ABN Panzer
Senior Member
Thought I would give this blog thing a shot.
“Oh Dang…. The Trees!”
This is usually heard within a 50m radius of me on most of my jumps. Obviously not heard too often during a night jump as I don’t see the trees and utter a “Humpf!!! Dang!!” as I plow into the ground at 18-21 feet per second.
What is this about? Airborne operations or simply jumping out of a military aircraft with the Army’s T-10D parachute.
Today’s jump is scheduled for a time on target of about 1645, meaning jumpers will be stepping out the door of the plane +/- a few minutes of this. Given that we start the ‘Airborne Timeline’ – a predetermined list of events that have to take place in order to successfully put bubbas out.
0930: Manifest: Stand around in a large group waiting to be segregated into Chalks and Lifts, essentially your plane and in what order you will jump. I walked around for about 20 minutes before I finally grabbed one of the jumpmasters and realized that I was not on his copy of the manifest. A brief and forceful discussion between him and my ‘Air NCO’ fixed that and I am manifested on the 5th flight, 2nd Aircraft and 4th man in the chalk on the right door. It gets to that level of tracking.
1200: Pre-Jump: Groups get back together and receive ‘safety briefs’…. That’s right…. Safety! You will jump but you will do so safely. What to do when you exit the aircraft – ensure tight body position, hands on the reserve, chin tucked into chest…. Count to 4. When you feel the chute open check canopy, gain canopy control. In layman’s terms… Look for chute malfunctions… holes, broken cables, etc then grab the risers and be able to ‘steer’ your chute (Very limited ability to do this on a -10D). Then practice Parachute Landing Falls (PLFs) off a 3 foot wall. Just jump and land in a specific way that allows you to lie down on the ground and ‘avoid’ serious injury. Then exit a mock-aircraft.
Rig up: Now we all move back into the hangar/shed, draw our chute and reserve and begin to buddy-rig. You help the guy next to you put his chute on and he, in turn helps you. After about 10 minutes you both stand there and wait for the Jumpmaster team to come and JMPI (Inspection) you. Stand, turn, squat, bend, pull, tug, push, slap… all this done to various parts of you and your equipment as he ensures all is hooked up right and won’t fall off when you need it to
stay on.
Then you sit…. And sit… and sit waiting for the aircraft. Did I mention still wearing all the stuff… ‘body parts’ pinched by the leg straps, hunched over…
Time to board the aircraft: Simply standing up and moving to the aircraft and then sitting down. Pretty simple despite the fact that unless you are the 1st flight you may smell puke and other ‘odors’ associated with jumpers being sick or scared on the previous flights…. It happens. While I will periodically suffer from motion/air sickness I have yet to mess myself…. But it happens.
Then comes the time Jumpmasters start calling off the commands:
20 Minutes / 10 Minutes - ime hacks to let you know you are getting closer to getting off this aircraft.
“Inboard Personnel. Stand up!” -The inner row of jumpers stand up.
“Outboard personnel. Stand up!” -The jumpers closest to the outside of the aircraft stand up and merge into the line of inboard jumpers.
“Hook up!”. Take the static line and hook it to the cable above your head. This static line ensures that when you jump the chute will be ‘deployed’ from the chute bag…. That or it will catch on something and drag you behind the aircraft and beat you into submission against the outer hull of the plane…. It happens.
“Check Static line!” - Ensure it is hooked up properly and trace the line of the jumper in front of you to ensure his shit is not twisted, frayed, knotted etc.
“Check Equipment!” –Check the rest of your stuff… Helmet, chinstrap, chest strap, Left/Right leg strap, and equipment lowering line if you are jumping with Combat equipment. Making sure nothing to snag the lines, torn, properly hooked, properly tightened
“Sound off for equipment check!” – Starting from back to front swat the jumper in front of you on the butt and yell out, “OK” signaling that everyone behind him is good to go. 1st jumper, closest to the jump master will then sound out “All OK Jump master!”… Variations of this include cupping the butt of the jumper in front of you… or yelling out “All OK Dumb Bastard” He can barely hear you above the aircraft anyway.
“Stand by!” - #1 Jumper hands his static-line to the Safety and rotates into the door and prepares to jump.
1 Minute warning…… 30 second warning….. “Green light GO!!!"
If you are not the #1 jumper you simply follow the guy in front of you, walk to the door, hand off your static line and jump out.
