Hey folks, Kelly asked me about what to be considering when moving from “Belly Flying” (I hate that term) to Freestyle. So I thought I would include everybody that was interested from the beginning of this thread. This will take a few different messages to get there because I want to start with some philosophy first: First, Freestyle can get away from you in a few different ways. Loss of control is usually where folks have a lot of concern but Loss of altitude awareness is first and foremost. Loss of altitude awareness There will come a time where you are working on some inverted posture and time just flies by. There you are concentrating on pointing your toe and keeping your leg straight up, you roll over and there is the ground big as ever. So here are the guidelines that I try and follow. First: Any position that takes the ground out of your peripheral vision should be done above 5000ft. This would be flying on your back or looping of any kind. From there down practice things like T’s. Daffy’s. Flip thru’s etc…. These are things that put the ground front and center. Audible altimeters, altimeters and even your Cypres are all man made and should be used as back up confirmation of what you already know. They should never be used as a fail safe system that makes you aware when you are supposed to be. They are man made and break from time to time so don’t depend on them. Your eyes are way more reliable. On the way to altitude make yourself aware of the altitude of the bottom of the clouds (if there are any). That way you can glance at them during your routine and feel confident of where you are. When you use your altimeter look at the ground first and then your altimeter. This is a good practice no matter what you are doing in freefall. Calibrating your eyes is a good thing. In freestyle you put your body in a lot of different attitudes which put your altitude reading device in your burble. This can cause your readings be as much as 1000ft higher than you actually are. There’s nothing more exciting than looking at your altimeter while you are on your back and seeing it read 4000ft, then when you roll over watch it suddenly read 3000ft. A good practice is to get a hand mount thus keeping it of the burble more. In this day and age we depend on batteries a lot. What are the chance of them going dead? OK I know that is a lot about altitude awareness but it truly is the most important aspect of our sport. Remember: This is an extremely dangerous sport but it can be done very safely. Don’t ever loose sight of that. OK, why don’t you chew on that for a bit. I have to go finish cutting a couple of suits and I will get back with you and we will learn about the vertical line. All of a sudden…..Mike

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