PARACHUTE COURSE ADMINISTRATION UNIT
(Our thanks to Cpl Paul Biddis PCAU for supplying the information contained in this page)
"Your First Jump"
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(Kindly Read By Private Dean Jones RHQ PARA)
The Story of A Young Paratrooper About To Make His First Parachute Jump
You are about to make your first Military Parachute Descent, after days of training in the big hanger at RAF Brize Norton. You’ve learned the drills you would carry out, from boarding the aircraft to leaving via the door, to landing. The time has come to put yourself to the test.
You are sitting waiting nervously in the hanger with your LLP (Low Level Parachute) and reserve Parachute strapped on. Your stomach is doing cartwheels at the thought of jumping out of the door of the Hercules C130 aircraft at 1000 feet. Your mates who have been with you during most of you basic training and during P Coy are all feeling the same. Soon you hear this droning noise outside. It is the Hercules aircraft that has just landed on the runway. Your Parachute Jump Instructor (PJI) calls for you all to stand up and to follow him.
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He leads you all outside and you walk in a straight line towards the C130. The engines are running and you can smell the aviation fuel.
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As you get closer the smell become more prominent and the heat of the engines hits you. The back ramp opens and in two rows you are guided onto the back, and through to the front of the aircraft where you are told to sit in your “Stick order” and put your seat belt on. In the aircraft there is a huge amount of ongoing activity; the aircraft load master and his crew are busy doing their pre-flight checks and the noise of the Aircraft is deafening. You then hear a whining noise at the back and the back ramp starts to close. The engine tone gradually changes pitch from a droning to a more elevated roar; over all this noise you can hear the pilot talking to the air traffic controller over his radio, asking for permission to taxi on the runway.
By this time you are both excited and nervous, there is no other feeling like it. You can feel the Hercules lumbering towards and turning onto the runway. You hear the pilot again talking over the radio. The engines start to roar even louder then before and the momentum of the aircraft going forward at a rapid rate of knots leans you all to one side. You can feel the front of the Hercules starting to rise and in seconds you are airborne. There is a whining hissing sound on both sides of the aircraft then a thud; this is the wheels of the aircraft folding in. Your stomach feels like its being pushed down as the aircraft gains height and the noise increases as the aircraft gains speed and climbs steeply to altitude.
Soon the Hercules is level and heading towards the drop zone (DZ) at Weston on the Green. At the back of the ramp the PJI’s are working frantically to prepare for your first exit from the aircraft.
By this time your senses are high and you can hear and smell the atmosphere inside as you and your mates are looking at what’s happening at the back of the Hercules. The PJI makes his way through the cramped conditions, in his hands he holds a number of short pieces of webbing lines called a ‘strop’. They have a small metal ring attached at each end and one end is attached to a long metal cable that runs the length of the aircraft. The other end of the strop is where you will attach the static line on the back of your parachute, which pulls your parachute out when you jump. A strop number is assigned to you by the PJI. He shouts out your number as he looks you in the eye. You give him the thumbs up, to acknowledge you know it’s yours.
Within a short time you can see the PJI waving his hands upwards in a gesture, you can just make out the words ‘Port stick, stand up, prepare for action.’ You can’t hear him very well because of the noise of the engines, but this is where the drills that you have been taught over the past week start to kick in, and your nerves reach a new level.
You instinctively take off your seat belt and the PJI stands up again, working his way through the Hercules, taking out your static line from the back of your parachute and placing it in your hand. You are standing now and trying to keep your cool and your balance as the Hercules is rocking up and down, side to side from the turbulence.
The next command / gesture from the PJI is ‘Hook up, check equipment.’ You attach your static line to the metal ring of the strop that is suspended from the metal cable above your head. You then check that your parachute is OK, that your static line is fitted to the strop correctly, that your helmet is fitted and not moving about on your head. You also check the parachute of your mate in front of you to make sure his is OK. At the same time the PJI does his checks to make sure all is safe and well and all parachutes are hooked up. Then you hear the words ‘Port stick, tell off for equipment check’ and you can just about hear a number check starting behind you. The countdown gets louder and louder until your mate standing behind you gives you a hard tap on the shoulder and shouts ‘10 OK’. You then do the same to your mate in front of you and shout ‘9 OK’ this action continues until the man at the front of your stick gives the thumbs up and shouts ‘1 OK”, port stick OK’
The weight of the parachute and reserve parachute, the heat, the smell, the cramped conditions and the noise of the aircraft combined with the adrenalin causes you to start sweating.
A blast of cold air hits you as the doors at the rear of each side of the Hercules are opened. You know that in a few minutes you will be leaving the aircraft at 1000 feet through those very doors. You see the PJI sticking his head out of the door so he can see the DZ below. At the back of the aircraft, another PJI is listening to the pilot and waiting for confirmation of DZ approach and wind speeds on the DZ. The PJI waves his hands in front of his face making the gesture of blowing and at the same time holds up both hands and shows you 7 fingers. The PJI is telling you that wind speeds are 7 knots. It is important information that you need to know.
By this time you cannot wait to get out, just to get relief from the cramped conditions and into the fresh air. You’re almost there. There’s a muffled shout of ‘Port stick, Action Stations’ and everyone starts to push towards the door. The PJI holds the No 1 of your stick by the door. Your heart is pounding as you watch the PJI and the red and green lights placed just by the door. The PJI in the middle of the aircraft holds up 1 finger and you hear ‘One minute, one minute.’ It feels like only seconds until you see the red light start to glow and hear the PJI shout ‘RED ON’. You know that when the green light glows you are going. The red turns off then the green switches on ‘GREEN ON, GO’. This is it. You can’t wait to go now, there are three of your mates in front of you and before you know it you’re in the door ready to jump.
When you get the tap on the shoulder from the PJI the intention is to jump out of the door as far as possible, but the slipstream stops you from making that leap of intention. For a split second, you are at the point of no return but your fear is taken over by the drills you have been practising over the last week.
You want to keep your eyes open during those first seconds but total disorientation prevents this. First you see just sky, then ground, then you get a quick glimpse of the Hercules and can just make out one of your mates jumping out from where you did just seconds before. As this is happening you are shouting ‘ONE THOUSAND, TWO THOUSAND, THREE THOUSAND.’ Suddenly you feel a slight tug and the world begins to slow down as your parachute opens. You look up and shout ‘CHECK CANOPY’ and do just that, looking for any problems with your canopy. There are none, so now you have to concentrate on the descent because you’re not the only paratrooper in the air. You are taught how to avoid other parachutists in the air by pulling on one of your harness lift webs so as to manoeuvre into your own air space. Once there you can assess your drift. It’s not over yet; you now need to know in which direction the wind is carrying you. You position your feet and prepare to land, turning your feet and knees to the left as you have been taught to do when you’re coming in for a back left landing. Plenty of time you think, the ground is a long way off, all you see is a mass of green below then suddenly the ground comes rushing up to meet you, you notice the fine detail of the grass, then BANG you’re there!
"WELCOME TO THE AIRBORNE BROTHERHOOD"
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