Angles 401 — Organise large movement groups

The checklist

1. Plan the movement operation

1.1

Build the day's picture from the full ingredient set:

• all three wind layers (freefall, canopy, ground), cross-checked against a second report and the pilot on marginal days;
• the jump run, direction, offset, zero point, green light, and type (into-wind, crosswind or curved);
• the resulting drift for every group on the load.

1.2

Assign each movement group a pattern that diverges from every other group's line of flight. Use the simplest pattern that does the job. Grade complexity to each group's and each leader's demonstrated capability, never to paper over a planning problem ("it's really easy on paper, but it's not so easy to fly").

1.3

Hold the movement-group count per load to the briefed limit (guide: two per load). More than two, or two flying the same side, is a stacking flag that demands explicit airspace division: quadrants, wide buffer "walls" nobody crosses, declared opening points over named landmarks. Incidents come from accumulations of small factors, and closing speeds between groups are what kill (USPA SIM 5-10.E).

1.4

Set exit order as a navigation tool:

• big-to-small among belly groups;
• each movement group placed where its pattern works (never immediately after another movement group);
• belly groups out first on windy days (“if there’s a doubt, there’s no doubt”);
• separation computed from ground covered over the terrain, never an arbitrary second count (APF006 s3.2).

1.5

Compose each group around its least experienced flyer. Size the "rope", steepness, speed and turn count, to what that flyer and the group can spend. More flyers means simplify: fewer turns, a little flatter with speed, never flat-and-slow (the rope model; USPA SIM 5-10.B).

1.6

Design each group's breakoff before the jump:

• altitudes, guide 5,000 ft up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for five or more (most modern groups brief 5,500 ft regardless of size);
• last turn complete by ~7,000–7,500 ft;
• a fan that keeps every flyer’s track away from jump run. Breakoff in or just out of a turn, or a final leg pointed at the line of flight, is where the collisions happen (the project’s coaching doctrine breakoff standards). In any jurisdiction keep at least 1,000 ft between breakoff and planned deployment, in Australia this is mandatory (the APF Operational Regulations).

1.7

For a big-way angle (12–17-way), plan the two-stage split breakoff (Element 4.6) as the primary safety architecture. Assign the two leaders and split the load into two leader-owned halves. Confirm every participant knows which leader they follow through the split (the project's coaching doctrine).

1.8

For a single-leader angle, treat 10–12 people as the practical ceiling. This is a high-risk jump: brief a raised breakoff of 6,000 ft or higher, and move to the two-leader big-way structure past this size rather than fanning one large single-leader group (the project's coaching doctrine).

1.9

For a head-up angle group, raise the breakoff floor, minimum 6,000 ft, and higher for larger groups. A head-up breakoff buys almost no separation, and rotating to head-first costs altitude (Carlton; the project's coaching doctrine; and see the head-up-angle breakoff item in Knowledge evidence).

1.10

Prepare plan B as a pre-briefed conditional, as simple as possible, and as close to plan A as possible, changing only what must change. Count every horizontally-moving airspace user in the plan, including wingsuits and novice solo freeflyers (assume the perpendicular corridor both sides of their exit point is theirs).

2. Prepare the load

2.1

Declare every movement group to manifest. Publish each group's drawn pattern on a DZ map or flight-planning board before boarding, so each later group plans around the earlier ones. This buys time, information and accountability long before the mock-up (the manifest-map system; the Spaceland flight-planning board).

2.2

Confirm airspace division leader-to-leader, face to face. Sit within talking distance of the other movement leaders in the aircraft, so a changed jump run is a conversation, not a shout across a running door.

2.3

Brief each group from the plan, the briefing comes from the plan, it doesn't shape it. Deliver at the twenty-minute call and walk it at the ten, in positive instructions (what to do, never only what not to do). Cover, in order:

• dry data first: jump run, then exactly three wind categories (freefall, canopy, landing);
• the pattern by landmark, on a map you can draw on;
• approach and levels doctrine;
• the left-behind protocol (“we don’t break off at the same altitude of the group, we break off at the same timing of the group”);
• the breakoff walk-through;
• after-opening rules;
• plan B as a conditional.

