FTX Training Phase 08-26 - Military Freefall (MFF)

OPERATION — MILITARY FREE FALL FTX

Overview

This FTX covers Phases 1 and 2 of the Military Free Fall qualification. The first half is instructional and stays on the ground; the second half puts you out the door for real. Expect a lot of repetition on the gear and the exit sequence before anybody jumps — that's deliberate. Phase 3, the combat insertion, is a separate day.

Block 1 — Gear Brief

Four items. All four are required on every single jump, in every phase, with no exceptions for a quick serial:

• SOLR Mask — equipped in the face slot. It has to be visibly worn; carried in your inventory it does nothing at all
• Personal Oxygen Bottle — in your inventory. The mask and bottle only work as a pair, so one without the other is the same as neither
• MFF Sterling parachute — back slot. Current issue, subject to change; if we move to a different canopy you'll hear it here first
• Jump pack — extra slot 6. Check the slot, not your memory of packing it

Your altimeter comes with the Oxygen Bottle — there's nothing separate to draw, and no way to see your altitude if you left the bottle behind. END toggles the readout off and back on. Leave it on.

Block 2 — Opening Standards

Two profiles, two rules. You'll fly both tonight:

• HALO — minimum opening is 300m. You can open higher, but 300 is the floor and you do not go through it. That's what the altimeter is for
• HAHO — canopy open 4 seconds after leaving the aircraft. Count it off the door. This is not a freefall profile and you should not still be falling at ten seconds
• HAHO is counted, not read — four seconds doesn't leave you time to find a number on a readout and think about it

Block 3 — Aircraft Rehearsal

A C-130 and a Chinook will be set up on platforms. You'll board, take a seat, and we'll walk the whole sequence on both airframes until it's automatic. Nothing leaves the ground in this block.

• Pre-board check — you'll surrender for a visual inspection of your gear before every board. Miss an item and you don't get on, and you hold up the stick while you go fix it
• Command sequence: pilots get ready → chalk lead calls "STAND UP" → pilots call "GREEN LIGHT" → stick numbers exit in their pairs, in order
• "RED LIGHT" — if you haven't jumped yet, you don't jump. You ride it home with the aircraft. Don't decide the call was close enough, and don't go because the pair ahead of you already went
• Stay in your seat until STAND UP. While you're seated the mod is shielding you from altitude; the second you stand, your mask and bottle are the only things doing that job. That's the whole reason the gear check happens before you board

Block 4 — Controlled Jumps

Everything from Blocks 1–3 executed live. Minimum of four jumps, each run start to finish:

• Buddy pairs run the whole jump — you exit together, fly canopy together, land together, and regroup together. Keep eyes on your buddy under canopy; landing 400m apart is a problem you created in the air
• Rally points — a primary and a secondary get briefed before every jump. Land on target, link up with your buddy, get to the primary
• Off target — find your buddy first, move together to the secondary, then call up to your element leader with your location
• Call-up chain — pairs report to the element leader, element leader reports to the instructor. Don't call the instructor yourself and don't go silent assuming somebody watched you land
• Four is the minimum, not the plan. Bad jumps get re-run

Chalk lead in the air is the stick leader — assigns numbers and pairs, calls STAND UP. On the ground it's the element leader — owns accountability and makes the call up. Two different jobs.

Student Guide