Speaking of military parachuting . . .

[Gil Boyd]

After all said the balloon probably, as other than the cable snapping, parachute not opening fully, sudden high gusts, incompetent dispatcher...........not a lot can go wrong. The tower was poorly maintained IMHO as the frames just sat up there waiting for the next candidate to hook up, where the balloon basket and the cable was inspected fully on a daily basis by the full time RAF crew at Hullavington

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[Flying10uk]

After all said the balloon probably, as other than the cable snapping, parachute not opening fully, sudden high gusts, incompetent dispatcher.....

I use to know a chap who worked as a civilian worker for many years at RAF Hullavington and he told me that one of the reasons for retiring the Barrage balloons for parachute training was the cost of the Hydrogen which filled the balloon. I was very surprised that Hydrogen was used and did question him about this which he insisted was the case and he then went on to talk about the cost of each fill. If memory serves me correctly and it was a long time since he told me this I think it was around £500? per fill and this had to then be released into the atmosphere after each training course was completed. I don't know how correct he was with his facts but the point which he was putting across was that they were expensive mainly because of the gas.