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Angles · Mastery · The brief

Angles 402

Fly head-up angles

Angle jumps flown head-up, and the transition to head-first before breakoff.

What the course is about

You'll learn to hold an angle slot head-up in a small group led from the belly, and to transition to head-first early enough that the breakoff still gives the group separation.
Angles 202 comes first, because you need to hold an angle slot on belly and back, and Head-Up 102, because you need to move a sit where you want it. In Australia, larger freefly formation jumps need the appropriate Freefly Crest (the threshold is in the regulations panel below).

What comes before it

Screen 2 · What to watch

What to watch

The same short list the flyer sees on their card, in the same words.

3.1 Safety critical
Hold slot through orientation changes: change orientation without changing level or closing speed, bridging the fall-rate difference with speed range rather than letting the transition scatter the group (the project's coaching doctrine, the participant speed-range skill).

Can you fly the back-fly slot on a normal angle and transition to head up on the leader’s key, without coming off level or separating laterally from the group?

3.2
Fly each transition on the leader's key, staying on the line of flight, transition head-up to head-first using a team layout around a centre point, never the in-place layout Carlton names as the worst option (Carlton; the project's coaching doctrine).

After a transition to head up, can you keep moving on the line of flight? That is, can you fly head up in a straight line?

3.6
Control pitch and level changes while moving head-up, holding the briefed slot through them (the participant speed-range skill of 3.1, applied through the line's pitch changes).

Can you control both pitch and level changes in head-up movement whilst staying in slot?

4.1 Safety critical
Be head-first and moving by the briefed window (~6,000–7,000 ft depending on the group and its size) so the track has spent its acceleration lag before the breakoff floor arrives (Carlton, the 1,500–2,000 ft lag; the project's coaching doctrine; the FFP head-up-angle breakoff guides, 6,000 ft minimum and 6,500 ft for larger groups).

Are you lifting your breakoff in head up, starting at about 6,000 to 7,000 feet depending on the group and its size, so you are head first and moving by the standard 5,500 foot breakoff?

Screen 3 · What blocks a sign-off

What blocks a sign-off

A safety-critical item marked not yet stops the sign-off, however good the rest of the flying was. The rest of the jump cannot make up for it.

Safety-critical items on the short list

3.1
Hold slot through orientation changes: change orientation without changing level or closing speed, bridging the fall-rate difference with speed range rather than letting the transition scatter the group (the project's coaching doctrine, the participant speed-range skill).

Can you fly the back-fly slot on a normal angle and transition to head up on the leader’s key, without coming off level or separating laterally from the group?

4.1
Be head-first and moving by the briefed window (~6,000–7,000 ft depending on the group and its size) so the track has spent its acceleration lag before the breakoff floor arrives (Carlton, the 1,500–2,000 ft lag; the project's coaching doctrine; the FFP head-up-angle breakoff guides, 6,000 ft minimum and 6,500 ft for larger groups).

Are you lifting your breakoff in head up, starting at about 6,000 to 7,000 feet depending on the group and its size, so you are head first and moving by the standard 5,500 foot breakoff?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
Set the breakoff to the raised head-up floors, minimum 6,000 ft, 6,500 ft for a larger group, with the head-first conversion initiated by ~6,500–7,000 ft (Carlton). These sit above the ordinary angle guides of 5,000 ft up to a 4-way and 5,500 ft for five or more, because a head-up breakoff does not produce the separation a head-first one does. Keep at least 1,000 ft between breakoff and planned deployment (mandatory in Australia, the APF Operational Regulations) (the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards; FFP-AN301 knowledge evidence).
4.2
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude in the briefed fan, each flyer tracking in a head-first orientation, peeling no more than ~90°, never turning back toward jump run (APF006 §5.10; the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards).
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude after visually clearing the airspace in all directions, always assuming somebody is there (APF006 §3.3).

Recording a sign-off says what you saw on one jump. Permission to jump, and anything the drop zone requires, stay with the drop zone.

Screen 4 · Conditions

Conditions

Where the evidence is allowed to come from, and how much of it there needs to be.

Assessment conditions

- Sky jumps in led groups, with the assessing coach on the jump.
Jumps from 12,000 ft or higher (recommended), for working time above the raised breakoff altitudes.
Video is the main debrief and assessment tool: footage from within the group or from the leader's slot, with the flyer talking it through.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible set to the briefed profile, an AAD (recommended), and freefly-suitable gear.
Conditions within every participant's cleared limits.
The assessor is a freefly coach current in movement jumps and head-up flying, using this checklist.
Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory, and the result is recorded as a Mastery milestone.
As a guide, about 10 head-up angle jumps in led groups: slots held head-up on the line, conversions held in slot and started in the briefed window, and consecutive jumps broken off to plan at the raised altitudes. Spread them over two days and different winds, within 12 months. Tunnel time covers head-up control and transition mechanics only.
In the talk-through, the flyer can explain the raised altitudes and the GPS figures behind them, why transitions stay off vertical, how speed range keeps level through a transition, the team layout and why transitioning in place is weakest, why the leader stays on belly, and why screening is by watching people fly.
For an experienced flyer: logbook and video of head-up angle jumps showing held slots, conversions in the window and breakoffs at the raised altitudes, a word from a recognised coach or leader, and one assessed jump against this checklist.
As a guide, it takes about 10 head-up angle jumps in led groups, over at least two days and different winds, within 12 months.
Tunnel time builds head-up control and transitions, and the rest happens only in the sky.
If you already fly head-up angles, your coach can assess you on one jump, with your logbook, video and a word from a recognised coach or leader.

Performance evidence

After each jump, debrief the video with your coach, name the cause of every fall-rate change at a transition, and log the jump. You've finished Angles 402 when you fly consecutive jumps that meet everything on the coach's checklist below, broken off to plan at the raised altitudes.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

Safety first, then fun, then learning. In that order, every time.

Coaching priorities

- Safety first, then fun, then learning.
Head-up angles are among the most enjoyable jumps in the sport. Hold the raised altitudes and the conversion window to the bold standard, so the jumps happen inside a plan, with a leader.
Ask the flyer to assess the head-up end of their flying as honestly as their strongest end.
End each debrief on something that went well, with one focus for the next jump.

One fault, one correction

Ask for their read before you give yours. Then leave them with one fault and one correction, in their words if you can get them. One of each is easier to carry onto the next load than six points.

A jump marked not yet is a jump to fly again. Tell them that as part of the debrief.

Record this jump

Your notes for this course

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This card is a summary. The full Angles 402 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.