2.4

Screen every participant by demonstration, not jump numbers:

• how close do they fly, could they dock on their leader?;
• what does their body position show?;
• what footage can they offer? Hold the group to its least experienced flyer, and decline late add-ons who cannot be properly briefed. “You don’t know what you don’t know”, and an unbriefed flyer in the mix is a documented collision precursor.

2.5

For a big-way angle, brief the split explicitly. Every participant must know which leader they follow, which half they are in, and which way their half diverges at the split. Name who sits near the seam between halves. The split only works if every participant tracks their assigned leader through the divergence (the project's coaching doctrine, see 5.2).

2.6

Verify precision in pilot and manifest communication:

• green-light language double-checked (“0.5 before”, before what?);
• the DZ’s jump-run convention confirmed (does it report the aircraft’s heading, or the drop line over the ground?).

3. Conduct the jump

3.1

Lead from the belly for the entire working time. An angle group is never led from the back. The leader's job is navigation and ground reference, which back-flying surrenders, and a group following a blind leader is a group nobody is navigating (the project's coaching doctrine the project doctrine; APF006 s5.12, "the lead flyer must always fly belly to earth").

3.2

Follow the published plan. Hold your ground against pre-board pressure and in-air temptation alike. When a change is forced, change the minimum, and always to the simpler version.

3.3

Keep the group together and fly to the lowest-level jumper:

• no slow go (speed equals lift);
• smooth progressive turns and pitch changes;
• predictability over accommodation. Never dive, flatten or turn at a straggler. Changing the closing speed on someone already struggling is a documented collision cause.

3.4

Hold the assigned lane, heading within ±45° of the planned leg. Never turn the group back toward jump run, or into another group's declared airspace. Every other group on the load planned its day around the line you published (USPA SIM 4-7.D).

3.5

Run the check cycle, heading → group → self, repeat. Advance the plan only when everyone is in slot. Hold or simplify a scattered group; never escalate it (APF006 s5.14).

3.6

If a flyer leaves the plan or corks out, continue the plan, never chase. The group follows the leader, so a chase drags everyone into the hazard and leaves nobody accounted for (APF006 Part 4 recovery doctrine).

4. Complete the jump, breakoff and landing

4.1

Complete the last turn by ~7,000–7,500 ft. Settle the group straight, together and calm well before breakoff. Never break off in or just out of a turn: "that's where the collisions happen".

4.2

Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude, leading straight ahead, fast and efficient, as the group's reference line. Never stop, flare out or turn in place. A leader who kills their speed is a standing target, and a group without a reference line is "just floating in the sky" (APF006 s5.10).

4.3

Monitor the fan through your own breakoff:

• everyone peeling progressively to no more than 90°;
• looking before turning;
• turning flat from the hips;
• anyone slotted above the leader flying an explicitly briefed line. Clear your own airspace with a look or a clean back transition, never a barrel roll, and never a “pull to clear airspace”.

4.4

Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace in all directions, ahead, behind, above, below and beside, always assuming somebody is there. The one time they are, you want to be prepared (Austin, "pulling early is not a breakoff").

4.5

After opening, hold position off jump run until the other groups' canopies are seen open, then fly the briefed canopy plan. On the ground, confirm every flyer in every movement group is back before anything else.

4.6

For a big-way angle, run the two-stage split breakoff (the project's coaching doctrine):

• Stage one, at ~7,000 ft: split the formation into the two leader-owned chunks. Each chunk diverges 45° from the common line, so the two chunks open 90° of lateral separation between them.
• Stage two, at 5,500 ft: each chunk runs its own separate, normal-scale breakoff.

This is the safety structure the big-way angle depends on. Split early into two leader-owned halves, open 90° between them, then run two independent breakoffs at the 5,500 ft group standard. Fanning one 12–17-way group at once builds closing speeds too high to manage. Each leader owns their chunk’s stage-two breakoff exactly as they would a normal group.

