Brian was one of the early “naturals”, excelling at the brand new art of baton-passing (the precursor of relative work) and devoting all of his spare time and enthusiasm to the sport.
Places in national and international teams in the early 1960s were an obvious recognition of his talent.
But his feel for the air really blossomed after he joined the Royal Australian Airforce, flying helicopter gunships in Vietnam and, later, Mirage fighters.
But despite those diversions, Brian continued to jump.
Edited extracts from a recorded interview with Brian Brown by Donna Berthelsen in 1998.
The interview was one of 45 recorded with early jumpers from all over Australia as part of an oral history project for the Australian Parachute Federation.
Brian made his first jump at Aldinga, on November 19, 1961 at the age of 18.
DB: How did you come to start jumping and when?
BB: One of the magazines at the time – Pix or Post – ran some photographs of the French jumping. Freefall was a bit ahead of the world in France in those days. I was 17 or so at the time and I thought “boy, I'd like to do that” and then I thought “boy, I'm going to do that.”
And that is really where it started from.
That was the initial interest but after that an ad appeared in the newspaper.
"People interested in forming a skydiving club – please write to this number." So I decided I'd do that and that's where we all started. There was no jumping in South Australia up until then.
DB: Can you remember any others?
BB: Trevor Bums, Col Parsons, Cathy Williamson, Susi [Wright], Kathy Henderson. Cathy's brother, for example, Cathy Williamson's brother. David Shearer. Phil Edwards. Stan Kruszewski – he'd been a parachutist in World War II.
DB: And where did the gear come from finally? Did you all put in money to buy the gear?
BB: Yes, basically we put in money by joining the club and the gear was purchased – X-type parachutes the initial ones that turned up. Ted Harrison had a lot to do with that because he was the other guy who did have some experience.
He was in the Citizens Military Forces, as it was then and he'd done a parachute course at Williamtown. So he'd actually done 10 jumps or so. That made him way ahead of the rest of us.
DB: What did your family think about that at the time?
BB: I'm going parachuting Mum. “Fine – don't kill yourself.”
We did a lot of training – a lot of jumping off vaulting horses and rolling on mats and learning all the basically army style, approved parachute rolls. I think the training was actually being extended because there were no parachutes to jump with anyway. It was just to keep the people interested – training, training, training.
DB: So, your first jump? What you were jumping out of?
BB: The first jumps were at Aldinga just south of Adelaide, out of a Dragon Rapide – the old dreaded Dragon. X-type parachute. I think it was 2,000 feet on this one.
DB: And how many static lines did you do?
BB: Eight or nine.
DB: Was there an emphasis on stability? Was a lot of the initial focus about how to fall stable? It wasn't an the issue for static liners but then moving on to freefall?
BB: It was pushed a bit towards the end of your static line jumps. We were looking to a good stable exit before they put somebody in freefall but I can't quite remember the timings but I have a sneaking suspicion that we might have been in no rush to get them off statics because the freefall chutes were not yet there. They were still coming.
DB: So, were you jumping full canopies on those – were they full canopies or were they a blank gore?
BB: I think they were blank gore – pretty basic.
DB: Who was leading the club at that time, do you recall?
BB: Well there was always a lot of politics in the whole thing but, effectively, Ted Harrison was probably one of the leading lights.
He was definitely on the management side and had most of the say, I think, in what went on because he was actually an active jumper rather than some of the people involved who were not really active jumpers.
They wanted to be in position of authority in the club but didn’t seem to want to jump all that much.
DB: So that ended up being a division?
BB: There were currents there and then I think Maxie Chaplin, who was in that initial bunch, started a rival, breakaway club on the south coast and some people went there.
DB: Did he eventually die parachuting?
BB: Yes, he did. A scuba jump into the water off Adelaide.
DB: Alf White also died in that early period.
BB: Alf White was the first fatality and he died at the national championships at Goolwa.
