CHAPTER 11 THE FIRST FREE FALL COURSES

Who would've thought a broken typist chair could be an invaluable parachute training tool? The centre of gravity on the human body is the belly button, and a curved surface will always face the airflow. Therefore, to fall in a stable position face down, the body must be arched with legs spread and slightly bent at the knees, and arms stretched out and slightly bent at the elbow. We removed the chair back on an old, wheeled secretarial chair, got the student to lie on the seat in a free fall position - back arched, head up, arms and legs spread.  From there the PJI could spin him around and correct his technique - simple but very effective.

Another training tool we invented, was nick-named The Ball-Basher. It was a parachute harness rigged to a block and tackle which allowed the student to be suspended in a horizontal position, as if he was in free fall. On the command from the PJI “Two Thousand Five Hundred Feet – Now,” the student would pull the ripcord, which operated a suspension device and allowed him to swing under the frame into a vertical position. This was very like the real thing but without the cold wind blowing into your face. How did it get its name? Well, if the harness was not fitted correctly, it could be painful to one’s manhood, especially when cutaways were practiced and the student would drop a further 300 mm simulating a reserve opening shock.

All drills could be carried out on these two pieces of equipment including all the emergency scenarios likely to be encountered such as a complete main parachute failure, a partial failure, and damage to the main canopy which would result in the necessity to cut away and operate the reserve parachute.

With the PJIs fully trained in free fall jumping, suitable parachutes selected and obtained, and our highly sophisticated training apparatus invented, we were ready to start training others. But it was not until October 1971 that PTS  began to train SAS Pathfinder teams

Pathfinder Teams: a stick of four men dropped into an area, from high altitude, towards last light. Their task? To find a suitable DZ for a follow-up drop of static line troops a night or two later. These  HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) sticks of SAS men were called Pathfinder teams.

The four-man stick was the normal size for Rhodesian Forces. But it also suited the training capacity of the PTS at the time. We only had eight TA parachutes and a small number of TU modified 28 foot parachutes available for training. There was also a similar shortage of altimeters and we had no automatic opening devices. I repeat - we had NO automatic opening devices. For these practical reasons alone, it would not have been possible to train larger groups.

All free fall trainees had to be volunteers, already fully trained, through the PTS, in static line jumping. In our optimism, we anticipated the course, with willing, and able recruits, would only take about a month. This turned out to be unrealistic. Military HALO parachuting was in its infancy and we were doing it by on the job training.

The course we initially devised was to contain the following elements: ground training, then the free fall training itself, and finally advanced techniques.

The ground training phase was expected to last three days during which time the soldiers would be taught the aircraft drill, the exit drill, the free fall drill, the flight drill under a manoeuvrable canopy, and how to turn into wind for a soft landing.

Also included in this phase were all emergency drills, including the cut away (jettison of main canopy) and the operation of the reserve parachute. The soldiers were also shown how the various parachutes worked and had them demonstrated. Altimeters were also explained in detail by myself . As an aircraft instrument fitter I was well qualified to explain the workings of these delicate instruments.

In the second phase there would be 20 free fall parachute jumps. The first and second jumps would be for a five second delay from 3000 feet AGL and both of these jumps would require the parachutist to count the seconds before pulling the ripcord. These paratroopers were carefully observed by PJIs, both on the ground and also from the rear port seat of the Dakota. The third jump was from 3500 feet AGL with the parachutist required to watch his altimeter and pull the ripcord at 2500 feet. This delay was approaching terminal velocity. After this, all jumps would be from higher altitudes.

In what proved to be our first error, we assumed all the troops would be able to fall in a stable face to ground position. We made this judgement based on our trials with the PJIs. But the PJI was a professional parachutist, whilst, for the soldier, parachuting was a part time occupation.

In our initial training plan, we anticipated after the third or fourth free fall, the soldier would not have any problems going to higher altitudes with longer delays. Up until the fifth descent the soldiers were required to hold the aircraft heading in free fall, and it was only after this descent that turns in free fall would be introduced. Or so we assumed.

After the sixth free fall we thought the soldiers would be able to carry out turns to the right or left and to hold given headings as briefed before each jump. Because, we as PJIs had little trouble doing these various tasks, we assumed the soldiers would also be able to manage them. Again this was an error.