5. Master the big-way angle

5.1

Lead a big-way angle with a second qualified leader, each leading half the load. Both leaders fly belly. Coordinate the two halves in the air, and hand each half cleanly into its own chunk at the stage-one split (the project's coaching doctrine; see 4.6).

5.2

Demonstrate the big-way angle participant skills (whether leading or flying a slot):

• be reliably in slot, not burbling others, not falling behind;
• hold a large range of speeds on both belly and back;
• keep the brain-space to remember your leader when the group splits in two, follow the right leader, in the right slot, at the critical junction of breakoff, without becoming confused or confusing others (the project’s coaching doctrine).

5.3

Fly the last-diver approach to a big-way angle, aim at the FRONT of the formation, where it is going (the project's coaching doctrine).

• Safety rationale: if you overshoot with speed, you pass in front of the group, not into it. An overshoot resolves as a fly-past ahead of the formation, not a collision.
• Practical / flight-envelope rationale: aiming at the front puts you above and ahead of the formation, with a large range of body flight, good visuals of the group, and out of the group’s burble.
• The rear-approach trap: approaching the rear runs you out of flight controls (compared with being above with stored kinetic energy), and forces you to fly through the group’s burble at a full-power body position, no margin left to arrest or correct.

6. Review the operation

6.1

Debrief each group to the protocol:

• participants speak first;
• the video runs once, uninterrupted;
• safety points first;
• teach by showing the good example to the group;
• something relevant for every flyer;
• end on a win.

6.2

Compare plan against flown: draw what you planned, draw what you think you flew, and, if you have access to a GPS, compare all three. The gaps are the navigation curriculum for the next jump.

6.3

Develop the DZ's next leaders:

• set flight-plan homework, assessed on the defence, not the drawing;
• start candidates on simple patterns with experienced groups (never a new leader with a beginner group);
• observe and record their briefings and led jumps against a published standard (the Spaceland evaluator model).

6.4

Feed the day back into the DZ's system, lane assignments, per-load limits, the leader list, briefing culture. Stand down or re-train where the flying showed it, and remember that half the organiser's craft is knowing when not to lead (Skydive Arizona off-landing bar).

Criteria in bold are safety-critical: they protect every group sharing the sky. A coach should not record the course as complete while a bold criterion is Not Yet Satisfactory, however good the rest of the operation. Outside a course they are strongly recommended practice. Regulation stays with your federation and your drop zone.

Criterion 4.3 departs from the APF Freefly and Angles Guide, which recommends and assesses a barrel roll before opening (s3.3, s8.4, s8.7). The departure covers large movement groups only, and the barrel roll stays a valid check for small, slow-tracking groups.

At deployment altitude a barrel roll puts the flyer belly-up and blind below, costs altitude and can start instability. In a fanned group closing radials at speed, a clean back transition gives the same view of the air with the eyes on it throughout.

