CHAPTER 28 DEVELOPMENT OF PARACHUTING TECHNIQUES FROM DC7F AIRCRAFT

Then there was that time we came perilously close to losing, not only a plane and all its crew, but also half the staff of PTS. It certainly seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, and it was not without merit.

Inspiration struck during a flight to South Africa in Jack Malloch’s DC-7F to visit the South African P.T.S.  I could not help but admire this very large, very comfy  airplane, and casually asked if it could be flown with the port side cargo door off. Jack assured me it could. Hmmm interesting. Could he fly the thing at 120 knots or less, with a full load on board? Jack, the master of all occasions, said, “Sure, we’ll give it a try.” 

On our return to Salisbury Airport  I was called into the cockpit to witness the approach to the airfield, Jack expertly flew the massive aircraft at just over 100 knots, without it falling out of the sky. My interest grew further. A large aircraft, adapted to parachuting, could be very handy. Very handy indeed.

Jack was never one to procrastinate and once the seed was sown he was very keen to give it a try.  He immediately wanted to know what was required. It was quite simple really, we needed a cable from the forward bulkhead to the rear bulkhead on the Stbd. side of the cabin for the static lines to be hooked onto and that was all.

Within a couple of hours Jack had it done and was on the phone to ask if we were ready to jump out of the DC-7.  Now, some may say we were risk takers, but really we weren’t stupid parachutists, but very careful ones instead. We understood perfectly the dangers this kind of experimentation meant. So we made up six dummies that weighed approximately 180 pounds each, strapped parachutes to their backs and, with a Dakota as a chase plane flying in close formation to observe, got airborne. We also had a camera and a photographer filming from the Dakota. We flew up the DZ and threw the dummies out one at a time. All arrived on the DZ perfectly. Now we were getting really excited.

This photograph shows a U/T PJI jumping out of the DC7F and everything seems to be fine. However,  the tail plane does appear to be rather a long way from the open door.

This photograph is of the next U/T PJI jumping and the first man is out of the picture but more than half of his canopy can be seen brushing under the tail plane. Just a fraction shorter and the canopy could have been blown over the top of the tail plane with disastrous results. We were lucky on this occasion.  The problem was solved by re-positioning the cable from an overhead strong point to one on the floor aft of the door, and just to make absolutely sure we included a 4.5mt strop to which the static line was connected.

 The next trick was for the six U/T PJIs in the back of the DC-7 to jump. They did, and all arrived on the ground in a satisfactory condition. We then got the DC-7 up to about 15,000 feet and a couple of freefall-trained PJIs leapt out. Again there were no issues.

It appeared that the DC7 was a good parachuting platform. Our minds reeled with the possibilities – imagine how many troops, and how much cargo we could drop with this baby.

There was a complaint, however. The PTS staff who jumped, commented on the much higher speed of the slipstream, which was really noticeable when compared to that of the Dakota. But the more experienced members of the staff dismissed this as nothing when compared to a C130 Hercules or even a Beverly.

But it seems we got ahead of ourselves and the next day we were brought back to earth with a sharp bump. Safety Equipment parachute packers phoned with the bad news. Unfortunately, every single one of the parachutes used for the static line drops out of the DC-7 had sustained damage to the top of the canopies.

Also, by this time, the film was developed and on close, frame-by-frame examination, it could be seen that the canopies brushed against the port tail-plane of the aircraft. This was exceptionally dangerous as it could easily result in a parachutist being blown over the top of the tail-plane instead of going under it. This would fatally damage the plane, not to mention the parachutist. We were extremely lucky to avoid a catastrophe which could have claimed many lives. 

In typical PTS fashion, we did not totally shelve the idea and eventually overcame the problem by adding a strop, about four and a half metres long to the cable, and then folding them up and holding them in place with elastic bands. This was almost an exact copy of the old technique used for X-Type parachutes in the Dakota. On the second trial, the next day, this was deemed satisfactory.

 From then on, the DC-7 was used on various operations to drop not only paratroopers by static line, but also 44 gallon drums of chopper fuel for external raids and various other parachuting operations. We could squeeze in more than 60 men, a hell of a lot of 44 gallon drums of  fuel, or a combination of troops and fuel drums into the DC7F so it was a very versatile plane to add to our arsenal.

On a number of occasions the DC7 was also used in the HALO role, and because of its size we were able to not only drop large sticks of men but also a number of HALO boxes on the same run over the target.