Angles 101 — Track and navigate

The checklist

1. Plan the jump

1.1

State the jump's single declared objective and success criteria.

1.2

Identify the day's jump run direction and the forecast winds in the three briefing categories, freefall, canopy and landing.

1.3

With the leader, state the flight plan: direction off jump run (90° guide), the planned opening area, and the left-behind plan.

1.4

State the breakoff and deployment altitudes (guide: 5,000 ft for groups up to a 4-way; 5,500 ft for 5 or more; most groups now brief 5,500 ft regardless of size), the fan needs time to settle, separate and decelerate before anyone deploys.

1.5

Confirm the jump is led belly-to-earth by a coach or a leader trained and approved for movement jumps, and has been declared to manifest/DZ operations, a movement group's safety case rests on its leader's navigation, and navigation is flown from the belly.

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a movement-specific gear check on self and partner: hand-deploy BOC or pull-out, bridle fully covered, tight riser covers, closing loop, handles, helmet, visual altimeter, audible set and functioning.

2.2

Brief and dirt-dive with the leader: exit and slot, levels and burble offsets, heading discipline, the left-behind plan, and the breakoff fan, walking the breakoff with eye contact on the people beside you.

2.3

Confirm exit order and separation with the load, identifying every other movement group and its planned direction (counting novice solo freeflyers as moving groups).

3. Perform

3.1

Exit and establish a stable belly track on the leader's line within 5 seconds, accelerating progressively off the hill (no early brakes).

3.2

Fly on level with the leader, a straight line through the heads, taking the level first, then closing distance.

3.3

Close to the briefed slot at docking distance without overshoot: aim ahead of the group (never at it), cut the distance in half and re-set, and only fly as fast as you can think.

3.4

Hold the group heading within ±45° throughout, side-sliding to adjust position.

3.5

Match the leader's speed and pitch through line changes on flat-to-shallow angles, holding the slot.

3.6

On back-track jumps, hold the slot below and slightly behind the belly-flying leader, using the leader as the directional reference.

3.7

Identify the jump run direction and at least one briefed ground reference during the working track, and report own position picture in the debrief.

3.8

If left behind, hold the group's heading and keep closing correctly until about 7,000 ft, then hold the distance and break off on the group's timing. Never turn away onto a personal jump and never break off early and blind: an off-plan flyer in movement airspace is the collision nobody's plan can see.

3.9

Recover from any instability by re-adding speed on the group's heading, never ball up, never track away; stay with the group until breakoff (a flyer who leaves the group becomes untracked traffic for the whole load).

4. Complete

4.1

Break off with the group at the briefed altitude: look first, then peel off flat (turning from the hips, not the shoulders) to no more than the briefed fan angle (≤90° guide). Never turn in place, and never turn 180° back toward jump run: the leader continues straight as everyone's reference, and a reversed or stationary flyer is on a collision line with the flyers behind.

4.2

Accelerate on the diverging line, then flatten progressively, converting speed into separation before deployment.

4.3

Check airspace in all directions before deploying, assume somebody is there; from a back track, roll belly-to-earth only when on a clear trajectory with no one above.

4.4

Deploy at the planned altitude within the planned opening area.

4.5

After opening, hold position until the other groups' canopies are seen open before flying back toward jump run; then fly the planned canopy path to the holding area.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief with the leader against the declared objective, talking through own decision-making over the jump video: how aware were you of heading, turns and altitude, and why did you fly what you flew.

5.2

Draw the flown path on the DZ map and compare it with the plan (and with the GPS trace, where one was worn).

5.3

Identify one fault and its correction for the next jump.

5.4

Log the jump with criteria results.

Criteria in bold are safety-critical: they protect the flyer and everyone else in the movement airspace. A coach should not sign off the course while a bold criterion is Not Yet Satisfactory, however good the rest of the flying. Outside a course they are strongly recommended practice. Regulation stays with your federation and your drop zone.

Assessment conditions

• Sky jumps from 10,000 ft or higher (recommended), manifested and declared as movement jumps. The tunnel can’t be used for assessment: there is no jump run, wind layer or navigation in it.
• Every assessment jump is led belly to earth by the assessing coach or a trained and approved leader.
• Conditions within the flyer’s cleared limits, with the upper winds known before boarding.
• Video can be light at this tier. Helmet-mounted footage showing the flyer’s heading and stability is enough, with the flyer talking the coach through their decisions on it: heading awareness, turns and altitude checks.
• Leader-flown or outside video is used where available, and tunnel footage supports the body-position picture.
• A GPS trace supports the plan-versus-flown debrief where the flyer has one. It is optional. As a reference, flat tracks run at about 130–180 km/h (a good flat track below about 140 km/h), and steepening angles run to 300+ km/h.
• Equipment: a visual altimeter, a working audible set to the briefed altitudes (a second audible recommended), an AAD (recommended), and movement-suitable gear to the Freefly 100 standard.
• The assessor is a coach current in movement-jump coaching, using this checklist. Each criterion is marked Satisfactory or Not Yet Satisfactory.
• As a guide, it takes at least 6 coached movement jumps, belly first and at least 2 back-track, over at least two days with different upper winds within six months.
• All of them are sky jumps: the tunnel has no jump run, wind or navigation.
• If you already fly movement jumps, your coach can assess you on one led 2-way, backed by video and a logbook of 15 or more coached or led movement jumps, British Skydiving TR1 and TR2, or a tracking endorsement.

