straddle, daffy or shelf) for 10 seconds or with a coached reference, holding heading within ±45° and finishing in the same quadrant. More pressure stays on the legs than the arms: the shuttlecock principle.

3.4

Perform a controlled back-fly-to-head-down transition, re-establishing vertical within 5 seconds.

3.5

Fly all unaccompanied solo head-down work in a daffy with a continuous slow static turn, never a held heading, never a carve (FFP-F100 solo protocol).

3.6

Check drift against the exit ground reference point at least once during working time. A trend that survives a turn is a real airmass-relative drive to correct; the common-mode wind drift the whole airmass shares is left uncorrected.

3.7

Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of the head-down position, maintaining freefly fall rate without corking.

3.8

On unaccompanied solos, re-establish head-down only after rotating 90° in the recovery orientation and confirming stability. This is column discipline: if a transition holds a non-vertical angle and induces lateral movement, the rotation stops successive drives accumulating in one direction out of your own column.

3.9

Abandon an unstable transition early rather than holding it, an unstable head-down position held on can build a very large horizontal drive.

4. Complete

4.1

Cease head-down work at the briefed altitude.

4.2

End solo work without tracking: recover to back-fly, slow down, then transition to a belly orientation.

4.3

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

4.4

Fly the planned canopy pattern clear of other traffic.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief against the declared objective using video.

5.2

Diagnose one fault (drive direction, asymmetric leg pressure, arm dependence, jerky over-correction) and its correction for the next jump.

5.3

Log the jump in the logbook with a reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "HD101 skills assessment"), the criteria results and the next-step recommendation, the curriculum gives log entries meaning.

Criteria in bold are safety-critical: corking into traffic, drifting into another group’s column and a silent audible failure are the faults that hurt people. 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.

Assessment conditions

• Sky jumps from 10,000 ft or higher (recommended).
• Video of every assessment jump, with the flyer identifiable: coach-flown, ground-to-air or tunnel video.
• Equipment: a visual altimeter, two working audibles for jumps on the flyer’s own (strongly recommended practice; one working audible is the Australian regulatory minimum on any freefly jump), an AAD (recommended), and freefly-suitable gear to the Freefly 100 gear check.
• Conditions within the flyer’s cleared limits.
• Shoulder history declared before vertical work, so the exit, arm position and recovery can be adjusted, with medical clearance where appropriate. A shoulder that cannot reach the pilot chute is a deployment failure as well as a flying limit.
• The assessor is a freefly coach current in head-down coaching. Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
• Tunnel work is assessed by a qualified head-down tunnel coach (IBA or an equivalent system). Teaching techniques vary between systems, and tunnel arm positions may need adapting for the sky.
• Tunnel time can replace up to three of the skill-development jumps, and none of the assessment jumps.
• Before the first sky daffy on the flyer’s own: tunnel video of a stable head-down daffy with turns.
• For a flyer who already flies head-down, the evidence is a logbook of head-down jumps on their own or coached 2-ways (dates, altitudes, coach signatures where applicable), tunnel records at IBA Static Level 4 head-down or equivalent, including flips from sit (check this against IBA material), and video of a stable neutral position on heading and a tunnel daffy with turns.
• That flyer then flies one coach-observed challenge jump to the Freefly 100 protocol, assessed on video against every criterion. The bold criteria are not waived.
• As a guide, it takes about eight solo head-down jumps, each briefed by your coach, over at least two days within six months.
• Up to three practice jumps can be tunnel sessions, but the final two are sky jumps.
• If you already fly head-down, your coach can assess you on one solo sky jump, with your logbook, tunnel records and video.

