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HU401 Coach
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Head Up · Mastery · The brief

Head-Up 401

Fly head-up big-ways

Head-up big-ways: launching the base, building the line, holding a quiet slot, aborting clear.

What the course is about

You'll learn to fly an assigned slot in an organised head-up big-way. This follows Head-Up 202 and Head-Up 301, because a big-way slot needs crest-standard head-up flying and the level, closure and breakoff habits of small groups.
In Australia, formations larger than ten need a Star Crest and a Freefly Crest, head-up big-ways included.

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.

3.1
Launch the linked base from inside the aircraft, door kept clear for floaters, stabilising grips, heading and fall rate through the hill (base slots; ASM 96 pp.40–41).

Can you launch a linked base from inside the aircraft, keeping the door clear for floaters and holding grips, heading and fall rate through the hill?

3.5
Build the wacker line off the base, matching the line's level and radial spacing (wacker slots).

Can you fly onto the end of the line off the base, holding the line’s level and keeping even spacing out from the centre?

3.7
Hold the slot quietly, level within a head height, grips soft, inputs minimal, while monitoring the build and the traffic in own sector until the key or breakoff.

On a long build, can you hold your slot quietly on soft grips, level within a head height, watching your sector instead of putting inputs into the formation?

3.8 Safety critical
Fly the briefed abort on any instability or orientation loss: establishing back-fly, clearing off the formation's line, and not re-approaching (corking decelerates a flyer from ~175+ mph to ~120 mph, a collision hazard for anyone above the formation).

If you become unstable near a formation, do you fly the briefed abort, recover to back-fly, clear the formation’s line, and stay out?

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

3.8
Fly the briefed abort on any instability or orientation loss: establishing back-fly, clearing off the formation's line, and not re-approaching (corking decelerates a flyer from ~175+ mph to ~120 mph, a collision hazard for anyone above the formation).

If you become unstable near a formation, do you fly the briefed abort, recover to back-fly, clear the formation’s line, and stay out?

Everything this course says about breakoff and deployment

1.3
State the staged breakoff plan: own wave, its altitude and assigned radial, and the deployment altitude. Guides: waves elevated with group size, e.g., first wave ≥6,000 ft and open by 4,500 ft, with ≥1,000 ft from own breakoff to deployment (cf. the elevated floors used for coached freefly display groups, ASM 96 p.15). Head-up big-way separation planning needs to be more conservative than head-down: gaining lateral separation from a head-up breakoff is inefficient, so at 10-way and larger the breakoff plan is the organiser's risk decision, higher floors are worth considering.
2.2
Complete a freefly-specific gear check: pin and handle protection for the gripped exit and aircraft stack-up, genuinely tight BOC (premature pilot-chute deployment is a documented head-up hazard, ASM 96 p.33), two audibles set to the briefed altitudes, AAD on.
4.1
Initiate breakoff with own wave at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), turning onto the assigned radial.
4.3
Transition to belly, washing off vertical speed and checking airspace before deployment (deployment at freefly speeds drives the hard-opening/line-twist incident class, ASM 109 p.69).
4.4
Deploy at the planned altitude, never above the formation or another group (ASM 112 p.88).
5.1
Debrief own jump against the per-jumper report card covering the 11 briefed areas of the jump, climbouts, quietness, presentation and breakoff among them; full card under Assessment conditions, comparing self-assessment against the organiser's card (Malchiodi debrief instrument, 2019 Australian HU record, ASM 96 pp.40–41).
5.4
Log the jump with a written reflection naming the unit, the slot flown and the outcome (e.g., "FFP-HU401, diver slot, 12-way, build held to breakoff"), retaining the report card as evidence, the report-card cycle only compounds if it lands in the logbook.

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

- Head-up formation jumps of around 8-way or larger at an organised, coached event, with a real group. Tunnel work is preparation only.
Sky jumps from 13,000 ft or higher (recommended), and higher with group size at the organiser's discretion.
Video from a dedicated camera flyer above the formation, plus footage in which the flyer can be identified. The report card and the build diagnosis depend on it.
Equipment, treated as standard at organised big-way events: a visual altimeter, two working audibles, an AAD, and freefly-suitable gear with a tight BOC.
Conditions within the event's briefed limits.
The assessor is an experienced head-up big-way organiser, or a freefly coach current in head-up big-way coaching. They use this checklist and the 11-area report card, and mark each criterion Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
The three-in-a-row standard is under "When you've got it". Keep a completed report card for every assessed jump.
As a guide, that takes about 12 coached head-up formation jumps at around 8-way or larger, in at least two kinds of slot, such as base plus diver or wacker, chosen by the organiser and your coach, over at least two organised camps or events within 12 months.
Tunnel time counts toward none of these jumps: it has no climbout, hill, altitude or breakoff.
If you've already flown head-up big-ways, your coach can assess you from your logbook, video, organiser references or report cards, or across one camp of at least 4 jumps. Logged, coach-checked head-up group jumps at Head-Up 301 standard can stand in for the prerequisites.
This course authorises no jump: the organiser and your drop zone decide who flies in a big-way, and in which slot.
Knowledge is checked in conversation. The flyer lays out an engineering plan for a 12-way head-up formation (base size and launch method, diver order, break-in designation, wacker lines, staged breakoff), and can explain why the base launches from inside, why divers transition on level before approaching, and why head-up separation planning is more conservative than head-down.
The 11 report-card areas, in jump order: climbouts, exit timing, approach discipline, level control, slot fidelity, dock quality, quietness, presentation, breakoff (initiation, own wave, altitude, radial), breakoff execution (track, separation, transition, deployment), and canopy pattern.
The original record card was never published. The magazine account names four areas: climbouts, quietness, presentation and breakoff. The other seven are reconstructed from the same account of the record coaching and from published big-way debrief material. The original card replaces this list if it is obtained.

Performance evidence

After every jump, compare your 11-area report card with the organiser's, find your slot's part in the build on the formation video, and log the slot, group size, outcome and one correction.
You've finished Head-Up 401 when your slot builds and holds to breakoff on three jumps in a row without the organiser stepping in, and you 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. Never trade breakoff, deployment or abort discipline for a completed formation.
Brief and debrief a flown abort, or a stand-down under criterion 1.5, as a correct decision, even on a jump that took a whole load to build.
Run the report-card debrief without blame: safety points first, then what worked, then one thing to improve on the next attempt.
Start each flyer in a simple slot, and reduce supervision as they become trusted across base, diver or break-in, and wacker slots.

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 Head-Up 401 course page carries the reasoning, the sources and everything left off here. All briefing cards.