Dynamic 403 — Fly eagles

Application

Covers flying eagles: two dynamic flyers facing each other initiate movement toward each other and pass over or under each other in vertical, opposing orientations, the static eagle taken into movement. The jump carries real dangers and complexities, two flyers converging head-on at vertical speeds, and is best flown as a 2-way. That is the format of this unit.

The reference flow:

• Exit head-down unlinked.
• Turn to face each other.
• Push toward each other. The leader judges who is higher and who is lower and signals the follower over or under.
• The follower initiates a high-speed front or back layout accordingly. Then, with both flyers head-up, the leader signals “come to me”.
• As the flyers close, the leader again judges above or below and signals, and the follower initiates the front or back layout to pass over or under. Both flyers maintain eye contact throughout every approach and pass.

In the attack-the-centre family this is the front attack with eagle: flyers converge head-on with no lateral offset; the higher flyer passes over through belly, the lower under through back, a VFS eagle, with constant mutual visual contact; the leader signals over or under, and the decision is committed early.

The FAI Annex B taxonomy names the family, the vertical orbits, eagles and reverse eagles, and the half-eagle equivalences with named transitions, and the unit briefs and debriefs in that vocabulary (FAI/ISC Dynamic Competition Rules 2025, Annex B).

The training aim is internalisation.

The follower learns the pattern, when a transition passes over or under, through belly or back, with a front or back layout, until it becomes intuitive and can be flown without a signal: the follower reads the leader’s relative height on approach and the leader’s body movement, opposes that movement, and transitions vertically around the leader while maintaining eye contact, vertical displacement and relativity.

The manoeuvre demands significant tunnel skill. Both flyers demonstrate the entry standard before the first eagle jump: static eagles through belly and back, and front and back layouts at high speed. An eagle jump is nearly vertical, it consumes a column of air only slightly larger than a purely vertical jump, and the leader states this to the load organiser when coordinating groups.

Competition pathways, indoor Dynamic 2-way/4-way, 2-way Mixed Formation Skydiving (MFS) and Vertical Formation Skydiving (VFS), whose dive pools carry inter-orientation transitions, the closest competition vocabulary to the eagle, are context for continued development.

Applies to flyers competent in mirroring (DY 402) who hold the entry standard above.

Environment: sky. The entry standard is tunnel-built, and tunnel time remains preparation and calibration only: it exercises no jump run, navigation, altitude or breakoff.

Supervision: flown as a 2-way with an experienced dynamic partner, a coach or an experienced eagle flyer takes the leader slot first. The progression runs from following a signalling leader, to reading the passes without a signal, to flying the leader role with an experienced partner opposite.

This is a Mastery-tier unit: there is no sign-off. Completion is a milestone recognising eagle capability, it is not a permission, and it does not authorise any jump.

Pre-requisite units

FFP-DY402 (mirroring). Course-internal entry standard, demonstrated before the first eagle jump: static eagles through belly and back, flown in the sky and the tunnel; and front and back layouts at high speed. RPL route for the pre-requisite: logbook plus video of mirroring sky jumps at DY 402 standard verified by a freefly coach, plus tunnel records evidencing static eagles through belly and back and high-speed front and back layouts.

Elements and performance criteria

1. Plan the jump

1.1

Design the jump in the shared FAI Dynamic vocabulary, naming each pass as over or under, through belly or back, with a front or back layout, and classifying the crossings as eagles or reverse eagles with their half-eagle equivalences, so both flyers brief from one language.

1.2

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

1.3

Assign the leader and follower roles for every pass, matching the plan, pass count, closing speeds and signal reliance, to the less experienced flyer.

1.4

Plan the flight path off the jump run with a landmark reference for each phase, coordinated with every other group on the load (a guide: no more than two movement groups per load, an eagle jump is nearly vertical and consumes little more air than a vertical jump).

1.5

State the breakoff plan, breakoff altitude, the last-pass floor (no pass begun below breakoff plus 1,000 ft), the head-up rotate-head-first rule, the back-flyer roll rule and deployment altitudes, with separation complete at least 1,000 ft above the planned deployment height (guides: 5,000 ft for freefly groups up to 4-way, noting most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft; the head-up passes make this a head-up movement jump and raise the floor to 6,000 ft minimum).

2. Prepare

2.1

Confirm both flyers hold the entry standard before the first eagle jump: static eagles through belly and back, flown in the sky and the tunnel, and front and back layouts at high speed.

2.2

Brief and dirt-dive each pass at tempo, confirming the signal set, over, under and "come to me", the leader's approach-speed budget, the vertical displacement of each over-pass, and the abort plan: each flyer's pre-assigned lateral offset side, briefed per pass, covering a missed or late call and any ambiguous read.

2.3

Complete a freefly-specific gear check: handle and pin protection, genuinely tight BOC, riser covers, closing loop, helmet, AAD on, audible(s) set to the briefed altitudes.

