After the meeting we start doing training jumps, starting off with base and 100-way whacker rehearsals from
5,000 m / 18,000 ft. All groups, including the Alpha Team, have been assigned to one of the four Herc's, with 2 cameramen in each aircraft. Three of the teams are practicing wackers, the fourth is practicing the base.
The jumps today are from a height of 18.000 ft at first then going up to 21.000 ft. At 14.000 ft everybody starts using the onboard oxygen system which consists of O2-hose with regulators running the length of the aircraft. The whole thing slides towards the door as jumpers line up for exit so it provides oxygen untill about 15 seconds before exit.
The three training jumps go like, well, training, with some kinks needing to be worked out yet. But each jump showed improvement. Most of the wackers built close to completion, 65-68 out of 72.
One of the C-130's here is even bigger then regular C-130's; it is a stretched version which offers benches along the sides so there's plenty of room for 100 jumpers.
The C-130's are balanced by large bags of rice (about 1200 kg total) placed in front of the aircraft. These bags make a nice couch too.
End-of-the-day video (5.9 Mb)
