In freefly you actively steer your fall rate through body orientation – unlike belly flying. How to level with others and avoid getting caught in a burble.
Why does your freefly partner suddenly drift away below you when you were level just a moment ago? The honest answer: because freefly gives you a much wider fall-rate range than belly flying — and that's exactly what makes "leveling" its own skill. In belly flying you change your sink speed only slightly; in freefly you can actively and noticeably steer it through your body's orientation to the wind.
That sounds like an advantage at first — and it is, but with a catch. Because every position (sit, head, and the transitions between them) has its own typical fall rate, flying partners in different positions drift apart easily. Anyone watching the formation has to keep scanning across the whole group and continuously readjust their own fall rate — leveling isn't a one-time action, it's an ongoing process for the whole jump.
A second concept that becomes especially relevant in freefly: the burble — a zone of dead, turbulent air directly behind or below someone, created by their own body. Get caught in it and you suddenly lose drag, and with it control of your own fall rate. Picture it like drafting behind a cyclist — except here the slipstream doesn't make you faster, it makes you unstable.
Unlike in belly flying, in freefly you can deliberately speed up or slow down through your body's orientation to the wind. Small changes in the angle of attack of arms, legs or torso are often enough — that's your tool for leveling.
A formation's fall rate can shift easily, and you have to keep looking across the whole group to catch it. Focus on just one person and you lose the big picture and drift unnoticed.
Once you've picked up a grip or a position in the formation, you have to keep lightly adjusting your body position to stay stable relative to the formation. Large, abrupt corrections tend to throw you out of the formation rather than reel you back in.
Turbulent air behind or below a partner makes you suddenly lose drag. This zone forms especially easily around unstable flyers in the group — deliberately keep distance from someone who's still fighting for stability instead of moving closer.
If a flyer tips into an unstable position, they can generate a burble that then breaks up the whole formation. React to that moment with more distance instead of trying to immediately dock again.
Fall-rate differences are normal in freefly and no reason to panic — but they demand constant attention. Never lose track of the vertical position of all flying partners, especially with more than two people in the air.
If you unexpectedly get caught in a burble and lose stability, the right reaction is to gain distance, not immediately counter-steer. When in doubt, break off early and plan the formation more conservatively in the next dirt dive.
Practice leveling with just one partner in the wind tunnel first, before trying it in larger groups in a real jump. In the tunnel you can isolate how small body-position changes affect fall rate, without simultaneously having to track altitude, formation and breakoff.
A trick from the VFS scene: agree before the jump on who leaves the formation first if things get unstable. That one agreement prevents two people from reacting at once and getting in each other's way when it matters.
Because you can vary your body's orientation to the wind far more than in the relatively fixed belly position. Small adjustments to arms, legs or torso have a noticeably stronger effect on your sink speed in freefly.
A burble is a zone of turbulent, "dead" air directly behind or below a person. Get caught in it and you suddenly lose drag — and with it control of your own fall rate — which is especially risky in tight formations.
By continuously scanning the whole group instead of fixating on one person. A formation's fall rate can shift easily — only someone watching the whole group catches it in time.
Gain distance first instead of counter-steering frantically. One flyer's instability can spread to the whole formation through their burble — more distance is usually the safer first reaction than immediately trying to dock again.
Freefly: Breaking Off Safely at High Speed