The Red Berets exit a Caribou at 5500 feet, travelling at a speed of 90 knots. The team, composed of instructors and parachute riggers from PTS, reached speeds of about 250km/h in free fall before deploying their parachutes at 2500 feet

The Red Berets descend over RAAF Amberley as part of 38 Sqn’s 38th birthday celebrations held on August 24. Photos by Pte Ben Shore, PTS

Life’s a blur at 250km/h By Shane Fairlie BODY and mind are not one. Weak with fear, heart in mouth, sweat long dry in the palms. Earplugs incite the pulsations and dull the roar of the plane. You’re going to jump, jelly legs and glass heart. A desperate search in vain for a steeled look of something less than terror. Now, face your fears – live your dreams. Have ‘chute, will land. Out. Life’s a blur at 250km/h an hour of freefall. Boom – an explosion of stoppage rips through your body, now you’re alive. Floating – toggling to earth, on top of the world. Now, it rushes up to greet you. Thud, you’re down and can’t stop the shaking or the grinning. Capt Jimi Harcourt, PTS, has made more than 200 jumps and still gets a rush. “You know there’s a risk and no matter how many jumps you’ve done, you still get nervous but everyone just loves it,” he said.

By Cpl Jonathan Garland

THE Army has begun using Defence’s first central training management system for range and field-firing activities.

About 650 users of Army training areas are now booking their range and field-firing activities through the Defence intranet.

TASMIS (Training Area Safety and Management Information System) allows users to check range availability, propose activities, resolve conflicts and book training area facilities in electronic form.

Project Manager Andrew Breen said TASMIS was the first central management system for Defence training areas.

“We decided on an in-house build, using Lotus Notes across the Web and managed to achieve our goal of getting the base product up and running by July this year,” he said.

“This is a prototype system built to users’ needs, rather than giving them what everybody else thinks they need.”

The team chose to make Lotus Notes the software engine so that training areas would be able to use the system in a stand-alone environment, should the intranet fail for any reason.

Before TASMIS, there was no central control of training areas and no commonality of approach in the various regions.

“Some places had paper records, two had small Lotus applications, three were using spreadsheets, a couple were using Microsoft Project and Puckapunyal itself had an Access database.”

“Most of the ones that were in systems we could upload were entered TASMIS when it started up.”

First-time users of TASMIS need to register through the site before they are able to access the full range of facilities.

Once registered, members are able to access the training areas listed and check their availability, book ranges and resources, create a firing detail, book accommodation and access environmental compliance information.

Refinements to be added in phase two of the project could include assistance in preparing a safety trace and risk analysis, plus access to a library of previously-prepared examples.

“The next level of functionality we want to bring in is geographical, where you can actually see the RDA on the range – which are live and which aren’t.”

“Hopefully this will give us actual range usage as against what areas have been booked, which will help manage environmental aspects, and allow us to more effectively use training areas for concurrent activities.”

The central nature of the intranet site will enable researchers to quickly and easily collect statistical data on range use to help formulate environmental management strategies and sustain the training area in the long term.

“At the moment, only the training areas under the control of the Directorate of Training Management are in the system – that is, the 24 major Army training areas, except Kapooka.”

“The intention is that all Defence training areas eventually will be managed through the system.”
n In other range news, Defence is to introduce a new communications capability called the Standard Training Area Range Safety Network (STARSN).

The aim is to ensure that all training areas have complete communications coverage, with one frequency dedicated to range safety.

The project integrates products from a number of suppliers and involves acquisition of new equipment, installation and follow-on support.

Practical trials of the selected commercial equipment have been successful and installation will begin at Puckapunyal on November 29 for completion by December 9, with other training areas following.

How to use TASMIS

• Go to http://dls-reference.dcb.defence.gov.au/ or follow the link from the Army home page.
• Register as a user. This involves a verification and password selection process.
• You will be asked to nominate the range you most often use. This does not preclude you bidding for others.
• Check the availability of ranges and accommodation.
• Access range standing orders, as required, to write instructions.
  
• Create a new booking and submit. This is a provisional booking.
• Once you are notified of the booking being accepted, you will be required to submit details of the practices, staff etc.
• Once the details are approved, activity is ready to begin

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