Dynamic 303 — Fly a pass-through

Application

Covers flying a pass-through, the group dives through vertical and returns the way it came, the basic through-vertical dynamic jump. With both component parts demonstrated, vertical into movement (FFP-DY301) and movement into vertical (FFP-DY302), this unit links them into the full manoeuvre.

• The flow: turn off jump run and gather the formation.
• Navigate off jump run in a direction where it is safe to return back the same way.
• The leader pitches the group over, passing through vertical and back the way the group came.
• And every flyer switches orientation at that point, belly flyers emerge on back, back flyers on belly (the project’s coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-08-05).

Weakest-orientation-first. The student flying their first pass-through should almost always start on belly.

Most freeflyers at this stage of training are more comfortable and proficient on back angles as movement-jump speed and pitch increase, and a pass-through is safer when the participants start on their weaker side first: the weaker orientation is then flown on the outbound line, where the leader controls the build-up of speed and pitch, and the flyer emerges from the vertical onto their stronger side for the fastest part of the jump.

The track’s classic cork point, the flyer who starts on back where they are comfortable and corks on the high-speed transition to belly, is this same mechanics run in the dangerous direction; weakest-orientation-first runs it in the safe one (the project’s coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-08-05; cork-point theory The Freefly Project 2026-07-27).

Footprint. A pass-through covers less than half the horizontal distance of a straight angle, because part of the jump is spent purely vertical; a double pass-through covers less than a third, and by four or five passes the jump approaches a purely vertical column of air.

The leader plans the opening point accordingly, the footprint is short, and the return line brings the group back over ground it has already crossed (the project’s coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-07-27).

Leadership doctrine, the lead is always on belly. Navigation demands full ground visual from a stable platform, so dynamic jumps are led on belly only. Across the pass, one of two briefed mechanisms keeps a belly leader in place.

On non-training jumps the recommended model is the two-leader belly-led handover: Leader 1 takes the group off jump run and flies the outbound line on belly with full visual of the ground; as the pass occurs, leadership hands over to their opposite number, the emerging belly flyer, who pulls the group up to the return line (the back flyers have plenty of power to come up to it).

This is far safer and far tighter than a transitioning leader trying to push a belly flyer in front of them, who is in a dynamically unstable, twitchy flight position.

The stated alternative, for example on coached jumps, is for the leader to transition back to belly across the pass and pick the navigation back up; there is no handover under this re-transition mechanism, and the leader retains lead and abort ownership throughout the pass. Under either mechanism the principle every participant briefs and flies to is the same: the middle person on belly is always leading.

That makes a tighter, simpler, safer jump with much less chance of disorientation, because no navigation time is lost in transition, as the pass occurs, the emerging belly flyer sees the new sight picture and naturally starts navigating (the project’s coaching doctrine, The Freefly Project 2026-07-27 and 2026-08-05; also captured in the project’s coaching doctrine).

Leadership edge cases every participant briefs (the project’s coaching doctrine 2026-07-27, this unit and FFP-DY304 are the doctrine’s home; FFP-DY201, FFP-DY301 and FFP-DY302 cross-reference it):

• Who owns the through-vertical segment. Through the vertical segment, roughly 2–3 s on a basic pass-through, where nobody is on belly, ownership follows the briefed mechanism.

  • Under the handover, the receiving leader (the emerging belly flyer) owns navigation and abort from the start of the segment, not from its end, so there is never a leaderless gap at max speed; the receiving leader is already acquiring the new sight picture as the group comes through. Under the re-transition mechanism the leader retains navigation and abort ownership throughout the pass, there is no receiving leader.
  • Briefed explicitly on every through-vertical jump.

• If the belly lead is lost across the pass (leader-loss protocol, both mechanisms, both windows). If the receiving leader corks or goes low before the handover, the pass-through is aborted: Leader 1, still on belly, still navigating, steepens and pulls the group out per the abort criteria below.

