AN401 Coach
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Angles · Mastery · The brief
Angles 401
Organise large movement groups
Organising large movement groups, and the two-leader big-way angle.
What the course is about
You'll learn to organise movement jumps for a whole load, including the big-way angle, and to bring on the leaders who come after you. Angles 302 comes first, because an organiser needs a record of leading angle jumps. You start as co-organiser beside an established organiser.
In Australia, larger movement groups need a more experienced leader and a Star Crest for everyone in them (thresholds in the regulations panel below).
What comes before it
Screen 2 · What to watch
What to watch
The same short list the flyer sees on their card, in the same words.
1.3
Safety critical
Hold the movement-group count per load to the briefed limit (guide: two per load). More than two, or two flying the same side, is a stacking flag that demands explicit airspace division: quadrants, wide buffer "walls" nobody crosses, declared opening points over named landmarks. Incidents come from accumulations of small factors, and closing speeds between groups are what kill (USPA SIM 5-10.E).
Do you cap how many movement groups go on one load, and when there are two, split the airspace with quadrants or a wall nobody crosses and a named opening point for each?
2.2
Confirm airspace division leader-to-leader, face to face. Sit within talking distance of the other movement leaders in the aircraft, so a changed jump run is a conversation, not a shout across a running door.
Do you sit within talking distance of the other movement leaders in the aircraft, so a changed jump run is a conversation rather than a shout across the door?
5.1
Safety critical
Lead a big-way angle with a second qualified leader, each leading half the load. Both leaders fly belly. Coordinate the two halves in the air, and hand each half cleanly into its own chunk at the stage-one split (the project's coaching doctrine; see 4.6).
Have you led half a big-way angle alongside a second qualified leader, both on belly, handing each half cleanly into its own chunk at the split?
Screen 3 · What blocks a sign-off
What blocks a sign-off
A safety-critical item marked not yet stops the sign-off, however good the rest of the flying was. The rest of the jump cannot make up for it.
Safety-critical items on the short list
1.3
Hold the movement-group count per load to the briefed limit (guide: two per load). More than two, or two flying the same side, is a stacking flag that demands explicit airspace division: quadrants, wide buffer "walls" nobody crosses, declared opening points over named landmarks. Incidents come from accumulations of small factors, and closing speeds between groups are what kill (USPA SIM 5-10.E).
Do you cap how many movement groups go on one load, and when there are two, split the airspace with quadrants or a wall nobody crosses and a named opening point for each?
5.1
Lead a big-way angle with a second qualified leader, each leading half the load. Both leaders fly belly. Coordinate the two halves in the air, and hand each half cleanly into its own chunk at the stage-one split (the project's coaching doctrine; see 4.6).
Have you led half a big-way angle alongside a second qualified leader, both on belly, handing each half cleanly into its own chunk at the split?
Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment
1.6
Design each group's breakoff before the jump:
1.7
For a big-way angle (12–17-way), plan the two-stage split breakoff (Element 4.6) as the primary safety architecture. Assign the two leaders and split the load into two leader-owned halves. Confirm every participant knows which leader they follow through the split (the project's coaching doctrine).
1.8
For a single-leader angle, treat 10–12 people as the practical ceiling. This is a high-risk jump: brief a raised breakoff of 6,000 ft or higher, and move to the two-leader big-way structure past this size rather than fanning one large single-leader group (the project's coaching doctrine).
1.9
For a head-up angle group, raise the breakoff floor, minimum 6,000 ft, and higher for larger groups. A head-up breakoff buys almost no separation, and rotating to head-first costs altitude (Carlton; the project's coaching doctrine; and see the head-up-angle breakoff item in Knowledge evidence).
4.1
Complete the last turn by ~7,000–7,500 ft. Settle the group straight, together and calm well before breakoff. Never break off in or just out of a turn: "that's where the collisions happen".
4.2
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude, leading straight ahead, fast and efficient, as the group's reference line. Never stop, flare out or turn in place. A leader who kills their speed is a standing target, and a group without a reference line is "just floating in the sky" (APF006 s5.10).
4.3
Monitor the fan through your own breakoff:
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace in all directions, ahead, behind, above, below and beside, always assuming somebody is there. The one time they are, you want to be prepared (Austin, "pulling early is not a breakoff").
4.6
For a big-way angle, run the two-stage split breakoff (the project's coaching doctrine):
Recording a sign-off says what you saw on one jump. Permission to jump, and anything the drop zone requires, stay with the drop zone.
Screen 4 · Conditions
Conditions
Where the evidence is allowed to come from, and how much of it there needs to be.
Assessment conditions
- Real movement operations at a drop zone that runs movement jumps: real multi-group loads for the multi-group items, and a real big-way, or the largest two-leader split the drop zone can safely field, for the big-way item. Tunnel work counts for no criterion.
Sky jumps from 13,000 ft or higher where available (recommended). Larger groups need the working time.
Footage of every assessed jump, leader-flown or helmet-mounted, with the organiser talking the assessor through their planning and in-air decisions.
A photo of each assessed load's published flight plan, on the board or the map, and GPS traces where the organiser has a GPS.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (a second recommended), an AAD (recommended), and gear suited to movement jumps.
Conditions within the drop zone's briefed limits, spanning the range of winds in the jumps assessed. Avoid assessing on the last loads of the day, when an off landing has to be recovered in fading light.
