For airdrop minimum speeds, it was usually the greater of 125 kts IAS or 1.25 Vstall for cargo. ULLA and freedrop (15 (Ethiopia) -50 feet (routine)) was done with gear down...saved the day in Ethiopia on a couple of occasions with inadvertant touchdowns on uneven DZs - Rabel from memory.
The touchdown relay prevented timely ULLA extraction on at least one occasion. The spotters who remember BANGGEARO will remember why...(think it was 2 Gs...GTC door and Gnd Stop switch made live....)
For para, it was 115kts-130kts, limited by 1.2 Vstall and of course the parachute RTSs
The incident with the flattened Jeep was fairly well-documented...and the pic/piece of windscreen placed just to the left of the bar in STF. I believe the nav was a rather bouffant Dougie M***sh, who (I think) , coincidentally was also involved with the Maggie/grey funnel line incident on the South Coast.
The skipper of that one was, again dragged from memory, Henry P***le, who went on to fly Wessex in a 'spirited manner'....
Served on STF (FKA STS) for a while......best time I had in the Mob - great bunch of blokes and hugely satifying flying.
AA62's incident with the high frame MSP reminds me of the 47 crew who forgot to confirm the 15 ft extension to the transfer release cable was in place prior to a drop from a Mk3 (same basic cable for the Mk1 and 3, but clearly the extra length needed for the stretched version)....Slug was the skipper (I'll leave the Loadie's name off to spare his blushes) from memory..... Similar ducksbill interface issue....
I was following directly behind.