DY303 Flyer
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Dynamic · Group · The jump
Dynamic 303
Fly a pass-through
The pass-through: the group comes through vertical and heads back the other way.
What this unit covers
Covers flying a pass-through, the group dives through vertical and returns the way it came, the basic through-vertical dynamic jump. With both component parts demonstrated, vertical into movement (FFP-DY301) and movement into vertical (FFP-DY302), this unit links them into the full manoeuvre.
The flow: turn off jump run and gather the formation.
The rest of it
Navigate off jump run in a direction where it is safe to return back the same way.
The leader pitches the group over, passing through vertical and back the way the group came.
And every flyer switches orientation at that point, belly flyers emerge on back, back flyers on belly (the project's coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-08-05). Weakest-orientation-first. The student flying their first pass-through should almost always start on belly. Most freeflyers at this stage of training are more comfortable and proficient on back angles as movement-jump speed and pitch increase, and a pass-through is safer when the participants start on their weaker side first: the weaker orientation is then flown on the outbound line, where the leader controls the build-up of speed and pitch, and the flyer emerges from the vertical onto their stronger side for the fastest part of the jump. The track's classic cork point, the flyer who starts on back where they are comfortable and corks on the high-speed transition to belly, is this same mechanics run in the dangerous direction; weakest-orientation-first runs it in the safe one (the project's coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-08-05; cork-point theory The Freefly Project 2026-07-27). Footprint. A pass-through covers less than half the horizontal distance of a straight angle, because part of the jump is spent purely vertical; a double pass-through covers less than a third, and by four or five passes the jump approaches a purely vertical column of air. The leader plans the opening point accordingly, the footprint is short, and the return line brings the group back over ground it has already crossed (the project's coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-07-27). Leadership doctrine, the lead is always on belly. Navigation demands full ground visual from a stable platform, so dynamic jumps are led on belly only. Across the pass, one of two briefed mechanisms keeps a belly leader in place. On non-training jumps the recommended model is the two-leader belly-led handover: Leader 1 takes the group off jump run and flies the outbound line on belly with full visual of the ground; as the pass occurs, leadership hands over to their opposite number, the emerging belly flyer, who pulls the group up to the return line (the back flyers have plenty of power to come up to it). This is far safer and far tighter than a transitioning leader trying to push a belly flyer in front of them, who is in a dynamically unstable, twitchy flight position. The stated alternative, for example on coached jumps, is for the leader to transition back to belly across the pass and pick the navigation back up; there is no handover under this re-transition mechanism, and the leader retains lead and abort ownership throughout the pass. Under either mechanism the principle every participant briefs and flies to is the same: the middle person on belly is always leading. That makes a tighter, simpler, safer jump with much less chance of disorientation, because no navigation time is lost in transition, as the pass occurs, the emerging belly flyer sees the new sight picture and naturally starts navigating (the project's coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-07-27 and 2026-08-05; also captured in the project's coaching doctrine). Leadership edge cases every participant briefs (the project's coaching doctrine 2026-07-27, this unit and FFP-DY304 are the doctrine's home; FFP-DY201, FFP-DY301 and FFP-DY302 cross-reference it):
Who owns the through-vertical segment. Through the vertical segment, roughly 2–3 s on a basic pass-through, where nobody is on belly, ownership follows the briefed mechanism.
Under the handover, the **receiving leader (the emerging belly flyer) owns navigation and abort from the start of the segment, not from its end, so there is never a leaderless gap at max speed; the receiving leader is already acquiring the new sight picture as the group comes through. Under the re-transition mechanism the leader retains navigation and abort ownership throughout the pass**, there is no receiving leader.
Briefed explicitly on every through-vertical jump.
If the belly lead is lost across the pass (leader-loss protocol, both mechanisms, both windows). If the receiving leader corks or goes low before the handover, the pass-through is aborted: Leader 1, still on belly, still navigating, steepens and pulls the group out per the abort criteria below.
There is no back-flying substitute leader.
Because dynamic is led on belly, Leader 1 on their back cannot step up and no one is asked to lead from the back to fill the gap.
The jump reverts to a straight angle led on belly and breaks off normally.
If the belly lead fails during the vertical segment, a receiving leader who corks after the segment begins.
Or a re-transitioning leader who fails mid-pass, the brief is the same under both mechanisms: if no belly lead has emerged within the briefed ~2–3 s, each flyer completes their own transition over the body, holds the reciprocal line, and the jump is over, no rebuilding; break off per the plan, deploying higher if separated (review-derived doctrine, adversarial review 2026-08-05, RT-10, applied under flag).
On coached training jumps, the two-leaders standard has a training exception. The two-approved-leaders standard is a non-training dynamic-jump standard.
A coached 2-way pass-through structurally cannot field two independently approved leaders, there is one coach and one student.
So on coached training jumps the coach is Leader 1, flying either briefed mechanism.
Under the re-transition mechanism the coach retains lead and abort ownership throughout the pass, the student never receives the lead, so the readiness judgement below does not arise.
The handover mechanism is flown only when the coach judges the student ready to receive the belly lead (ready to be the receiving leader for those ~2–3 s).
