Angles · Group · The jump

Angles 301

Plan an angle jump

Designing an angle jump on the ground, then watching a leader fly it.

What the course is about

You'll plan and brief a whole angle jump with a coach mentoring you, fly belly beside the coach who leads it, and debrief your plan against the video. Angles 202 on belly and back comes first, so you can hold a slot without thinking and watch the leader.

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.

1.2

Design a flight path that meets the two governing objectives: avoid every other group's line of flight, and bring the whole group back to the landing area. Draw it on a DZ map with turns keyed to ground references, and plan the opening area for the whole group, the path ends in a cone of separating jumpers, not a point. Plan wind drift before intentional movement, total displacement is wind drift plus intentional movement. Work out the drift for the day's uppers and freefall time first, and visualise it on the DZ board, before adding any planned movement footprint. Drift acts on every group whether it moves or not, and it differs by discipline: a belly group drifts more than an angle group, which drifts more than a faster freefly group. A lane drawn without the drift underneath it is drawn in the wrong place (USPA SIM 5-10.F; APF006 §3.2; the project's coaching doctrine movement-jump planning doctrine).

Can you plan a group’s flight path on a drop zone map, calculating drift due to freefall and due to winds aloft?

1.8

Confirm the local drop zone's policy for taking part in and leading movement jumps before planning one, approval requirements, group-size limits and any local lane rules differ between drop zones, and the plan starts from what the host drop zone permits.

Do you understand your local drop zone’s policy for taking part in, and leading, angle jumps?

1.5 Safety critical

Design the breakoff on the ground, never in the air. Set the breakoff altitude: the guides are 5,000 ft up to a 4-way and 5,500 ft for 5 or more, and most modern groups brief 5,500 ft regardless of size; for a head-up angle group raise the floor, minimum 6,000 ft, and 6,500 ft for a larger group, the recommended FFP standard for head-up angle work, because a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation and rotating to head-first costs altitude (see the head-up-angle breakoff item in Knowledge evidence). Plan the last turn no lower than ~7,000 ft so the group settles onto one heading before separating ("we definitely don't want to break off in a turn, that's where the collisions happen"). Plan a peel-off fan away from jump run with no flyer turning more than ~90° and nobody, ever, turning 180° back toward the jump run, an explicit breakoff assignment for anyone slotted above the leader, and separation complete at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment. Breakoff is the trigger point for movement-jump collisions; it is designed, briefed and walked, not improvised (the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards;, the Australian "to the basement" incidents; APF006 §5.10;.

Can you design the whole breakoff on the ground: the altitude, the last turn high enough for the group to settle, who peels where, and separation finished above the highest planned opening?

3.2

Track the jump against the plan in the air: the turns against the keyed ground references, the drift under the group, the group's state at each phase, and how the leader applies the in-air priority order (Aviate → Navigate → Communicate, flown as leading skill in FFP-AN302). Watch the leader's sight picture: where they look, when they turn, what they do when the group spreads.

Can you follow a jump against its plan in the air, the turns against the ground references, the drift, and how the leader handled each phase?

Screen 3 · Safety and altitudes

Safety and altitudes

Everything here is a recommendation with a reason behind it. The drop zone you are jumping at, and your own limits on the day, decide what happens.

Safety-critical items on the short list

1.5

Design the breakoff on the ground, never in the air. Set the breakoff altitude: the guides are 5,000 ft up to a 4-way and 5,500 ft for 5 or more, and most modern groups brief 5,500 ft regardless of size; for a head-up angle group raise the floor, minimum 6,000 ft, and 6,500 ft for a larger group, the recommended FFP standard for head-up angle work, because a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation and rotating to head-first costs altitude (see the head-up-angle breakoff item in Knowledge evidence). Plan the last turn no lower than ~7,000 ft so the group settles onto one heading before separating ("we definitely don't want to break off in a turn, that's where the collisions happen"). Plan a peel-off fan away from jump run with no flyer turning more than ~90° and nobody, ever, turning 180° back toward the jump run, an explicit breakoff assignment for anyone slotted above the leader, and separation complete at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment. Breakoff is the trigger point for movement-jump collisions; it is designed, briefed and walked, not improvised (the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards;, the Australian "to the basement" incidents; APF006 §5.10;.

Can you design the whole breakoff on the ground: the altitude, the last turn high enough for the group to settle, who peels where, and separation finished above the highest planned opening?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.6

Prepare a conditional plan B that is simpler than plan A and changes only what must change (same exit, same slots, same breakoff where possible), plus the left-behind and lost-flyer protocol. Plans go off-script often enough that the response is designed before boarding ("you have to change what you have to change, but don't change what you don't have to change";, pre-briefed conditional plans; APF006 §4.3).

2.2

Deliver the briefing early, the 20-minute call, rehearsed at the 10, because a rushed brief produces rushed jumpers. Structure it dry data first: jump run, the three wind layers in digestible form, the drawn plan, exit order; then approach doctrine (quadrant → level → close), heading discipline, the left-behind protocol, the breakoff walk-through, and after-opening instructions, all phrased as what TO do, never only what not to do. The FFP briefing minimum defines six planning outputs for the jump: direction (lane or sector), distance (in grid squares or nautical miles), the breakoff and separation plan, the opening area, the initial canopy direction, and plan B. A movement jump is not briefed until all six are stated (APF006 §5.14; the project's coaching doctrine movement-jump planning doctrine).

2.3

Walk the dive with the group, walking backwards where it simulates real body inputs, and spend more time on the getting-together and breakoff phases than on the rest of the walk combined.

2.5

Brief the high-and-behind case as a mandatory item: a jumper who ends up high and behind the group must never chase it. Brief the mindset plainly: the jump is done; accept it, and do not try to catch back up. Chasing compresses vertical separation and raises closing speed at breakoff. Instead slow the fall rate, stay high and behind, keep visual contact with the group, and deploy at the briefed altitude when the group breaks off (the project's coaching doctrine movement-jump contingency doctrine;, break off at the group's timing, not its altitude; APF006 §3.3).

3.3

Fly the briefed breakoff exactly as planned for the observation slot, peel at the briefed altitude and angle, clear airspace in all directions, and deploy at the planned altitude over the planned area (APF006 §5.10, §3.3; the project's coaching doctrine breakoff standards).

The altitudes here are the guides this site recommends, with the reasons on the full course page. Where the drop zone briefs something different, fly what the drop zone briefs.

Screen 4 · After the jump

After the jump

From the course's closing section, review the plan.

4.1

Debrief with the group to the protocol: participants speak first; watch the whole video once through without stopping; safety points first, then positives, then improvements.

4.2

Compare planned versus flown: draw what you think the group flew, and, if a GPS trace is available, compare all three pictures (the plan, your perception, the trace), remembering the trace includes drift. The gaps are the navigation curriculum for the next plan.

4.3

Log the jump and bank what the day taught, flags you missed, conditions you now have experience with, what the leader did that the plan never captured, into the next plan.

One fault, one correction

Before the video, and before anyone else speaks, name the one fault from the jump and the one thing you will change on the next jump. Keep it to one of each, so you have one clear thing to 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

You can record the jump yourself, because your own read of your flying is worth keeping. A record counts as verified once a coach signs it.