RAPA Bad Lippspringer

I did my first ever free fall at Bad Lippspringer, great place. anyone else skydive there ?

Personally I've never had the urge to throw myself out of an aircraft that I know is going to land anyway...

If man was meant to fly, the QM would have issued us with wings.

Paul.

Paul wrote:

If man was meant to fly, the QM would have issued us with wings.

Paul.

Quite right.

steve jones wrote:

I did my first ever free fall at Bad Lippspringer, great place. anyone else skydive there ?

Actually my wife did a tandem jump at Bad Lippspringe in ... 1987 or possibly 88. But she was obviously barking, she married me!

I skydived for many a year at Bad Lipp. Best dropzone i have ever been to. The pic on my profile is of me exiting the Islander at 5,000ft over Bad Lipp in 1983.

Nice one Nobby. I see you were using quite modern gear. I agree great DZ, i also did a few jumps at Netheravon, Brize Norton ha'pny green. I then went to live in NZ and did hundreds there. Andrew, re tandems, I first jumped a tamdem, as the pilot, in Mexico while they were under development by a guy called bill booth. All very interesting stuff, and they were clearly going to be the way of the future for people who just wanted one for the "log book of life"

I did 2 courses (mid 1980's) at Bad Lippspringe- bad weather made the first course a waste of time.

We had to get a chit signed from the local medical centre and the old bloke who was filling as Doctor (he must have been forty or fifty if he was a day!) at Munster originally refused on the grounds of Mental Instability! Claimed that any person who voluntarily wanted to exit an aircraft after it left the ground must have been unstable.

Our EME (at 4RTR Munster) went spare and got that sorted. Later whilst at 14/20 in Hohne I got on another course and managed a couple of 10 second freefalls and one tree landing. Chief instructor both times was 'Mac' McQueen.

The Dutch camp in Hohne also had their own small club and hired in a small 4 seater most weekends.

Happy times.
Kev T

Mac McQueen was at Bad Lippspringe around 1969ish. Anyone know what happened to Bob Ackermann who ran the club then?

Pete Hough attended with me. Pete later became well known and was part of the REME Free fall Team. Wally Wallace arrived later!

Regards
Alan
Ps... FAO Steve Jones. Yes it's me Alan Yates. Ex 15 Field Wksp

Used to run round the dropzone and golf course when I was posted there, watched enough blokes come in to fast and cream into the ground for my liking lol, prefer my feet on the ground.

We used to exercise with the Harriers from there. Pulled up on one exercise, cammed up etc and then our lineys were asked if they had a ladder. A parachute had landed in a tree. Best thing was, it was a bloke from our own regiment on the end of it.

Also saw two main chutes fail on the same day but both times they used a reserve successfully. Not my idea of a good time or I would have joined the paras.

I did a couple of jumps there at the end of 1977 right after arriving, having missed a day of my embarkation leave to finish a course at Netheravon.

I quickly discovered Pils and Frauleins and gave up parachuting but a guy from our squadron who had been on the same course at Netheravon went on to help found 15/19H Freefall team.

Anyone remember Cockney Curran between 1977 and 1984? He got a Queen's Commendation for bringing down two buddies when their canopies failed, three on one parachute. Few broken bones but two saved lives. Somewhere I have a link to the gazette of the QC but right now I cannot find it.

AlienFTM wrote:

I did a couple of jumps there at the end of 1977 right after arriving, having missed a day of my embarkation leave to finish a course at Netheravon.

I quickly discovered Pils and Frauleins and gave up parachuting but a guy from our squadron who had been on the same course at Netheravon went on to help found 15/19H Freefall team.

Anyone remember Cockney Curran between 1977 and 1984? He got a Queen's Commendation for bringing down two buddies when their canopies failed, three on one parachute. Few broken bones but two saved lives. Somewhere I have a link to the gazette of the QC but right now I cannot find it.

Edited to add: he died a few years ago.

The Parachute Centre Bad Lippspringe started life at the Detmold Airfield!  Parachutists were loaded there, and flown down to the Sennelager Training Area to do their stuff; the aircraft landed either on the Windmill Strip (asphalt) or the old Luftwaffe grass strip adjoining the Lippspringe Sportsfield.  Picked up survivors of the first jump of the day and carried on dropping and landing until the monotony drove them all back to Detmold.  Eventually Logistics, common-sense and the Rhine Army Parachute Association ( and Adventure Trg money) changed all that and the Joint Service Parachute Centre (Lippspringe) became established on the former Luftwaffe night fighter base.

Many years after the inception of the Para Centre  the former Luftwaffe fuel storage tanks were found, underground, intact with viable fuel still stored.

Elsewhere a former member says access was via the Bielefelderstrasse without going through any Barracks  -  this is n't quite true!  The Alte Bielefelder Post Strasse from Bad Lippsringe to Hoevelhof runs along the Eastern edge of the Field, and the flying ground, sportsfields and Golf Course are all inside the Sennelager Training Area.  In the early 70s the ONLY access was from Bad Lippspringe (as it was for shooters going to the new ALMA Ranges).  Eventually an access road was built from the rear of Normandy Barracks to Schlangen to get to the ALMA Classification Ranges, Sports Fields and Golf Course, L Range and other new shooting facilities.

Drone film of the RAPA JSPC(L) from 2019 - all closed down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmWDERB9ooQ


credits etc as shown on youtube

JSPC(L)/RAPA competition 1968 https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/155841/

For a long time I reviewed books for a military website (also edited a few books on request). About 1971 (that's when it was published) I bought a copy of Hitler's Last Offensive (Peter Elstob) and treasured it.

A few years ago, possibly 75th anniversary of the battle, it was rereleased, so I grabbed the review copy.

Having in between served 14 years, I understood the book much better. What leaped out at me was a plan for Student to drop a Fallschirmjäger carpet in front of the Kampfgrüppen. Silly really, given that the plan required cloud to suppress Allied air superiority. Of course it was too cloudy to jump, so they never took off.

From their intended departure point, Bad Lippspringe.

Instead they travelled forward in the 1944 version of helibedfords, and were fed piecemeal into the grinder.

Plus ça change.