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AN402 Flyer
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Angles · Mastery · The jump

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 you are watched on

What you are watched on

The same short list a coach ticks, in the same words. Nothing is hidden from you.

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 · Safety and altitudes

Safety and altitudes

Everything here is a recommendation with a reason behind it, not a rule. The drop zone you are jumping at, and your own limits on the day, decide what actually happens.

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).

Altitudes here are the guides this curriculum recommends and argues for. Where the drop zone briefs something different, the drop zone is what you fly.

Screen 4 · After the jump

After the jump

From this unit's own closing element, review.

5.1
Debrief against video to the protocol: participants first, the whole video once through, safety points first, end on a win.
5.2
Locate every fall-rate excursion at a transition and attribute it, key timing, speed range, or transition mechanics, and name one correction to train next.
5.3
Log the jump naming the unit, the head-up phases and transitions flown, and the next focus.

One fault, one correction

Before the video, before anyone else speaks: name the single thing that went wrong, and the single thing you will do differently next jump. One of each. A list of six is a list you will not fly.

Write them into your notes at the bottom of this card, and they will be here next time you open it.

Record this jump

Most records are the flyer's own, and that is the point: your own read of your own flying is worth keeping. A record only counts as verified once a coach signs it.

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.