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Head Up · Stability · The brief

Head-Up 102

Move and transition head-up

Going where you want head up, and getting back to the sit from anywhere.

What the course is about

You'll learn to drive a sit forward, backward and sideways, change fall rate, fly the cartwheel, back flip and front flip, and find your own drift. This follows Head-Up 101, because you need a stable sit on heading and a recovery you trust before you start moving.
In Australia, solo freefly jumps need at least a Certificate B and the drop zone safety officer's approval.

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
Drive forward a briefed distance (~5–10 m guide) by pushing the legs toward a stand and breaking forward at the hips, a larger hip break than the tunnel permits, stopping in the neutral sit on heading (±45° guide).

Can you drive forward about five to ten metres and stop in a neutral sit, still on heading?

3.7
Perform a cartwheel transition (foot to opposite knee, tuck to a ball, force the legs down on return), re-establishing the sit on the original heading (±45° guide) within 3 seconds.

Can you cartwheel and re-establish the sit on your original heading within about three seconds?

3.12 Safety critical
Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, resuming work only when stable and back on the working heading.

If you become unstable in a transition or a drive, do you recover to back-fly, in the recovery position, straight away and pick work up again only once you are stable and back on your working heading?

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

3.12
Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, resuming work only when stable and back on the working heading.

If you become unstable in a transition or a drive, do you recover to back-fly, in the recovery position, straight away and pick work up again only once you are stable and back on your working heading?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.3
State breakoff and deployment altitudes (guide: 5,500 ft minimum for head-up work, most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft).
2.2
Fit the pull-up-cord drift indicator (designated drift-diagnosis jumps only) by tying it to a shoelace, good practice, keeping it as far as possible from handles and deployment equipment and confirming it streams free of snag points. Any cord added to gear is a snag hazard, so check it cannot reach or foul anything.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude after 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).
Video of every assessment jump, with the flyer identifiable: coach-flown, ground-to-air or tunnel video. Helmet-mounted video counts only where the flyer meets local camera rules.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (two when the jump is flown on your own), freefly-suitable gear, and the pull-up-cord drift indicator on the jumps planned for drift work.
Conditions within the flyer's cleared limits.
Tunnel work can count for the movement and transition criteria. The drift, altitude and breakoff criteria are assessed in the sky.
For a flyer who already flies the skill, any of these routes:
a logbook of head-up movement jumps, coached or on their own
tunnel records at IBA Static Level 3, plus sky jumps for the drift and breakoff criteria
a video portfolio of all three transitions and movement with clean stops
a challenge assessment of two jumps against the full checklist.
The IBA Static Level 3 content (sit turns, head-up forward and backward, sit-fly up and down, back to sit transitions) comes from third-party summaries. Check it against IBA material.
The assessor is a freefly coach current in head-up coaching, using this checklist.
Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
As a guide, it takes about eight jumps, coached and then solo, over at least two days within six months.
Tunnel sessions can replace up to half the skill-building jumps, because the wall shows every bit of drift (Tunnel to sky). The drift, altitude and breakoff work is flown in the sky.
If you already fly head-up movement, your coach can assess you on two jumps, or from your logbook, video and tunnel records with sky jumps for the drift and breakoff.

Performance evidence

After each jump, debrief the video, the drift indicator and your opening point with your coach, and log the jump with one fault and its fix. You've finished Head-Up 102 when you fly two sky jumps in a row that meet everything on the coach's checklist below, with each transition flown on at least two jumps.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

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

Coaching priorities

Safety first, then fun, then learning. Hold the bold criteria to the standard above and teach the reason for each. Set one objective per jump, one movement skill or one transition family, which keeps the load on the flyer light and the jump enjoyable.
End each debrief on something that went well, with one thing to improve.

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

Your notes for this course

Saved on this device only, with no account. They will be here next time you open this card.

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