How to Backfly a Wingsuit

Before You Backfly

When first getting into wingsuiting, back flying can seem really scary and intimidating, but it’s actually super easy! There are just a few basic steps that you have to follow in order to be successful.

As a prerequisite to this trick, you should be capable of controlling your wing suit without arching, as well as flying with little to no dihedral sweep. You should be comfortable flying at all speeds, and have a consistent deployment technique which results in mostly on heading openings.

Learning the Movement

Now let’s get started. To transition from a belly to earth orientation to your back, all it takes is a slight bend of the elbow. Simply bend one arm in while keeping the other arm fully extended. This will cause the suit to flip you over, thus putting you on your back. Do this while keeping your leg wing fully extended with little to no arch in your chest and hips. Initially you may start to wobble a little bit, but just lay into the suit and RELAX. Just focus on maintaining stability, and being as loose and fluid as possible. It’s also helpful do this with a friend who can fly above you, to help you stay on heading and make sure you aren’t flying down jump run. They can also stack some footy for the boys so you can prove that you owe the dropzone beer after your first backfly attempt.

To flip back onto your belly is the exact same concept. Simply bend one arm while keeping the other one straight. This allows the suit to do all of the work for you, which ensures efficient flight as well as minimizing the risk of a flat spin. The key here is to not turn your head or shoulders, let your arm wing do all of the work on this one.

Things to Remember

The most important thing to remember here is that just because you’re on your back doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of your altitude. If you become unstable when attempting this maneuver, just relax, arch, and try to get steep and fly out of it. If at any point you start to flat spin, just remember to maintain altitude awareness, and if you’re ever in doubt immediately deploy your main parachute.

Learning to back fly can greatly enhance your wingsuit experience. It may take a few trys, but it really is much easier than you might think. When done correctly, it will give you warm and fuzzy feelings, as well as drop hella panties in the tandem spectator area.