Ahhhh, this video of the CASA 212 below reminded me of my smokejumper days.  We used the same aircraft for smokejumper operations, and they are a good aircraft for parachuting and paracargo work.  We would dump out paracargo at about 450 to 500 AGL, depending on terrain and weather conditions.  Our pilots were awesome at getting bundles onto mountain top ridges, or little meadows.  

     I also got to assist in kicking cargo as a jumper.  There is a lot involved with these types of operations, and we definitely took it seriously.  If you get a bundle that does not deploy because of a poorly packed cargo chute, or it hangs up in the door and tears apart the tail of the aircraft, then you could be in a world of hurt.  As a jumper, a big portion of my work during the off season was dedicated to repairing cargo chutes, or packing them.  

     The other aspect of paracargo that doesn’t get much mention is climbing trees for the stuff.  You haven’t lived until you had to climb a 200 ft fir tree rocking back and forth in the wind, just to retrieve cargo or retrieve your parachute after a tree landing.  In the aircraft, we would drop tree climbing equipment for such missions.

     One thing I am surprised at, is why the military doesn’t use it’s fleet of C-23 Sherpas for these kinds of operations?  They are just a little bit bigger than CASA 212’s, and you can get a ramp kit for them, so you can kick out cargo out of the tail. I called them flying ‘Winnebagos’ because of their box-like appearance. I think the military uses them to haul around jet engines or something.

     In the jumpers we used a bunch of different aircraft to include the Dornier 228 202, Douglas DC-3, and the DH-600 series Twin Otter.  The Twin Otter was probably the best all around aircraft for smokejumper operations.  Although jumping out of that DC-3 is cool too.  The DC-3’s we used were the same ones used during WW2.  Obviously the newer ones are highly upgraded, but it is literally the same aircraft, because the airlogs on most of these craft go back that far!  It is a solid aircraft and truly an honor to jump out of it. -Head Jundi

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An air to air right side view of a 10th Military Airlift Squadron C-23A Sherpa aircraft. In the background is a castle. 

     I talked with some dude from this group awhile back. They found my info somewhere and were asking about smokejumping operations and developing their own air operation. It looks like they will finally be doing the South America air drop thing, to fix a runway near a remote village and do some remote medicine. Great concept, and I hope it takes off as it get’s more attention.

     SOAR will be doing a partnership with RAM, and it should be cool to see how this pans out. Hopefully no one breaks a leg doing this shit. ha ha

     Air Drop Assist is the training side of the operation. For a small fee, they will train you for paracargo and parachuting operations. This group is working with both RAM and SOAR, and these are the guys I think I talked with. -Head Jundi

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This is a great little video about what they do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly9gLb1enxg&feature=user

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http://www.airdropassist.org/en/index.html

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http://www.aidrelief.org/

http://www.ramusa.org/
SOAR to deploy airborne medical team in South America
On March 25th of 2008, SOAR will send its airborne trained medical personnel on an important mission in Guyana. SOAR, in partnership with RAM Airborne, will deploy medical and non-medical skydivers into remote areas of the Guyana.

I wanted to post this, because this is right up my ally.  As a smokejumper, we did these kind of operations all the time for resupply.  So this concept is really not new.  Air America used to do these type of operations during the Southeast Asia conflict, and Blackwater USA Aviation is providing the same kind of services now a days in Afghanistan.  The aircraft they use are CASA 212’s, which are the same aircraft that a few of the smokejumper bases use out there.  -Head Jundi

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An innovative approach to combat logistics: low cost, low altitude airborne resupply in Afghanistan

Michael Peterman
History has shown that without combat service support and sustainment operations, the warfighting capability of any unit is certainly diminished, and potentially leads to interruption of combat operations. Hence, the ability to develop innovative, adaptive combat service support sustainment processes remains a strong principle within contingency operations.

The 782nd Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) has brought such innovation to the modern battlefield of Afghanistan. Due to the expertise and initiative of the Soldiers of the 782nd BSB, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, the Army has a new aerial resupply capability in the form of the Thestral “Speedball” Low Cost, Low Altitude (LCLA) Aerial Delivery System.

The LCLA program is a new and innovative means of aerial delivery currently being employed throughout portions of Afghanistan. The program differs from the Air Force high velocity container delivery system (CDS) drops in that bundles are smaller in size and delivered at a very low altitude from a smaller civilianstyle aircraft with almost pinpoint accuracy–usually within 20 meters of the established point of impact (PI).