What does an FFC involve?

A First Flight Course or FFC is an introduction to wingsuiting for anyone who hasn't tried it yet.

Once I've seen in your logbook that you're experienced enough, and checked that your kit is suitable, we'll do the brief itself. I'll explain the theory behind wingsuiting and teach you two basic body positions - a flying position and a recovery position. You'll learn about flight patterns and how to turn whilst wearing the suit. I'll show you the exit and the deployment sequence, and you'll show me a full dirtdive. We'll talk about after-opening procedures as well as malfunctions and other problems. Finally you'll receive the Wingin' It information leaflet that summarises everything you've just learnt, and I'll leave you alone to do more ground practice of exit and deployment.

Before the jump, we'll do one more walk-through. I'll flightline check you and you'll be able to check wingsuiters yourself in future. You'll then go out to the plane and go and do your jump.

If you've chosen to have an instructor jump with you, I'll come with you and (attempt to!) film your flight. I can give you hand signals in freefall, adjust your flight plan if you're going the wrong way, and debrief your body position afterwards. I can't help you if you go unstable or have deployment problems - this isn't AFF.

After the jump, whether you went solo or had me with you, I'll debrief your flight plan and the safety elements. I'll recommend how to progress and I'll write up your logbook saying whether you can jump solo or even with others in small groups.

Finally, you'll get your Wingin' It stickers and the right to go and ring the bell!

Hatching baby chicks...

People who've done their first flights with Wingin' It...

Mike McNulty, Dave Butterell, Karen Bain, Espen, Svein, Trond and Arild from Norway, Rhino, Kev Pinkstone, Mike Warren, Chris Brook, Ali Allison, Hans Donner, Steve Lewis, Jamie Garton, Phill Elston, Dain Thorne, Allan Weston, Alex Cartwright, Kenny Craig, Ben Bolton, "Sting" Wray, Dave Cavanagh, Tim Roberts, Weng Chang, Ed Bowyer (refresh after jumping in Spain), Graham Harrison, George Easton, Phil Welch, Niel de Wit, Justin Ferris, Ian Thomas, "Deano" Hoskins, Nick Brownhill, Elana Cain, Jackie Harper, Spike Harper, Gordon Blamire, Sam Saunders, Becky Austin, Ivan Rossington, Thea Follett, Jay Pocock, Woody, Paul Cain, Alun Morris, Mick Nealis, Jason Legg, Paul Cawley, Sean in Australia, Buzz, Rob Ames, Mike Ehlas, Chirpy, Paul Seymour, Charlie Cooke, Francois Cathelain.

And people who've had the brief but not yet jumped...

Glen Lowerson, Mick McPhee, Rob Millin, Liz Danby, Mark Bayada, Jay Brittain, Austen Sambrook, Vicki Tomlinson, Ruth Green, Jeff Montgomery, Maria Russell, Dave Phillips, Adele Murray.

But I've got under 500 jumps...?

I get asked this question more than almost any other so thought I'd spell out here exactly what the rules are.

There is no definitive BPA rule about experience required to jump a wingsuit. There are a set of guidelines that Fordy at Weston wrote about 4 years ago that you can read here. These were adopted by the BPA as one of their official forms and so carry significant weight. They recommend at least 500 jumps, or 250 freefall skydives in the past 18 months and one-on-one instruction.

However, they were written in the knowledge that wingsuiting was evolving faster than any rules could probably keep up. Now we're in 2008 and there is a definite grey area, mainly due to the wide variety of suits available. Some of the most docile wingsuits arguably don't need as much experience to jump, and there are also now various tracking suits that don't come under the guidelines at all. So decisions have to be made, and at Netheravon I get to be the one who makes them!

As I say in the About section, currency is much more important than jump numbers. In all cases I'll chat to the potential first-timer and get a feel for their competence, whether they've got 300 jumps or 3000.

I need to be sure of your ability to successfully spot and navigate without using up too much brainpower, so anyone with much demo or CRW experience, or instructors, will score highly here. I need to know that if you go unstable you can quickly regain stability without being able to rely on a big student arch.

There are some people who I'll happily take up much sooner than the norm - for example Jack had his heart set on wingsuit jumping since around his 100th jump, went abroad to do his first flight as soon as he had 200 and has barely jumped anything else since. At Easter he did his 300th jump and jumped my V1 which is simply phenomenal and a real exceptional case.

I will not take anyone on a first flight who doesn't hold a BPA C licence or equivalent. Between there and 300 jumps or so I'm looking for something fairly exceptional, like lots of tracking experience and good spotting ability.

The bottom line is that it's my decision and it IS possible to "fail" the course - i.e. do the ground school and not convince me that you're safe to jump. I'm afraid that with under 500 jumps, I'm looking for you to prove to me that you ARE good enough, rather than just that I don't have any reasons why you're not.