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AN202 Flyer
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Angles · Relative · The jump

Angles 202

Demonstrate endorsement-standard angle flying

The angle flying an endorsement consumes as evidence.

What this unit covers

The angles assessment unit, the point where slot-flying skill (FFP-AN201) is demonstrated at the consistency an endorsement decision consumes.
Covers the complete small-group angle skill set on 2–3-way jumps with a trained, approved leader: head-first exit and acceleration to the group, quadrant entry, getting on level, controlled approach to docking distance, slot and level holds through the leader's speed, pitch and heading changes, dock, over-the-top transition to the opposite slot, heading discipline, and in-slot recovery.
The rest of it
The full breakoff–track–airspace-check–deployment–canopy sequence completes the skill set. Three doctrinal commitments define the unit (the contemporary standard, per the Leading Workshop A–C notes and the project doctrine):
Every jump is flown with a leader trained and approved in leading angle jumps, and the leader flies belly-to-earth. A leader must see the ground to navigate, and the group's safety hangs on the leader's line: "the leader's responsibility, in short, is to bring everybody safely to the ground, preferably to the landing area" (Workshop).
Belly-lead is the FFP teaching rule and the recommended default: for developing leaders it is the rule, and it stays the default even for experts.
Narrow expert exceptions are documented in the sources and argued against in the knowledge-evidence section below.
This unit does not teach back-leading.
APF006 §5.12, educational: "the lead flyer must always fly belly to earth"; Workshop C's trainee-leader back-lead ban –.
Back-flying is taught and assessed here as a follower skill flown in slot, its own evidence stream, not a leading position at this level.
Closeness is the standard. "The tighter we are, the safer we are, once we start creating natural separation we have closing speeds, and that's when the accidents happen" (Workshop).
The endorsement-standard flyer holds docking distance on level.
In a moving group, distance is not a margin, it is where the closing speeds live. Results are orientation-specific: belly and back are separate evidence streams with separate results, and competence in one orientation never evidences the other (APF006 §8.7 signs the orientations off separately). The unit's output is an evidence pack built so the drop-zone authority making the group-size decision can decide directly from it. Leading is out of scope: briefing and leading movement jumps is FFP-AN301. Applies to flyers who have completed FFP-AN201 in the stream(s) being assessed. Environment: sky, 2–3-way angle jumps at ≤~60° (guide) from a recommended 10,000 ft minimum. Tunnel carving supports preparation; it never substitutes for the assessment jumps. Supervision: the assessing coach or approved leader flies the belly lead slot on every jump. On preparation jumps they coach; on assessment jumps they give no in-air assistance.

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.

3.6
Fly over the top of the leader to dock on the opposite side, keeping the whole body above the formation, never dropping a shoulder underneath (APF006 §5.12).

Can you fly over the top of the leader to dock on the far side, keeping your whole body above the formation?

3.7
Hold slot and level through a briefed turn, flying the outside arc with speed rather than cutting inside, turns are curves, not corners (Workshop).

Can you hold slot and level through a turn by flying the outside arc with speed, rather than cutting the corner?

3.9 Safety critical
Execute in-slot recovery as second nature on any instability: add speed in the group's direction on the jump's angle, never ball up, never track away. If separation persists, hold the group's heading and follow: stop the closure by ~7,000–7,500 ft, hold the distance, and break off on the group's timing, not its altitude, breaking off early, high and blind above a descending group is how followers meet deploying canopies (APF006 §4.3 "Do not track away!"; Workshop –).

Is in-slot recovery second nature: adding speed on the group’s direction and angle, never balling up, never tracking 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

3.9
Execute in-slot recovery as second nature on any instability: add speed in the group's direction on the jump's angle, never ball up, never track away. If separation persists, hold the group's heading and follow: stop the closure by ~7,000–7,500 ft, hold the distance, and break off on the group's timing, not its altitude, breaking off early, high and blind above a descending group is how followers meet deploying canopies (APF006 §4.3 "Do not track away!"; Workshop –).

Is in-slot recovery second nature: adding speed on the group’s direction and angle, never balling up, never tracking away?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.5
State the briefed breakoff altitude (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to 4-way, 5,500 ft for 5-way or larger, and note most modern groups brief 5,500 ft regardless of size), the deployment altitude, the breakoff fan plan, and the left-behind and lost-group plans, a group whose members do not share these numbers has no shared timing at the most dangerous phase of the jump.
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, hard helmet, visual altimeter, audible altimeter checked and set to the briefed breakoff. On an angle jump the audible is the group's shared clock.
2.2
Walk the dive with the group, spending the most time on the breakoff fan, who peels where, with eye contact between breakoff neighbours ("I spend more time on getting the group together and breaking off than I do on actual walking", Workshop).
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), on the group's timing, the classic pull-time collision is a flyer still closing while the group slows to deploy (Workshop).
4.2
Fan off in the briefed order, leader continues straight, everyone else peels progressively to a maximum ~90°, looking before turning, turning flat from the hips, never turning in place, breakoff "is not so much of a race as it is a basketball game" (APF006 §5.10; Workshop –).
4.6
Deploy at the planned altitude after visually checking airspace in all directions, with relative work discontinued at least 1,000 ft above planned deployment (mandatory in Australia, the APF Operational Regulations); if directly above someone at pull height, deploy, never try to out-track them (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 each jump against the published checklist using the jump video, talking through own decision-making, heading awareness, level, closure rate, altitude calls.
5.2
Self-assess each criterion Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory from the footage before seeing the assessor's marks, justifying any differences.
5.3
If you have access to a GPS, compare the planned line, the line you think you flew, and the trace, the three-picture debrief is the fastest feedback loop in movement flying (Workshop); optional enrichment, not a requirement.
5.4
Log each jump (orientation stream, group size, leader's name) with criteria results and the assessor's countersignature, building the evidence pack.

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