Free flying

Free flying

Free flying is an expansion of skydiving which includes the traditional belly-to-earth positions, but extends into vertical flight where the flyer is in an upright position (falling feet first) or in an inverted position (falling head first). These positions increase free-fall speeds and make new types of formations and routines possible.

A free flyer, in order to fully understand the aerodynamic power of his/her body in free-fall, needs to first learn to control all of the skydiving forms: box position (belly-to-earth, traditional skydiving position), back flying (back-to-earth), head-up flying, head-down flying, and side flying. These positions are not held for the duration of a skydive. Free flying can, and usually does, involve constant transitions in position and speeds, with vertical and horizontal orientations. This can involve constantly flowing skydives, with all positions explored, or more static skydives where flyers are concentrating on building a large formation while flying in one of these free fly positions.

Due to the increased free-fall speed and potentially faster horizontal speeds, free flying has dangers beyond that of a normal skydive. Extra care must be taken for free-fall skydive groups to stay away from belly-to-earth skydivers to avoid collisions. Since most parachutes are not designed to be opened at speeds higher than that of normal belly flying, free flyers must transition back to the "belly to earth" position and slow down their descent for several seconds before deploying their parachute.

While free flying is a younger and more extreme addition to skydiving, it is becoming a popular event in competitions and world records.

History

Free flying is a skydiving discipline which began in the late 1980s when Olav Zipser began experimenting with non-traditional forms of body flight. Zipser founded the Free Fly Clowns as a two person competitive team with Mike Vail in 1992, and was joined by Omar Alhegelan, Charles Bryan, and Stefania Martinengo in 1994. The Free Fly Clowns are also credited with opening the first school to teach free flying, The First School of Modern Sky Flying.

Free flying broke into the limelight in 1996 when the SSI Pro Tour added free flying as a three person competitive discipline at the second televised event (with Skysurfing), part of ESPN's Destination Extreme series. 150 countries watched teams like the Free Fly Clowns (Olav Zipser, Charles Bryan and Omar Alhegelan), the Flyboyz (Eli Thompson, Mike Ortiz, Knut Krecker, Fritz Pfnür), Team Airtime (Tony Urugallo, Jim O'Reilly, Peter Raymond, Brian Germain), and many other pioneers of free flying show off their best moves. In 1996 and 1997, the SSI Pro Tour staged eight televised events in both North America and Europe with $36,000 in cash prizes awarded to free fly teams. SSI invited the 1997 Pro World Champions, the Flyboyz, to participate in the 1998 ESPN X Games as an unofficial exhibition. The resulting global television exposure made legends out of the Free Fly Clowns, the Flyboyz, and others. A once fledgling off-shoot of the mainstream, free flying now comprises fully one-half of the overall skydiving community.

Olav Zipser's Space Games used the space ball as a research and measuring device to provide a constant speed and direction from which individual athletes could be trained, rated, raced against each other and judged. The Space Games took Free Flying to the next level from 1998.

In 2000 Free Fly was accepted as an aviation discipline by the International Parachute Commission (IPC) and the first official Free Fly National Championships were held worldwide.

Games

The Space Games came about as a result of the Atmosphere Dolphin Free Fly License Program ran through Olav ZIpser's First School of Modern Sky Flying. Zipser used a constant speed and direction measuring device (space balls) around which high speed precision free fly athletes could train and be tested to fly to the same standard. This provided the testing ground for the research and development of free flying, and opened up the possibility for a number of human flight air games and competitions.

The 1st Space Games was held at Skydive America Palm Beach, Pahokee, Florida in 1997.

The most recent and 16th Space Games was held at Skydive Sport Center Tortuga, Arezzo, Italy in 2006

Free Flyers training with a Space Ball for the Space Games

The Space Games is a free fly skydiving competition event created by 'Father of ' Free Fly' Olav Zipser.

In the early days of free flying, Zipser wanted to get the best free flyers at the time together to research, develop, and document the performance evolution of human free flying.

Human flight races, air games and competitions with an open-class and a pro-class were devised, and the first of its kind and first Space Games was held at Skydive America Palm Beach, Pahokee, Florida in 1997.

A total of 16 Space Games events were organized between 1997 and 2006, with cash prizes totaling as much as US$35 000 per event awarded to the winners of different categories.

The Space Games consists of human flight air races and competitions, and incorporates double elimination one-on-one races, open rounds, competition rounds,

• The Free Fly Indie 500,
• The Free Fly Atmosphere Dolphin Challenge,
• Fastest,
• Slowest and Furthest competitions,
• Freestyle,
• Sky Surf,
• 3 way and 4 way Free Fly Challenges.

Types

Back flying

Sit flying

Head down flying

Free flying Gear

1. AAD- Automatic Activation Device
2. Main and Reserve Parachutes
3. Helmet
4. Goggles
5. Altimeter
6. Harness and Container Systems
7. Cameras and Camera Equipment
8. Jumpsuits, Wing suits and Clothing

                                         Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall.

World Champion Freestyle skydiving                                             .