Life as a Sky Diver

Heroes Remember

Life as a Sky Diver

Transcript

I used what they called the para commander at the time and we did some jumps into all the air shows at that time so we went around all the air show circuit which was quite interesting when you've never did it before and because it was associated with the airborne, we had to qualify as an airborne jumper in both static line and free fall so we all became qualified parachutists in the military so we could legally jump out of a military airplane which to us was no problem doing because we already had, I had over at the time when I started five hundred jumps so it was no problem qualifying and then different missions, they wanted to do one time, they were doing a demo down in Gagetown from there and they were going to do a mass drop and show how the pathfinders work and how the MFP, that we were referred to as high altitude, low opening jumpers would activate it, be activated in a situation and we did the halo jumps for them which didn't turn out to be a halo, it was called mid range so we got out at 10,000 feet instead of 20,000 feet but we did do a couple of practice jumps at 20,000 just in case which was no problem but it just meant a nice long time in free fall.

Description

Mr. Batt shares his experiences as a jumper in the air show circuit and how he was considered a qualified parachutist.

Gordon Batt

Mr. Gordon Batt was born November 25, 1945 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. After finishing high school, Mr. Batt enrolled in the air cadets and decided to join active service with the Air Force as a result of his love of flying. He spent a great deal of his military career in Canada, but spent time overseas in France with ground crew operations as an armament systems technician and participated in operations with the CF104, Hercules and Argus aircraft. Mr. Batt participated in a fascinating sport as a sky diver performing with the Sky Hawks in several air shows in conjunction with military service and held rank as a qualified parachutist. This love for sky diving is one of his most memorable accomplishments. After his decision to leave the military, Mr. Batt opened his own retail business and eventually sold that and accepted a position as commissionaire in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

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