Head-Up 301 — Fly head-up in groups

Application

Covers flying head-up in groups of four or more (typically 4–6-way; up to about 10 as a guide): planning slots and lanes, launching a 4-way linked head-up exit, flying and protecting the base (heading and fall rate, no orbiting), presenting docks, approaching along assigned lanes, and executing a group fan-out breakoff.

Applies to flyers at crest-standard head-up competence (HU 202).

Environment: sky; tunnel drills prepare presentation, level and approach mechanics, but exits and breakoffs are sky-only evidence.

Supervision/scaffold stage: coach passive → flying with peers, rotating through slot responsibilities (Dave’s articulation stage, established skills combined while managing other flyers). Big-way method (two-stage breakoffs, wacker lines, per-jumper report cards) is deferred to FFP-HU401.

Pre-requisite units

FFP-F100, FFP-HU101, FFP-HU102, FFP-HU201, FFP-HU202. RPL route: a head-up credential (the head-up crest, British Skydiving FF1, or national equivalent) plus logbook evidence of 2-way head-up work and one challenge jump against FFP-HU202 criteria.

Elements and performance criteria

1. Plan the jump

1.1

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

1.2

Allocate exit slots using the briefed weight logic, heaviest flyer on Outside Front (burble creation), lightest on Tail (Outside Rear), matched to each flyer's demonstrated skill.

1.3

Assign each flyer a radial approach lane and a docking order into the formation.

1.4

**State the group breakoff plan, breakoff altitude (guide: 5,500 ft minimum for a static head-up group, 6,000 ft for 6-way and larger; but for a head-up angle group the recommended FFP floor is higher still, minimum 6,000 ft, 6,500 ft for a larger group, because a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation and rotating to head-first costs altitude), pre-assigned fan-out directions, and deployment altitudes, and the lost-formation plan.**

1.5

Confirm every participant's currency and clearances, the group size, and the plan against the day's conditions.

2. Prepare

2.1

Complete a freefly-specific gear check on self and at least one other flyer (handles, BOC, riser covers, closing loop, helmet, audible set and functioning).

2.2

Rehearse the climbout on the ground or mock-up in the briefed order, Tail first, then Outside Front, then Outside Centre, including the grip sequence and the Outside Front–Inside Centre monkey grip.

2.3

Brief the aircraft-specific exit hazards and their mitigations (e.g. Super Caravan main-wing ailerons close to the door: interference with the Outside Front setup and rubbing on the rig; reserve-flap contact with the wing).

2.4

Dirt-dive the formation: docking order, presentation responsibilities, level discipline, and the fan-out breakoff directions.

2.5

Confirm exit order and separation with the load.

3. Perform

3.1

Climb out in the briefed order and position, Tail first, facing the front of the aircraft with the wrist-grip chain; Outside Front next, low with back to the prop blast; Outside Centre last, the monkey grip taken last, protecting handles throughout.

3.2

Execute the assigned exit slot on a quick key so the formation launches as a head-up circle, almost on its side, feet presented to the relative wind (Inside Centre keys quickly, "remember Outside Front"; Outside Front pauses momentarily, guiding Outside Centre, and departs as the right arm stretches out).

3.3

Stabilise the formation after exit using the briefed inputs, legs driven toward the centre in a sit; if floated high, knees to chest for sink with strong arms generating torque back to centre, settling within 5 seconds.

3.4

Fly the base on heading ±45° (staying in the same quadrant) at a steady fall rate for the working time, without orbiting, while monitoring each approaching flyer.

3.5

Present a dock wide of the leg burble, arm out wide, hand offered for the hand-to-hand grip, eyes back into the group, whenever a flyer approaches own slot.

3.6

Fly the assigned approach lane on level with the formation, closing the final ~5 m without overshoot and holding slot 3 seconds before docking.

3.7

Dock hand-to-hand on the presented grip, thumb-up hand gripping the wrist, or the monkey grip, without destabilising the formation or changing its fall rate, looking toward the centre of the formation at the cross partner.

3.8

Maintain separation from other flyers' vertical columns and burbles throughout, never crossing directly above or below another flyer on approach.

3.9

Execute the recovery position immediately on any loss of control, clearing the formation and re-approaching only when stable and only via the assigned lane.

