{"id":44667,"date":"2023-04-05T10:25:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=44667"},"modified":"2025-08-06T19:39:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:39:35","slug":"solo-freeflyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/solo-freeflyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Solo Freeflyer?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Practicing freefly on your own? Alethia Austin has some tips to keep your jump safe. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Image by Nathy Odinson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Declaring what kind of a jump we are making for the exit order is a pretty standard and obvious part of skydiving. But one thing that might be overlooked is why a solo freefly might potentially need a little extra communication.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve found that solo freefly jumps tend to be the skydiver who is trying to learn or practice flying head up or head down. This can end up causing a little bit of a dangerous situation if we don\u2019t pay close attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image by Stikkos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fireside story<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago I was leading a one on one tracking jump with a student. We opened in airspace off of jump run. That particular jump I was sharing a side with another movement group and there were a few jumpers in between us. When I opened at my planned spot, I was looking for the next group after us. I was confused when I saw a canopy quite close to ours. Having opened off jump run in an airspace only possible for a moving jump, I couldn\u2019t figure out how we had someone close to us. When I got down, I found the jumper who was after us, who\u2019d mentioned he was making a solo belly jump. Turns out, he ended up trying sit fly. He was a beginner, able to hold it, but without any control over his movements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically, when people are learning sit fly, they tend to backslide. If you spend an entire jump backsliding, you\u2019re going to cover quite a lot of distance. And as we know, covering distance in a skydive needs to be declared as we run the risk of getting too close to comfort with other groups, or tracking up\/down jump run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: Temeeka Steward by Allen Dupont<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, how can we best train freefly as a solo skydiver? <\/p>\n\n\n\n