2.4

Confirm exit order and separation with the full load, notifying manifest of the group's flight path and planned opening area.

3. Perform

3.1

Exit head-down unlinked and turn to face the other flyer, establishing the closing line off the jump run.

3.2

Maintain eye contact with the other flyer through every approach, pass and rejoin.

3.3

Fly the leader role, judging who is higher and who is lower on each approach, signalling the follower over or under, and calling "come to me" to open the head-up phase.

3.4

Commit the over/under call early on every approach; on a missed or late call, an ambiguous height read or conflicting movement, both flyers abort the pass and break to their pre-assigned offset sides, never force a crossing, and never resolve height ambiguity inside the closure.

3.5

Fly the follower role, initiating the signalled high-speed front or back layout and passing over or under the leader, with vertical displacement and relativity held through the pass.

3.6

Fly the head-up phase to the same standard, closing on the leader's "come to me", taking the second over or under call, and passing with the signalled front or back layout.

3.7

Fly a briefed no-signal pass by reading the leader's relative height on approach and the leader's body movement, opposing that movement and transitioning vertically around the leader, eye contact and vertical displacement held throughout.

3.8

Clear the target airspace visually before every layout and pass, no blind moves.

3.9

Fly the over-pass clear of the partner's burble column with the briefed vertical displacement; never decelerate beneath the partner, a blown layout aborts outward with lateral offset.

3.10

Fly every approach inside the leader's briefed approach-speed budget, arresting closure by flaring off the drive, aborts resolve to lateral offset, never to a 180° turn on the jump's heading.

3.11

Begin no pass below the last-pass floor, breakoff altitude plus 1,000 ft.

3.12

Execute the briefed recovery on any instability: orient, regain speed and re-approach with lateral offset, never track away. If visual is lost, a flyer who has decelerated or reads high looks below from belly or head-down before any re-approach; only a flyer who is low transitions to back to regain sight.

4. Complete

4.1

Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), rotating from head-up to a head-first orientation first if the jump ends head-up, then turning onto a clear radial while flattening pitch to a track; never back-track away while still head-up.

4.2

If on the back at breakoff, roll to belly only once on a clear trajectory with no one above.

4.3

Deploy at the planned altitude, inside the group's planned opening airspace, after checking own airspace.

4.4

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

5. Review

5.1

Debrief every pass against the plan on video, in the shared vocabulary, over or under, through belly or back, front or back layout, eagle or reverse eagle.

5.2

Analyse own execution against competition-derived quality criteria: closeness of passes, synchronisation, uniformity of body position, no loss of balance.

5.3

Evaluate the follower's reading of each pass, how much was flown on the signal and how much read from the leader's relative height and body movement, setting the next jump's signal reliance toward passes flown intuitively, without a signal, with eye contact, vertical displacement and relativity maintained.

5.4

Log the jump in the logbook naming the unit and skills flown (e.g. "DY403, over through belly, back layout under"), with criteria results and a short reflection, the curriculum is what makes the log entry meaningful.

Bold criteria are safety-critical. Within FFP courses they are treated as non-compensable best-practice standards: any Not Yet Satisfactory makes the unit Not Yet Competent. Outside a course they remain strongly recommended best practice. Regulation remains your federation’s and your drop zone’s.

Foundation skills

• Signal communication under closure (the over/under and “come to me” set, given and read at speed).
• Shared-vocabulary briefing and debriefing in FAI Dynamic terms.
• Altitude and closing-speed numeracy.
• Planning and organising (flight-path design, load coordination, role assignment).
• Self-management while task-loaded, the layouts run on automatic skill while attention is on the other flyer, the closure and the altitude, and standing down when readiness is not met.

Performance evidence (suggested sufficiency, adjust locally)

Ability evidenced across 2-way eagle sky jumps. The evidence should include:

• Passes flown over and under, through belly and back, with front and back layouts.
• The head-down phase and the head-up phase both flown to criteria.
• The follower role flown to the internalisation aim, including at least one jump with every pass read without a signal.
• The leader role flown with an experienced partner opposite.
• two consecutive jumps flying every briefed pass and meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts.

As a guide to how long this might take, competency is the standard, not the jump count, expect on the order of 10 jumps within a recommended 12-month currency window, more while the tunnel skills are still consolidating.

Significant tunnel skill is realistically a precondition for the manoeuvre: static eagles through belly and back and high-speed front and back layouts are the entry standard, and the pass timing is calibrated in the tunnel before it is flown in the sky. Tunnel time substitutes for no sky assessment jump: it exercises no jump run, navigation, altitude or breakoff.