  • There is no back-flying substitute leader.
  • Because dynamic is led on belly, Leader 1 on their back cannot step up and no one is asked to lead from the back to fill the gap.
  • The jump reverts to a straight angle led on belly and breaks off normally.
  • If the belly lead fails during the vertical segment, a receiving leader who corks after the segment begins.
  • Or a re-transitioning leader who fails mid-pass, the brief is the same under both mechanisms: if no belly lead has emerged within the briefed ~2–3 s, each flyer completes their own transition over the body, holds the reciprocal line, and the jump is over, no rebuilding; break off per the plan, deploying higher if separated (review-derived doctrine, adversarial review 2026-08-05, RT-10, applied under flag).

• On coached training jumps, the two-leaders standard has a training exception. The two-approved-leaders standard is a non-training dynamic-jump standard.

  • A coached 2-way pass-through structurally cannot field two independently approved leaders, there is one coach and one student.
  • So on coached training jumps the coach is Leader 1, flying either briefed mechanism.
  • Under the re-transition mechanism the coach retains lead and abort ownership throughout the pass, the student never receives the lead, so the readiness judgement below does not arise.
  • The handover mechanism is flown only when the coach judges the student ready to receive the belly lead (ready to be the receiving leader for those ~2–3 s).
  • If the coach does not judge the student ready, the pass flies under the coach’s re-transition or the jump stays a straight angle.
  • The belly-led principle stays intact under either mechanism, on a handover jump the approved belly leader (the coach) brackets the student’s brief turn as receiving leader, and on a re-transition jump the coach is the belly leader throughout.

• Turn-radius (arc) ownership passes with the lead. A handover during a turning pass happens mid-turn, so it transfers turn-radius (arc) ownership with the lead: the receiving leader sets the new arc as they pick up the lead, and the group flies the outside of that arc with speed (turns are curves, not corners).

  • A mismatched arc across the handover is a closing-speed hazard, name it in the dirt-dive.
  • This is mainly a flock-and-roll concern (FFP-DY304).
  • A straight pass-through carries the convention so it is briefed habit before the turn is added.

The low-belly-flyer hazard. The key hazard of the pass-through family is a belly flyer who goes low, loses visual on the group, and floats up blind through the diving formation. The trained recovery is the belly-to-back transition practised and demonstrated in FFP-DY202: transition to back to regain visual and follow the group from below (the project’s coaching doctrine).

On a reversing jump the recovery carries one extra rule, the dropped-flyer rule: the group’s return line is the reciprocal of the line a dropped flyer is still on, and while the group is safe against its own earlier column (it is always below its earlier altitude there), a dropped flyer descending on that column can meet the returning group head-on.

Once the group has passed through, do not rejoin across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only with the group re-acquired visually, and otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace (review-derived doctrine, adversarial review 2026-08-05, RT-9, applied under flag).

Mastery track, no sign-off. Completion of this unit is a milestone, not a permission: it admits the flyer to the track’s through-vertical group jumps within this curriculum, and nothing more. The unit’s entry standards are course-internal safety standards, prerequisites to participate in these jumps, not jump permissions, licences, crests or endorsements of any kind.

Any drop zone may adopt them as local policy; this curriculum only recommends them.

Fly the pass-through small: 2-way to start, building to 3-way and 4-way, group sizes 2–4 are the guide. Anything over 6 belongs to dedicated teams working up incrementally; a pickup group is best kept well under that.

Environment: sky, with tunnel drills (belly/back carving, belly↔back flips and layouts at speed) as preparation for the orientation switch. Navigation, the handover and breakoff are sky-only skills.

Supervision: the coach leads a 2–4-way and designs every jump around the least experienced flyer (USPA SIM 5-10.E). On a coached training jump the coach is Leader 1 under the training exception above; non-training pass-throughs carry two approved leaders for the belly-led handover.

Pre-requisite units

FFP-DY301 (vertical into movement) and FFP-DY302 (movement into vertical), the two component parts this unit links.

Course-internal safety standards (participation prerequisites for through-vertical jumps, not jump permissions; state this distinction in every briefing):

1. Through-vertical standard: head-down competence at crest standard, FFP-HD202 or national equivalent (e.g. the Australian the head-down crest), is recommended for all participants: every participant on a through-vertical jump is momentarily flying head-down.
2. Both-orientation standard: demonstrated competence in belly and back flying (carried from the 200 tier).
3. Bail-out standard: the FFP-DY202 transition check, the belly→back transition demonstrated in FFP-DY202, the trained recovery for the low-belly-flyer hazard, current and demonstrable to the coach on request.
4. Weakest-orientation-first: the coach evaluates the candidate in both orientations and starts them in the weaker, usually belly.

