Head-Down 102 — Control and transition head-down

Application

Covers deliberate control of the head-down position and transitions between head-down positions: turns on the vertical axis driven from leg pressure rather than the arms, fore/aft drive from chin and hip, lateral movement by side slide, level (fall-rate) changes, and HD↔HD transitions with heading recovery, the front flip and the back flip (APF006 §7.4, §7.7, §7.9). The cartwheel/side transition is stretch content; see below.

Applies to flyers who can find and hold vertical head-down (HD 101).

Environment: the tunnel is the primary skill-building environment, isolating one control at a time; sky solo jumps validate the skills. The soloist flies sky head-down in a daffy under the FFP-F100 solo protocols, because a shelf can quickly develop a large forward drive into a back angle (the project’s coaching doctrine).

Supervision: starts coach-held or coach-as-reference in the tunnel, moves to the coach flying passively, and ends with unaccompanied solo sky drills. At this tier the candidate performs with guidance, moving from imitation to precision. The single heading standard throughout is ±45°: finish pointing in the same quadrant.

Scope boundary, carving is out of scope. The flyer should not attempt carving until the turn, drive, level-change and transition exercises in this unit are performed competently (APF006 §7.9: “Carving should not be attempted until competency is achieved in the above exercises.”). Carving enters the curriculum downstream (Dynamic track), after this unit’s criteria are met.

Pre-requisite units

FFP-F100, FFP-HU101, FFP-HU102, FFP-HD101. RPL route: tunnel records (back-fly, sit and head-down static to IBA/Tunnel Flight Level 4 entry standard, head-down neutral flown off the net) plus one challenge jump against FFP-HD101 criteria (stable vertical, cork-proof recovery).

Elements and performance criteria

1. Plan the jump/session

1.1

State the jump's (or tunnel session's) single declared objective and success criteria.

1.2

Confirm own currency and the drill plan against conditions and exit order relative to other groups.

1.3

State the working heading (perpendicular to jump run) and the ground reference used for drift checks.

1.4

State breakoff and deployment altitudes (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for 5-way or larger, most modern freeflyers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft), and the audible verification plan for the jump. Audibles fail silently (see Knowledge evidence), so the profile is confirmed against the briefed breakoff. On an audible that annunciates climbing altitude, the climb beeps double as a function check (the 2,000 ft beep) and a profile check (the breakoff-altitude beeps heard on the climb). On an audible that arms only on freefall detection and gives no climb beeps, this in-plane check does not apply; function is verified per the manufacturer's method instead.

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a freefly-specific gear check: handles, BOC, bridle cover, riser covers, closing loop, helmet, and audible(s) set and functioning, two functioning audibles should be regarded as mandatory best practice before any solo freefly.

2.2

Brief the drill sequence with the coach and rehearse each transition on the ground (dirt dive / walk-through).

2.3

Confirm exit order and separation with the load.

2.4

Verify audible function and profile on the climb, climb-annunciating devices only (see the device caveat in Knowledge evidence). Listen for the 2,000 ft beep when the seatbelts come off as a function check. Read the breakoff-altitude profile beeps heard higher on the climb as a separate profile check. Use a 12,000 ft beep as the final functionality check and the reminder to begin gear checks. On a device that gives no climb beeps, silence on the climb is normal, verify function per the manufacturer's method rather than treating the silence as a failed or passed check.

3. Perform

3.1

Exit presenting head and shoulders to the relative wind and establish the neutral head-down (daffy for solo work) within 5 seconds (guide).

3.2

Maintain the solo drift-control protocol throughout working time: a slow static turn (never a carve) in a daffy, checking position over the exit ground reference; on any cork, return to back-fly, rotate 90°, re-transition and resume.

3.3

Perform a 360° turn in each direction using pressure on the leg opposite the turn, arms remaining in their stability role, stopping within ±45° of the start heading.

3.4

Initiate and stop forward drive using chin and hip input, holding heading within ±45°.

3.5

Initiate and stop backward drive using chin and hip input, holding heading within ±45°.

3.6

Side-slide left and right a briefed distance, holding heading within ±45° and stopping cleanly after each slide with no residual drive left running.

3.7

Perform a level change down and back up using leg extension/width, restabilising on the reference level (coach, tunnel reference or video line) within 3 seconds.