Now it’s gets interesting as you find whether your chute was properly tightened as if it is too loose… The snap/opening of the chute will cause the leg straps to pop your ‘lower bits’ into your abdomen or pinch other parts…. Women… different parts but I hear the pain is apparently just as bad.
Then you simply fall at a rate of 18-21 feet per second. From 800 feet it is a short and pretty peaceful fall. Then it comes….
OH Dang the trees!
I don’t say this because I am going to land in them… it is simply where I start to realize I am going to slam into the dirt, road, path, whatever is under me. Pulling the set of risers (ropes) in the opposite direction you are moving will slow the decent some. Then Hit! Preferably you want to gently transition from the balls of the feet to the calves, thighs, butt, Lats in a gentle rolling motion and Jump complete.
Try it. Jump out of a 2nd story window. It’s easy
My experiences:
- Feet – Butt – Head Landing: Bad PLF resulting in a huge headache
- Pull the wrong ‘slip’ – pulled the wrong risers increasing my speed from 18-21 FPS to 18-21fps +wind speed… landed Feet – Head, Mild Concussion and non-stop puking as I tried to get to my feet. Probably should have seen a medic over that one…
- Mud, Rivers, etc: Pretty soft to land in but hell to get out of and potential drowning. Not to mention I have yet to land in the mud that didn’t simply smell like a ‘Port-a-John’.
- And My favorite: Told to me by a buddy: another jumper’s helmet comes off during the jump…. Lands 3 feet away from him – more like SLAMS into the dirt. And as he looks up to see WTF…. He’s hit by an Air-sickness bag that someone tossed out after his chute deployed. Yep. Puked on from 800 feet.
So as I end this and prepare to go chute up…. I simply wait for the appropriate time:
OH Dang…. The Trees!
-For my fellow Airborne brethren... I know there are some obvious things that have been shortened/omitted in this writting. But it is the easier way to explain to those that havent done this before....
---------
Now how do I try to tie this into a Nikon Website?
Well... There is a 50/50% chance that this is a photo of me during one of our Forced Entry Exercises.
It is either I or a buddy...
Our PAO photographer, using a D90, took the pic but couldnt recall if it was of the #1 or #2 jumper.
I did not take this photo!
Unfortunately I only have the JPEG copy with me here
“Oh Dang…. The Trees!”
This is usually heard within a 50m radius of me on most of my jumps. Obviously not heard too often during a night jump as I don’t see the trees and utter a “Humpf!!! Dang!!” as I plow into the ground at 18-21 feet per second.
What is this about? Airborne operations or simply jumping out of a military aircraft with the Army’s T-10D parachute.
Today’s jump is scheduled for a time on target of about 1645, meaning jumpers will be stepping out the door of the plane +/- a few minutes of this. Given that we start the ‘Airborne Timeline’ – a predetermined list of events that have to take place in order to successfully put bubbas out.
0930: Manifest: Stand around in a large group waiting to be segregated into Chalks and Lifts, essentially your plane and in what order you will jump. I walked around for about 20 minutes before I finally grabbed one of the jumpmasters and realized that I was not on his copy of the manifest. A brief and forceful discussion between him and my ‘Air NCO’ fixed that and I am manifested on the 5th flight, 2nd Aircraft and 4th man in the chalk on the right door. It gets to that level of tracking.
1200: Pre-Jump: Groups get back together and receive ‘safety briefs’…. That’s right…. Safety! You will jump but you will do so safely. What to do when you exit the aircraft – ensure tight body position, hands on the reserve, chin tucked into chest…. Count to 4. When you feel the chute open check canopy, gain canopy control. In layman’s terms… Look for chute malfunctions… holes, broken cables, etc then grab the risers and be able to ‘steer’ your chute (Very limited ability to do this on a -10D). Then practice Parachute Landing Falls (PLFs) off a 3 foot wall. Just jump and land in a specific way that allows you to lie down on the ground and ‘avoid’ serious injury. Then exit a mock-aircraft.
Rig up: Now we all move back into the hangar/shed, draw our chute and reserve and begin to buddy-rig. You help the guy next to you put his chute on and he, in turn helps you. After about 10 minutes you both stand there and wait for the Jumpmaster team to come and JMPI (Inspection) you. Stand, turn, squat, bend, pull, tug, push, slap… all this done to various parts of you and your equipment as he ensures all is hooked up right and won’t fall off when you need it to
stay on.