If the coach does not judge the student ready, the pass flies under the coach's re-transition or the jump stays a straight angle.
The belly-led principle stays intact under either mechanism, on a handover jump the approved belly leader (the coach) brackets the student's brief turn as receiving leader, and on a re-transition jump the coach is the belly leader throughout.
Turn-radius (arc) ownership passes with the lead. A handover during a turning pass happens mid-turn, so it transfers turn-radius (arc) ownership with the lead: the receiving leader sets the new arc as they pick up the lead, and the group flies the outside of that arc with speed (turns are curves, not corners).
A mismatched arc across the handover is a closing-speed hazard, name it in the dirt-dive.
This is mainly a flock-and-roll concern (FFP-DY304).
A straight pass-through carries the convention so it is briefed habit before the turn is added. The low-belly-flyer hazard. The key hazard of the pass-through family is a belly flyer who goes low, loses visual on the group, and floats up blind through the diving formation. The trained recovery is the belly-to-back transition practised and demonstrated in FFP-DY202: transition to back to regain visual and follow the group from below (the project's coaching doctrine). On a reversing jump the recovery carries one extra rule, the dropped-flyer rule: the group's return line is the reciprocal of the line a dropped flyer is still on, and while the group is safe against its own earlier column (it is always below its earlier altitude there), a dropped flyer descending on that column can meet the returning group head-on. Once the group has passed through, do not rejoin across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only with the group re-acquired visually, and otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace (review-derived doctrine, adversarial review 2026-08-05, RT-9, applied under flag). Mastery track, no sign-off. Completion of this unit is a milestone, not a permission: it admits the flyer to the track's through-vertical group jumps within this curriculum, and nothing more. The unit's entry standards are course-internal safety standards, prerequisites to participate in these jumps, not jump permissions, licences, crests or endorsements of any kind. Any drop zone may adopt them as local policy; this curriculum only recommends them. Fly the pass-through small: 2-way to start, building to 3-way and 4-way, group sizes 2–4 are the guide. Anything over 6 belongs to dedicated teams working up incrementally; a pickup group is best kept well under that. Environment: sky, with tunnel drills (belly/back carving, belly↔back flips and layouts at speed) as preparation for the orientation switch. Navigation, the handover and breakoff are sky-only skills. Supervision: the coach leads a 2–4-way and designs every jump around the least experienced flyer (USPA SIM 5-10.E). On a coached training jump the coach is Leader 1 under the training exception above; non-training pass-throughs carry two approved leaders for the belly-led handover.
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.
3.3
Transition through vertical on the leader's pitch-over, switching orientation over the body as the group comes through and re-establishing slot and level on the return line promptly.
Can you transition through vertical on the leader’s pitch-over and re-establish slot and level on the return line?
3.4
Safety critical
Clear own airspace visually before the orientation switch, no blind transitions.
Do you clear your airspace visually before the orientation switch, every time?
3.11
Safety critical
Apply the dropped-flyer rule after losing the group across the pass: do not rejoin across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only once the group is re-acquired visually, and otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace.
If you lose the group across the pass, do you hold an offset line and follow from below, never rejoining across the reciprocal?
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
3.4
Clear own airspace visually before the orientation switch, no blind transitions.
Do you clear your airspace visually before the orientation switch, every time?
3.11
Apply the dropped-flyer rule after losing the group across the pass: do not rejoin across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only once the group is re-acquired visually, and otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace.
If you lose the group across the pass, do you hold an offset line and follow from below, never rejoining across the reciprocal?
Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment
1.6
State breakoff (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for a 5-way or larger; set at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment) and deployment altitudes, and the lost-leader protocol (transition to back, turn onto a back angle, follow the group from below).
2.2
Dirt-dive the full flow, exit, gather, the outbound line, the pitch-over point, the orientation switch, the return line and breakoff, with slot allocations and the transition key.
2.3
Brief the abort criteria and the leadership edge cases: belly flyers not in slot on the angle = pass aborted; a scattered group = the leader steepens, then pulls back out; who owns navigation and abort through the vertical segment (under the handover, the receiving leader from the start of the segment; under the re-transition mechanism, the leader throughout); the leader-loss protocol in both windows (before the pass: pass aborted, Leader 1 steepens and pulls out, no back-flying substitute; mid-pass: no belly lead within the briefed ~2–3 s = each flyer completes their own transition over the body, holds the reciprocal line, and the jump is over); the dropped-flyer rule for the reversing geometry (once the group has passed through, no rejoining across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only with the group re-acquired, otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace); on a coached jump, the coach as Leader 1 flying the handover only when the coach judges the student ready to receive the belly lead; and arc ownership across the handover wherever a turn is planned (FFP-DY304).
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace.
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.
5.2
Analyse own pass on video, slot and level through the pitch-over, the orientation-switch path, closing speed on the return line, identifying one correction for the next jump.
5.3
Write the jump up in the logbook with reflections naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "DY303 pass-through, received the belly lead through the vertical"), criteria results and current standing against the track's safety standards, the curriculum gives log entries meaning.
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
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Nothing written against this unit yet.
This card is a summary. The full Dynamic 303 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.