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Head Down · Stability · The brief

Head-Down 102

Control and transition head-down

Control head down: turns, drive, slides and flips.

What the course is about

You'll learn to turn, drive forward, backward and sideways, change fall rate, and front flip and back flip in head-down, finishing each move on heading. This follows Head-Down 101, because you need to hold vertical before you move it.
In Australia, head-down training jumps need Freefly Training Table Stage 1 (head-up level 1) completed first.

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.

3.3
Perform a 360° turn in each direction using pressure on the leg opposite the turn, arms remaining in their stability role, stopping within ±45° of the start heading.

Can you turn 360 degrees each way using pressure on the leg opposite the turn, with your arms just keeping you stable, and stop within a quadrant of where you started?

3.4
Initiate and stop forward drive using chin and hip input, holding heading within ±45°.

Can you start and stop forward drive from chin and hip input, holding your heading?

3.8
Perform a head-down-to-head-down front-flip transition (head tilt initiates, legs tucked for momentum, legs catch air to stop rotation), re-establishing vertical within ±45° of the entry heading.

Can you do a head-down to head-down front flip, catching the rotation with your legs and coming out vertical near the heading you went in on?

3.10 Safety critical
Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, ball up, never flatten to belly, resuming work only when stable and the airspace is confirmed clear.

At head-down speed, if you become unstable, do you recover to back-fly, in the recovery position, instead of flattening to your belly, and only start work again once you are stable and the air around you is clear?

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

3.10
Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, ball up, never flatten to belly, resuming work only when stable and the airspace is confirmed clear.

At head-down speed, if you become unstable, do you recover to back-fly, in the recovery position, instead of flattening to your belly, and only start work again once you are stable and the air around you is clear?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
State breakoff and deployment altitudes (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for 5-way or larger, most modern freeflyers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft), and the audible verification plan for the jump. Audibles fail silently (see Knowledge evidence), so the profile is confirmed against the briefed breakoff. On an audible that annunciates climbing altitude, the climb beeps double as a function check (the 2,000 ft beep) and a profile check (the breakoff-altitude beeps heard on the climb). On an audible that arms only on freefall detection and gives no climb beeps, this in-plane check does not apply; function is verified per the manufacturer's method instead.
2.4
Verify audible function and profile on the climb, climb-annunciating devices only (see the device caveat in Knowledge evidence). Listen for the 2,000 ft beep when the seatbelts come off as a function check. Read the breakoff-altitude profile beeps heard higher on the climb as a separate profile check. Use a 12,000 ft beep as the final functionality check and the reminder to begin gear checks. On a device that gives no climb beeps, silence on the climb is normal, verify function per the manufacturer's method rather than treating the silence as a failed or passed check.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude after decelerating to belly-to-earth speeds (≥1,000 ft slow-down guide) and clearing airspace.

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 from 10,000 ft or higher (recommended).
Tunnel work in instructor-supervised sessions, with head-down spotting to the operator's rules, including bailing to back-fly on the coach's signal.
Video of every assessment jump or session, with the flyer identifiable: coach-flown, tunnel camera or outside video.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (two when the jump is flown on the flyer's own, as best practice), an AAD (recommended), and freefly-suitable gear to the Freefly 100 checklist.
Conditions within the flyer's cleared limits.
Ask about shoulder history before vertical work. The sit to head-down transition and these arm positions load the shoulder hard. Australian cases include torn shoulder ligaments as well as a dislocation that stopped a flyer reaching the pilot chute. Adjust the arm position and recovery sequence, and seek medical clearance where appropriate. A shoulder that cannot reach the pilot chute is a deployment failure.
Starting without Head-Down 101: tunnel records of back-fly, sit and head-down static to International Bodyflight Association (IBA) Level 4 entry standard, with head-down neutral flown off the net, plus one check jump against the Head-Down 101 checklist.
Routes for a flyer who already flies head-down. Tunnel: instructor-signed records at IBA Static Level 4 plus one coach 2-way check jump against the full checklist, flown as a fun 2-way that confirms the controls work in the sky. Tunnel records do not cover exits, drift control, breakoff or deployment.
Video: a portfolio of the drill set including the flips, logbook records of recent head-down jumps, and one check jump against the full checklist.
Crest: a current head-down crest (British Skydiving FF2 or equivalent), with currency inside the recommended window, may be credited directly.
For a flyer with tunnel records, brief the check jump with the tunnel-to-sky points. A flyer who flies a skill well in the tunnel and cannot reproduce it in the sky at first is normal and coachable.
The assessor is a freefly coach current in head-down coaching. Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
As a guide, it takes about 8 skill jumps over at least two days within six months.
Coached tunnel time of 45–60 minutes can replace up to half the skill jumps, but fly the full drill set on at least 3 sky jumps.
If you already fly head-down, your coach can assess you on one check jump, with International Bodyflight Association Static Level 4 records or video and your logbook, or credit a current head-down crest.

Performance evidence

After each jump or session, debrief the video with your coach and log one fault and its fix. You've finished Head-Down 102 when you fly two jumps or tunnel sessions in a row that meet everything on the coach's checklist below.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

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

Coaching priorities

Safety first, then fun, then learning. Keep the protocol for jumps on the flyer's own (daffy, static turn, two audibles) and the recovery drill ahead of getting through drills. Set one objective per jump or tunnel session, and end each debrief on something that went well, with one thing to improve.
A tunnel-trained flyer may have spent $20k or more on training. Acknowledge it in the brief, and watch their tunnel video: it is evidence you need, and the conversion depends on their trust. Set the frame, something like: "You've learned a lot in the tunnel, and we can convert it to the sky.
It may take longer than you expect, but once it clicks your progression speeds up. I'll teach what the tunnel doesn't cover, so be patient, and let yourself fly much less smoothly at first." An early run of discouraging jumps can end a progression. Tunnel-to-sky points to brief:
The more tunnel hours a flyer has, the more ingrained tunnel-sized inputs are. Name the erratic first jumps in the brief so they are expected.
Tunnel flyers are used to transitions at low speed into a large, high-drag position (thighs 90° to the torso, a big rear daffy leg, hands wide). The sky starts sub-terminal with almost no controls engaged, and the legs come in slowly, gently and much less than in the tunnel.
The 30–45° front-daffy thigh bend would put the flyer on the net in the tunnel. Say so, so it doesn't feel wrong.
A tunnel rotation runs 3–5 minutes and a head-down skydive about 30 seconds, so altitude awareness decays on the first jumps back from a long tunnel block. Step the intensity down, run two audibles plus visual checks, and keep regular sky currency alongside tunnel blocks.
On exit, think gear, pins and jump run. Fly freefly-tight gear, and learn traffic in a structured way before big-ways. Tunnel time to head-down static at a basic signed-off level is typically 10–20 hours. A flyer focused only on static may get there in around 10. Mixing in dynamic moves (front and back layouts, back carving) takes 20+ hours, and full dynamic training is a 100+ hour tunnel progression. The second Australian hard-opening case: multiple vertebral fractures on a distracted jump on the flyer's own, with the audible missing. Teach the mechanism and the lesson, and name no jumper. An unnoticed drive at head-down speed puts other groups at risk, and they never agreed to share the jump. AXIS Flight School videos: head-down basics and head-down turns.

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

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This card is a summary. The full Head-Down 102 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.