Pull up a sandbag ~ "I remember when..

[Airborne Aircrew]

Dennis, the II Sqn Parachute Jump Instructor, (PJI), in the late 70's/early 80's.

1. On my first ever balloon jump in front of II Sqn we reached 800' in the balloon over RAF Catterick, he leaned over the "door" to check the flags, called "Green", unlatched and stowed the "door" and said "Goodbye" as he jumped leaving me with my chin on the floor in front of three hairy arsed old hands. I was number one and had to self dispatch with them all watching...
2. A few weeks later he rode a bike out of the balloon, held it all the way to about 20' before dropping it and landing.
3. About a year later on the way up in a balloon car asking me if I wanted to "somersault". He then unhooked my static line from the anchor above us, pulled it all out of the pack, passed it over my shoulder, between my legs and back up to the anchor point. Quite the way to begin a descent...

Someone, (A|R?), mentioned runs with a Jerry can. A mutual "friend" of his and mine was know as Human Hater when he was my Flt Sgt on II Sqn.

1. He would send us round Hullavington's Peri-track, (1 1/2 miles), with two jerry cans of water. He could sit in his office and watch us almost all the way around. The "almost" was the key word. We discovered that if we sprinted out of the hangar we could empty the cans and appear in the expected place in about the right time and then at the end of the run we would disappear behind a hangar with a tap. Another sprint and some fast filling and you could appear to have not stopped... He never did work that one out!!!
2. When several troops were on his wrong side he would send us to MT for a 1/2 ton trailer. Upon our return he would send us to stores with the trailer for, (I think it was half a dozen - it totally filled the trailer), 12 x 12's with poles. He would then send us running around the peri-track with it... Very hard work...

Smells revisited:-

1. Cheese Possessed
2. The smell in the Schnellie after two weeks in the field.
3. Using CS gas as a decongestant when you have a cold.
4. That 1/2 second of panic between the realization that you just smelled the CS gas through your S10 and actually feeling the effect...
5. Wet cam nets seconded!!!!
6. Issue Mossie repellant seconded too..