The assessor is an experienced movement-jump organiser, current at this scale, using this checklist. Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
The loads, as a guide: about 12 organised and led, within a recommended 12 months. At least 4 carry two movement groups of about 6-way or larger, and at least 1 is a big-way angle with a co-leader and the two-stage split, or the largest two-leader split available. Cover at least two days and wind conditions and two jump-run situations.
The standard: at least 2 consecutive organised operations meeting all criteria without help from a supervising organiser.
Leader development: the organiser helps develop at least one newer leader, by setting flight-plan homework and hearing it defended, or by observing a briefing or led jump and giving structured feedback. With no leader candidate locally, a scenario and footage review with a developing leader can stand in.
The talk-through: the organiser designs a two-movement-group load plan on a map of a nominated drop zone (patterns, exit order, separation by ground covered, opening points, holding areas) and defends it. The defence is what is assessed. They also adapt a benchmark leader-approval scheme into a written scheme for a nominated drop zone.
For an organiser who already runs movement days: logbook, footage and talk-throughs of organised multi-group days, including a two-leader big-way or the largest split available. Add standing approved-leader or organiser status under a published drop zone scheme, and written references from a drop zone safety officer, S&TA or movement-jump evaluator.
A recognised leading workshop counts toward the knowledge side only. Or run a challenge assessment across one organised day of about 4 loads, with at least one two-group load and one big-way split, against the full checklist.
For the prerequisites: logbook, footage and a talk-through of movement jumps planned, briefed and led to Angles 302 standard, with standing leader approval from a drop zone safety officer, S&TA or published drop zone scheme, verified by a freefly coach.
Completion is recorded as a Mastery milestone only. It confers no privilege. Leader and organiser approval stay with the drop zone safety officer (or S&TA) under local rules, and can be withdrawn at any time.
As a guide, it takes about 12 movement loads you organise and lead within 12 months, including two-group loads and a big-way angle. Tunnel time doesn't count.
If you already organise movement days, your coach can use your logbook, footage and references, or assess you across one organised day. Permission to lead or organise stays with your drop zone safety officer.
Performance evidence
After each load, debrief the groups, compare the plan with what you flew, and log it. You've finished Angles 401 when two organised operations in a row meet everything on the coach's checklist below, without help from a supervising organiser.
Screen 5 · Debrief
Debrief
Safety first, then fun, then learning. In that order, every time.
Coaching priorities
- Safety first, then fun, then learning, held for the whole load as well as the organiser's own group. The bold criteria protect every group in the sky. Never trade them for more loads flown.
Keep the day enjoyable: plans published without drama, groups landing back on the drop zone happy and manifesting again, and plan B jumps designed as good skydives in their own right. Fun is part of safety at this scale: the organised day is the alternative to unbriefed, unled jumps.
Debrief to the protocol: participants speak first, the video runs once uninterrupted, safety points first, teach from the good example, something for every flyer, and end on a win with one thing to improve. Model it for the leaders being developed.
After the debrief, the three-picture drill: draw the plan, draw what the organiser thinks they flew, and compare both with GPS where available. The ground track includes drift, and the gaps set the navigation work for the next jump.
Talk through the pattern menu, simple to hard, with each pattern's breakoff geometry: straight 90, 45-45, 45-90, zigzag, back trail, 270.
Check the finer planning habits: winds cross-checked against a second report and the pilot on marginal days, and jump run's offset, zero point, green light and type (into-wind, crosswind or curved). Confirm the drop zone's jump-run convention (aircraft heading or drop line over the ground), and the green-light wording ("0.5 before", before what?).
Check the brief: from the plan, at the twenty-minute call, walked at the ten, in positive instructions, dry data first, and plan B as a conditional. For a big-way, the split briefed explicitly, with the seam between halves named, and the pace stated.
Screening by demonstration: self-reported biggest, fastest or steepest jumps say nothing about movement skill. Ask whether the flyer could dock on their leader, and treat an unseen flyer as lower-skilled.
Novice freeflyers jumping on their own: check they know where jump run is, and teach them if not, as a responsible adult on the load.
The last-diver approach: from above and ahead the diver has a large flight range, good visuals of the group and clean air. The Byron Bay case (14 January 2021, an 18-way sunset angle) is covered in the documentary IMPACT. Use it respectfully, as a first-person account.
Audible discipline: consistent settings between jumps, and any change dirt-dived.
Feeding the day back: lanes, per-load limits, the leader list and briefing culture. Stand down or retrain where the flying showed it. Knowing when not to lead is part of the organiser's job.
Work through the incident set with developing organisers, naming the flags that stacked in each: the Sebastian jump-run crossing, breakoffs from above the leader that went low (including Australian cases), the accommodation collision, hard openings after atmo jumps from too little slowing down, target fixation and height loss at atmo breakoffs, and a big angle put up with no plan.
For the leader-approval scheme, compare Skydive Spaceland's approved-leader process (questionnaire, course, evaluated jump, flight-planning board), Skydive Arizona's day-by-day drop zone safety officer approval and daily lanes, and the Leading Workshop, which chooses not to certify its graduates.
One fault, one correction
Ask for their read before you give yours. Then leave them with one fault and one correction, in their words if you can get them. One of each is easier to carry onto the next load than six points.
A jump marked not yet is a jump to fly again. Tell them that as part of the debrief.
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