DB: What happened there? Because that's not enlarged upon in Cathy's book at all. [Cathy Williamson, Falling Free] It just happened.
BB: I don't think we actually knew. He was one of the early guys but he was what we thought of then as an incredibly old bloke – he must have been 40 or 50.
Imagine an “old” bloke like that jumping. But he was a nice old bloke. Kept to himself. He went out on a medium sort of a delay, I think it was 20 seconds or so, and he just didn't pull.
It wasn't like the chute malfunctioned or anything. He just speared straight on in.
He was definitely a lot older than the average jumper there.
DB: I think people have progressed since that time perceptually, just talking as a psychologist, like taking up flying or something as an older person, the reaction is not as sharp perceptually . . .
BB: Jesus! I must be in danger.
DB: So when were those championships at Goolwa? 1963? And did you jump at those nationals?
BB: Yes– accuracy and style.
DB: Was it a full style set?
BB: Yes. A left series, a back series or whatever the other one was. But they didn't tell you before you got out of the plane. They rolled out the arm [of the target cross] and windsocks. You had to get out of the aeroplane and you would see R (the right series) or L (the left) etc.
It seems sort of primitive.
I did pretty well there – I got a couple of trophies, which I've since lost in the various moves.
Philip Edwards won one of the accuracy events.
DB: What was it like at that national championships? Who was there? Can you remember significant events at all?
BB: Yes, the three girls that were always there - the two Cathies [Williamson and Henderson and Susi [Wright].
DB: So did they hold a separate women's event do you know?
BB: I think they jumped in the same thing but they were scored separately. Really, there were three or four other girls there too.
DB: Can you remember who – oh the Newcastle girls, because there was a group of three from there too.
BB: There were actually other South Australian girls too but those three South Australians were so far ahead of the rest that you tend not to remember the rest.
DB: Where did people stay. Was it a camping on the drop zone affair?
BB: Yes, camping on the drop zone. With the usual social lubricants – like lots of alcohol.
DB: What was happening with relative work in those days?
BB: Well baton passing was the name of the game there initially. Like, a baton pass was good news. You became quite famous amongst the fraternity when you achieved a baton pass.
DB: And can you remember your first baton pass. Who was it with?
BB: I've got an idea mine was with Noel Comley. He was in the Air Force and I think had been jumping in Victoria. He was a ground crew guy and he had been posted to Edinburgh in South Australia, so he turned up to jump with our club with a bit of experience as he had already jumped in Victoria.
I can tell you from my log book, the times and so on.
[Donna refers to Brian’s logbooks which she has and reads out various extracts as the interview continues . . .]
DB: So, South Australian School of Parachuting. Brian's log book at Aldinga. First jump on 19/11/61.
So you did one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight statics then two three seconds, a five, an eight, three, eight, twelve. Who signed up those jumps? Oh, it's Ted Harrison.
So how did you learn to do a style set? Can you remember was that a difficult thing? That was 50 jumps that you'd done from 19/11/61 to 23/9/62.
BB: Yes. It was an expensive business in those days too.
The only thing that was holding back jumping was the cost –it was probably about five times as expensive as it is now in relative terms.
DB: But I mean, these were all on delays but you weren't doing style or anything?
BB: Well, it was mostly relative work.
DB: Yes, so they're all ... oh, you did a back loop there, 25 yards, attempted back loop, right, okay.
BB: And from 50 onwards, I got into this log book for a while. There was a lot more detail.
DB: When did you take up flying. Were you interested in flying from when you started jumping?
BB: No, I took up flying when I joined the Air Force after I came back from Europe. I spent a couple of years in Europe, jumping basically, running a parachute school.
DB: We'll get on to that in a moment. Okay so Aldinga on September 1962. So that was, reading from your log book:
“Susi Wright, Kathy Henderson then myself. I sat about 15 feet out slightly high while Kathy completed a good pass with Susi then tracked across and got it from Kath at about three five and easy double, my first. Susi had a malfunction and deployed her reserve.”
