Slot discipline: quadrants, levels and burbles

Flying a slot well means getting on level in the right place before you close the distance. On an angle or a head-down jump the order is the same: fly to your quadrant, get on level, then close. A group flown in that order stays tight, and a tight group keeps closing speeds low.

Level first, then close

Getting on level means flying to the straight line through the group’s heads, its leading edge, before you close. Keep the order every time: quadrant, then level, then close.

On an angle, belly flyers sit above the leader’s line and slightly ahead. Back flyers sit below and slightly behind, with a sideways offset. Those offsets grow as the jump flattens and the burble grows, and everyone can fly more head-to-head as it steepens.

Aim your closing ahead of the group. Halve the remaining distance in controlled stages, and close only as fast as you can think.

The burble

On an angle, every group trails a burble up and behind it, and the flatter the angle, the bigger the burble. Stay out of that corridor on the approach. Get on level first and come in from the side. On any orientation, never let your legs pass the leader’s head.

In head-down groups and big-ways, the shelf position helps keep your legs out of the formation’s burble. When you present for the next flyer, reach an arm out wide of your leg burble, hand in a fist, with your eyes back into the group.

Levels and slots seen from above on a big-way angle. The belly flyers fly forward of the leader, with their sight picture lined up down onto the back flyers’ heads, which keeps them out of the burbles. Look closely and the belly flyer in the second god slot is sitting slightly behind the slot. That is the kind of small levels error a debrief names to the whole group.

Levels, slots and the dock

Docking has its own ladder: hold level for a beat, hold the slot for a beat, then dock. On head-down 2-ways, crest docks and group jumps, that is roughly 3 seconds on level, 3 seconds in the slot, then the dock.

Fly your body to the grip and let the arm follow. Reaching creates lift and drive away from the formation, so take your heading and reference points from the base and the horizon while you reach.

There are two grips:

• A sting is a thumb-down overgrip with the arm low and straight. Air pressure holds your hand on, so the grip can stay light.
• A dock is a thumbs-up undergrip with the arms wide.

Approach and dock from slightly below, then float up onto the grip with pressure. Take a dock only if it improves the formation.

Heading and safe zones

If you are out of position, keep your body pointed on the group’s heading and close with a side-slide or a change of speed. Never turn 180° from the group’s heading or back toward jump run: collisions off heading have the highest closing speeds.

Stay close, and fly at docking distance even when you are not docking. When a group spreads, the closing speeds grow with the gaps, and so do the collisions.

The APF Freefly and Angles Guide also sets out safe zones and no-fly zones around a group, and the leader briefs them before the jump.

Recovering in the slot

On an angle, if you go unstable, add speed in the group’s direction along the line of the jump. Stay extended, and don’t track away. Re-approach once you are stable.

If you stay separated, hold the group’s heading and follow. Stop the closure high, hold the distance, and break off on the group’s timing. A follower who breaks off early and blind, above a group that is still descending, can end up in the path of its deploying canopies.

In head-down, control your fall rate without corking up into the group. If you become unstable, recover to back-fly clear of other flyers, and rejoin only when you are stable and on level. To take a knock without corking, tuck your chin, close your legs and go faster.

Spreading your legs slows you down and pops you up out of level, into the flyers diving in above. Hold the base by closing up and driving down.

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Advisory, educational content. Fly slots only in briefed groups under a trained leader or coach, and comply with your federation and drop zone.