Dynamic 401

Follow the leader into a carve

Following a leader through a carve, copying everything.

What the course is about

You'll learn to follow a leader through a flock and roll into a carve, copying their line, level and tempo at close range. Dynamic 304 comes first, because this jump opens with its flock and roll and keeps that tight formation all the way into the carve.

In Australia these jumps sit under both the freefly and the tracking and angle rules, which need a Certificate C and an approved leader. The drop zone safety officer decides how the two apply.

What comes before it

Dynamic 304

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

Fly the carve through the briefed snake pattern directly behind the leader, copying the leader's orientation, line and tempo, tunnel-style lead-and-follow.

Can you fly a carve directly behind the leader, copying their orientation, line and tempo?

3.4

Replicate each of the leader's transitions with the same orientation and path (no trick busts).

Do you replicate each of the leader’s transitions with the same orientation and path, rather than substituting your own move?

3.8 Safety critical

Keep the group's carve inside its own airspace, monitoring the jump run and the straight-down groups throughout, avoiding them is entirely the moving group's responsibility, never theirs.

Do you keep the group’s carve inside its own airspace, watching jump run and the straight-down groups throughout?

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

3.8

Keep the group's carve inside its own airspace, monitoring the jump run and the straight-down groups throughout, avoiding them is entirely the moving group's responsibility, never theirs.

Do you keep the group’s carve inside its own airspace, watching jump run and the straight-down groups throughout?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.5

State the breakoff plan, breakoff altitude, the back-flyer roll rule, and deployment altitudes, with separation complete at least 1,000 ft above the planned deployment height (a guide: 5,000 ft for freefly groups up to 4-way, noting most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft).

4.1

Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), rotating from head-up to a head-first orientation first if the jump ends head-up, then turning onto a clear radial while flattening pitch to a track; never back-track away while still head-up.

4.2

If on the back at breakoff, roll to belly only once on a clear trajectory with no one above.

4.3

Deploy at the planned altitude, inside the group's planned opening airspace, after checking own airspace.

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.

5.1

Debrief the carve against the plan on video, in the shared vocabulary, marking line busts (where the follower's line, level or timing diverged from the leader's) and trick busts (transitions not replicated with the leader's orientation and path).

5.2

Identify one following fault, line, level or timing, with a correction for the next jump, setting the next jump's carve pattern accordingly.

5.3

Log the jump in the logbook naming the unit and skills flown (e.g. "DY401, out-face carve behind a leader"), with criteria results and a short reflection, the curriculum is what makes the log entry meaningful.

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.

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