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HU301 Coach
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Head Up · Group · The brief

Head-Up 301

Fly head-up in groups

Head up in a group: holding the base, presenting grips, and other people’s columns.

What the course is about

You'll learn to fly head-up in a group: the linked exit, flying base, presenting and taking docks, and a fan-out breakoff. This follows Head-Up 202, because in a group your sit, level and docks need to be automatic while you watch the flyers approaching your slot.
In Australia, a head-up jump with more than three people needs the head-up freefly crest, and one with more than ten also needs the Star Crest.

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.

3.4
Fly the base on heading ±45° (staying in the same quadrant) at a steady fall rate for the working time, without orbiting, while monitoring each approaching flyer.

Can you fly a base on heading at a steady fall rate, without orbiting, while watching everyone approaching?

3.5
Present a dock wide of the leg burble, arm out wide, hand offered for the hand-to-hand grip, eyes back into the group, whenever a flyer approaches own slot.

When someone flies to your slot, do you offer the grip wide of your leg burble with your eyes back into the formation, rather than reaching out for them?

3.8 Safety critical
Maintain separation from other flyers' vertical columns and burbles throughout, never crossing directly above or below another flyer on approach.

Do you stay clear of other flyers’ columns and burbles, never crossing directly above or below someone on approach?

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

3.8
Maintain separation from other flyers' vertical columns and burbles throughout, never crossing directly above or below another flyer on approach.

Do you stay clear of other flyers’ columns and burbles, never crossing directly above or below someone on approach?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
State the group breakoff plan: breakoff altitude, pre-assigned fan-out directions, deployment altitudes, and the lost-formation plan. Altitude guide: 5,500 ft minimum for a static head-up group, 6,000 ft for 6-way and larger. For a head-up angle group the recommended FFP floor is higher still, minimum 6,000 ft, 6,500 ft for a larger group, because a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation and rotating to head-first costs altitude.
2.4
Dirt-dive the formation: docking order, presentation responsibilities, level discipline, and the fan-out breakoff directions.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), or immediately on the group's first breakoff movement, whichever comes first.
4.2
Rotate from head-up to a head-first (head-down or belly) orientation first, then track the pre-assigned fan-out radial away from the formation, transitioning progressively without cutting across another flyer's lane. Never back-track away from the group while still head-up: a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation, and a formation back-tracking from face-in slots converges rather than separates.
4.3
Check airspace above, below and behind before deployment (barrel roll only if smooth and reliable).
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude, at least 1,000 ft below breakoff, 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).
Assessment jumps flown in a real group of at least four, including at least one 4-way linked head-up exit.
Video of every assessment jump, from an outside camera or a coach-flown camera, with the flyer identifiable.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (a second is recommended), and freefly-suitable gear.
Conditions within the flyer's cleared limits.
The assessor is a freefly coach current in head-up group coaching, using this checklist. In Australia that is an APF Freefly Coach. Elsewhere it is the national or drop zone equivalent.
Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
As a guide, it takes at least 8 coached head-up group jumps of 4-way or larger, mostly 4–6-ways, in at least two exit slots (one float and one centre), over at least two days or conditions within 6 months.
Up to two skill-building jumps can be tunnel sessions for presentation, level and approach.
If you already fly head-up in groups, your coach can assess you on one 4-way against the full checklist, with your logbook (about 20 or more head-up jumps in groups of four or more), video, crest and a reference from an organiser or coach. For the earlier courses, a head-up crest or an equivalent such as British Skydiving FF1, with a 2-way logbook and one Head-Up 202 checklist jump, can stand in.

Performance evidence

After each jump, debrief the video with your coach and log the jump with one exit, base, presentation or approach fault and its fix. You've finished Head-Up 301 when you fly two jumps 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. Hold the bold criteria to the standard above. Rotate slot responsibilities from jump to jump, so every flyer stays engaged. End each debrief on something that went well, with one thing for each flyer to improve.
Teach the head-up weight logic against the head-down 4-way, which also puts the heaviest flyer in front (Front Float), there as a downward anchor that stops the formation over-rotating, with the light flyer at Tail.

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

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This card is a summary. The full Head-Up 301 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.