We thought, after approximately eight or nine free fall descents, it would be appropriate to introduce the soldier to the Delta or Tracking position which would enable him to move around the sky whilst in free fall. The reason for these manoeuvres would be to avoid other parachutists in the stick as they were falling. Once again we compared the soldier’s ability to that of the PJI and, once more, we were mistaken.

This photograph shows Sgt Iain Bowen during one of the early experimental  HALO parachute jumps whilst carrying a small suspended load behind the knees and below the main  parachute. Later these loads were much larger and weighed up to 70 kgs. The parachute looks like a T.A. and the reserve can be seen with the later "sky dive" altimeter mounted on top

 Once the tracking phase was mastered it was time to introduce weapons to our students. We thought this would be at or about jump number ten or eleven.  The first weapons jump was with an FN.762 rifle fitted to the left hand side of the body. This made very little difference to the free fall parachutist. It was anticipated that the soldiers would be given three or four jumps from 8000 feet to 10,000 feet AGL carrying just the rifle and we hoped any stability problems could be sorted out during this period.

From about jump number 15 to the end of the course, which we thought would be 20 jumps, the soldier would be loaded up with increasingly heavy suspended loads, until he was jumping with his normal battle load. But we at PTS were expecting too much from the soldiers who were sent to us for this new form of parachuting.

In the final phase of training, once the various free fall procedures were mastered, the instructor could teach advanced flight techniques including: the dive exit, turns in free fall, tracking, somersaults, watching the altimeter, always watching the altimeter, pull of the ripcord position, and all the drills required after the ripcord pull. These drills were practiced over and over, again and again, until the PJI was satisfied every contingency was covered.

We tested our optimistic plan during our first free fall course in October 1971. Fortunately, the soldiers sent to us by the SAS were very capable and it was completed without injury or real stability problems. But even at this early stage it was obvious - the free fall courses would have to be extended with training jumps added. In the end the course was increased to about 6 weeks and approximately 45 jumps - more than double the number we originally allowed.

We also eliminated the slow progression of 5 second and 10 second delays.  From the third free fall course, the soldier's first free fall parachute jump was a 45 to 50 second delay to parachute opening. This allowed them to learn how to fall in the correct position - a more effective  learning curve.

It was also evident the soldiers could not be watched properly either from the ground or from the aircraft during the free fall phase of the jump. This meant they could not be properly debriefed and corrections could not be made to their technique.

For this reason we had a free fall qualified PJI follow each soldier on all delays exceeding 10 seconds. The PJI  landed next to the trainee and immediately corrected any faults as delays in the debrief and fault correction analysis reduced their impact. It also meant lots of jumps for the PJI's and an increased workload for those wonderful Safety Equipment Workers. The only drawback was the cold wind blowing down the dispatcher's neck as he directed the pilot to the drop point, minus 40 c was often encountered.

In order to assist the PJI responsible for the course, the follower PJI also had to write up a critique of the jumper’s performance as soon as possible after landing. Again, we found that a delay in this assessment, as often happened if there were a number of jumps in quick succession, could, and often did, give the wrong impression of the trainee’s performance.

Due to the shortage of parachutes in the early days of free fall training, the course was restricted to about two jumps per day which, in those times, was considered to be the maximum a soldier could do without a rapid rise in the injury rate. This ruling was a hangover from the original PJI course at RAF Abingdon in the UK, where we were told quite emphatically, that a parachute jump was equivalent to eight hours of hard work. If more than two jumps in a day were carried out, the injury rate would soar out of control.

This was later proved to be a figment of some expert’s imagination, especially during the days of Fire Force when up to three jumps a day, into battle was not uncommon. At first, however, the main restriction was a lack of parachutes. Safety Equipment was always responsible for the packing of all our parachutes and was kept extremely busy with a limited staff in the early days.

HALO jumping was just the means of getting the Pathfinder Team onto the ground. From there, their real work started - to find a suitable Drop Zone for a later deployment of paratroopers. It was also the job of the PTS to teach them how to find this DZ, and then how to guide aircraft in for an accurate drop of static line parachutes. Details of this will be covered in the next chapter.