Then you sit…. And sit… and sit waiting for the aircraft. Did I mention still wearing all the stuff… ‘body parts’ pinched by the leg straps, hunched over…
Time to board the aircraft: Simply standing up and moving to the aircraft and then sitting down. Pretty simple despite the fact that unless you are the 1st flight you may smell puke and other ‘odors’ associated with jumpers being sick or scared on the previous flights…. It happens. While I will periodically suffer from motion/air sickness I have yet to mess myself…. But it happens.
Then comes the time Jumpmasters start calling off the commands:
20 Minutes / 10 Minutes - ime hacks to let you know you are getting closer to getting off this aircraft.
“Inboard Personnel. Stand up!” -The inner row of jumpers stand up.
“Outboard personnel. Stand up!” -The jumpers closest to the outside of the aircraft stand up and merge into the line of inboard jumpers.
“Hook up!”. Take the static line and hook it to the cable above your head. This static line ensures that when you jump the chute will be ‘deployed’ from the chute bag…. That or it will catch on something and drag you behind the aircraft and beat you into submission against the outer hull of the plane…. It happens.
“Check Static line!” - Ensure it is hooked up properly and trace the line of the jumper in front of you to ensure his shit is not twisted, frayed, knotted etc.
“Check Equipment!” –Check the rest of your stuff… Helmet, chinstrap, chest strap, Left/Right leg strap, and equipment lowering line if you are jumping with Combat equipment. Making sure nothing to snag the lines, torn, properly hooked, properly tightened
“Sound off for equipment check!” – Starting from back to front swat the jumper in front of you on the butt and yell out, “OK” signaling that everyone behind him is good to go. 1st jumper, closest to the jump master will then sound out “All OK Jump master!”… Variations of this include cupping the butt of the jumper in front of you… or yelling out “All OK Dumb Bastard” He can barely hear you above the aircraft anyway.
“Stand by!” - #1 Jumper hands his static-line to the Safety and rotates into the door and prepares to jump.
1 Minute warning…… 30 second warning….. “Green light GO!!!"
If you are not the #1 jumper you simply follow the guy in front of you, walk to the door, hand off your static line and jump out.
Now it’s gets interesting as you find whether your chute was properly tightened as if it is too loose… The snap/opening of the chute will cause the leg straps to pop your ‘lower bits’ into your abdomen or pinch other parts…. Women… different parts but I hear the pain is apparently just as bad.
Then you simply fall at a rate of 18-21 feet per second. From 800 feet it is a short and pretty peaceful fall. Then it comes….
OH Dang the trees!
I don’t say this because I am going to land in them… it is simply where I start to realize I am going to slam into the dirt, road, path, whatever is under me. Pulling the set of risers (ropes) in the opposite direction you are moving will slow the decent some. Then Hit! Preferably you want to gently transition from the balls of the feet to the calves, thighs, butt, Lats in a gentle rolling motion and Jump complete.
Try it. Jump out of a 2nd story window. It’s easy
My experiences:
- Feet – Butt – Head Landing: Bad PLF resulting in a huge headache
- Pull the wrong ‘slip’ – pulled the wrong risers increasing my speed from 18-21 FPS to 18-21fps +wind speed… landed Feet – Head, Mild Concussion and non-stop puking as I tried to get to my feet. Probably should have seen a medic over that one…
- Mud, Rivers, etc: Pretty soft to land in but hell to get out of and potential drowning. Not to mention I have yet to land in the mud that didn’t simply smell like a ‘Port-a-John’.
- And My favorite: Told to me by a buddy: another jumper’s helmet comes off during the jump…. Lands 3 feet away from him – more like SLAMS into the dirt. And as he looks up to see WTF…. He’s hit by an Air-sickness bag that someone tossed out after his chute deployed. Yep. Puked on from 800 feet.
So as I end this and prepare to go chute up…. I simply wait for the appropriate time:
OH Dang…. The Trees!
-For my fellow Airborne brethren... I know there are some obvious things that have been shortened/omitted in this writting. But it is the easier way to explain to those that havent done this before....
---------
Now how do I try to tie this into a Nikon Website?
Well... There is a 50/50% chance that this is a photo of me during one of our Forced Entry Exercises.
It is either I or a buddy...
Our PAO photographer, using a D90, took the pic but couldnt recall if it was of the #1 or #2 jumper.
I did not take this photo!
Unfortunately I only have the JPEG copy with me here
