Antonovs in America (2012)
I have good memories of the AN-2 as a skydiving platform.<p>As part of East German pre-military training of the youth I chose the paratrooper path in the GST (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gesellschaft_für_Sport_und_Technik" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gesellschaft_für_Sport_un...</a>).<p>The skydiving training airplane was the AN-2 of the article. Most memorable were the group jumps, 12 people leaving the AN-2 one after another as quickly as possible.<p>Image taken from that Wikipedia link, it looked pretty much like this and I was on that same airfield: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&#x2F;wikipedia&#x2F;commons&#x2F;f&#x2F;f7&#x2F;Fotothek_df_n-15_0000479_Fallschirmspringer,_Gesellschaft_für_Sport_und_Technik_(GST).jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&#x2F;wikipedia&#x2F;commons&#x2F;f&#x2F;f7&#x2F;Fotothek...</a> -- except that in this picture everybody is in civilian clothing but We were all in dark gray-green GST uniform.<p>I made 18 jumps. We first had to learn how to pack both parachutes, the main one and the reserve. It was done in steps, each of which had to be approved by a trainer. I still think it was good to pack your own chute. The first 12 jumps were quite diverse and the core of the training. For example, one jump (the fourth?) involved also opening the reserve in addition to the already open main (looked like this but in dark green: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kameradenkreis-fjb-lstr40.de&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;flugplatz-magdeburg-1958&#x2F;1_02.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kameradenkreis-fjb-lstr40.de&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;flug...</a>). This was for when there was a problem with a not completely open main.<p>I remember that the only tree on the wide grass plain was almost hit by quite a few people quite a lot - for no good reason, since even though the round chute was not nearly as steerable as a as the modern wing forms it still was plenty good enough to easily avoid any such obstacles. I think it was because the brain involuntarily steers where people are looking, so those people trying too hard not to hit the tree might have involuntarily steered towards it, not sure, just my hypothesis because it made no sense. Or the guy who ended up with a sprained ankle in the only ditch far and wide.<p>The training involved training camps lead by military paratroopers in their third year. I remember I blacked out during one morning exercise. Discipline was harsh, real military style including group punishments when someone did something stupid and they could not determine who was responsible.<p>Just to finish the anecdote, the GDR ceased to exist before it was time to join the military, so I ended up in the now unified Bundeswehr as battle tank weapons systems mechanic instead of in a strenuous paratrooper role.