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DY301 Flyer
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Dynamic · Group · The jump

Dynamic 301

Fly vertical into movement

Starting vertical and leaving on a line.

What this unit covers

This unit is a vertical head-down (or head-up) jump into movement. The group exits in a head-down or head-up round, builds an accordion, breaks grips and follows the leader out onto a line; the formation ends on an angle.
It is the first component part of through-vertical group flying: FFP-DY302 trains the opposite direction (movement into vertical), and FFP-DY303 links the two into the pass-through. The accordion creates the line of belly and back flyers. The leader departs on belly.
The rest of it
The flyer adjacent to the leader in the accordion also comes out on belly, and the other line of the accordion comes out on back. The same assignment applies for head-down and head-up.
The coach briefs this slot-to-orientation assignment in the dirt dive so every flyer knows their departure orientation before grips break, nobody improvises a transition inside the group. The head-up version carries two extra briefing points.
The back line departs from head-up onto the steep back angle while the group accelerates, a flyer who shallows onto flat back-fly instead corks under the departing line, so the back flyer lays away onto the steep angle and keeps the speed on.
And a head-up leader builds the formation with eyes on the horizon rather than the ground, so the leader confirms the ground picture, the landmark fixing the departure point, before giving the grip-release key. The abort geometry. The group departs onto the line only from a complete, stable accordion.
When the formation has not built by the planned point, or is not stable at the grip-release key, the leader withholds the key and the jump completes as a vertical formation jump, a jump every participant is qualified for on this unit's own prerequisites.
A flyer who misses the key does not chase the departing line: hold orientation, let the group depart, and follow from below. The departure and the level-change caution. APF006 cautions against radical level changes on vertical jumps, naming the transition to belly as its example (§3.3), and this jump's departure is exactly that manoeuvre.
The simultaneous key and the assigned orientations are the control: every flyer changes level at the same moment, in a briefed direction, into airspace they have just cleared, so no flyer carries a large speed difference to the rest of the group.
The same control gives the off-key rule its logic: a late transition into the departing line recreates the speed difference the caution describes, so the off-key flyer holds orientation and follows from below. Leadership. The leader is on belly once the group is moving: the belly leader reads the ground and the line directly and owns navigation and the opening point.
This jump transitions from vertical into movement once and never passes back through vertical, so a single belly leader serves for the whole moving segment. The full through-vertical leadership doctrine, two approved leaders and the belly-led handover, lives in FFP-DY303 and FFP-DY304.
Fly dynamic small: start at 2-way, build to 3-way, then 4-way, group sizes 2–4 are the guide for this unit. Anything over 6 is highly advanced and best avoided; that scale belongs to dedicated competition-style teams working up incrementally, not a weekend load.
Mastery-track note: the Dynamic track carries no sign-off, completion of this unit is a milestone, not a permission, and its prerequisites are course-internal safety standards. Environment: sky, with tunnel drills (vertical formation craft, belly/back transition mechanics) as preparation.
Exits, navigation, group flow and breakoff are sky-only skills. Supervision: the coach leads. The candidate flies each departure slot in turn, the belly slot beside the leader, then the back line.

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.

3.4
Break grips on the leader's key, coming out in the assigned orientation, belly beside the leader, back on the other line, establishing the slot as the leader sets the angle.

Can you break grips on the leader’s key and come out in your assigned orientation as the leader sets the angle?

3.5 Safety critical
Execute the off-key rule after missing the grip-release key: hold orientation, let the group depart, and follow the group's line from below, transitioning only in clear air, never late into the departing group.

If you miss the grip-release key, do you hold your orientation, let the group go and follow their line from below, transitioning only in clear air?

3.7
Hold the briefed slot and level through the moving segment, matching the leader's speed and pitch (entering the leader's zone, no line busts).

Can you hold slot and level through the moving segment, matching the leader’s speed and pitch without busting the line?

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

3.5
Execute the off-key rule after missing the grip-release key: hold orientation, let the group depart, and follow the group's line from below, transitioning only in clear air, never late into the departing group.

If you miss the grip-release key, do you hold your orientation, let the group go and follow their line from below, transitioning only in clear air?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.6
State the breakoff and deployment altitudes (guides: 5,000 ft up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for five or more; where the vertical segment is flown head-up the floor rises, head-up groups 5,500 ft minimum; breakoff at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment), the fan-out plan, and the lost-leader protocol.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace.
5.3
Log the jump with criteria results and a reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "FFP-DY301 vertical into movement, head-up round, back-line departure, held slot to breakoff"), entries like this make the logbook a meaningful training record.

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.

5.1
Debrief against the declared objective using video, marking formation faults (round and accordion) and line faults (slot and level misses) separately.
5.2
Identify one vertical-formation fault and one line fault, with a correction for the next jump.
5.3
Log the jump with criteria results and a reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "FFP-DY301 vertical into movement, head-up round, back-line departure, held slot to breakoff"), entries like this make the logbook a meaningful training record.

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.

Your notes for this unit

Saved on this device only. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is nowhere for it to go, and no account is involved. They will be here next time you open this card.

This card is a summary. The full Dynamic 301 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.