Parachute training 1961 – the way it was

Skydiving film in South Australia doesn’t come any older than this 1961 footage of original members of the SA School of Parachuting training at Parafield for their first jumps.

The old 8 mm home movie footage is from the collection of pioneer SA jumper Max Chaplin, who later drowned in a para-scuba demo jump off West Beach in suburban Adelaide in 1968.

It also includes a brief shot of original SA female skydivers Susi Wright, Mary Summers, Kathy Henderson and Cathy Williamson about to board the Beaver, at Virginia.

The training footage was taken sometime between August and November, 1961, and shows the original instruction equipment – the ramp, suspended harness (which would have cracked someone's skull if the rope attaching it to the tree had broken) and the military style training.

The training area was about where the airport depot is now. But, according to Col Parsons, who was on that first course and went on to train generations of skydivers himself, it was was pretty bare back then – although a couple of the old galvo huts which are evident in the film still exist!