Coaching priorities

• Safety first, then fun, then learning. Hold the protocol for jumps on the flyer’s own (daffy, continuous turn, two audibles) whatever the pressure for progress.
• One objective per jump, which keeps the thinking load light and the jump enjoyable.
• End each debrief on something that went well, with one thing to improve.
• Coach stillness: notice before correcting, move gradually, and fly a range of the position.
• Early sky attempts are flown on the flyer’s own or with a qualified coach as reference, never with another unqualified flyer as the reference.
• The turn works because it cancels a body-fixed drive. A drive can also become a little easier to notice during a turn, but that is a small bonus at slow turn rates.
• A held heading, or facing 90° off jump run, only partly protects a flyer on their own.
• The daffy has limits: it can be over-powerful at the edge of the envelope, and its front leg generates the turn (APF006 §7.5.3). Its value on a jump on your own is that its drive is commanded, its front leg backstops a forward runaway, and it gives one known position to self-check against.
• Shelf and daffy uses beyond this course: the shelf keeps the legs out of a formation’s burble (the VFS position), the daffy has the most leg power and frees the arms wide in a round (the big-way position), and many flyers approach a big-way in a shelf and change to a daffy on joining. The straddle gives fine speed control with little drag, suits light flyers in fast formations, and frees the arms wide without a forward drive.
• Recommended tunnel preparation: neutral head-down off the net at moderate to fast wind speeds, fall rate up and down, turns each way, and sit to head-down flips, with bailing to back-fly as the standing recovery and the coach holding a grip in early drills.
• Australian cases for the brief (teach the lesson, name no one): multiple vertebral fractures on a distracted jump on the flyer’s own with no audible, a C2 fracture after an unstable sit-fly deployment, a shoulder dislocation that stopped the flyer reaching the pilot chute, and torn shoulder ligaments.
• Optional conditioning between jump days, as isometric holds because a tunnel block runs up to about 2 minutes: wall-sits of up to 2 minutes pressing through the heels, single-leg balance for asymmetric docks, hamstring bridges for back-fly recovery, and toe dorsiflexion with hip-flexor work for the daffy and head-down.
• Head-down speed is given as about 160 mph in USPA sources and 270–400+ km/h in the APF Freefly and Angles Guide. The figures come from different sources, and each stands on its own.

• APF Freefly and Angles Guide (APF006, August 2023): gear, altitudes and breakoff (§3.1–3.3), corking and the vertical recovery position (Part 4), and the head-down positions, speeds, exits, straddle mechanics, the shuttlecock principle, the horizon reference and the order of exercises (§7), with the head-down skill list (§8.3).
• USPA Skydiver’s Information Manual 2023–24, sections 6-2 and 6-3: back-fly before sit before head-down, corking speeds, drift, altitude awareness and head-down working time.
• Canadian Sport Parachuting Association Freefly Ground Briefing (2022): cork-proofing and the 1,000 ft slow-down.
• British Skydiving Operations Manual 6.6.4: the FF2 skill list.
• Mason Corby, Learning Head Down: stillness, flying within a range, and the video debrief.
• Tunnel Flight and the IBA Static Level 4 standard: head-down off the net, bailing to back-fly and coach grips in early training. Indoor Skydiving World’s IBA ladder for sit to head-down flips.
• Alethia Austin on freefly on your own and on freefly breakoff (Skydive Mag): drift, ground references, working 90° to jump run, exit coordination, and the back-then-belly slow-down.
• Melissa Nelson-Lowe via Skydive Arizona: going to back-fly first at breakoff.
• Airwax Freefly tunnel-hour benchmarks, as a rough calibration.
• WNY Skydiving: head-down speeds.
• Australian Skydiver Magazine: hard openings from vertical positions (issues 53 and 69), shoulder injuries in sit to head-down transitions (issues 56 and 83), Jonathan Townsager’s belly, back-fly, sit, head-down progression (issue 73), and Tracey Lane’s conditioning (issue 79).
• The Freefly Project’s recommendations for jumps on your own: the daffy and continuous turn, two audibles, the 90° rotation after a fall-out, and ending without a track.
• APF Operational Regulations (V01-2026) and APF Training Operations Manual (V01-2025), as jurisdictional context.

Regulations change, so each rule is given with its document edition, as context for where you jump. Editions: OR V01-2026, TOM V01-2025.

• 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). Freefly Training Table Stage 1 (Head-Up Level 1) must be complete before head-down training descents (OR 9.2.2(c)(i)).
• A 2-way head-down training descent requires the other flyer to hold FFC-HD, a Freefly Coach briefing and DZSO approval (TOM 5.7.1, 5.7.3). A functioning audible altimeter is mandatory on any freefly descent (OR 9.2.3).
• The TOM states that no trainee may jump head-down with an unqualified freeflyer as their reference. Early attempts should be flown alone or with an appropriately qualified instructor or Freefly Coach (TOM Appendix L).
• Coaching is by an APF Freefly Coach. Elsewhere, the national or drop zone equivalent applies.

Acronym key. APF, Australian Parachute Federation. OR, the APF Operational Regulations. TOM, the APF Training Operations Manual. FFC, freefly crest. DZSO, drop zone safety officer. IBA, International Bodyflight Association.