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DY304 Coach
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Dynamic · Group · The brief

Dynamic 304

Fly a flock and roll

Flock and roll: the same switch, inside a diving turn.

What the course is about

You'll learn to fly a flock and roll, a pass-through with a turn in it: you fly your side of the arc, go through vertical mid-turn and take the belly lead through the pass. Dynamic 303 comes first, because the turn is added to a pass-through you already fly straight.
Head-down to crest standard (Head-Down 202 or your country's equivalent) stays the guide for everyone. In Australia, these jumps come under the tracking and angle rules, which need at least a Certificate C and an approved leader.

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.

3.2
Fly the assigned side of the arc through the diving 90° turn, carrying speed on the outside of the arc, tempering it on the inside, holding slot and level so the formation turns as a curve, not a corner.

Can you fly your side of the arc through a diving 90 degree turn, carrying speed on the outside and tempering it on the inside so the formation turns as a curve?

3.3
Transition through vertical on the leader's key mid-turn, switching orientation over the body as the group comes through and re-establishing slot and level on the departing line promptly.

Can you switch orientation on the key mid-turn and re-establish slot and level on the departing line?

3.10 Safety critical
Transition to back immediately when trapped low on the inside or outside of the turn without visual on the group, the FFP-DY202-trained recovery, regaining visual and following from below.

If you end up trapped low on the inside or outside of the turn without sight of the group, do you transition to back, regain visual and follow from below?

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

3.10
Transition to back immediately when trapped low on the inside or outside of the turn without visual on the group, the FFP-DY202-trained recovery, regaining visual and following from below.

If you end up trapped low on the inside or outside of the turn without sight of the group, do you transition to back, regain visual and follow from below?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.6
State breakoff (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for a 5-way or larger; set at least 1,000 ft above the highest planned deployment) and deployment altitudes, and the lost-leader protocol (transition to back, turn onto a back angle, follow the group from below).
2.2
Dirt-dive the full flow, exit, gather, the line out, the 90° diving turn, the pass, the departing line and breakoff, with slot allocations, each flyer's side of the arc and the transition key, naming the mismatched-arc closing-speed hazard across the handover.
2.3
Brief the abort criteria and the leadership edge cases: belly flyers not in slot on the angle = pass aborted; a scattered group = the leader steepens, then pulls back out; who owns navigation and abort through the vertical segment (under the handover, the receiving leader from the start of the segment; under the re-transition mechanism, the leader throughout); the leader-loss protocol in both windows (before the pass: pass aborted, Leader 1 steepens and pulls out, no back-flying substitute; mid-pass: no belly lead within the briefed ~2–3 s = each flyer completes their own transition over the body, holds the reciprocal line, and the jump is over); the dropped-flyer rule for the reversing geometry (once the group has passed through, no rejoining across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only with the group re-acquired, otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace); on a coached jump, the coach as Leader 1 flying the handover only when the coach judges the student ready to receive the belly lead; and arc ownership across the handover.
3.11
Apply the dropped-flyer rule after losing the group across the pass: do not rejoin across the reciprocal, hold an offset line, follow from below on the new direction only once the group is re-acquired visually, and otherwise separate and deploy higher after checking airspace.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude after clearing airspace.

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

- Sky jumps from 12,000 ft or higher (recommended), because turning through-vertical work needs working time. Each assessment jump is flown as a real 2–4-way.
Outside training, assessment jumps carry two approved leaders for the belly-led handover.
On a coached assessment jump the coach is Leader 1. The coach flies the handover only when they judge the flyer ready to receive the belly lead, and on other passes goes back to belly, keeping the lead and the abort call throughout.
Video of every assessment jump is required for a valid assessment: leader-flown, outside or helmet-mounted, with the flyer identifiable.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (a second recommended), an AAD (recommended) and freefly-suitable gear.
Conditions within every participant's cleared limits.
The assessor is a freefly coach current in dynamic or movement coaching and approved to lead movement jumps at the host drop zone, using this checklist.
Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory, and the course result is Competent or Not Yet Competent.
The result stays inside this curriculum: it opens the track's turning through-vertical jumps, and confers no licence, crest, endorsement or jump permission.
The recognition route (logbook, Dynamic 303 or equivalent, video portfolio, tunnel records) always ends in one challenge jump: a full flock and roll against Elements 3–4 with a coach-leader. The bail-out standard, the Dynamic 202 belly-to-back check, is always demonstrated live.
As a guide, it takes about 8 coached jumps, at least 4 of them full flock and rolls with turns both ways, on both sides of the arc and at least one as receiving leader, over at least two days or conditions within six months.
Tunnel carving on belly and back, and belly-to-back flips and layouts at speed, can replace up to two jumps. Navigation, the handover, breakoff and assessment jumps are sky only.
If you already fly flock and rolls, your coach can assess your record and one full flock and roll with a coach leading, and you always show the Dynamic 202 belly-to-back transition live.

Performance evidence

After each jump, debrief your arc, pitch-over and departing line on video with your coach, and log one correction. You've finished Dynamic 304 when you fly two flock and rolls in a row that meet everything on the coach's checklist below.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

Safety first, then fun, then learning. In that order, every time.

Coaching priorities

Safety first, then fun, then learning. Hold the bold criteria to the standard above, and have the standards conversation openly before anyone spends money on jumps. Brief the disorientation honestly: the turn moves every reference at once, and expecting it is half the treatment.
If readiness for the turn is in doubt, fly the jump as a straight pass-through and frame it as progress toward the roll. End each debrief on something that went well, with one thing to improve.

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.

Record this jump

Your notes for this course

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This card is a summary. The full Dynamic 304 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.