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AN402 Coach
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Angles · Mastery · The brief

Angles 402

Fly head-up angles

Angle jumps flown head-up, and converting to head-first before breakoff.

What this unit covers

The flying half of the Angles 400 mastery tier: angle jumps flown head-up, and the conversion back to head-first that every one of them ends with. Every other unit in this track is flown head-first, that is what an angle normally is.
This unit is the exception, and it exists because flying the line head-up changes the one thing that matters most at the end of the jump: how much separation the breakoff actually produces. Flyers hold the head-up orientation on the line and convert to head-first before breakoff.
The rest of it
Transitions run around the line of flight, never through vertical. The through-vertical case is Dynamic doctrine (FFP-DY201 onward), not angles: staying off vertical is the boundary that keeps the jump an angle (the project's coaching doctrine).
The organiser's half of the tier, multi-group movement days and big-way angles, is FFP-AN401. One course, one job: this card is head-up angle flying and the conversion that closes it.
Every jump in this unit is a led group: the active leader flies belly-to-earth, always, and flyers join only with a trained or approved leader (APF006 §5.12; the project's coaching doctrine belly-led doctrine).
Groups stay small: the leader sizes them to the least experienced flyer, and smaller than an equivalent head-first angle group, because a head-up flyer changing orientation is a fall-rate change waiting to happen. Head-up angle groups run at 4 or fewer, with more experienced participants (the project's coaching doctrine; Carlton). Environment: sky for the movement content.
The tunnel evidences head-up control and transition mechanics only; navigation, breakoff and group flow are sky-only. Mastery tier: there is no sign-off. Completion is a milestone recognising head-up angle capability, not a permission to lead, organise or approve any jump.

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.

3.1 Safety critical
Hold slot through orientation changes: change orientation without changing level or closing speed, bridging the fall-rate difference with speed range rather than letting the transition scatter the group (the project's coaching doctrine, the participant speed-range skill).

Can you fly the back-fly slot on a normal angle and transition to head up on the leader’s key, without coming off level or separating laterally from the group?

3.2
Fly each transition on the leader's key, staying on the line of flight, convert head-up to head-first using a team layout around a centre point, never the in-place layout Carlton names as the worst option (Carlton; the project's coaching doctrine).

After a transition to head up, can you keep moving on the line of flight? That is, can you fly head up in a straight line?

3.6
Control pitch and level changes while moving head-up, holding the briefed slot through them (the participant speed-range skill of 3.1, applied through the line's pitch changes).

Can you control both pitch and level changes in head-up movement whilst staying in slot?

4.1 Safety critical
Be head-first and moving by the briefed window (~6,000–7,000 ft depending on the group and its size) so the track has spent its acceleration lag before the breakoff floor arrives (Carlton, the 1,500–2,000 ft lag; the project's coaching doctrine; the FFP head-up-angle breakoff guides, 6,000 ft minimum and 6,500 ft for larger groups).

Are you lifting your breakoff in head up, starting at about 6,000 to 7,000 feet depending on the group and its size, so you are head first and moving by the standard 5,500 foot breakoff?

Screen 3 · What blocks a sign-off

What blocks a sign-off

A safety-critical criterion marked not yet stops the sign-off, however good the rest of the flying was. There is no averaging across this line, and no trading a good jump against it.

Safety-critical criteria on the short list

3.1
Hold slot through orientation changes: change orientation without changing level or closing speed, bridging the fall-rate difference with speed range rather than letting the transition scatter the group (the project's coaching doctrine, the participant speed-range skill).

Can you fly the back-fly slot on a normal angle and transition to head up on the leader’s key, without coming off level or separating laterally from the group?

4.1
Be head-first and moving by the briefed window (~6,000–7,000 ft depending on the group and its size) so the track has spent its acceleration lag before the breakoff floor arrives (Carlton, the 1,500–2,000 ft lag; the project's coaching doctrine; the FFP head-up-angle breakoff guides, 6,000 ft minimum and 6,500 ft for larger groups).

Are you lifting your breakoff in head up, starting at about 6,000 to 7,000 feet depending on the group and its size, so you are head first and moving by the standard 5,500 foot breakoff?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
Set the breakoff to the raised head-up floors, minimum 6,000 ft, 6,500 ft for a larger group, with the head-first conversion initiated by ~6,500–7,000 ft (Carlton). These sit above the ordinary angle guides of 5,000 ft up to a 4-way and 5,500 ft for five or more, because a head-up breakoff does not produce the separation a head-first one does. Keep at least 1,000 ft between breakoff and planned deployment (mandatory in Australia, the APF Operational Regulations) (the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards; FFP-AN301 knowledge evidence).
4.2
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude in the briefed fan, each flyer tracking in a head-first orientation, peeling no more than ~90°, never turning back toward jump run (APF006 §5.10; the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards).
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude after visually clearing the airspace in all directions, always assuming somebody is there (APF006 §3.3).

Recording a sign-off says what you saw on one jump. It is not a rating, it is not a permission to jump, and it does not replace anything the drop zone requires.

Screen 4 · Conditions

Conditions

Where the evidence is allowed to come from, and how much of it there needs to be.

Assessment conditions

Sky, in led groups, with the assessing coach on the jump. Sky jumps from a recommended 12,000 ft minimum, head-up angles need working time above a raised floor. Video is the primary debrief and evidence tool: footage from within the group or from the leader's slot, paired with the candidate's talk-through.
Required equipment: visual altimeter, functioning audible set to the briefed profile, AAD recommended, freefly-suitable gear. Conditions within every participant's cleared limits.
Assessor: a freefly coach current in movement jumps and head-up flying, using the published FFP-AN402 checklist (Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory per criterion; unit result Competent / Not Yet Competent, recorded as a Mastery milestone).

Performance evidence

Ability evidenced across a suggested 10 head-up angle jumps in led groups:
Head-up slots held on the line.
Conversions to head-first held in slot and initiated in the briefed window.
Consecutive jumps flown and broken off to plan at the raised floors.
Across at least two different days and wind pictures.
Within a recommended 12-month currency window. Tunnel time evidences head-up control and transition mechanics only.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

Safety first, then fun, then learning. In that order, every time.

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project's priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0).
Head-up angles are among the most enjoyable jumps in the sport, and that is why the floors and the conversion window are non-compensable: flyers will seek these jumps out anyway, and the card exists so they fly them inside a plan, with a leader, at floors that buy the separation back.
The coach ends each debrief on a win with one focus for the next jump.

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. Six points is six points forgotten by the next load.

A jump marked not yet is a jump to re-fly, not a failure, and saying so out loud is part of the debrief.

Record this jump

Your notes for this unit

Saved on this device only. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is nowhere for it to go, and no account is involved. They will be here next time you open this card.

This card is a summary. The full Angles 402 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.