On the 27th February 2007 the Royal Artillery Black Knights Parachute Display Team set off for sunny California to start a 6 week training camp encompassing two Accelerated Free Fall (AFF) courses and team training.
The first AFF course ran up until the 15th March and successfully trained 15 soldiers and airmen to reach their Category level 8 as qualified skydivers after completing a series of 18 jumps under the watchful eyes of team leader Sgt Richard Green and fellow team member LBdr Richard Bishop.
The second AFF course then got under way. Although originally planned as an adventure training expedition for 32 Regt RA ,due to operational commitments the Exped had to be opened up to the tri-services.
With the weather now hotting up it allowed for perfect parachuting conditions and one of the quickest and most successful Expeditions that the team has ever run with all 16 students completing the AFF levels in 5 days and a further 6 students going on to complete their Formation Skydiving Award (FS1). As an added bonus, the students had the unique opportunity to jump from a commercial airliner – a DC9 passenger jet!
As the course had been so successful it was decided that some R&R was definitely the order of the day and so a long weekend was planned with the majority of the group heading to San Diego and a few of the brave heading to the lights of Las Vegas.
A big ‘thank you’ to the other AFF instructors, without whom the Expeditions would not have been possible and to Perris Valley Skydiving for their continued support of the team over the years.
We have a further Three Expeditions which are been planned towards the end of the year. If you are interested in participating or just would like information on them, please feel free to contact us.
Expeditions 2006
Prior to team training in March, The Royal Artillery deployed on Exercise Final Dragon to Perris Valley Skydiving Centre in California USA for two weeks, the students from a variety of Gunner units completed an Accelerated Free Fall course. This consisted of 6 hours ground training and then having to achieve the training objectives to qualify as a solo parachutist, both on the ground and in the air. If the students had done well on all their skydiving levels, they would have qualified to become a solo parachutist in 18 jumps. This consists of 8 training levels, where they learn different skills in the air. On passing the 8th level, they then do 10 consolidation jumps.The students had the weekends off for R&R where they got the opportunity to see more of the local area.
In the last two weeks of September, the team deployed to Bad Lippspringe, Germany on Exercise Bristol Dragon, with the Bristol University Officer Training Cadet course on another Accelerated Free Fall course. Once again, the training objectives had not changed and all the students managed to complete the course apart from a few Officer Cadets. When the course got stood down due to bad weather, the students and instructors decided to do some water skiing which kept the local population entertained!
October saw the team deploy on Exercise Blue dragon to Perris Valley Skydiving California, USA for two weeks again on another Accelerated Free Fall course. At this time of the year, the weather is wonderful for skydiving so they did not suffer any inconvenience. The students also got the chance to spend some time in the vertical wind tunnel that’s on site, much to their delight. On their R&R, everyone made the decision to “explore” the local area and “unwind”.
All these Expeditions are open to not only military personal on adventure training but also to civilians looking to put a bit of excitement in there lives.
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