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HD102 Coach
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Head Down · Stability · The brief

Head-Down 102

Control and transition head-down

Control head down: turns, drive, slides and flips.

What this unit covers

Covers deliberate control of the head-down position and transitions between head-down positions: turns on the vertical axis driven from leg pressure rather than the arms, fore/aft drive from chin and hip, lateral movement by side slide, level (fall-rate) changes, and HD↔HD transitions with heading recovery, the front flip and the back flip (APF006 §7.4, §7.7, §7.9).
The cartwheel/side transition is stretch content; see below. Applies to flyers who can find and hold vertical head-down (HD 101). Environment: the tunnel is the primary skill-building environment, isolating one control at a time; sky solo jumps validate the skills.
The rest of it
The soloist flies sky head-down in a daffy under the FFP-F100 solo protocols, because a shelf can quickly develop a large forward drive into a back angle (the project's coaching doctrine). Supervision: starts coach-held or coach-as-reference in the tunnel, moves to the coach flying passively, and ends with unaccompanied solo sky drills.
At this tier the candidate performs with guidance, moving from imitation to precision.
The single heading standard throughout is ±45°: finish pointing in the same quadrant. Scope boundary, carving is out of scope. The flyer should not attempt carving until the turn, drive, level-change and transition exercises in this unit are performed competently (APF006 §7.9: "Carving should not be attempted until competency is achieved in the above exercises.").
Carving enters the curriculum downstream (Dynamic track), after this unit's criteria are met.

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.

3.3
Perform a 360° turn in each direction using pressure on the leg opposite the turn, arms remaining in their stability role, stopping within ±45° of the start heading.

Can you turn 360 degrees in each direction from leg pressure, stopping within about a quadrant of where you started?

3.4
Initiate and stop forward drive using chin and hip input, holding heading within ±45°.

Can you start and stop forward drive using chin and hip input, holding your heading?

3.8
Perform a head-down-to-head-down front-flip transition (head tilt initiates, legs tucked for momentum, legs catch air to stop rotation), re-establishing vertical within ±45° of the entry heading.

Can you do a head-down to head-down front flip and come out vertical, near the heading you went in on?

3.10 Safety critical
Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, ball up, never flatten to belly, resuming work only when stable and the airspace is confirmed clear.

On any loss of control, do you ball up rather than flatten to belly, and only start work again once stable and the airspace is clear?

Screen 3 · What blocks a sign-off

What blocks a sign-off

A safety-critical criterion marked not yet stops the sign-off, however good the rest of the flying was. There is no averaging across this line, and no trading a good jump against it.

Safety-critical criteria on the short list

3.10
Execute the vertical recovery position immediately on any loss of control, ball up, never flatten to belly, resuming work only when stable and the airspace is confirmed clear.

On any loss of control, do you ball up rather than flatten to belly, and only start work again once stable and the airspace is clear?

Everything this unit says about breakoff and deployment

1.4
State breakoff and deployment altitudes (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way, 5,500 ft for 5-way or larger, most modern freeflyers use 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft), and the audible verification plan for the jump. Audibles fail silently (see Knowledge evidence), so the profile is confirmed against the briefed breakoff. On an audible that annunciates climbing altitude, the climb beeps double as a function check (the 2,000 ft beep) and a profile check (the breakoff-altitude beeps heard on the climb). On an audible that arms only on freefall detection and gives no climb beeps, this in-plane check does not apply; function is verified per the manufacturer's method instead.
2.4
Verify audible function and profile on the climb, climb-annunciating devices only (see the device caveat in Knowledge evidence). Listen for the 2,000 ft beep when the seatbelts come off as a function check. Read the breakoff-altitude profile beeps heard higher on the climb as a separate profile check. Use a 12,000 ft beep as the final functionality check and the reminder to begin gear checks. On a device that gives no climb beeps, silence on the climb is normal, verify function per the manufacturer's method rather than treating the silence as a failed or passed check.
4.1
Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft).
4.3
Deploy at the planned altitude after decelerating to belly-to-earth speeds (≥1,000 ft slow-down guide) and clearing airspace.

Recording a sign-off says what you saw on one jump. It is not a rating, it is not a permission to jump, and it does not replace anything the drop zone requires.

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 a recommended 10,000 ft minimum (APF006 §3.2). Tunnel evidence comes from instructor-supervised sessions with head-down spotting per the operator's rules (bail-to-back-fly convention on coach signal).
Video of assessment jumps/sessions is required (coach-flown, tunnel camera or outside video; candidate identifiable).
Required equipment: visual altimeter, functioning audible (two functioning audibles, regard as mandatory best practice when flying solo), AAD recommended, and freefly-suitable gear per the FFP-F100 checklist.
Conditions within the candidate's cleared limits. Declare shoulder history before vertical work. The sit-to-head-down transition and the arm positions this unit drills load the shoulder joint hard, and the Australian record carries serious cases: a shoulder dislocation that prevented the flyer reaching the BOC (ASM 56 p.74) and torn shoulder ligaments (ASM 83 p.25).
A candidate with a history of shoulder dislocation, instability or reconstruction should raise it before head-down work, so arm position and the recovery sequence can be adjusted and medical clearance sought where appropriate. A shoulder that cannot reach the BOC is a deployment failure, not just a flying limitation.
Assessor: a freefly coach current in head-down coaching, using the published FFP-HD102 checklist (Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory per criterion; unit result Competent / Not Yet Competent).

Performance evidence

Competence, not jump counts or hours, is the standard (APF006 Part 8); every number below is a guide to how long it might take. Ability is evidenced across head-down skill jumps and/or coached tunnel time.
A typical blend: around 8 skill jumps, with 45–60 minutes of coached head-down tunnel time substituting for up to half the skill-development jumps but not the sky-validation jumps.
The candidate flies the full drill set on at least 3 sky jumps (guide), tunnel evidence alone does not validate the sky environment, because exits, drift, altitude and breakoff are absent in the tunnel.
Evidence spans at least two different days/conditions, including two consecutive jumps (or tunnel sessions) meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts, within a recommended 6-month currency window. Set time expectations honestly on the tunnel route.
Learning head-down static to a basic, signed-off level typically takes 10–20 tunnel hours, depending on the student and how much dynamic skill they also choose to learn. A flyer who wants the most efficient path to head-down static will focus exclusively on static flying and may get there in around 10 hours.
One who mixes in dynamic moves (front and back layouts, back carving) should expect 20+ hours: low/medium-speed dynamic manoeuvres take significantly longer to learn than static flying, and full dynamic training is a 100+ hour tunnel progression.

Screen 5 · Debrief

Debrief

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

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project's priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Never trade the solo protocol (daffy, static turn, two audibles) or the recovery discipline for drill throughput. Set one declared objective per jump or tunnel session to keep cognitive load light and the session enjoyable.
End debriefs on a win with one improvement focus for the next jump or session.
For tunnel-trained students, the conversion module below protects enjoyment as much as technique, an early run of discouraging jumps can end a progression. > Watch: Head-down basics (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=6M-3f7C2x0o > > Watch: Head-down turns (AXIS Flight School), youtube.com/watch?v=s85LQqG6R64

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. Six points is six points forgotten by the next load.

A jump marked not yet is a jump to re-fly, not a failure, and saying so out loud is part of the debrief.

Record this jump

Your notes for this unit

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This card is a summary. The full Head-Down 102 unit carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.