Head down progression 2 hour (7 hour total tunnel)

Head down! I started head down at about 5 hours in the tunnel. This is a progression through the next 2 hours of tunnel time, some of which was spent on calming down my sit fly.
Head down turns out to be easier than back or sit fly so far. I lifted off the net on the first time out! As you can see, we worked on body positioning. There are three main body positions: daffy left, daffy right and shelf (both legs back). I chose to do daffy one side and wait to learn the other two at Mikey's direction. Learning body position balance requires learning burbles (you can see Mikey burbling me with his body in one of the clips) and getting exercised in push pulls.
The primary foundational principle for head down is sit fly, which is your bail. When learning sit fly, back fly is the bail; so you can see how these fundimentals (belly back sit head-down) progress as one supports the next. I am STILL working on the proper bail for head down, which will allow me to go hands free from spotters in the coming hour of tunnel time.
Watching this progression reminds me how much learning to fly is somatic. You can be as intellectual as you want about what you need to be doing, but ultimately, the body learns super fast if you just let it figure out the wind by following coaching directions. STOP THINKING. Do what Mikey says and don't question it. IT WORKS!
The other fun thing about head down is the wind speed. This is really where the air gets cranked up. I'm flying 85% which makes my bails super hard, so I am learning to fly sit at 85% while also learning head down, which is why some of my bails get scary! You can see Mike talking to the wind driver and telling him what wind speeds to shift to during the course of each head down attempt.
Flips are also crucial to bails (which you will see here) as well as are required to learn to eventually transition from sit to head down and vice versa.

[@ipKonfig]

Ha, I was just in the tunnel today! Slow progression but building confidence and learning the skill to progress into one of the greatest sports known to man kind!

[@MrNermt67]

thank you for this vid i am about to start head down and i am very nervious but this calmed me a bit

[@0dteESmini]

5 hours and already on head down? thats pretty fast isnt it

[@jwillard911]

Great job! Keep putting in the work.

[@flybeep1661]

7 hours total?? Damn that must have cost you pretty dime since one hour tunnel time comes at about 1000 dollars/euros depending where you went.

[@n9was]

would it be faster to learn head down in the sky first? from my experience learning sit is that sky allows you to get your basic form pretty quickly since you can be all over the place and don't waste time on bails, and then you can improve control in the tunnel (plus you get your canopy skills up too)

[@Gracedobosz]

Regardless how you do it, in the tunnel you still have to learn all the bails and gain trust from the instructors that you won't kill yourself. You can't learn static head down properly in a reasonable amount of time without the tunnel IMHO. It's the only place you will be forced to mange safety and proximity and ability to transition on level and on heading, which are required if you are going to freefly with other people - particularly in a group >2. Bails are ESSENTIAL for group freefly so you don't kill each other at 150 MPH, they are never a waste of time - they are a fundamental of freeflying. Also learning sit in the sky does not equate to sit in the tunnel, but it does in reverse.

[@ekadesignmobilelegends5748]

Hi. How much time you spent before tunnel?

[@dadbod7510]

Seems like your head is really far back to avoid a forward drive but widening the legs a little a straightening the front leg a little wouldve allowed a more natural head position imo

[@rovshangarayev3274]

Well done :) I am going to start learning head down in in 3 weeks, hope it will not take 7 hours as well))

[@CandraDay]

That's a bummer that you spent so much time on the net. I feel the learning is more efficient and productive off of the net.

[@dadbod7510]

I don't agree. Being able to feel the drives on the net low speed is an important foundation before off the net and high wind speeds.

[@CandraDay]

@@dadbod7510 Depends on your goal and how much you are willing to spend on tunnel time.

[@goodorigin]

@@dadbod7510 nah