3.8

Perform a head-down-to-head-down front-flip transition (head tilt initiates, legs tucked for momentum, legs catch air to stop rotation), re-establishing vertical within ±45° of the entry heading.

3.9

Perform a head-down-to-head-down back-flip transition, re-establishing vertical within ±45° of the entry heading.

3.10

Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, ball up, never flatten to belly, resuming work only when stable and the airspace is confirmed clear.

4. Complete

4.1

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

4.2

Turn 180° and transition progressively to a track 90° from jump run (back-track first where briefed), checking airspace throughout.

4.3

Deploy at the planned altitude after decelerating to belly-to-earth speeds (≥1,000 ft slow-down guide) and clearing airspace.

4.4

Fly the briefed canopy traffic plan for the load.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief against the declared objective using video.

5.2

Identify one control fault (e.g. arm-led turn, unintended drive during "neutral", over/under-rotated transition) and its correction for the next jump or session.

5.3

Write the jump or session up in the logbook with a reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "FFP-HD102, 360s stopped in the quadrant; forward drive still arm-led"); the curriculum gives log entries meaning.

Stretch / optional content (not assessed in this unit): the head-down cartwheel (side) transition, re-establishing vertical within ±45° of the entry heading (APF006 §7.7/§7.9 lists side transitions, but the training tables do not assess them at this stage).

Its mastery form belongs at 201+ (transitioning multiple ways): transitioning head-down↔head-up while keeping constant visual contact with the formation, holding a grip and staying relative, the twisting cartwheel-like transition flown in expert VFS.

Bold criteria are safety-critical: the criteria where the risk case is strongest, taught with their reasoning (see Knowledge evidence). Within FFP-assessed units they are strongly recommended best-practice standards, and a coach should not sign the unit off while a bold criterion sits at Not Yet Satisfactory, however good the rest of the flying. Regulation remains your federation’s and your drop zone’s.

Foundation skills

• Briefing/debriefing communication.
• Altitude and fall-rate numeracy (head-down freefall time budgets, roughly 40–46 s from 13,000 ft vs ~60 s belly).
• Planning and organising (drill sequencing, jump-run orientation, ground-reference selection).
• Self-management under stress (stillness, “fly the range, not the position”, and recovery discipline).

Performance evidence (suggested sufficiency, adjust locally)

Competence, not jump counts or hours, is the standard (APF006 Part 8); every number below is a guide to how long it might take.

Ability is evidenced across head-down skill jumps and/or coached tunnel time. A typical blend: around 8 skill jumps, with 45–60 minutes of coached head-down tunnel time substituting for up to half the skill-development jumps but not the sky-validation jumps.

The candidate flies the full drill set on at least 3 sky jumps (guide), tunnel evidence alone does not validate the sky environment, because exits, drift, altitude and breakoff are absent in the tunnel. Evidence spans at least two different days/conditions, including two consecutive jumps (or tunnel sessions) meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts, within a recommended 6-month currency window.

Set time expectations honestly on the tunnel route. Learning head-down static to a basic, signed-off level typically takes 10–20 tunnel hours, depending on the student and how much dynamic skill they also choose to learn. A flyer who wants the most efficient path to head-down static will focus exclusively on static flying and may get there in around 10 hours.

One who mixes in dynamic moves (front and back layouts, back carving) should expect 20+ hours: low/medium-speed dynamic manoeuvres take significantly longer to learn than static flying, and full dynamic training is a 100+ hour tunnel progression.