4. Complete

4.1

Initiate breakoff at the briefed altitude (within −0/+300 ft), or immediately on the group's first breakoff movement, whichever comes first.

4.2

Rotate from head-up to a head-first (head-down or belly) orientation first, then track the pre-assigned fan-out radial away from the formation, transitioning progressively without cutting across another flyer's lane, never back-track away from the group while still head-up (a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation, and a formation back-tracking from face-in slots converges rather than separates).

4.3

Check airspace above, below and behind before deployment (barrel roll only if smooth and reliable).

4.4

Deploy at the planned altitude, at least 1,000 ft below breakoff, after clearing airspace.

4.5

Fly the agreed canopy separation plan.

5. Review

5.1

Debrief own slot against the declared objective using video.

5.2

Identify one exit, base, presentation or approach fault and its correction for the next jump.

5.3

Log the jump with criteria results and a reflection naming the unit and skills assessed (e.g. "HU301 skills assessment, base heading, lane approach"), so the logbook records the progression.

Bold criteria are safety-critical: non-compensable within FFP assessment (any Not Yet Satisfactory = unit Not Yet Competent, regardless of flying quality), a strongly recommended best-practice standard, not a regulation; the risk logic behind each bold criterion is explained in the knowledge evidence.

Foundation skills

• Group briefing/debriefing communication (slot allocation, key timing, in-air signals).
• Altitude, separation and arc-geometry numeracy (fan-out direction planning, breakoff-to-deployment margins).
• Planning and organising (slot/lane assignment by weight and skill).
• Self-management under stress (recovery discipline, holding a lane while others fly close).

Performance evidence (suggested sufficiency — adjust locally)

• Ability evidenced across at least 8 coached head-up group jumps of 4-way or larger, across at least two different exit slots (including at least one float slot and one centre slot) and at least two different days/conditions (tunnel time may substitute for up to two of the skill-development jumps, presentation, level and approach drills, but not for exit or breakoff evidence).
• including two consecutive jumps meeting all criteria without coach assistance or prompts, within a recommended 6-month currency window.

These counts are a guide to how long this stage typically takes, not a quota, competence, not numbers, closes the unit.

