Angles · Group · The jump

Angles 302

Lead an angle jump

Leading: you are the only person navigating.

What this unit covers

The in-air half of learning to lead. The candidate leads the angle jump, exit, navigation, group management, breakoff, with their coach flying belly beside them.

In the debrief the candidate and coach run the video against every element of the leading job: the exit, the communication to the group, personal stability, the navigation, and the breakoff.

The rest of it

Planning and briefing are FFP-AN301 (Plan an angle jump); this unit exercises that standard on every jump, because the leader here plans and briefs their own jumps.

One course, one job: this card is the lead. The supervision model. The coach flies belly in a slot beside the candidate leader, close enough to read the leader's sight picture, turn timing and group management, and positioned to take over the lead if the jump departs the plan.

Over the jump series the coach fades from active wingman to passive observer. This is leading learned under supervision, the same shape the published frameworks give it (APF006 §8.7 Angles Level 2, "brief and lead a jump under supervision"; /B/C apprenticeship model).

Scope is first leads of 2–3-ways building toward groups of about six, the breakoff-geometry ceiling for intermediate groups.

Leading larger groups and organising multiple movement groups across a load is Angles 401 (FFP-AN401); mixed-orientation angles are Angles 402 (FFP-AN402). Head-up movement is a distinct capability within this unit. It is a separate thread: head-up angle groups of 4 or fewer, more experienced participants than a belly angle group of the same size, led from the belly, with its own leader sequence and its own breakoff doctrine.

This unit calls the discipline "head-up angles" or "head-up movement"; "sit tracking" and "vertical tracking" are kept only as search synonyms so the term catches every query variant.

Head-up movement is its own discipline rather than a harder version of belly angle leading, and it is distinct from a group head-up formation (that is FFP-HU301).

It is treated as advanced and higher-risk because even a small group scatters easily, so it is capped small and reserved for stronger flyers (the project's coaching doctrine). A candidate leads head-up movement only after they are competent leading belly movement groups.

The head-up-movement criteria and knowledge below are assessed on their own, on head-up movement jumps, and a candidate whose leading is belly-angle-only is assessed without them. Two doctrine points frame the whole angles track and are restated here because this unit produces the people who carry them:

Angles are led from the belly only, never from the back. The leader must see the ground, the references and the group.

Back-flying in an angle group is a follower skill, flown in slot.

Even on dynamic jumps that transition through orientations, leadership is handed between belly flyers rather than ever sitting with a back-flyer (the project's coaching doctrine).

APF006 §5.12, "the lead flyer must always fly belly to earth";, trainee leaders barred from leading on their back, presenter "100% agrees that in most cases you should lead on your belly"; the project's coaching doctrine.

Flyers learn angles with a trained leader, not by themselves. This curriculum does not encourage solo angle or movement jumps at any level.

Every unit below this one assumes a trained or approved leader on the jump.

Structured, led movement jumps are safer than unstructured beginner angle groups, "otherwise the alternative's not that great either" (Spaceland and Skydive Arizona approved-leader models).

This unit is where those leaders are made. Applies to flyers who hold FFP-AN301 (the planning and briefing standard) and endorsement-standard angle competence in both belly and back orientations, with a substantial follower history, including time spent deliberately improving awareness on jumps they were not leading. Environment: sky only. Leading, navigation and group management cannot be exercised in a tunnel; tunnel time remains useful for personal slot-skill maintenance. Half of what this unit teaches is when not to lead: conditions, group, and honest self-assessment without ego ("the non-leading workshop").

What comes before it

Screen 2 · What you are watched on

What you are watched on

The same short list a coach ticks, in the same words. Nothing is hidden from you.

2.2 Safety critical

Lead belly-to-earth for the entire jump, angle jumps are never led from the back. The leader is the only person navigating: they must hold continuous visual on the ground, the references, the group and the other groups, and none of that is reliably possible on your back (APF006 §5.12; the project's coaching doctrine; British Skydiving TPM §3.7 and Skydive Arizona treat any back-flying by a leader as requiring a dedicated belly mirror, an advanced arrangement outside this unit's scope).

Do you lead belly to earth for the whole jump, never from the back?

2.3

Run the check cycle continuously through the working time, how is my heading → how is the group → how am I → repeat, with direction always first: no playing to the camera, no coaching mid-jump at the cost of navigation. Order the whole jump by the in-air priority order Aviate → Navigate → Communicate. Aviate first: fly yourself, hold personal stability, heading and fall rate, and stabilise before re-engaging if task-saturated. Navigate second: protect the airspace and the footprint, watching drift, lane and range, and reduce or stop horizontal movement rather than press on when position is uncertain. Communicate third: signal the group to hold cohesion and the plan. When tasks conflict the higher priority always wins; navigation and stability come before helping any individual flyer (the project's coaching doctrine movement-jump priority-order doctrine; APF006 §5.14).

Do you run a continuous check cycle in the air: how is my heading, how is the group, how am I?

2.6 Safety critical

Keep the group's path moving away from jump run at all times, never turn the group back toward the line of flight, and never rely on vertical separation from other groups: the airspace on and behind jump run belongs to everyone else on the load (APF006 §3.3;, the Sebastian jump-run crossing).