Knowledge evidence

• State the three standard neutral head-down positions (daffy, straddle, shelf) and describe why solo sky head-down is flown in a daffy (a shelf can quickly build a large forward drive into a back angle).
• Explain why lateral movement is worth owning as its own skill rather than a by-product of a turn: a side slide moves the body across without changing where it points, which is what lets a flyer correct a slot in a formation while keeping the group in sight.
• Explain the shuttlecock principle, more pressure on the legs than the arms or the position becomes unstable, and why turns come from leg pressure while the arms are reserved for stability and (later) docks (APF006 §7.4.3, §7.8).
• Describe the chin-and-hip mechanism for fore/aft drive and the leg-extension/width mechanism for fall-rate change.
• Explain HD↔HD transition mechanics: head tilt initiates, legs tuck for momentum, arms return to neutral and the legs catch air to prevent over-rotation (APF006 §7.7).
• State head-down speed range (270–400+ km/h; ~160 mph typical) and its consequences: shortened freefall time, magnified corking/collision severity, and the need to decelerate before deployment.
• State the freefly breakoff guides and the deployment altitude guides for this unit’s jumps, including the ≥1,000 ft slow-down.
  • 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way; 5,500 ft for 5-way or larger; most modern freeflyers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft.
• Explain why the audible is safety-critical hidden equipment on a head-down jump, and why hidden equipment is the most dangerous kind in aviation.
  • The head-down position (head orientation, arms held in their stability role) makes reading a wrist altimeter close to impossible, so the flyer is heavily reliant on the audible functioning.
  • Audibles fail silently: a mid-jump failure is invisible unless the flyer has a visual-indicator audible or routinely speaks altitudes aloud.
• Describe the risk treatments, stating the device caveat first.
  • The in-plane check applies only to an audible that annunciates climbing altitude.
  • Many common audibles arm on freefall-descent detection and give no climb beeps at all.
  • On such a device silence on the ride up is normal and the check does not apply, verify function per the manufacturer’s method instead, and do not let a student conclude a silent climb means a dead unit or normalise it as a check that has “passed”.
  • For a climb-annunciating device, keep the two logics separate.
  • The function check: listen for the 2,000 ft beep on the ride up when the seatbelts come off, proof the device is powered and beeping, which by itself says nothing about which profile is selected.
  • The profile check: set a beep at breakoff altitude on each profile and keep 5,000 / 5,500 / 6,000 ft profiles set up, so a breakoff-altitude beep heard higher on the climb reveals which profile is selected, a breakoff beep at 6,000 ft climbing out tells you the 6k profile is active, catching a wrong-profile selection in time to change it.
  • Set a 12,000 ft beep as a final functionality confirmation at height and the trigger to begin gear checks.
  • And still fly two functioning audibles when solo: a group is inherent altitude-awareness redundancy, a soloist has none.
• Explain the vertical recovery position, back-to-earth, knees to chest, never flatten to belly at head-down speeds, and why it is the immediate reaction to any loss of control (APF006 §4.2).
• Explain why deploying from an unstable vertical body position risks injury, with dated Australian cases: a C2 vertebra fracture after a sit-fly deployment went unstable (ASM 69 p.29) and multiple vertebral fractures on a distracted solo jump on which the audible was missing (ASM 53 p.67), the second reinforcing this unit’s audible doctrine.
  • (Teach the mechanism and the lesson only; do not attribute either case to a named jumper.) Explain the static-turn drift-control protocol and the containment reasoning behind it (FFP-F100): a drive input is body-fixed, so a held heading points any residual drive the same way all jump and the drift accumulates without bound.
  • While a continuous closed turn points that same drive through every direction so it integrates to roughly zero net displacement, bounding drift to about one carve-circle and keeping the soloist in their own column.
  • A drive can also be easier to notice during a turn, but treat that as a detection bonus, not the argument.
• Explain why FFP treats the protocol as safety-critical for solo head-down: an unnoticed drive at head-down speeds can carry a soloist a long way across the sky toward jump run and other groups’ airspace, and the people at risk in that collision never agreed to share a jump with you.
• State why carving is deferred and which criteria allow it (APF006 §7.9).
• Identify, from own video, an arm-led turn or an unintended drive.

Assessment conditions

Sky jumps from a recommended 10,000 ft minimum (APF006 §3.2). Tunnel evidence comes from instructor-supervised sessions with head-down spotting per the operator’s rules (bail-to-back-fly convention on coach signal). Video of assessment jumps/sessions is required (coach-flown, tunnel camera or outside video; candidate identifiable).

Required equipment: visual altimeter, functioning audible (two functioning audibles, regard as mandatory best practice when flying solo), AAD recommended, and freefly-suitable gear per the FFP-F100 checklist. Conditions within the candidate’s cleared limits.

Declare shoulder history before vertical work. The sit-to-head-down transition and the arm positions this unit drills load the shoulder joint hard, and the Australian record carries serious cases: a shoulder dislocation that prevented the flyer reaching the BOC (ASM 56 p.74) and torn shoulder ligaments (ASM 83 p.25).

A candidate with a history of shoulder dislocation, instability or reconstruction should raise it before head-down work, so arm position and the recovery sequence can be adjusted and medical clearance sought where appropriate. A shoulder that cannot reach the BOC is a deployment failure, not just a flying limitation.