Knowledge evidence

• Explain the weight logic of the 4-way linked head-up exit, heaviest flyer on Outside Front to create a burble the formation drops through, lightest on Tail, and contrast it with the head-down 4-way rationale, where the heaviest again takes the front slot (Front Float in the HD exit) but as a downward anchor preventing over-rotation, with the light flyer at Tail.
  • Explain why inverting the head-up placement (light Outside Front, heavy Tail) makes the formation sink and topple to head-down.
• Describe the climbout and key sequence and the exit failure modes: Tail departing early and ripping the leader from the door (finger/wrist strain), and a leader set up too far back becoming stuck.
  • Tail out first to minimise Outside Front’s time under strain, then Outside Front, then Outside Centre.
  • The wrist-grip chain.
  • The monkey grip.
  • Inside Centre keying quickly.
  • Outside Front’s momentary pause guiding Outside Centre.
• Explain why a base must hold heading and steady fall rate, and why orbiting (turning while driving forward) makes the jump problematic for everyone.
• Explain head-up burble geometry and why docks are presented wide, out of the leg burble, with the presenter looking back into the group.
• Describe the head-up docking grips (hand-to-hand, per the APF training table): the preferred thumb-up hand gripping the wrist, which lets the arms travel up and back.
  • And the monkey grip, four fingers of one flyer’s hand gripping the other’s four fingers, one thumb up and one thumb down, fingers not interlaced, a strong grip that also allows a head-up-to-head-down transition from a head-up slot without twisting wrists.
  • And explain why each docked flyer looks toward the centre of the formation at their cross partner.
• Apply the fan-out arc logic to design a breakoff for a given group size (equal radial separation across the available sky), and state when a two-stage breakoff design becomes advisable (guide: above ~10–12 flyers, FFP-HU401 scope).
• State the recommended breakoff guides for head-up groups, 5,500 ft minimum.
  • 6,000 ft for 6-way and larger.
  • 10-way and above is advanced flying where the jump leader makes the risk decision and should consider going higher still, plus the breakoff-to-deployment guide (≥1,000 ft).
  • And explain why head-up groups need more altitude than the published freefly minima: head-up breakoff is markedly less efficient than head-down, less horizontal power, a less efficient track initiation, and altitude lost rotating from head-up to head-down before the track builds.
  • State also the orientation rule Carlton’s data actually drives, the raised altitude floor is not a substitute for it: a head-up breakoff cannot buy separation in a group of 6 or more, so flyers should be head-first by ~6,500–7,000 ft (taught and applied in FFP-AN202).
  • The 6,000 ft floor is when head-up work ends.
  • By ~6,500–7,000 ft the flyer should already be head-first for the track, not still head-up.
  • This is also why most modern jumpers plan 5,500 ft for any freefly group and will generally not accept 4,500 ft.
  • Jake Carlton’s GPS data, skydivemag 2026: in a modelled 6-way, head-up breakoff produced 268 ft of separation and 1.4 s of reaction time when slow and 392 ft and 2.7 s when fast, versus 690–1,165 ft head-first.
• State the recommended FFP standard for head-up angle groups (as distinct from the static head-up formations that are this unit’s main subject): minimum 6,000 ft breakoff, and 6,500 ft for a larger group.
  • This raised floor exists for the same Carlton reason, a head-up breakoff buys almost no separation and the flyer must be head-first by ~6,500–7,000 ft in a 6+ group, so a head-up angle group is briefed to break off by 6,000 ft (6,500 ft for larger groups) to be head-first and tracking, not still head-up, through Carlton’s window.
  • Note the period corroboration: by 2015 the Australian norm was already to raise head-up-angle track-off to 5,500 ft-plus in groups and to turn and clear airspace in the head-up orientation first before transitioning to a normal track (ASM 78 pp.11–12; ASM 80 p.54), the same clear-in-head-up-then-transition mechanism, which the current 6,000/6,500 ft standard extends.
  • Head-up angle breakoff numbers are taught and applied in FFP-AN301.
  • The general freefly ladder (5,000/5,500 ft) still governs non-angle contexts.
• Describe the freefly-specific gear check and why each item matters on a group jump, including why a functioning audible is essential in vertical orientations (visual altimeters are hard to read head-up) and why a second audible is recommended: an audible is a hidden safety-critical device that can fail silently mid-jump.
  • A group offers some breakoff redundancy when one fails, but a soloist has none, which is why two audibles should be regarded as mandatory best practice before any solo freefly.
• Explain corking and the recovery position’s mechanics, and why a corked or unstable flyer must clear the formation and re-approach only when stable, via the assigned lane.
• Explain the hazard of flying directly above or below another flyer in a head-up group, burbles and corking speed differentials, and how assigned approach lanes keep each flyer clear of others’ vertical columns.
• Describe aircraft-specific exit considerations for the planned type (e.g. Super Caravan aileron proximity) and how the climbout is adapted.
• Analyse own or another flyer’s video to diagnose a base heading drift, a presentation fault, or an approach-lane violation, and propose the correction.

Assessment conditions

• Sky jumps from a recommended 10,000 ft minimum.
• Assessment jumps in a real group of at least four flyers, including at least one 4-way linked head-up exit.
• Mandatory video (outside camera or coach-flown, candidate identifiable).
• Required equipment, visual altimeter, functioning audible (second audible recommended), freefly-suitable gear.
• Conditions within the candidate’s cleared limits.
• Assessor: a freefly coach current in head-up group coaching, using the published FFP-HU301 checklist (Satisfactory / Not Yet Satisfactory per criterion).

Coaching priorities

Deliver in the project’s priority order: Safety → Fun → Learning (curriculum Part A0). Safety criteria are non-compensable; group jumps are designed to stay enjoyable, rotating slot responsibilities keeps every flyer engaged, and debriefs end on a win with one improvement focus per flyer.

RPL evidence set

• For experienced entrants, the following alternative evidence set is suggested in place of the coached-jump sequence: logbook evidence of head-up group experience (guide: 20+ head-up jumps in groups of four or more).
• A video portfolio evidencing linked exits, dock presentation, lane-disciplined approaches and group breakoffs with the candidate identifiable.
• Credential evidence (the head-up crest, British FF1, or equivalent).
• A written reference from an organiser or coach who has flown with the candidate in head-up groups.
• Plus one challenge jump, a 4-way assessment jump flown against the full FFP-HU301 checklist, including the linked exit and the fan-out breakoff.

Sources