Skip to content
DY403 Coach
Flyer card Full course

Swipe sideways, or tap the dots. 5 screens.

Dynamic · Mastery · The brief

Dynamic 403

Fly eagles

Eagles: passing another flyer over or under, on a call.

What the course is about

You'll learn to fly eagles: you and one partner face each other, fly toward each other and pass over or under in opposite vertical orientations. Dynamic 402 comes first, because an eagle is built on reading and mirroring a leader. In Australia, a two-way freefly jump needs the drop zone safety officer's approval.

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.

3.4 Safety critical
Commit the over/under call early on every approach; on a missed or late call, an ambiguous height read or conflicting movement, both flyers abort the pass and break to their pre-assigned offset sides, never force a crossing, and never resolve height ambiguity inside the closure.

Do you commit the over or under call early on every approach, and break to your pre-assigned offset side rather than forcing a crossing on any ambiguity?

3.5
Fly the follower role, initiating the signalled high-speed front or back layout and passing over or under the leader, with vertical displacement and relativity held through the pass.

Can you fly the signalled front or back layout and pass over or under the leader, holding vertical displacement and relativity right through the pass?

3.9 Safety critical
Fly the over-pass clear of the partner's burble column with the briefed vertical displacement; never decelerate beneath the partner, a blown layout aborts outward with lateral offset.

Do you fly the over-pass clear of the other flyer’s burble with the briefed vertical displacement, never slowing down underneath them?

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

3.4
Commit the over/under call early on every approach; on a missed or late call, an ambiguous height read or conflicting movement, both flyers abort the pass and break to their pre-assigned offset sides, never force a crossing, and never resolve height ambiguity inside the closure.

Do you commit the over or under call early on every approach, and break to your pre-assigned offset side rather than forcing a crossing on any ambiguity?

3.9
Fly the over-pass clear of the partner's burble column with the briefed vertical displacement; never decelerate beneath the partner, a blown layout aborts outward with lateral offset.

Do you fly the over-pass clear of the other flyer’s burble with the briefed vertical displacement, never slowing down underneath them?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.5
State the breakoff plan, breakoff altitude, the last-pass floor (no pass begun below breakoff plus 1,000 ft), the head-up rotate-head-first rule, the back-flyer roll rule and deployment altitudes, with separation complete at least 1,000 ft above the planned deployment height (guides: 5,000 ft for freefly groups up to 4-way, noting most modern jumpers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft; the head-up passes make this a head-up movement jump and raise the floor to 6,000 ft minimum).
3.11
Begin no pass below the last-pass floor, breakoff altitude plus 1,000 ft.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), rotating from head-up to a head-first orientation first if the jump ends head-up, then turning onto a clear radial while flattening pitch to a track; never back-track away while still head-up.
4.2
If on the back at breakoff, roll to belly only once on a clear trajectory with no one above.
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude, inside the group's planned opening airspace, after checking own 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 13,000 ft or higher (recommended). An eagle jump is nearly vertical, uses altitude quickly, and its head-up passes raise the breakoff floor.
A real 2-way in the sky for every criterion. Tunnel work is preparation only.
Video of every assessment jump is required, from a dedicated camera flyer or leader-flown, with the flyer identifiable.
Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible (two recommended), an AAD, and freefly-suitable gear with a tight pilot chute pouch.
Conditions within the pair's briefed limits, with winds aloft assessed in planning.
The assessor is an experienced dynamic or movement organiser, or a freefly coach current in mixed-orientation coaching, using this checklist.
Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
For a flyer who already flies eagles: logbook and video of 2-way eagle sky jumps with passes over and under, verified by a freefly coach, plus tunnel records of static eagles through belly and back and high-speed front and back layouts. School records or IBA Dynamic ladder equivalents can serve; the ladder is known from third-party summaries only, so check it against IBA material.
Competition results in 2-way MFS, VFS or indoor Dynamic 2-way and 4-way support the sky evidence and do not replace it. A challenge assessment runs across a suggested 3 jumps against the full checklist.
For the Dynamic 402 prerequisite: logbook and video of mirroring sky jumps at that standard, verified by a freefly coach, with the tunnel records above.
Indoor Dynamic 2-way and 4-way, 2-way MFS and VFS are routes for continued development. The VFS dive pool's inter-orientation transitions are the closest competition vocabulary to the eagle.
Completion is recorded as a Mastery milestone only. It confers no privilege and gives no permission to plan, lead or join any jump.
Across your eagle jumps, fly passes over and under, through belly and back, with both layouts, in both the head-down and head-up phases. Fly at least one jump with every pass read without a signal, and fly the leader role with an experienced partner opposite.
As a guide, it takes about 10 jumps within 12 months. Calibrate pass timing in the tunnel, which replaces none of the sky jumps.
If you already fly eagles, your coach can use your logbook, sky video and tunnel records, or assess you across 3 jumps.

Performance evidence

Debrief every pass on video for closeness, synchronisation, body positions and balance, count the passes read without a signal, and log them. You've finished Dynamic 403 when you fly two jumps 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. At Mastery the pair still designs the plan to the less experienced flyer, and standing down when readiness isn't there is the right call.
Plan sessions to be enjoyable: flyers choose this expensive hobby, and enjoying it keeps them in the sport. 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

Saved on this device only, with no account. They will be here next time you open this card.

This card is a summary. The full Dynamic 403 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.