Assessor: a freefly coach current in head-down coaching, using the published FFP-HD102 checklist (Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory per criterion; unit result Competent / Not Yet Competent).

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project’s priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Never trade the solo protocol (daffy, static turn, two audibles) or the recovery discipline for drill throughput. Set one declared objective per jump or tunnel session to keep cognitive load light and the session enjoyable. End debriefs on a win with one improvement focus for the next jump or session.

For tunnel-trained students, the conversion module below protects enjoyment as much as technique, an early run of discouraging jumps can end a progression.

Watch: Head-down basics (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=6M-3f7C2x0o

Watch: Head-down turns (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=s85LQqG6R64

Tunnel-to-sky conversion (coaching module)

Dedicated tunnel flyers arriving at this unit need specific coaching. The module exists to convert a tunnel investment into fast sky progression without discouraging the students who hold the strongest fundamentals.

Expectation management first. A tunnel-trained head-down flyer may have invested enormously, often $20k+ of training. That investment deserves acknowledgement in the brief: “the tunnel is different to the sky, don’t show me the video, none of that matters” discards evidence the coach needs and the trust the conversion depends on.

Validate the investment and set the frame, something like: “You’ve learned a lot in the tunnel, and we can convert it to the sky. Conversion may take longer than you expect, but once you unlock it your progression speeds up quickly. I’ll teach the things tunnel training doesn’t cover, so be patient, and give yourself permission to fly much less smoothly at first.”

Then teach the practical differences:

• Weight and speed: the rig and outdoor gear are roughly 12–15 kg heavier than tunnel kit, so wind speeds are much higher and every control input must be much smaller and more sensitive in the sky.

  • The more tunnel hours a flyer has, the more deeply tunnel-sized “normal” inputs are ingrained.
  • A normal tunnel input generates an abnormally large sky output, so the first jumps can feel erratic and disorientating, with everything feeling “off”.
  • Name this in the briefing so it is expected rather than alarming.

• The exit is sub-terminal, don’t go too big too early. Tunnel flyers are used to sit→head-down transitions at relatively low speeds into a large, high-drag position (thighs 90° to the torso, big rear daffy leg, hands wide).

  • Sky flying starts on exit with almost no flight controls engaged while accelerating to terminal, which is faster than the tunnel.
  • The legs are then introduced slowly, gently and significantly less than in the tunnel.

• Starting geometry guide: about a 30–45° thigh bend on the front daffy leg.

  • This feels uncomfortably small to a tunnel flyer, in the tunnel that little leg would put them on the net, but in the sky it places an average build just about right.

• This module aligns with Boag’s tunnel-to-sky doctrine (ASM 96 p.33), which adds: keep regular sky currency alongside tunnel blocks.

• Expect altitude-awareness decay on the first jumps back from a long tunnel rotation block (a tunnel rotation runs 3–5 minutes, a head-down skydive ~30 seconds, step the intensity back down first).

• Run two audibles plus visual checks.

• Learn traffic in a structured way before big-ways.

• On exit think gear, pins and jump run rather than tunnel moves.

• And fly genuinely freefly-tight gear.

RPL evidence set

For experienced entrants, any of the following in place of the standard evidence route:

• Tunnel record route: instructor-signed tunnel records evidencing the IBA/Tunnel Flight Static Level 4 head-down skill set, plus one coach 2-way check jump against the full FFP-HD102 criteria.
  • Tunnel competency counts: a competent vertical flyer should be able to run the entire drill flow on a single jump, flown as a fun 2-way that confirms the controls work in the sky.
  • The tunnel does not evidence exits, drift control, breakoff or deployment.
  • Brief the check jump with the tunnel-to-sky conversion module above: a tunnel flyer who demonstrates a skill proficiently in the tunnel and cannot reproduce it in the sky at first is normal, and coachable.
  • Head-down neutral off the net, up/down fall-rate control, left/right turns, forward/backward drive, sit↔head-down flip transitions.
• Video portfolio route: a video portfolio (candidate identifiable) demonstrating the drill set including HD↔HD transitions with heading recovery, plus logbook evidence of recent head-down jumps, plus one challenge jump against the full criteria.
• Crest route: holders of a head-down crest at or above this level (e.g. APF the head-down crest, British Skydiving FF2) with currency evidence inside the recommended window may be credited directly.

Sources