Do you keep the group’s path moving away from jump run at all times, never turning the group back toward the line of flight?

2.7 Safety critical

Start the last turn no lower than the briefed altitude (~7,000–7,500 ft guide), then fly straight and settle the group onto one heading before breakoff, the formation "breathes" in turns, and people separating with residual turning motion is where collisions happen.

Do you start your last turn no lower than the briefed altitude, then fly straight and settle the group on one heading before breakoff?

Screen 3 · Safety and altitudes

Safety and altitudes

Everything here is a recommendation with a reason behind it, not a rule. The drop zone you are jumping at, and your own limits on the day, decide what actually happens.

Safety-critical criteria on the short list

2.2

Lead belly-to-earth for the entire jump, angle jumps are never led from the back. The leader is the only person navigating: they must hold continuous visual on the ground, the references, the group and the other groups, and none of that is reliably possible on your back (APF006 §5.12; the project's coaching doctrine; British Skydiving TPM §3.7 and Skydive Arizona treat any back-flying by a leader as requiring a dedicated belly mirror, an advanced arrangement outside this unit's scope).

Do you lead belly to earth for the whole jump, never from the back?

2.6

Keep the group's path moving away from jump run at all times, never turn the group back toward the line of flight, and never rely on vertical separation from other groups: the airspace on and behind jump run belongs to everyone else on the load (APF006 §3.3;, the Sebastian jump-run crossing).

Do you keep the group’s path moving away from jump run at all times, never turning the group back toward the line of flight?

2.7

Start the last turn no lower than the briefed altitude (~7,000–7,500 ft guide), then fly straight and settle the group onto one heading before breakoff, the formation "breathes" in turns, and people separating with residual turning motion is where collisions happen.

Do you start your last turn no lower than the briefed altitude, then fly straight and settle the group on one heading before breakoff?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.1

Produce the day's plan to the FFP-AN301 standard: the day's picture, the drawn flight path with wind drift planned first, the breakoff designed on the ground, plan B as a pre-briefed conditional, and the load coordination, declared to manifest, drawn on the DZ board, agreed with every other movement group (FFP-AN301 Elements 1–2).

1.2

Deliver the briefing and walk-through to the FFP-AN301 standard, including the six planning outputs (direction, distance, breakoff and separation plan, opening area, initial canopy direction, plan B) and the mandatory high-and-behind brief.

3.1

Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft) with the briefed signal, and continue straight, fast and efficient, never turning in place and never stopping or flaring to watch. The leader's unbroken line is the reference every other flyer fans off ("if they don't have a reference point, they're just floating in the sky"), and a stopped leader is a standing target for the one flyer they didn't see (APF006 §5.10).

3.2

Flatten progressively toward deployment, converting the jump's speed into horizontal separation, no snap-flat, no barrel rolls to "clear airspace" (look under arms/legs, or use a clean, trained back transition that holds heading, speed and pitch) (APF006 §3.3, barrel roll before opening only if smooth and reliable).

3.3

Deploy at the planned altitude over the planned area after visually clearing the airspace, always assuming somebody is there, and never "pull to clear airspace": deploying dumps fabric into the airspace, it does not clear it (APF006 §3.3).

3.6

(Head-up movement only.) Brief and fly the head-up-movement breakoff as a plan PLUS talked-through what-ifs, the plan alone is not enough, because head-up movement jumps routinely produce off-plan states (the project's coaching doctrine).

4.2

Review the lead itself on video with the coach who flew beside you, against every element of the job: the exit line and first turn, the communication to the group (signals given, signals missed), personal stability through the working time, the navigation (turns against the keyed references, planned versus flown), and the breakoff (timing, line, fan). Name one leading correction to train on the next lead.

Altitudes here are the guides this curriculum recommends and argues for. Where the drop zone briefs something different, the drop zone is what you fly.

Screen 4 · After the jump

After the jump

From this unit's own closing element, review the lead.

4.1

Debrief the group: participants speak first; watch the whole video once through without stopping; safety points first, then positives, then improvements, teaching by showing the good example in the group rather than dwelling on the individual who missed.

4.2

Review the lead itself on video with the coach who flew beside you, against every element of the job: the exit line and first turn, the communication to the group (signals given, signals missed), personal stability through the working time, the navigation (turns against the keyed references, planned versus flown), and the breakoff (timing, line, fan). Name one leading correction to train on the next lead.

4.3

Compare planned versus flown: draw what you think you flew, and, if you have access to a GPS, compare all three pictures (the plan, your perception, the trace), remembering the trace includes drift.

4.4

Log the jump; report any near-miss, off-landing, airspace conflict or plan deviation to DZ safety staff; and bank what the day taught, flags you missed, conditions you now have experience with, into the next plan.

One fault, one correction

Before the video, before anyone else speaks: name the single thing that went wrong, and the single thing you will do differently next jump. One of each. A list of six is a list you will not fly.

Write them into your notes at the bottom of this card, and they will be here next time you open it.

Record this jump

Most records are the flyer's own, and that is the point: your own read of your own flying is worth keeping. A record only counts as verified once a coach signs it.