Page 59 - RADC Bulletin 2021

ACHIEVEMENTS
This Penguin
can now
Fly... well,
fall with style
Maj R Watson
My journey began with wanting a posting to 16 Med Regt. The excitement of wanting to deploy with this dental unit, with its high readiness, drew me in, but the idea of undertaking an arduous course like P-Coy and then jumping out of a plane sounded incredible. Long story short, it is!
2017 saw me pass P-Coy and I loved this. In 2020, I got the phone call to move rapidly to 16 Med Regt by early March; who can see where this is going! Like everyone, the pandemic changed the face of routine for 16 Med Regt, what was and wasn’t possible, along with plans being pushed to the right.
When September came around and there was a glimpse of normality and courses opened again, 16X wanted everyone to get through their BPC (Basic Parachute Course). We were on!
Ground training was a rapid 3 days from 0700 to 1900, mainly trying to learn how
to land and not snap! The PLF (Parachute Landing Form) is essentially having the nerve to keep your feet together and turn into a banana to “present your body to the floor so there is no single point of impact”. It was that or alternately splatting the ground at roughly 13mph with all your kit on.
The facilities were incredible, and comradery was at a high, but when at the airfield everyone was in their own head.... for the first jump at least. There are multiple ways in which it could go wrong that whizz around your head, joined by the instructor’s stark warnings of “if you get this wrong, you
are going home in an ambulance, SO GET IT RIGHT!”. Honestly, they cared deeply for our safety in a strict father like way.
The Skyvan felt like a VW campervan with wings that somehow managed to stay up; but there was no time to think, straight into
the drills and you are staring 1000ft above ground out the back of it. You try to enjoy seeing all the cars and landscape, but really you are holding it together while watching and waiting to hear that you are going to lob yourself out of a perfectly functioning plane. Everything feels like a rush and noisy, but as soon as that parachute opens it’s surprisingly quiet and calm.
Anyone that has jumped will tell you
that carrying 60+Kg across Western on
the Green after landing is a cheeky yomp, but that you smile the whole way. Three day jumps and then the night jump, each added more weight but also a further sense of realism. The night jump was really cool and you do at this point enjoy the scenery. Until you realise mid jump trying to judge the wind direction and the landing position is hard in the pitch black (plus getting into twists for the first time doesn’t help).
The next day and you are paraded in the training hanger to be presented with your
RADC BULLETIN 2021 57