Skip to content
AN401 Flyer
Coach card Full course

Swipe sideways, or tap the dots. 4 screens.

Angles · Mastery · The jump

Angles 401

Organise large movement groups

Organising large movement groups, and the two-leader big-way angle.

What the course is about

You'll learn to organise movement jumps for a whole load, including the big-way angle, and to bring on the leaders who come after you. Angles 302 comes first, because an organiser needs a record of leading angle jumps. You start as co-organiser beside an established organiser.
In Australia, larger movement groups need a more experienced leader and a Star Crest for everyone in them (thresholds in the regulations panel below).

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.

1.3 Safety critical
Hold the movement-group count per load to the briefed limit (guide: two per load). More than two, or two flying the same side, is a stacking flag that demands explicit airspace division: quadrants, wide buffer "walls" nobody crosses, declared opening points over named landmarks. Incidents come from accumulations of small factors, and closing speeds between groups are what kill (USPA SIM 5-10.E).

Do you cap how many movement groups go on one load, and when there are two, split the airspace with quadrants or a wall nobody crosses and a named opening point for each?

2.2
Confirm airspace division leader-to-leader, face to face. Sit within talking distance of the other movement leaders in the aircraft, so a changed jump run is a conversation, not a shout across a running door.

Do you sit within talking distance of the other movement leaders in the aircraft, so a changed jump run is a conversation rather than a shout across the door?

5.1 Safety critical
Lead a big-way angle with a second qualified leader, each leading half the load. Both leaders fly belly. Coordinate the two halves in the air, and hand each half cleanly into its own chunk at the stage-one split (the project's coaching doctrine; see 4.6).

Have you led half a big-way angle alongside a second qualified leader, both on belly, handing each half cleanly into its own chunk at the split?

Screen 3 · Safety and altitudes

Safety and altitudes

Everything here is a recommendation with a reason behind it. The drop zone you are jumping at, and your own limits on the day, decide what happens.

Safety-critical items on the short list

1.3
Hold the movement-group count per load to the briefed limit (guide: two per load). More than two, or two flying the same side, is a stacking flag that demands explicit airspace division: quadrants, wide buffer "walls" nobody crosses, declared opening points over named landmarks. Incidents come from accumulations of small factors, and closing speeds between groups are what kill (USPA SIM 5-10.E).

Do you cap how many movement groups go on one load, and when there are two, split the airspace with quadrants or a wall nobody crosses and a named opening point for each?

5.1
Lead a big-way angle with a second qualified leader, each leading half the load. Both leaders fly belly. Coordinate the two halves in the air, and hand each half cleanly into its own chunk at the stage-one split (the project's coaching doctrine; see 4.6).

Have you led half a big-way angle alongside a second qualified leader, both on belly, handing each half cleanly into its own chunk at the split?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.6
Design each group's breakoff before the jump:
1.7
For a big-way angle (12–17-way), plan the two-stage split breakoff (Element 4.6) as the primary safety architecture. Assign the two leaders and split the load into two leader-owned halves. Confirm every participant knows which leader they follow through the split (the project's coaching doctrine).
1.8
For a single-leader angle, treat 10–12 people as the practical ceiling. This is a high-risk jump: brief a raised breakoff of 6,000 ft or higher, and move to the two-leader big-way structure past this size rather than fanning one large single-leader group (the project's coaching doctrine).
1.9
For a head-up angle group, raise the breakoff floor, minimum 6,000 ft, and higher for larger groups. A head-up breakoff buys almost no separation, and rotating to head-first costs altitude (Carlton; the project's coaching doctrine; and see the head-up-angle breakoff item in Knowledge evidence).
4.1
Complete the last turn by ~7,000–7,500 ft. Settle the group straight, together and calm well before breakoff. Never break off in or just out of a turn: "that's where the collisions happen".
4.2
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude, leading straight ahead, fast and efficient, as the group's reference line. Never stop, flare out or turn in place. A leader who kills their speed is a standing target, and a group without a reference line is "just floating in the sky" (APF006 s5.10).
4.3
Monitor the fan through your own breakoff:
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace in all directions, ahead, behind, above, below and beside, always assuming somebody is there. The one time they are, you want to be prepared (Austin, "pulling early is not a breakoff").
4.6
For a big-way angle, run the two-stage split breakoff (the project's coaching doctrine):

The altitudes here are the guides this site recommends, with the reasons on the full course page. Where the drop zone briefs something different, fly what the drop zone briefs.

Screen 4 · After the jump

After the jump

From the course's closing section, review the operation.

6.1
Debrief each group to the protocol:
6.2
Compare plan against flown: draw what you planned, draw what you think you flew, and, if you have access to a GPS, compare all three. The gaps are the navigation curriculum for the next jump.
6.3
Develop the DZ's next leaders:
6.4
Feed the day back into the DZ's system, lane assignments, per-load limits, the leader list, briefing culture. Stand down or re-train where the flying showed it, and remember that half the organiser's craft is knowing when not to lead (Skydive Arizona off-landing bar).

One fault, one correction

Before the video, and before anyone else speaks, name the one fault from the jump and the one thing you will change on the next jump. Keep it to one of each, so you have one clear thing to 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

You can record the jump yourself, because your own read of your flying is worth keeping. A record counts as verified once a coach signs it.

Your notes for this course

Saved on this device only, with no account. They will be here next time you open this card.

This card is a summary. The full Angles 401 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.