And October 7, 1962 was your first jump on your new seven place TU. Where did you get that from? Was that imported from the States? Presumably?
BB: It was only a secondhand B4 type thing – we modified it ourselves. So seven spread was pretty radical then, like you didn't let new people on to those. They stayed with a Double L or something like that.
DB: Who was doing the rigging there? That was a bit of an issue, I think, at that particular time wasn't it?
BB: Basically some of us were doing it ourselves.
DB: Another log book entry:
“Dropped Col Parsons as drifter.”
I mean that’s a bit vicious isn't it?
BB: He was on static still. That was a demo jump.
DB: Maybe he was still on statics because he said he wasn't the greatest jumper in the world and he didn't get off statics or on to any sort of delays for a long time.
So October [this is reading from Brian's log book again]:
“I despatched a one-legged jumper, Dave Burchell on his first static line, did a circuit and despatched Max Chaplin and then jumped myself. Target area was about 3/4 of a mile offshore. My first water jump.”
Did the students land in the water?
BB: Yes, yes. But Dave Burchell was a famous scuba diver. He owned dive shops and all that sort of thing.
DB: Oh, so that was a planned water jump?
BB: Oh yes. By that stage the clubs had fractured a little bit. Harrison was basically running South Australian Skydiving Club, Max Chaplin was running the opposition South Coast Skydivers and they used to compete for students.
A group of us formed another outfit called 'Freelance Skydivers'. We were still sort of allied with South Australian Sport Parachute Club that we came from but we were also into the demo jumping and it wasn't a student training organisation.
DB: So who formed that group? Who were the people in that?
BB: Myself largely. People in it were initially myself, Dave Shearer, Trevor Bums – Phil Edwards, I think joined then and Col Parsons.
And eventually a couple of the girls started jumping with us as well like Cathy and Susi because they went over well with the crowd of spectators.
DB: And Ted wasn't offended about that or he was more responsible for the students?
BB: He was more responsible for student training and we were always friends anyway.
DB: Getting demos was that hard? I can remember it was pretty competitive in those days between the groups.
BB: Yes, we used to sit around and drink lots of beer and work out how to get ahead in this thing. There was a lot of politics to it. We drummed up a circular and sent it out the district agricultural societies where they had their country shows and that's where we started jumping into the ovals and things.
DB: Was Laurie Trotter a part of that group at sometime when he was in South Australia?
BB: He was jumping with us there. I don't think he jumped with us as Freelance Skydivers but he was certainly jumping with us at SAPC, think.
DB: So tell us about those demos?
BB: They were interesting because we were getting permission from Civil Aviation authorities because we needed it to jump into these quite small (for then) areas.
It was a big deal for us because we were jumping into quite small ovals – your normal agricultural show oval full of headers and reapers and jumps for the horses. And some of these demos were actually with pretty antiquated old parachutes.
DB: Was there much money involved? Was it worthwhile?
BB: Oh it was worthwhile but not any serious money – you'd make 20 bucks or 20 quid.
DB: Divided between three: paid for the aircraft and that was about it.
BB: You know, if you got accommodation and a free jump – the free jumps were more of a draw than the money you actually got for it. I guess we sold ourselves pretty cheap.
We had quite a bit of trouble convincing basically conservative authorities that ran the events that they needed a parachute display and some wouldn't have a bar of it. Others conceded it would be a bit of a drawcard and they might get people in.
DB: Any incidents? Was it a difficult thing? Marginal conditions – all that?
BB: No, I think we always managed to get where we were going. Somehow. We were fairly ambitious for the experience we had.
We were reasonably fortunate in that we had some reasonable people in DCA [Department of Civil Aviation] but there was a paternalistic side to them.
Once Harrison and I both went into DCA headquarters to apply for a demo jump and they used words something like “the two jumpers who are known to this department” – and they gave us a tick and let us do it. But it was more or less on a personal basis.
