Clear Skies for Parachute Unit
SGT Garth Magnussen conducts his Equipped Qualifying Descent with CPL John Harrison acting as his passenger. (WN-08-0037-67).
SQNLDR Darryn Pritchard
Over 5 to 12 May the Air Force’s Parachute Training Support Unit (PTSU) conducted Exercise Clear Skies at RNZAF Whenuapai. Normally the Unit deploys to a remote airfield to conduct training but the busy schedule and concurrent activity at the time of the exercise meant they stayed on Base this time. Clear Skies is PTSU's main development exercise where a number of small courses are run, and CT and trials work can be focused on. This year two courses were run, being the Tandem Pilot Course and Free Fall Vetter Course. All in all we achieved around 75 percent of the objectives of the exercise with weather being the main stalling point. However the two courses qualified and they were priority one and two. MSS provided the packing support for the exercise.