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HD302 Flyer
Coach card Full unit

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Head Down · Group · The jump

Head-Down 302

Fly the float slot on a head-down big-way

The float slot: dropping low and behind, then coming up from underneath.

What this unit covers

Covers one job on a head-down big-way:
The float slot. You exit outside the aircraft, drop off in clean air, approach the formation from low and behind, and dock from below without floating up into the divers' airspace. The big-way is built and run by an organiser (that craft is FFP-HD401).
The rest of it
This card is what a float flyer does inside it. Assumes FFP-HD202 ★ and FFP-HD301, the group foundation is not repeated here. Sky only.
The tunnel drills the dock, not the exit stack or big-way traffic.

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.

3.2
Rotate from a de-powered back-fly attitude to head-down, powering up once the sight picture to the base is set.

Can you rotate from a de-powered back-fly to head down and power up only once your sight picture to the base is set?

3.3
Fly the inverse-stadium approach from low and behind, arriving at a point below the base.

Can you fly the approach from low and behind, arriving at a point below the base rather than level with it?

3.4 Safety critical
Keep the base in the blue throughout the approach, sky behind the base at all times, aborting below and re-setting if the base sinks toward the green.

Do you keep sky behind the base the whole way in, and abort below and re-set if the base starts to sink toward the ground?

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
Keep the base in the blue throughout the approach, sky behind the base at all times, aborting below and re-setting if the base sinks toward the green.

Do you keep sky behind the base the whole way in, and abort below and re-set if the base starts to sink toward the ground?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
State own breakoff wave, altitude, radial and deployment altitude (the organiser owns the breakoff design, see FFP-HD401).
2.1
Complete a freefly-specific gear check (handles, hand-deploy pouch, riser covers, closing loop, helmet, audible set to own wave and functioning).
2.3
Dirt-dive own exit, drop-off, approach lane, dock and breakoff radial at least twice.
4.1
Initiate breakoff with own wave at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), regardless of formation completeness.
4.3
Deploy at own wave's briefed altitude after checking airspace (barrel roll only if smooth; if directly above another jumper, deploy rather than out-track).
5.3
Write the jump up naming the unit and slot (e.g. "HD302, float slot, wave-2 breakoff"), the results and the next objective.

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 own float slot against video, classifying each approach as clean, corrected or aborted.
5.2
Identify any overfloating indicator (base toward the green, reaching, drive over the top) and its correction.
5.3
Write the jump up naming the unit and slot (e.g. "HD302, float slot, wave-2 breakoff"), the results and the next objective.

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 Head-Down 302 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.