You had to get their trust. Once you had their trust you could rig the figures a little bit – make the big distances they used to ask for. [Minimum target sizes, distance from spectators etc]
DB: Now let’s talk about baton passing. For legitimate baton passes, you had to have a separation before the next jumper left the plane didn’t you?
BB: Yes, you couldn't jump out hanging on to each end of it.
DB: What was the period of separation and can you remember the sort of rules, not the formal rules but the informal rules that governed that process?
The whole notion of baton passes – do you remember how it came about?
BB: Yes, basically what we were trying to do was learn to fly ourselves.
To me freefall was always the attraction. I wasn't all that interested in the parachuting side of it. I was reasonably good at it, like good enough to get into the accuracy – it was a challenge but like any other competition you go for it.
I even got to the stage where I used to think the average weekend jump was over once you opened – landing was just a detail.
It wasn't a very exciting part of it at all. I was just there for the freefall: that was the new frontier.
We were learning to track, learning to fly, all the things that were taken for granted by people that came along later.
It was all new stuff. I mean we weren't far behind anyone else in the world, I don't think. We used to get American Skydiver magazine and read about all the goodies they had there and how things were going. But I don't think we were too far behind them.
DB: Andy Keech was telling me some aspects of that too. It's interesting that skydiving developed right down the eastern seaboard and in South Australia fairly much at the same time.
People were doing the same sort of things but having somehow connected with the American literature as well. I mean Andy Keech and, as we said before, being the sort of guy he was. He was writing to Bud Sellick.
BB: Andy was very early into the freefall photography too. In fact he took some photos of myself and a Canadian guy who was out here. A fellow called Glen Read. And they made the front page and centre spread of Skydiver in 1962 I think it was.
And that was kind of big news. We realised that we weren't that far out in the sticks.
DB: On the development of the baton passing – it eventually got to the stage where, after Don West was killed, it sort of died away, but maybe not necessarily due to that fatality.
BB: We were all chasing the record for the number of baton passes. You know that would have been a world record, I think.
We were defeated in that one but we were certainly going for it. In parallel with that, as we'd learned to fly better, we got into the lipstick passes.
The first baton passes were pretty much like that and then we got the control and we realised we could come in and link up nicely and go on to the girls for a kiss or whatever and the baton passing probably disappeared and became into the star work then. Like getting three-man, four-man, five-man ...
DB: But that's a lot later really would you think?
BB: Well not particularly, I mean that was the development of it. It started off this way and then – hey we can stop and do it nicely, and hey we can join up with two, three, four and then it came along quite quickly.
DB: Do you remember what licences you had?
BB: I think some of the licences were almost issued retrospectively. I ended up with an F licence – F7, in fact.
DB: Okay, this jump. I'm just reading in your log book from June 30, 1963 – your 118th jump from 8,000 ft. It is at Port Pirie and you were jumping out of the Auster. You might like to comment on this one? Your log book says:
"I climbed out on the wheel of the Auster and Trevor [Burns] clambered to the usual exit position."
Actually Austers are pretty small aren't they?
BB: Pretty hard to get out of in the old fashioned rig. As Trevor left, my ripcord came out of the pocket and flew down behind me.
Free housing – I caught the housing and fell off after Trevor, still holding it.
DB: The housing came off?
BB: No I fell off after Trevor still holding the housing. Using necessarily non-radical tracking movements, I had approached within 10 feet of Trev when his reserve popped open at about 4,000 ft for no apparent reason
Sounds like a shambles.
DB: It does a bit but there we go. This is July 13, 1963:
“Supposed to be a four-man pass attempt. It was out of the Auster again.”
Four people from the Auster? Oh no.
