Skip to content
AN201 Flyer
Coach card Full unit

Swipe sideways, or tap the dots. 4 screens.

Angles · Relative · The jump

Angles 201

Fly angles in a slot

Holding a slot on someone else’s line.

What this unit covers

Covers flying a follower slot in a 2–3-way angle (movement) jump behind a trained leader: exits, quadrant entry, getting on level, closing to docking distance, briefed docks and transitions over the body, speed and pitch changes, heading discipline, the left-behind protocol, in-slot recovery, breakoff and post-opening discipline. Belly and back-fly are trained and assessed as two separate evidence streams, recommended order belly first.
Back-flying in an angle group is strictly a follower skill flown in slot. Angle groups are never led from the back, the leader flies belly-to-earth on every jump. Navigation and ground reference come from the belly, and a back-flying "leader" cannot reliably see where the group is going.
The rest of it
Every jump in this unit is flown behind a freefly coach or a trained/approved angle leader. The Freefly Project does not recommend learner-organised or unled angle jumps at any point in the progression.
Structured, led movement jumps are the safety mechanism that replaces the unstructured beginner angle jumps where the incidents happen. Angles are flown flat to moderate, and flat and fast by default; the leader always sets the angle to the least experienced flyer.
Flat, fast angles are the contemporary learning environment: safer breakoffs, no popcorning, and the micro-input laboratory where technique is built. Environment: sky, with tunnel belly/back carving as preparation.

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.

3.4
Hold the assigned slot at docking distance for at least 10 seconds, on level and on the group's heading within ±45°.

Can you hold an assigned slot at docking distance for at least ten seconds, on level and on the group’s heading?

3.6
Take the briefed dock without changing the leader's speed or pitch, and transition over the top of the body to the opposite slot, never dropping a shoulder underneath.

Can you dock without changing the leader’s speed or pitch, and move to the opposite slot over the top rather than dropping a shoulder underneath?

3.8 Safety critical
Keep the body pointed on the group's heading at all times when displaced, side-slide to close, turn with the group if it turns toward you, and never turn 180° from the group's heading or back toward the jump run, because off-heading collisions are the collisions that kill.

When you are out of position, do you keep your body pointed on the group’s heading and side-slide in, never turning 180 degrees away?

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

3.8
Keep the body pointed on the group's heading at all times when displaced, side-slide to close, turn with the group if it turns toward you, and never turn 180° from the group's heading or back toward the jump run, because off-heading collisions are the collisions that kill.

When you are out of position, do you keep your body pointed on the group’s heading and side-slide in, never turning 180 degrees away?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
State the breakoff and deployment altitudes and the lost-flyer plan: breakoff guide 5,000 ft for groups up to 4-way, 5,500 ft for 5 and larger (most modern jumpers plan 5,500 ft for movement jumps of any size), separating at least 1,000 ft above planned deployment. Movement-jump separation is designed on the ground, not improvised in the air.
2.1
Complete a movement-jump gear check on self and cross-check the group: hand-deploy BOC or pull-out, bridle fully covered, tight riser covers and closing loop, secure handles and clothing, helmet, audible set and functioning. Audibles fail silently, and an angle breakoff depends on hearing yours.
2.2
Walk the dive with the group, including the breakoff fan with eye contact between neighbouring flyers, the first time you see the flyer on your breakoff line should not be in freefall.
3.9
If left behind, keep flying the group's heading and closing correctly; stop closing by ~7,000–7,500 ft, hold the distance, and break off on the group's timing, not its altitude, because the classic pull-time collision is a trailing flyer still closing while the group slows to deploy.
3.10
Execute in-slot recovery immediately on any instability: keep speed on the group's direction and angle, never ball up, never track away; re-approach only when stable, and if separation persists, follow the group at a distance until breakoff.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (−0/+300 ft as a working guide).
4.3
Accelerate flat to build separation, then flatten and decelerate progressively before deployment, angle speeds sit outside the deployment envelope, and a gradual flatten converts vertical speed into horizontal separation; snapping flat kills both.
4.5
Visually clear airspace in all directions before deploying at the planned altitude, by looking under the arms and between the legs, or a clean transition to the back (a barrel roll only if smooth and reliable), never treating the deployment itself as clearing airspace: pulling dumps fabric into the airspace, it does not clear it.
4.6
After opening, hold position and heading until the other groups' canopies are seen open before flying toward the jump run, and keep heading discipline in the first seconds under canopy, post-breakoff wraps come from two flyers turning toward each other immediately after opening.

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 the declared objective using the available footage (leader-flown, outside or helmet-mounted), talking the coach through own heading, level, slot and altitude decisions.
5.2
If you have access to a GPS, compare the flown trace against the briefed plan.
5.3
Identify one fault and its correction for the next jump, and log the jump with criteria results against the orientation stream flown.

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 201 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.