Can swim fly in a free event, get a valid fly time?

Unfortunately no. 103.18.2 An official time for an event or stroke can be achieved only in that event or stroke, or in an initial distance of such event or stroke (e.g., backstroke time must be achieved in a backstroke event or a butterfly time can be achieved in an individual medley event). Regardless of the stroke(s) used, times achieved in freestyle events can be recorded only as freestyle times. Next month's St. Nick's meet in Atlanta will be offering the 200 fly, if you're up for a road trip.

While you can't get an official (that is, top ten eligible) time for your 2fly, my understanding is that it would be suitable to use as a seed time for future meets, correct, Rob?

bzzz no you are swimming the 200 free you are NOT swimming the 200 fly event...even if you do perfectly legal fly in a 200 free. it is still the 200 free. now...does that mean it is not a perfect representation of what you can do in the event? yes it does. and since nowhere does usms/fina require proof of a 200 fly time, use it. heck in italy there at least 60 men in all of my events for my age alone that did NOT meet the qualifying time.

It might seem goofy at first, but the reason it doesn't count is it's a freestyle event so you could do lots of things that are illegal in a butterfly race and not get DQed for it. You could do all one-handed touches, throw in a few one-arm strokes, roll onto your back, etc. and it would still be a perfectly legal swim since it's freestyle.

The first time that I swam the 200 fly, it was during the 200 free at a local meet. I did let others in the heat know so they were not too surprised. It's recorded as a 200 free, but it was fun to get it in during a low-key meet and give me a baseline for future swims. If you do it, let us know how you did.