Reading a movement jump briefing

Most of the safety on a movement jump is decided before anyone boards. The brief is where the group agrees the flight path, the traffic plan and the breakoff. Learning to read one teaches you what a leader is responsible for, and most of that job is planning, navigation and briefing.

Listen for four things: a drawn flight path, an exit slot chosen as part of the navigation, a check cycle in the air, and a breakoff built on the ground. Together they tell you the leader has planned the whole jump.

Deliver it early, and in order

The leader gives the brief early, at the twenty-minute call, and runs through it again at the ten. A brief given in a hurry sends the group to the door in a hurry too.

Before the brief, the leader talks the navigation plan through with the load master: the flight path, its direction, and the exit point and order.

The brief itself runs from the plain data to the flying:

1. Jump run.
2. The three wind layers (freefall, canopy and landing), in plain terms.
3. The flight path, drawn.
4. Exit order.
5. How to approach the formation.
6. Holding heading.
7. What to do if you are left behind.
8. The breakoff, walked through.
9. What to do after opening.

Each item says what to do.

The flight path

The path has two jobs. It keeps clear of every other group’s line of flight, and it brings the whole group back within reach of the landing area.

The leader draws it on a drop zone map, with the turns keyed to ground references. They plan an opening area big enough for the whole group, because the jump ends with everyone tracking apart in a cone.

Keep the pattern as simple as the job allows, and size it to the least experienced flyer and to the leader’s own experience. A straight leg, or a ninety then a forty-five, suits a developing leader. Complex patterns look easy on paper and are harder to fly than they read.

A few guides hold on every pattern:

• Finish perpendicular to jump run, or heading away from it.
• Never plan a final leg that points back at jump run.
• Start the last turn high.
• Finish any crossing of jump run early.

Choose the exit slot as part of the navigation, from the winds, the pattern and where the other groups are going. A movement group can exit wherever in the order suits the plan. For exit order, treat an angle group separately from a tracking group: at freefly fall rates it covers roughly half a tracking group’s horizontal distance.

Plan no more than two movement groups on one load, unless the drop zone safety officer approves more (a skills camp is the usual case). Two groups can fly opposite or diverging directions, and a third has no clean airspace left.

Keep movement jumps out of cloud and away from it, because the leader needs to see the ground for the whole jump to navigate. Have a plan B ready for the days when cloud rules the movement jump out.

Some drop zones, Hunter Valley for example, set the two-group limit and the cloud rule as rules.

The in-air check cycle

Once in the air, the leader runs a continuous cycle: how is my heading, how is the group, how am I, and round again. Direction comes first every time. Navigation comes before playing to the camera or coaching mid-jump.

The leader flies belly to earth for the whole jump. They are the only person navigating, and on their belly they can keep the ground, the references, the group and the other groups in view.

They fly for the group, in a neutral position with a little speed, because speed is lift. A leader who brakes makes the jump hardest for the people flying on their back. Turns are smooth curves.

Breakoff, designed on the ground

Breakoff is the point where movement-jump collisions start. The leader designs it on the ground and flies it as briefed.

As a guide, break off at 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way and 5,500 ft for five or more. Many groups brief 5,500 ft whatever the size.

A head-up angle group raises the breakoff to 6,000 ft minimum, and 6,500 ft for a larger group. A head-up breakoff gives you almost no separation, and rotating to head-first costs altitude.

The breakoff is a peel-off fan:

• The leader carries straight on.
• Everyone else peels away progressively, turning up to about 90°.
• Look before you turn.
• Turn flat from the hips, and keep moving through the turn. Turning in place sweeps your body through the group’s airspace.
• Nobody turns back toward jump run.

Finish the last turn of the pattern high, so the group settles onto one heading before it separates. Breaking off in a turn is where collisions happen.

Finish separating at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment. In Australia this is a minimum under the APF Operational Regulations.

Anyone slotted above the leader gets their own breakoff assignment. Chasing the leader’s line down is a known way to end up low.

Check the air around you before you deploy. Deploying puts a canopy into that airspace, so it needs to be clear first.

What you bring as a movement jumper

The leader owns the plan, and you bring the skills to fly inside it:

• Jump runs, and how a load is put together.
• Navigating in the air.
• Approaching the formation correctly.
• Controlling your heading, pitch and speed.
• A safe breakoff.

For beginner angles, keep the group to three people at most, including the coach. Join a bigger group once your coach approves it.

These limits apply to belly and back separately. If you are cleared for bigger groups on your belly, learn the basics of back orientation in groups of three or fewer first.

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Advisory, educational content. All altitudes and patterns are guides. Follow your federation’s rules and your drop zone’s policies, and fly movement groups only behind a trained, approved leader.