“Me from the Auster, Joe Larkin as passenger and Dave, Phil and Ted from the Cessna. I waited between 8,000 and 9,000 feet for about 10 to 15 minutes – no sign of the Cessna. Complete cloud between 4,000 and 5,000 feet and very bloody cold. Eventually went down below cloud and jumped out. Did not bother to spot correctly. Too cold I think. Joe took some shots of me from the aircraft. New beaut jumpsuit and boots.”
In 1963 you were still into baton passes. So again from Brian's log book:
" July 14, 1963 7,000 from Cessna 182. Trevor Burns exited first with the baton, followed by Ted Harrison and then me. Ted dropped below, Trevor who did a couple of quick turns as I approached him. I too dropped below after coming close and I could not get back up. Spent so long waiting for Trevor to come down which he never did but it was too late to go up again."
So how many jumps did you do altogether?
BB: About 700 total. I went to Vietnam flying helicopter gunships in August 1969 – I was pretty busy in 1968 flying helicopters so I only did the odd jump in 1968 when I was around, usually with Harrison.
I'd come down to Sydney and we'd go jumping and Susi and I had identical red, black and white Paracommanders with piggyback packs and state of the art stuff in those days and I actually left mine with Harrison when I went to Vietnam.
I didn't jump at all in 1969 because I was in Vietnam all year then I did a bit of jumping when I came back and then I trained as a fighter pilot and I just gradually drifted off from there, once I started flying as a full time pilot.
I really didn't get into the air at the weekends. That's just about what it amounted to it. Then I had a resurgence and got about another 150 jumps later on. I ended up with a ground job in Williamtown as liaison officer to the Army Parachute School. It used to be done by the Air Force up until then.
DB: In what year was that?
BB: That would be in 1973. That really spoilt me for any civilian jumping because you used to get as many parachutes as you like for the day and you were jumping out of Hercs and Chinooks and Iroquois.
.....it was all good fun going around all the air shows doing displays again.
DB: But you subsequently went back to flying then?
BB: Yes, I went to full time flying when I finished my tour there where I was jumping every day. I went up to Butterworth in Malaysia. I spent three years up there then I came back to fly Mirages again at Williamtown in 79 and 80.
I had virtually stopped jumping then but I did do one jump when I got back there.
I had another friend in the Army there and giving him a bit of hard time in the bar about he was jumping then and I wasn't and we had some discussion about who could get into a four man star first, so put your money where your mouth is.
So I found myself next morning in a Caribou at 12,000 feet and it was no problem – it was just the same. That was about 1980. I don't think I have jumped since then.
DB: Actually some people are natural jumpers, hey!!
###Share
skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia
Posts
2 comments:
My name is Gerry Docherty nee King. I emigrated to Melbourne 3 weeks ago. Reading about Brian's experiences are fasinating, to me as he and Susie taught me to skydive at Staverton Airport England in 1965 where he started a skydiving club. I went on to be British Women's Champion in 1969 and 70 ( didn't have to very good because there wasn't much competition!) I have a private pilots license and have just sold our Supercub as it proved too expensive to ship to Australia. Congrats on your career Brian should you read this.
Hi to Brian Brown; Susie; Gerry and anyone else who shared in those halcyon days of the mid-1960s.
My name is Tony Austin whose nick-name was (and still is in some quarters) Auzzie. This did cause some confusion on occasion when surrounded by those 'mad' Australians who invaded us back then as I had a definte British accent.
I too spent some time at Staverton in 1965 helping Brian, Susie and Co with their students and well remember Gerry and her brother Bob. Looking in my logbook it appears I despatched Bob on either his first or second static jump.
I Continued jumping until the 80s but en route had accquired PPL which came in useful when, having joined Hampshire Constabulary, they started their Air Unit. This was the only police force in the UK to crew their aircraft only with police officers but nowadays they have civilian pilots.
I have a son and family in Melbourne whom I hope to visit in August/September this year so if anyone reading this remembers me then we may be able to do some relative work with our zimmer frames!
Post a Comment