RPL route: see the RPL evidence set below. The candidate always demonstrates the bail-out standard live to the coach; it is never granted on prior evidence alone.

Elements and performance criteria

1. Plan the jump

1.1

State the jump's single declared objective and success criteria.

1.2

Verify every participant's standard status against the track's course-internal safety standards: head-down competence at crest standard for all participants, both orientations, and the bail-out standard (the FFP-DY202 transition check).

1.3

Plan the line off jump run in a direction where it is safe to return back the same way, the leader picks the line so the reciprocal is clear of jump run, other groups' planned airspace and the opening points, and presents the flight path to the load.

1.4

Assign starting orientations weakest-orientation-first: each flyer starts on their weaker side, usually belly, so a student's first pass-through almost always starts on belly.

1.5

Name the leadership mechanism for the jump, the two-leader belly-led handover (recommended for non-training jumps) or the leader re-transitioning to belly across the pass (the alternative, e.g. on coached jumps, under which the leader retains lead and abort ownership throughout the pass), with the lead on belly at all times.

1.6

State breakoff (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for a 5-way or larger; set at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment) and deployment altitudes, and the lost-leader protocol (transition to back, turn onto a back angle, follow the group from below).

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a freefly-specific gear check on self and group (handles, BOC, riser covers, closing loop, helmet, audible set and functioning; a second audible recommended).

2.2

Dirt-dive the full flow, exit, gather, the outbound line, the pitch-over point, the orientation switch, the return line and breakoff, with slot allocations and the transition key.

2.3

Brief the abort criteria and the leadership edge cases: belly flyers not in slot on the angle = pass aborted; a scattered group = the leader steepens, then pulls back out; who owns navigation and abort through the vertical segment (under the handover, the receiving leader from the start of the segment; under the re-transition mechanism, the leader throughout); the leader-loss protocol in both windows (before the pass: pass aborted, Leader 1 steepens and pulls out, no back-flying substitute; mid-pass: no belly lead within the briefed ~2–3 s = each flyer completes their own transition over the body, holds the reciprocal line, and the jump is over); the dropped-flyer rule for the reversing geometry (once the group has passed through, no rejoining across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only with the group re-acquired, otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace); on a coached jump, the coach as Leader 1 flying the handover only when the coach judges the student ready to receive the belly lead; and arc ownership across the handover wherever a turn is planned (FFP-DY304).

2.4

Confirm exit order and separation with the load and any other movement groups (guide: two movement groups per load).

3. Perform, the pass-through

3.1

Gather into the assigned slot and starting orientation on exit, holding position while the leader turns the group off jump run and sets the line, without passing the leader.

3.2

Hold slot and level on the outbound line as the leader steepens toward the pitch-over, matching the leader's speed and pitch changes.

3.3

Transition through vertical on the leader's pitch-over, switching orientation over the body as the group comes through and re-establishing slot and level on the return line promptly.

3.4

Clear own airspace visually before the orientation switch, no blind transitions.

3.5

When briefed as receiving leader, take the belly lead through the pass, owning navigation and abort from the start of the vertical segment, acquiring the new sight picture as the group comes through, and pulling the group onto the return line within ±45° of the reciprocal heading.

3.6

Regulate closing speed on every approach so as never to pass the leader; if overtaking, slow and hold position.

3.7

Abort the pass when belly flyers are not in slot on the angle; on a scattered group the leader steepens, then pulls back out to a straight angle that breaks off normally.

3.8

Recover in slot from any instability, never track away from the group.

3.9

Execute the lost-leader protocol immediately on losing visual contact: transition to back, turn onto a back angle, and follow the group from below.

3.10

Transition to back immediately when low on belly without visual on the group, the FFP-DY202-trained recovery, regaining visual and following from below.

3.11

Apply the dropped-flyer rule after losing the group across the pass: do not rejoin across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only once the group is re-acquired visually, and otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace.