Assessment conditions

• Real movement operations at a drop zone that runs movement jumps: real multi-group loads for the multi-group items, and a real big-way, or the largest two-leader split the drop zone can safely field, for the big-way item. Tunnel work counts for no criterion.
• Sky jumps from 13,000 ft or higher where available (recommended). Larger groups need the working time.
• Footage of every assessed jump, leader-flown or helmet-mounted, with the organiser talking the assessor through their planning and in-air decisions.
• A photo of each assessed load’s published flight plan, on the board or the map, and GPS traces where the organiser has a GPS.
• Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (a second recommended), an AAD (recommended), and gear suited to movement jumps.
• Conditions within the drop zone’s briefed limits, spanning the range of winds in the jumps assessed. Avoid assessing on the last loads of the day, when an off landing has to be recovered in fading light.
• The assessor is an experienced movement-jump organiser, current at this scale, using this checklist. Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
• The loads, as a guide: about 12 organised and led, within a recommended 12 months. At least 4 carry two movement groups of about 6-way or larger, and at least 1 is a big-way angle with a co-leader and the two-stage split, or the largest two-leader split available. Cover at least two days and wind conditions and two jump-run situations.
• The standard: at least 2 consecutive organised operations meeting all criteria without help from a supervising organiser.
• Leader development: the organiser helps develop at least one newer leader, by setting flight-plan homework and hearing it defended, or by observing a briefing or led jump and giving structured feedback. With no leader candidate locally, a scenario and footage review with a developing leader can stand in.
• The talk-through: the organiser designs a two-movement-group load plan on a map of a nominated drop zone (patterns, exit order, separation by ground covered, opening points, holding areas) and defends it. The defence is what is assessed. They also adapt a benchmark leader-approval scheme into a written scheme for a nominated drop zone.
• For an organiser who already runs movement days: logbook, footage and talk-throughs of organised multi-group days, including a two-leader big-way or the largest split available. Add standing approved-leader or organiser status under a published drop zone scheme, and written references from a drop zone safety officer, S&TA or movement-jump evaluator.
• A recognised leading workshop counts toward the knowledge side only. Or run a challenge assessment across one organised day of about 4 loads, with at least one two-group load and one big-way split, against the full checklist.
• For the prerequisites: logbook, footage and a talk-through of movement jumps planned, briefed and led to Angles 302 standard, with standing leader approval from a drop zone safety officer, S&TA or published drop zone scheme, verified by a freefly coach.
• Completion is recorded as a Mastery milestone only. It confers no privilege. Leader and organiser approval stay with the drop zone safety officer (or S&TA) under local rules, and can be withdrawn at any time.
• As a guide, it takes about 12 movement loads you organise and lead within 12 months, including two-group loads and a big-way angle. Tunnel time doesn’t count.
• If you already organise movement days, your coach can use your logbook, footage and references, or assess you across one organised day. Permission to lead or organise stays with your drop zone safety officer.

Coaching priorities

• Safety first, then fun, then learning, held for the whole load as well as the organiser’s own group. The bold criteria protect every group in the sky. Never trade them for more loads flown.
• Keep the day enjoyable: plans published without drama, groups landing back on the drop zone happy and manifesting again, and plan B jumps designed as good skydives in their own right. Fun is part of safety at this scale: the organised day is the alternative to unbriefed, unled jumps.
• Debrief to the protocol: participants speak first, the video runs once uninterrupted, safety points first, teach from the good example, something for every flyer, and end on a win with one thing to improve. Model it for the leaders being developed.
• After the debrief, the three-picture drill: draw the plan, draw what the organiser thinks they flew, and compare both with GPS where available. The ground track includes drift, and the gaps set the navigation work for the next jump.
• Talk through the pattern menu, simple to hard, with each pattern’s breakoff geometry: straight 90, 45-45, 45-90, zigzag, back trail, 270.
• Check the finer planning habits: winds cross-checked against a second report and the pilot on marginal days, and jump run’s offset, zero point, green light and type (into-wind, crosswind or curved). Confirm the drop zone’s jump-run convention (aircraft heading or drop line over the ground), and the green-light wording (“0.5 before”, before what?).
• Check the brief: from the plan, at the twenty-minute call, walked at the ten, in positive instructions, dry data first, and plan B as a conditional. For a big-way, the split briefed explicitly, with the seam between halves named, and the pace stated.
• Screening by demonstration: self-reported biggest, fastest or steepest jumps say nothing about movement skill. Ask whether the flyer could dock on their leader, and treat an unseen flyer as lower-skilled.
• Novice freeflyers jumping on their own: check they know where jump run is, and teach them if not, as a responsible adult on the load.
• The last-diver approach: from above and ahead the diver has a large flight range, good visuals of the group and clean air. The Byron Bay case (14 January 2021, an 18-way sunset angle) is covered in the documentary IMPACT. Use it respectfully, as a first-person account.
• Audible discipline: consistent settings between jumps, and any change dirt-dived.
• Feeding the day back: lanes, per-load limits, the leader list and briefing culture. Stand down or retrain where the flying showed it. Knowing when not to lead is part of the organiser’s job.
• Work through the incident set with developing organisers, naming the flags that stacked in each: the Sebastian jump-run crossing, breakoffs from above the leader that went low (including Australian cases), the accommodation collision, hard openings after atmo jumps from too little slowing down, target fixation and height loss at atmo breakoffs, and a big angle put up with no plan.
• For the leader-approval scheme, compare Skydive Spaceland’s approved-leader process (questionnaire, course, evaluated jump, flight-planning board), Skydive Arizona’s day-by-day drop zone safety officer approval and daily lanes, and the Leading Workshop, which chooses not to certify its graduates.

