Where to start, how to start, and what else?

[SkyMannn 0]

I've mostly been a lurker, but I recently created an account. Some background I have 83 jumps, maybe a dozen are so that were somewhere in between belly and Free fly (horny gorillas/funky exits), which all ended up back falling, then transitioning to belly when I'm certain I am clear of traffic above. I also have 30 minutes on belly in the tunnel, where I learned fall rate better, and learned lateral movement, knee turns, etc.

They say it's recommended to learn how to backfly before I get into free flying which makes sense... but where do I start out? How can I learn on my own to fly on the back? I almost want to say the tunnel would be worth my while to learn how to back fly first, but I'm not sure where the money is best spent. Is backflying something best suited to learn in the sky? Is it too soon to learn how to freefly? Some of my friends started free flying early, and they're terribad on belly... which is a direction I do not want to go.

So what's the peanut galleries thoughts?

[Pablo.Moreno 0]

Backflying in the air is kind of pointless (big reason in the tunnel is because it is a bail out position and at higher speeds you want to be in control), but if you want to freefly and there isnt any plans on tunnel, I would suggest you do a figure 8 on your back at low speed and once you can do it then make the turn faster and stop.
More than once I have seen people learning how freefly get on their backs and they don't know how to stop the turn wasting a lot of time getting back to their bellys and then try to sit again.
I wouldn't waste time backflying in the air after you can control the turns.
I would also recommend you to be a proficient tracker, once you are a able to freefly with other people you want to be proficient also at clearing you airspace. I know a lot of people that are decent freeflyers but really bad belly flyers, but they don't plan on belly fly any anytime soon so, I personally don't mind as long as they can track for a 4-way or better.
Big thing when learning how sit fly on your own, fly facing perpendicular to jump run, so if you are back sliding (which you are probably going to do) or going forward you don't fly to other groups air space.
I am pretty sure you can look at a lot of videos from Axis school on learning how to sit fly.
The major things that I teach someone who has never sit fly before are:
Arms 90 degree of your torso, slightly behind you,
hips 90 degree and knees 90 degree. And start from there.

My Anglish isn't great, but that's my 2 cents.

PS: make sure you talk with the people on your loads on what you are doing so the exit order is not messed up.
PS of PS: Make sure what you jump is freefly friendly

[TheDoctor2608 0]

What he said! I learned how to freefly without going to the tunnel. After around 80 jumps tried sitflying first, stopped after few jumps to improve my belly skills till i had around 190 jumps. It's quite senseless to move on if you don't even have the basics. Got tired of it and was totally into freeflying again. Started to learn backflying and then transitions from back to sit. I went the hard way and taught myself by listening to other people, discussing body position and hanging out on youtube (yeah, stupid idea as i noticed afterwards). This method is really not a good way. Takes a lot of time and you will develop bad habits which are hard to unlearn. If I were you I would talk to freefly instructors and see if they can help you learning to freefly. You can do a jump with them from time to time, so they see your improvements but also the things you still have to do differently. That way you'll probably learn headup pretty quickly. As soon as you are sure you can hold a sit without backsliding or falling back on your belly (which is quite dangerous in a group jump) you can start freeflying with other people. Start as a base. That way you learn quite a lot. Then jump, jump, jump, get better, have fun, and stay safe. Blue skies :-)

[stevo 0]

If you're serious about being a proficient FFer you should learn in the tunnel. find a great coach(not a good coach, a great one) and commit the time and money. the more you do in a short period of time the faster you will progress. but It will be cheaper in the long run. teaching yourself in the air is only going to give you bad habits that will cost even more money to break than learning from scratch in the tunnel. commit 10-15 hours over 3-6 months and you'll be see great progress. yeah it's expensive, but it's really the only way to become a really good FFer, that's what the tunnel has done to this sport.

[GoHuskers 0]

Safety:
-Pay close attention to your breakoff altitude. I've seen quite a few folks who breakoff by backtracking. That's great if you are proficient at it I suppose. I'm not and I don't create enough separation or slow down enough to deploy by back tracking. I've seen a couple people who kicked their legs out into a back track and GAINED speed from sitfly speeds. They also went almost perfectly straight down.
I do a normal count of 8 with 2 extra seconds to slow down. which is 2000 feet not 1500 feet. Plan for your desired opening altitude plus 2k for breakoff. If you don't slow down to belly speeds before you deploy it will bite you eventually.
-Level, Slot, Dock is critical to approaching other people. Having legs go past you at 30 mph is not cool.
-Audible, don't freefly without it.

Do sitfly solos until you can hold it top to bottom. Backsliding is a fact of life when learning how to sitfly so definitely be aware of jump run (as previously mentioned) and any other reasonable precaution e.g. opening higher. Its a little harder to keep track of the DZ than belly, but once you've memorized the landmarks a few miles away from the dz its gets pretty easy.
2 good methods:
1- From your back, sit up. This is how I learned, symmetry is critical
2- Front flip from belly.

The number one thing you'll realize is the force of wind in a sitfly is really strong. The amount of pressure you need to exert on your legs is about the same as sitting against a wall at a 90 degree angle.

When you can hold it from top to bottom and check your altimeter while holding your heading, then you need to have a partner for frame of reference. 2ways are your friend. More is bad. Especially when you will likely have some stability issues (from inputs/distractions) which puts you above the group, looking down will get you a chest full of air and now stability issues multiply. Less people to keep track of allows you to focus on the dive.

Start Coast Stop definitely applies but you can expect to orbit your partner occassionally/often.
Locked Knee exit and sittrain exits are great. The Locked knee exit keeps you and your partner together until you're off the hill and you release the grip at sitfly speed and are immediately in close proximity facing each other. Sit-train is slightly harder in that you need to maintain the sitfly position individually but it builds up to 3 way sit-trains, undocked exits etc.

http://www.joaotambor.com/

I love these DVDs. Hopefully you will find them helpful too.

Dropzones are full of talent, you can learn significantly more from a few minutes of conversation than you'll ever learn on the internet. Plenty of people out there who teach freeflying professionally if you can afford it.

[Trafficdiver 8]

I just switched over from belly to FF and WOW! 5k sure comes at you a hell of a lot faster.

My audible already saved my bacon once, and I think it is absolutely necessary for FF.