Maintaining Jump Status

Posted By Blackfive

Troops assigned to Special Operations Command, Pacific, wait to hook up to a static line on a C-17 Globemaster III, Feb. 11, 2008, during a training mission over Oahu, Hawaii. The C-17, from the 535th Airlift Squadron, is helping the command conduct jump currency training.    U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo.

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Comments

[Piper17]

Oh, for that much room in a Twin Otter, Skyvan, Casa, Caravan or Cessna 182! Riding to altitude in comfort!

[Bohica]

This is my first post on your site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Oe-g2cWpvU

I saw this as a tribute to our fallen Canadian soldiers.

I'm not military, but it filled me with pride and brought a tear to my eye.

[rick554]

My lord , it looks like they are flying in a gym! The C-17 is an awesome plane for sure. THIS is why I like paying taxes!
God bless our TROOPS!

[LongTabSigO]

If the C-141 was the "Cadillac of the Airborne", then the C-17 is the "Bentley of the Airborne".

It's a fun jump, but you feel it the next day. You'll think someone beat you with a stick.

3min slow down? Yeah....right...

My favorite part is the hockey helmets.

[Grimmy]

Pfft!

That aint for reals. I saw Band of Brothers. You can't fool me. Airborne delivery vehicles are cramped, crowded, noisy and being shot at.

That must have been some sort of practice or picture pose in a warehouse or some such.

Hope it's not a special bus. You know what they say about folk who wear helmets on special buses.
/smart ass.

Honestly, being military is hard enough, but it takes a special blend of iron and grit for a man to want to step up and deal with all the added headache, backache, footache and bellyache that goes with the Special in SF and other such units.

All respect to all y'all. Past, present and even the polliwogs who'll grow up to fill in the ranks in the future.

[CanuckInPA]

Jumping out of a C-17 over Oahu. Doesn't get much better than that!

[Deebow]

The Navy SEALs do a jump over a cliff in Puerto Rico. The plane flies low and rises up over the cliff and levels off. When the jumpmaster says go, it looks like you are jumping at about 7 feet off of the deck.

The drift and the wind take you out over the ocean past the cliff.

Not a cool joke to play on the FNGs for sure.

[Arch]

There is a serious problem with jumping out of the C17 - wing vortex. The jet is so large that if you are intrail less than 28,000 feet, you could find yourself upside down - not good for safe landing. Rather than making Boeing fix the wings, they altered formations to fingertip spread.

There are also some problems with the formation positioning system.

[Mr.Sparkle]

Or you can hop out and open your parachute a little closer to the ground!

[Arch]

Sparky:

Airborne troops already jump out a low altitude so the defenders on the ground have less time to shoot at them. Airborne soldiers are not distressed airmen, they are armed combatants. I do not know what altitude they use in combat, but it's low.

Also, it's important to get your Brigade( men & equipment) on the drop zone in less than 30 minutes, so they have time to establish interlocking fields of fire. That's why they fly formations like the one below.

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/061221-F-2828D-235.JPG

When a heavy aircraft generates lift, air under the wings escapes around the wing tip to low pressure area on top of the wing. It creates two horizontal tornados. These vortices move downward and dissipate slowly. You can't see the damn things. That's why airlines wait 2 minutes between takeoffs. Here's what it these things look like when you pop IR countermeasures.

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/021205-O-9999G-003.jpg

The real airborne guys know a lot more about this stuff than I do.

Cheers,

Arch

[Don Miguel]

After my son (a USAF JTAC) went to jump school I asked him what it was like to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. He said “The first time I thought I was going to crap my pants but after that it was great!”

[rick554]

LOL DON outta the mouths of Babes huh?? Tell your son I say THANKS!!

[RandyB3]

How often does one have to jump to maintain jump status?

Is that just to keep getting jump pay, or is this quals-related?

[Mr.Sparkle]

Thanks for the info Arch, that's amazing.

Don, why do you chaps call it JTAC now? FAC is a simpler name!

I don't think Brit forces are even maintaining jump status any more because they are running out of money.

[Mortarman11c]

I am a former Infantry Paratrooper (2/505th PIR, THE DIVISION)turned C-17 Airdrop Instructor Loadmaster. I was also a Airdrop Instructor on the C-141B.

You might say I may be a subject matter expert on this. I have over 4000 hours of flying experience including 7 combat airdrops over Afghanistan. All in the C-17.

We can airdrop up to 64 feet of platform (two 32 footers)and a total weight of 160,000 thousand pounds of cargo. We can drop 102 jumpers and 40 CDS bundles. That my friends is a lot of beans and bullets!

The airdrop problems that plagued the C-17 in it's infancy.....the oldest bird is now 19 years old, have been corrected either through modifications to the jets, or through TTPs of the crew.

The "in trail" gap has been shortened and we in no way wait for two minutes in between takeoff to launch the next bird. More like 30 seconds, and that is to give the jet in front of you time to clear the runway if it should have to abort. Rest assured in an emergency we can shorten that time!!

To me there is nothing better than a 0230 drop with 102 Joes on board running North to South Sicily with 58 seconds of Green light time and having these professionals unass the jet in less than 45 seconds!!

Oh and Joes have to jump a minimum of once every ninty days to retain their jump pay. A measly $150.00 a month. When I started, us enlisted swine got $88.00 a month and the college boys got $110.00 a month.

Now I get $400.00 a month to open the doors and stay in. But I'd give it back for one jump outta my C-17!!!

LOAD CLEAR!!

[Mr.Sparkle]

^awesome