Enjoyed the Pathe news film and the good old balloon, some excellent footage from many angles inside and outside the cage. As an APJI I remember when we had Yanks jumping they hated the low height (800ft was at least 200 ft less than their usual) and the quiet and peaceful calming ascent, linked with their having time to stand and reflect on the way up. Yep had to actively 'encourage' a few of them out the door lol

Originally Posted by Gungythree

They didn't disband,just changed the name to Infantry Section

Anything to keep the Red Freds alive!

Originally Posted by Gungythree

They didn't disband,just changed the name to Infantry Section

Well, that went right over my head...


As there are so many 'meat bombs' observing this thread (and I use the term with all due respect) Does anyone know of an incident where a parachute has inadvertently thermalled up? I witnessed it in South Africa (as per my earlier post) and on another occasion watched a bloke who'd thrown his reserve (a round apex with single riser thus non steerable)) float about for about an hour before he finally landed. He was a tad distraught when he finally cracked in as he 'd been up and down like a dog's hind leg, ridge soaring with no control, narrowly missing power lines and whatnot.

On a multi-nation exercise in California we jumped into Hunter Ligget training area from C141s from 1300ft using T10s. I was about 10 or 12 in a stick of 60 or so. I landed last after getting caught in a thermal. I don't actually know if I was rising but it looked like everyone else had malfunctions as they seemed to be plummeting past me. I landed a good 3 minutes after the last bloke had touched terra firma. Not an enjoyable experience if truth be told - that came later when I was blown by a Cali surf girl during our 12 days R&R.

Originally Posted by The_Duke

natotattie,

Did these same "experts" wander aound the DFC area with red baseball caps on and a big paddle blade which they used to stuff any escaping bits of parachute back inside the pack?

No mate, they were ensconced in the back of a "deuce" type truck keeping out of the way of all the abuse. The chutes had a packing card in a side pocket which stated the name of the packer hence why they were in hiding!

There was a US Ranger guy on one of the sorties who had a minor cardiac moment when his main canopy deployed - it was missing a large portion of it! He actually rode it to the ground without deploying his reserve, had a safe landing and walked over to the truck and after a quick conversation with the crew assaulted the lad who had packed the canopy. One of the only times where I have had a hard on for the Americans!

Hi all, a couple of photos from years gone by, taken on a Saturday morning we had been walking back from town (Aldershot) when we spotted the balloon up at the back of the depot, so changed into uniform went up and said any chance of a jump, and away we went, not sure if you could do these things today, ah happy days,,,,

Originally Posted by FiveAlpha

On a multi-nation exercise in California we jumped into Hunter Ligget training area from C141s from 1300ft using T10s. I was about 10 or 12 in a stick of 60 or so. I landed last after getting caught in a thermal. I don't actually know if I was rising but it looked like everyone else had malfunctions as they seemed to be plummeting past me. I landed a good 3 minutes after the last bloke had touched terra firma. Not an enjoyable experience if truth be told - that came later when I was blown by a Cali surf girl during our 12 days R&R.

The canopy I fly is around 30m2 in size with a pretty narrow chord -I know bugger all about modern military canopies such as the T10 but I'm guessing it's square and about 15m2? or does the 10 relate to the surface area?

My point is that, on a morning jump on flat land in summer, the chances are the thermals would be big and weak with a climb of say 200-300FPS, for the sake of argument. This would mean that without a variometer (a device that bleeps to tell climb from decent) it would be very difficult to gauge if you were going up or not although in effect your rate of decent would be probably be negative. The horizon won't help as a reference either. Of course I'm assuming you were jumping in the morning in late summer/autumn.

With my bigger 'glider' I can deliberately hook into the core of a strong thermal and ride it up at 2000FPS - I'm obviously trying to stay in the core for the best lift and at this rate of ascent it's like being hoisted up by an empire state passenger elevator and a bit scary and frankly, rare. In order stay in the lift I've hooked one thumb into the harness (having taken a wrap)thereby applying brake and then using the opposite brake to control the angle of my bank - the flatter the turn the better although in strong lift it's possible to aim face-down in a spiral dive position and still thermal up! This is all completely at odds with what you meat-bombs are up to!

Interesting you should say it's not an enjoyable experience - if you're not falling, your flying, surely: and that's man's ultimate goal? (apart from a four's up with Norwegian twin sisters and their drug addled ex-model mother))

Thanks guys.

This thread has had me wondering and chucling in eqaul amount for the last few hours.

Bloody Brilliant

Gadge

Wah shield firmly up:

Originally Posted by bigeye

The canopy I fly is around 30m2 in size with a pretty narrow chord -I know bugger all about modern military canopies such as the T10 but I'm guessing it's square and about 15m2? or does the 10 relate to the surface area?

It's a round canopy.

Interesting you should say it's not an enjoyable experience - if you're not falling, your flying, surely: and that's man's ultimate goal?

If you're jumping a square or a flying a glider it probably is. But I thought a T-10 doesn't have steering lines which makes it a rather less enjoyable experience since you have less control over the canopy and hence less control of where you'll land.

This T-10 didn't fair to well!! Yank SF piling in on our German jumps course...two bust legs and a bust hip....Ouch!


Edit: Can anyone see that pic? All I'm getting when I click on it is a load of text.