Coaching priorities

• Safety first, then fun, then learning. Hold the bold criteria to the standard above.
• Plan sessions to be enjoyable: flyers choose this expensive hobby, and enjoying it keeps them in the sport.
• On movement jumps, enjoyment also does safety work. Coaching is a choice, and unled beginner groups are where the documented incidents happen.
• Set one objective per jump to keep the load on the flyer light.
• Brief breakoff orientation ahead of larger jumps later in the progression: head-up flying gains almost no separation at breakoff, so in groups of 6 or more be head-first by about 6,500–7,000 ft.
• Run the debrief with the safety points first, then what worked (a held slot, or a map that matches the plan), then one thing to improve. End on something that went well.

• APF Freefly and Angles Guide (APF006, August 2023), sections 3 and 4: movement-jump equipment, exit order, flying 90° to jump run and the breakoff minima (§3.1–3.3), and recovery on a movement jump (§4.3).
• APF Freefly and Angles Guide, sections 5 and 8: belly before back and movement-group directions (§5.2), the peel-off with the leader flying straight (§5.10), the belly-flying leader and aiming in front of the formation (§5.12), safe zones for belly and back flyers (§5.13), and angles evaluation in groups of three at most including the coach (§8.1, §8.7).
• The Leading Workshop (Modern Skydiving Concepts, 2021): keeping the group tight, counting flags, wind layers and drift, levels and closing, the left-behind plan, the breakoff fan, holding after opening, leading on the belly, and flat angles as the place to learn.
• Newcastle Sport Parachute Club, Hunter Valley angle and movement jump guidelines: movement groups per load, cloud, the leader’s navigation briefing with the load master, the approved belly-flying leader, beginner group sizes, and belly and back limits.
• British Skydiving Tracking Progression Manual: the TR1 and TR2 grades, the 45° limit for groups below TR3, and the belly-to-earth leader.
• USPA Skydiver’s Information Manual, sections 4-7 and 5-10: exit order, lanes, and the back-flyer’s roll to belly at breakoff.
• Jake Carlton, “Head Up Angles and the Breakoff Problem”: GPS data on breakoff separation and going head-first in groups of 6 or more.
• Bryan Burke, “The Horizontal Flight Problem”: angle groups and tracker exit order.
• Sharon Har-Noy (Joyriders), “Covering All the Angles”, and the Folgerts, Miilumäki and Leos group tracking tips: the line through the heads, quadrants, catching up on heading, and belly-first leaders.
• Skydive Long Island, “Let’s Talk About Tracking”: flat-track speeds.
• Alethia Austin (Skydive Mag): breakoff, and Skydive Spaceland’s approved-leader system.
• Skydive Arizona and Skydive Spaceland: their approved-leader models for movement jumps.
• APF Operational Regulations (V01-2026) and APF Training Operations Manual (V01-2025), as jurisdictional context.

Regulations change, so each rule is given with its document edition, as context for where you jump.

• Australia (APF). Tracking and angles descents require at least a Certificate Class B, suitable equipment and a CI-approved course of instruction in tracking and navigation (OR 9.9.1). The OR and the TOM (V01-2025) don’t define that course, and the TOM has no tracking or angles training table. This course is written so a CI can adopt it, with local rules attached, as that course.
• A Certificate Class B holder may take part in tracking descents of up to 3-way (OR 9.9.2(b)). A novice may fly a tracking or angles descent on their own under direct DZSO supervision (OR 9.9.2(a)).
• A leader must be an approved Freefly Coach or a Certificate Class C holder, approved by a DZSO at the drop zone (OR 9.9.3(a)).
• Stopping work at least 1,000 ft above planned deployment is mandatory (OR 9.1.4). The APF Freefly and Angles Guide gives educational breakoff minima of 4,500 ft for a 2-way and 5,000 ft for 3 or more (APF006 §3.3).
• Assessors in Australia: an APF Freefly Coach, or a DZSO-approved tracking and angles leader where the CI has adopted this course.
• Some drop zones set movement-jump rules of their own. Hunter Valley (Newcastle Sport Parachute Club) limits a load to two movement groups unless the DZSO approves more, rules out movement jumps in or near cloud, and limits beginner angles to three people including the coach.
• UK (British Skydiving). This course maps to the TR1 (belly) and TR2 (back) grades, introduced by a CI-nominated TR-graded skydiver or a BTR or TR coach. No angle steeper than 45° is flown in any group of non-TR3 flyers. Assessors: a BTR or TR coach.
• Drop zone benchmarks. Skydive Arizona: under 100 jumps, movement jumps only with a DZSO-approved instructor or organiser, 2-way at most. Skydive Spaceland: 100+ jumps to join coached movement jumps, with leaders drawn from a formally evaluated approved-leader list.
• Elsewhere, the national or drop zone equivalent applies.

Acronym key. APF, Australian Parachute Federation. OR, the APF Operational Regulations. TOM, the APF Training Operations Manual. CI, chief instructor. DZSO, drop zone safety officer. TR1, TR2 and TR3, the British Skydiving tracking grades. BTR and TR coach, British Skydiving tracking coach ratings.