4. Complete

4.1

Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).

4.2

Roll from back to belly only when on a clear trajectory with no one above.

4.3

Fan out on the briefed peel-off arc, flattening pitch to a track while checking airspace, never turning in place.

4.4

Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace.

4.5

Fly the briefed canopy plan, holding off the jump-run line until the airspace is confirmed clear.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief against the declared objective using video.

5.2

Analyse own pass on video, slot and level through the pitch-over, the orientation-switch path, closing speed on the return line, identifying one correction for the next jump.

5.3

Write the jump up in the logbook with reflections naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "DY303 pass-through, received the belly lead through the vertical"), criteria results and current standing against the track's safety standards, the curriculum gives log entries meaning.

Bold criteria are safety-critical: non-compensable within this course’s assessment, any Not Yet Satisfactory makes the unit Not Yet Competent, however good the rest of the flying. They are strongly recommended best-practice standards: risk treatments with stated reasons. Regulation remains your federation’s and your drop zone’s.

Foundation skills

• Briefing and debriefing communication (standards conversations, abort calls, keys, the handover brief).
• Altitude, separation and closing-speed numeracy.
• Flight-path planning with a clear reciprocal line and organising relative to other groups.
• Self-management under stress (flying the briefed recovery, not improvising, when the picture degrades).

Performance evidence (suggested sufficiency, adjust locally)

Ability evidenced across a guide of 8 coached Dynamic-track jumps building to the full pass-through. The jump counts are a guide to how long this typically takes, not a quota, competency is the standard, not the numbers:

• At least 4 jumps including a full pass-through, including two consecutive pass-throughs meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts.
• At least 1 pass flown as the receiving leader (on a coached jump, under the coach-as-Leader-1 training exception).
• Training begun on the candidate’s weaker side (weakest-orientation-first), with both orientations evidenced across the passes.
• Across at least two different days/conditions.
• Tunnel time may substitute for up to two of the transition-mechanics development jumps (belly↔back flips and layouts at speed, belly/back carving), never for navigation, the handover or the assessment jumps.
• All within a recommended 6-month currency window.

Knowledge evidence

• Describe the pass-through flow, turn off jump run, gather the formation, navigate in a direction where it is safe to return back the same way, pitch over through vertical, return the way the group came, and explain why every flyer switches orientation at the pass.
• Explain why every participant on a through-vertical jump is momentarily flying head-down, and why head-down competence at crest standard is therefore recommended for all participants (the standards rationale).
• Explain weakest-orientation-first: why a student’s first pass-through almost always starts on belly, and why starting on the weaker side makes the pass safer, the high-speed transition out of the vertical then lands on the stronger side, running the classic cork-point mechanics (comfortable on back, cork on the high-speed transition to belly) in the safe direction.
  • Most freeflyers at this stage are more comfortable and proficient on back angles as movement speed and pitch increase.
• Explain the belly-led leadership doctrine and both briefed mechanisms across the pass: the two-leader handover (recommended for non-training jumps) and the leader re-transitioning to belly.
  • Why the new belly flyer pulling the group to the new line is safer and tighter than a transitioning leader pushing a twitchy belly flyer in front of them.
  • And the principle that the middle person on belly is always leading.
  • The alternative, e.g. on coached jumps, under which the leader retains lead and abort ownership throughout the pass.
• State the four leadership edge cases briefed on every through-vertical jump: vertical-segment ownership.
  • The leader-loss protocol in both windows.
  • The coached-training exception.
  • And turn-radius (arc) ownership passing with the lead, mainly a flock-and-roll concern (FFP-DY304).
  • Under the handover, the receiving leader owns navigation and abort from the start of the segment, so there is no leaderless gap at max speed; under the re-transition mechanism, the leader throughout.
  • Before the pass: pass aborted, Leader 1 steepens and pulls out, no back-flying substitute leader.
  • Mid-pass: if no belly lead has emerged within the briefed ~2–3 s, each flyer completes their own transition over the body, holds the reciprocal line, and the jump is over, no rebuilding.
  • The coach is Leader 1, retains the lead throughout under the re-transition mechanism, and flies the handover only when the coach judges the student ready to receive the belly lead.
• State the abort criteria (belly flyers not in slot on the angle = pass aborted; scattered group = steepen, then pull back out) and the lost-leader protocol, and explain the logic of following from below.
• Explain the low-belly-flyer hazard, a belly flyer goes low, loses visual on the group, and floats up blind through the diving formation, and its FFP-DY202-trained recovery (transition to back to regain visual and follow from below).
• Explain the dropped-flyer rule for reversing jumps: why the returning group is safe against its own earlier column (always below its earlier altitude) while a dropped flyer descending on that column can meet the returning group head-on, and the response, once the group has passed through, hold an offset line rather than rejoining across the reciprocal, follow from below on the new direction only with the group re-acquired visually.
• And otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace (review-derived, adversarial review 2026-08-05).
• Explain the footprint geometry: a pass-through covers less than half a straight angle’s horizontal distance because part of the jump is spent purely vertical.
  • A double pass-through less than a third.
  • Four or five passes approach a purely vertical column of air.
• State the breakoff and deployment guides, noting that most modern jumpers plan 5,500 ft for any freefly group.
  • 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way; 5,500 ft for a 5-way or larger; breakoff set at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment.
• Describe the freefly-specific gear check and why a functioning audible matters on through-vertical jumps, two are recommended.
• Explain why a blind transition, rotating without first clearing the airspace you are about to occupy, is the classic collision set-up, and why the response to instability is to recover in slot, never to track away (APF006 §4.3).
• Explain why a back-flyer at breakoff rolls to belly only when on a clear trajectory with no one above (USPA SIM 5-10.E).
• State the group-planning guides: 2-way building to 3-way and 4-way, with groups over 6 left to dedicated teams; two movement groups per load; the jump designed around the least experienced flyer.
• Explain the distinction between the track’s course-internal safety standards and a jump permission or regulatory sign-off.

