Head-Up 102 — Move and transition head-up

Application

• Covers deliberate head-up movement and in-place head-up↔head-up transitions flown as a solo skill set: fore/aft drive flown by pushing the legs toward a stand with a break at the hips, side slides, level changes, and cartwheel, back-flip and front-flip transitions finishing back in a sit on heading, plus self-diagnosis of drift when no coach’s eye is present.
• The defining problem of solo head-up work (a backsliding solo flyer silently covers ground toward adjacent groups; Austin).

Applies to flyers who hold a stable neutral sit with heading control and a reliable recovery (HU 101). Solo sit exits (back to the relative wind; APF006 §6.3) and the head-up breakoff sequence (through the back to belly, slowing to belly speeds) consolidate skills introduced in HU 101 and Freefly 100 and are flown and assessed on every jump in this unit.

Environment: tunnel recommended for skill acquisition (the wall reference makes drift visible), sky for validation (no fixed reference, hence the drift-indicator drill), noting that the drive mechanics taught here are deliberately sky-specific: the rig changes how a sit flies (see Knowledge evidence).

Supervision/scaffold: coach-briefed ground preparation with the coach passive in the air → unsupported solo jumps.

Truly solo sky jumps follow the FFP-F100 solo protocols: working heading 90° to jump run, movement intent declared to the load, and two functioning audibles, which should be regarded as mandatory best practice before any solo freefly (an audible is a hidden safety-critical device that can fail silently; a group provides altitude-awareness redundancy, a soloist has none).

Forward drive is taught by pushing the legs toward a stand, with explicit risk education rather than a prohibition: done well it can generate a large, fast forward drive, so drives are flown as short briefed distances with gradual input and a drive check between manoeuvres; in practice most beginner head-up flyers backslide rather than over-drive.

Pre-requisite units

FFP-F100, FFP-HU101. RPL route: tunnel records at IBA Static Level 3 entry standard (neutral sit, sit turns, back↔sit transitions) plus one sky jump demonstrating the HU 101 criteria.

Elements and performance criteria

1. Plan the jump

1.1

State the session's single declared objective and success criteria (one movement skill or transition family per jump).

1.2

Declare to the load the working heading 90° to jump run, the intended drive directions and distances, and the planned opening area.

1.3

State breakoff and deployment altitudes (guide: 5,500 ft minimum for head-up work, most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft).

1.4

Plan the jump to stay over the noted exit point.

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a freefly-specific gear check (handles, BOC, riser covers, closing loop, helmet, visual altimeter, audible set and functioning, when truly solo, two audibles should be regarded as mandatory best practice: an audible can fail silently and a soloist has no group redundancy).

2.2

Fit the pull-up-cord drift indicator (designated drift-diagnosis jumps only) by tying it to a shoelace, good practice, keeping it as far as possible from handles and deployment equipment, confirming it streams free of snag points: any cord added to gear is a snag hazard, so check it cannot reach or foul anything.

2.3

Rehearse each planned movement and transition on the ground, five times eyes open and five times eyes closed.

2.4

Confirm exit order and separation with the load.

3. Perform

3.1

Exit presenting the back to the relative wind and establish a neutral sit on the working heading within 5 seconds.

3.2

Check altitude between each manoeuvre or at least every 5 seconds.

3.3

Drive forward a briefed distance (~5–10 m guide) by pushing the legs toward a stand and breaking forward at the hips, a larger hip break than the tunnel permits, stopping in the neutral sit on heading (±45° guide).

3.4

Drive backward a short briefed distance with gradual, controlled input, stopping without corking.

3.5

Side-slide left and right a briefed distance, pushing down on the travel-side leg, dropping the same-side elbow and extending the opposite hand away to form a downward wing on the travel side with the upper legs and arms, stopping on heading after each slide.

3.6

Perform a level change down and back up (legs extend to speed up; arms out, lean back, lower legs catching air to slow), re-establishing the neutral-sit fall rate.

3.7

Perform a cartwheel transition (foot to opposite knee, tuck to a ball, force the legs down on return), re-establishing the sit on the original heading (±45° guide) within 3 seconds.

3.8

Perform a back-flip transition (air caught on the back of the calves, arms push down, tuck), re-establishing the sit on the original heading.

3.9

Perform a front-flip transition (legs tucked under the torso catching air on the shins, tuck to a ball, sit and force the legs down), re-establishing the sit on the original heading.

3.10

Read the drift indicator between manoeuvres, naming the drift (cord to the knee = forward drive; cord streaming away from the leg = backslide) and correcting any undeclared drift before continuing.

3.11

Perform a slow static turn as a drive check (per the FFP-F100 solo protocol, drive that is invisible on a fixed heading becomes obvious in a turn), correcting any drive found before continuing.

3.12

Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, resuming work only when stable and back on the working heading.

4. Complete

4.1

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

4.2

Transition through the back to belly, slowing to belly speeds, with any repositioning flown 90° to jump run.

4.3

Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace.

4.4

Fly the opening area and canopy plan briefed to the load.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief against the declared objective using video and the drift-indicator evidence.

5.2

Compare the opening point against the exit point to audit total drift.

5.3

Identify one fault and its correction for the next jump.

