Vasco/Dougie,
Well done for ignoring Reheat for the time being and posting more on airdrop. You don't see many pictures of SC8/GQ6m and what looks like a SEAC pack.
HAADs happened under an SD (Kind of UOR before UORs had been invented) whilst I was on a sabbatical back to industry. When I came back I had to formalise the clearance paperwork and support pubs. Nightmare. It was one of the first parachute Mods I signed up at Irvins. I never could understand to this day why we could not just adopt the off the shelf chute from the US without having tinkered with it. Apart from a few justifying their existence.
I only saw a stick dropped once at Everligh in preparation for Herrick. We only had minimal stocks left and was hardly worth the effort. But we were in the process of putting PADS on the J to get winds.
A few of us had log ins to the USAFWX web site and could down load wind field files anywhere in the world. But we were not allowed to use it due to restrictions placed by the UK Computer Security Group, not the US.
Reheat, I enjoyed seeing the pics of Snoopy really. Like you I first saw the aircraft in 72/3 under conversion at Cambridge. A few years on I did a wireless mod. I was at the Mods meeting where so much discussion was focussed on the chicken. Nothing else mattered. My mod got signed up with hardly any discussion.