Learning to fly Head Down

Hi all, I have recently started Head Down coaching (8 jumps so far), and I am struggling to find the vertical position.

I know it’s early days and it can take a while, and I’m excited about the journey.

My question to you all is, how many of you learnt HD in the sky only without tunnel? If so, how long did it take you?

I know different people learn and different speeds, but I’m just curious to see how quickly people got it.

Thanks! 

I can't speak to your question, as it definitely took me a lot of tunnel time--and even after, for example, being able to do sit-to-head transitions over the back very consistently in the tunnel, it still took me quite a few jumps to consistently find head-down in the sky through these transitions.

I am interested though, what your reason is for learning head-down without the assistance of time in a tunnel. Is it a philosophical/puritan reason ("real freeflyers don't learn in the tunnel") or is there a practical reason (no tunnel in the area, etc.)?

If I had to venture a guess as to how many jumps it would take to achieve any sort of basic control in a head-down position (starting at zero head down experience), I'd say at least a couple hundred jumps--for many, probably more.

No tunnels available (at least accessible ones with enough wind speed for freeflying) when I learnt to fly head down so all in the sky. How long did it take me? Longer than some I jumped with but far less than others. Maybe 25-30 jumps to hold it steady down the tube, 100ish to be relatively comfortable flying relative to someone else and taking grips and perhaps 3-400 or so to feel comfortable doing bigger stuff but I also had a fair bit of coaching from some of the gods back then like Olav and his crew for example. Still though, we’re talking maybe 10 minutes of practice time on a good weekend, usually less. Skills back then weren’t what they are today because of tunnels. I don’t know why anyone would take the hard route these days.

The other thing is that I developed some really bad habits which were still deeply embedded even after a near 20 year hiatus from skydiving so now I fly funny (and badly) with zero chance of ever getting rid of them. I highly recommend tunnel coaching to avoid getting those bad habits like I had.