• The Leading Workshop OZ (Modern Skydiving Concepts, April 2021): the leader’s responsibility, flags, the day’s ingredients, group size around the least experienced flyer, the manifest-map system, dividing the air between groups, the brief, the pattern menu, breakoff, leading in the air, the debrief, developing leaders and knowing when not to lead.
• APF Freefly and Angles Guide (APF006, August 2023): exit order and separation (§3.2), the airspace check before opening (§3.3), corking and recovery (Part 4), the leader continuing straight at breakoff (§5.10), the lead flyer on the belly (§5.12), the check cycle (§5.14), and the assessed barrel roll (§8.4, §8.7).
• Newcastle Sport Parachute Club, Hunter Valley angle and movement jump guidelines: movement groups per load, the load master brief, cloud, the leader’s skills and beginner group sizes.
• Jake Carlton, “Head Up Angles and the Breakoff Problem” (Skydive Mag): GPS data on head-up breakoff separation, the transition lag and group layouts.
• Alethia Austin’s articles on leading movement jumps, angle leading and freefly breakoffs.
• Burke, “The Horizontal Flight Problem” (Australian Skydiver Magazine, issues 70 and 71), and Joyriders, “Covering All the Angles”.
• “CYPRES Save: Mark Lucchiari’s Story” (Skydive Mag), and the documentary IMPACT (Patrick Dunne, All Beef Productions, 2022), on the 2021 Byron Bay collision.
• Skydive Spaceland’s and Skydive Arizona’s leader systems.
• Australian Skydiver Magazine: calls to formalise angle training (issues 74 and 76), the barrel-roll airspace check (issue 56), and breakoff and atmo incidents (issues 56, 65 and 73).
• The Freefly Project’s coaching guidance: the big-way split breakoff, the single-leader ceiling, the last-diver approach, and the breakoff guides.
• APF Operational Regulations (V01-2026) and USPA Skydiver’s Information Manual (2026) 4-7 and 5-10, as jurisdictional context.

Regulations change, so each rule is given with its document edition, as context for where you jump.

• Australia (APF). A movement-group leader must be an approved Freefly Coach or a Certificate Class C holder, approved by a DZSO at the drop zone. For groups larger than 8 the leader must be a Freefly Coach or have 300 tracking or angle jumps, with DZSO approval (OR 9.9.3(b)). Everyone in a group larger than 10 must hold an Australian Star Crest.
• The flight-path plan is shown to the DZSO before the jump, and the DZSO may withdraw a leader’s right to lead at any time (OR 9.9.2–9.9.3). A big-way angle (12–17-way) sits above all these thresholds, so its leaders and everyone on it already meet the crest and leader requirements.
• At least 1,000 ft between breakoff and planned deployment is mandatory under the Operational Regulations.
• In Australia the assessor for this course is an APF Freefly Coach with organising standing at the drop zone.
• Hunter Valley. Newcastle Sport Parachute Club’s guidelines limit a load to two movement groups unless the DZSO approves more, rule out movement jumps in or near cloud, require a DZSO-approved leader on the belly for every group, and limit beginner angles to three people including the coach.
• USA. USPA SIM 4-7 and 5-10 are recommendations. Leader approval sits with drop zone management or the S&TA. Skydive Spaceland’s approved-leader process and Skydive Arizona’s day-DZSO approval are widely used benchmarks.

Acronym key. APF, Australian Parachute Federation. OR, the APF Operational Regulations. DZSO, drop zone safety officer. USPA, United States Parachute Association. SIM, the Skydiver’s Information Manual. S&TA, safety and training advisor.