Knowledge evidence

• Classify eagle flying in the FAI Annex B taxonomy: the vertical orbits, eagles and reverse eagles, and the half-eagle equivalences with named transitions, plus the front and back loops the layouts derive from.
• State the pattern the follower internalises, when a transition passes over or under, through belly or back, with a front or back layout, and describe a pass read without a signal: the follower reads the leader’s relative height on approach and the leader’s body movement, opposes that movement, and transitions vertically around the leader while maintaining eye contact, vertical displacement and relativity.
• Explain why eye contact holds through every approach, pass and rejoin: a converging flyer out of sight is the classic collision set-up, the over/under read runs on the partner’s relative height and body movement, and the leader briefs each pass so no phase demands looking away.
  • A flyer who loses visual mid-approach aborts the pass to their pre-assigned offset side, the closure never continues blind.
• Explain the abort doctrine and its reason: the over/under call is committed early because two flyers converging head-on with no lateral offset leave no time for a late decision.
  • A missed or late call means aborting the pass and flying past with lateral offset.
  • And the abort is signal-independent, on any ambiguous height read or conflicting movement, both flyers break to their pre-assigned offset sides, briefed per flyer per pass, because height ambiguity is never resolved inside the closure.
• Explain why the jump is flown as a 2-way, and place it in the attack-the-centre family as the front attack with eagle, alongside lead-and-follow (FFP-DY401), the pass-by and vertical mirroring (FFP-DY402) and the combination (FFP-DY404).
• State the breakoff design for a 2-way eagle jump: the altitude guides, the last-pass floor (no pass begun below breakoff plus 1,000 ft), the head-up rotate-head-first doctrine and its reason, head-up breakoff is demonstrably less efficient, with less power, less track efficiency and altitude lost rotating to head-down, the back-flyer roll rule (roll to belly only on a clear trajectory with no one above).
• The deployment altitudes and the at-least-1,000-ft separation-above-deployment guide.
  • 5,000 ft for freefly groups up to 4-way, noting most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft.
  • The head-up passes make this a head-up movement jump, raising the floor to 6,000 ft minimum, the FFP head-up-movement standard, 6,500 ft for larger groups.
• Explain corking’s speed differential (roughly 175→120 mph) and the traffic rules that follow: no blind moves.
  • Closure held inside the leader’s approach-speed budget and arrested by flaring off the drive, never by turning 180° to the jump’s heading.
  • No pass begun below the last-pass floor.
  • Recovery by re-approaching with lateral offset, never by tracking away.
  • And the conditional lost-visual search, the eagle’s dominant instability, the cork, leaves the lost flyer above their partner, so a flyer who has decelerated or reads high looks below from belly or head-down before any re-approach, and only a flyer who is low transitions to back to regain sight.
• Explain the eagle’s burble and cork geometry: the over-pass crosses the partner’s vertical burble column and clears it with the briefed vertical displacement.
  • A flyer who decelerates beneath a fast partner sits in the cork path, so no flyer decelerates beneath the partner.
  • A blown layout aborts outward with lateral offset.
• Describe the freefly-specific gear check and why each item matters at eagle speeds.
• Explain why significant tunnel skill realistically precedes the sky manoeuvre: the static eagle and the high-speed layout are calibrated in the tunnel, while jump run, navigation, altitude and breakoff exist only in the sky.
• Evaluate where a planned eagle descent sits within local rules (freefly crests versus movement-jump endorsements) and who resolves the ambiguity.

Assessment conditions

Sky jumps from a recommended 13,000 ft minimum, an eagle jump is nearly vertical, consumes altitude quickly, and its head-up passes raise the breakoff floor. A real 2-way is required for the criteria; tunnel evidence is preparatory only.

Video of assessment jumps is required for a valid assessment: dedicated camera flyer or leader-flown, candidate identifiable. Required equipment: visual altimeter, functioning audible (two recommended), AAD, freefly-suitable gear with a genuinely tight BOC. Conditions within the pair’s briefed limits, winds aloft assessed in planning.

Assessor: an experienced dynamic/movement organiser or freefly coach current in mixed-orientation coaching, using the published FFP-DY403 checklist, each criterion marked Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory. Completion is recorded as a Mastery milestone only: it is not a sign-off, confers no privilege, and is not a permission to plan, lead or join any jump.

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project’s priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Safety criteria are non-compensable; at Mastery tier the pair still designs the plan to the less experienced flyer, and standing down when readiness is not met is itself competent behaviour.

Design the session to be enjoyable, participants choose this expensive hobby, and enjoyment sustains both the flyer and the sport, and end each debrief on a win with one improvement focus.

RPL evidence set

• Logbook plus video of 2-way eagle sky jumps with passes both over and under, verified by a freefly coach.
• Tunnel records evidencing static eagles through belly and back and high-speed front and back layouts (school records or IBA Dynamic ladder equivalents, per third-party summaries; verify against IBA source material).
• Competition evidence, 2-way MFS or VFS results, or indoor Dynamic 2-way/4-way, as supporting (not substituting) evidence for the sky criteria.
• Or a challenge assessment across a suggested 3 jumps against the full criteria with a qualifying assessor.

Sources