Assessment conditions

Sky jumps from a recommended 12,000 ft minimum exit (guide, through-vertical work needs working time), flown as a real 2–4-way.

Non-training assessment jumps carry two approved leaders for the belly-led handover; a coached assessment jump uses the coach-as-Leader-1 training exception, the handover flown only when the coach judges the candidate ready to receive the belly lead, with other passes flown under the coach’s re-transition, the coach retaining lead and abort ownership throughout.

Video of assessment jumps is required for a valid assessment (leader-, outside- or helmet-mounted; candidate identifiable). Required equipment: visual altimeter, functioning audible (second recommended), AAD recommended, freefly-suitable gear. Conditions within all participants’ cleared limits.

Assessor: a freefly coach current in dynamic/movement coaching and approved to lead movement jumps at the host drop zone, using the published FFP-DY303 checklist, each criterion marked Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory, unit judgement Competent / Not Yet Competent.

The judgement is course-internal: it admits the candidate to the track’s through-vertical jumps within this curriculum and confers no licence, crest, endorsement or jump permission.

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project’s priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Safety criteria are non-compensable, and the coach holds the standards conversation openly before money is spent.

The coach explains weakest-orientation-first up front as a safety decision and judges readiness to receive the belly lead honestly: when the student is not ready, the pass flies under the coach’s re-transition or the jump stays a straight angle, and the coach frames either as progress toward receiving the lead.

End each debrief on a win with one improvement focus, and frame the first completed pass-through as the door into through-vertical flying.

RPL evidence set

For experienced entrants, the following alternative evidence is suggested as satisfying the same criteria:

• Logbook evidence of through-vertical movement jumps (pass-throughs or equivalent) flown in both orientations.
• Head-down crest or national equivalent (e.g. Australian the head-down crest, UK FF2), or FFP-HD202.
• A video portfolio showing a pass-through flown in slot with the orientation switch (candidate identifiable).
• Tunnel records evidencing belly↔back layouts at speed and belly/back carving.
• Plus one challenge jump: a full pass-through flown against the Element 3–4 criteria with a coach-leader.

The candidate always demonstrates the bail-out standard, the FFP-DY202 belly→back transition check, live to the coach; prior evidence alone never satisfies it.

Sources