5.4

Log the jump with criteria results and a short logbook reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "HU102, forward drive and cartwheel"), the curriculum makes log entries meaningful.

Bold criteria are safety-critical, within FFP courses they are strongly recommended best-practice standards, not regulations: a coach should not record the unit as Competent while any bold criterion is Not Yet Satisfactory, and the why behind each is taught in the Knowledge evidence.

Foundation skills

• Self-monitoring without external reference (drift and altitude discipline when no coach’s eye is present).
• Briefing communication with the load (declaring movement intent and opening areas).
• Altitude and distance numeracy.
• Planning and sequencing one-objective sessions.
• Self-management under stress (recovery discipline).

Performance evidence (suggested sufficiency — adjust locally)

As a guide to how long this unit might take, competency is the standard, not the numbers, ability is typically evidenced across around 8 jumps and/or equivalent tunnel sessions; the tunnel is the recommended acquisition route for drives, slides and transitions and, as a guide, may substitute for up to half the skill-development evidence, while the drift-management jumps must be flown in the sky, where no wall reference exists.

Evidence should span at least two different days/conditions, including two consecutive sky jumps meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts, with each of the three transitions (cartwheel, back flip, front flip) evidenced on at least two occasions, all within a recommended 6-month currency window.

Knowledge evidence

• State the two solo-freefly risks (drifting into an adjacent group’s column; single-audible failure) and their recommended treatments, declared working heading 90° to jump run, drift-indicator drill, the slow-static-turn drive check (per FFP-F100 solo protocols), and two functioning audibles, which should be regarded as mandatory best practice when truly solo: an audible is a hidden safety-critical device that can fail silently.
• And a group provides altitude-awareness redundancy that a soloist does not have.
• State the drift-indicator readings and their meanings (cord hits the knee = forward drive; cord streams away from the leg = backslide).
• Describe the key tunnel-to-sky difference in sit drive: in the tunnel the head is a strong forward-drive control, but in the sky the rig creates a burble that renders the head, and largely the shoulders, relatively ineffective controls.
  • The key to driving a sit in the sky is breaking at the hips, a larger hip break than the tunnel permits (there it would drive you hard into the glass), to counteract the backslide generated by the rig, which is why most beginner head-up flyers backslide.
• Explain the risk on the other side of that coin: pushing the legs toward a stand, done well, can generate a large, fast forward drive, hence short briefed distances and gradual input, and explain why over-input on backward drive risks corking.
• Describe the side-slide mechanics: push down on the leg on the side you want to travel toward, drop the same-side elbow and extend the opposite hand away, forming a downward wing on the travel side with the upper legs and arms.
• Explain why any lean increases surface area, how pushing toward a stand compensates to hold fall rate, and why inputs react faster in a stand.
• Describe the mechanics of the cartwheel, back-flip and front-flip head-up transitions.
• Explain corking and the vertical recovery position’s mechanics (back-to-earth, feet together, knees toward chest, arms out and slightly back).
• State the altitude-check habit, between each manoeuvre or at least every 5 seconds, why working time is shorter at freefly speeds, and why altitude monitoring is genuinely harder head-up, the case for two audibles on any solo head-up jump.
  • Task saturation; altimeters can move around; head and arm position are difficult to alter mid-flight.
• State the freefly breakoff guides, up to 4-way 5,000 ft.
  • 5-way and larger 5,500 ft.
  • Head-up work 5,500 ft minimum, noting most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft, and explain why head-up breakoff is less efficient than head-first.
  • Less power and less track efficiency from the head-up position, and altitude lost rotating to head-down, Carlton GPS data.
• State the slow-to-belly-speeds-before-deployment practice.

Assessment conditions

• Sky jumps from a recommended 10,000 ft minimum.
• Mandatory video of assessment jumps (coach-flown, ground-to-air or tunnel video; helmet-mounted only where the candidate meets local camera rules; candidate identifiable).
• Required equipment, visual altimeter, functioning audible (two audibles should be regarded as mandatory best practice for truly solo jumps), freefly-suitable gear, pull-up-cord drift indicator on the designated drift-diagnosis jumps.
• Conditions within the candidate’s cleared limits.
• Tunnel evidence acceptable for the movement and transition criteria but not for the drift-management, altitude-discipline or breakoff criteria.
• Assessor: a freefly coach current in head-up coaching, using the published FFP-HU102 checklist (Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory per criterion).

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project’s priority order:

• Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Safety criteria are held to the bold best-practice standard above, taught as risk education with the why, not as regulation.
• One declared objective per jump (one movement skill or transition family) keeps the cognitive load light and the jump enjoyable.
• Debriefs end on a win with one improvement focus for the next jump.

RPL evidence set

• Logbook showing equivalent solo or coached head-up movement jumps.
• Tunnel records at IBA Static Level 3 standard (sit turns, head-up forward/backward, sit-fly up/down, back↔sit transitions, per third-party summaries; verify against IBA source material) plus sky validation of the drift-management and breakoff criteria.
• A video portfolio demonstrating all three transitions and movement with clean stops.
• Or a challenge assessment of two jumps against the full criteria with a qualifying assessor.

Sources