meyer@waltz.UUCP (01/30/85)
I was out in Seattle a couple of years ago and had the opportunity to jump at a very "hot" drop zone in Issaquah (about 30 minutes east of Seattle). I was lucky enough to see them complete the first 17-stack CRW formation. But anyway, that same weekend, one of the CRW fanatics had come up with a new design which got rid of the pilot chute, since pilot chute entanglements are a constant problem with CRW. I saw him make his first few jumps on the rig which consisted of a diaper arrangement on a standard rig which had the center cell of the canopy sewn to a dildo that allowed him to direct deploy his main into the slipstream. He said that the opennings were VERY crisp and clean, especially at subterminal air speeds. He did try a couple of terminal opennings and for some reason they were squirrelly. He has continued to successfully use this design in all of his CRW jumps. Since then, I haven't heard or seen any more of this idea. Has anyone heard of any manufacturers that have pursued this -- or other pilot chuteless designs? ============================================================================== Dane Meyer (Texas Instruments, Dallas site) ARPA: ==> Meyer%waltz%TI-CSL@CSNET-Relay CSNET: ==> Meyer@TI-CSL USENET: ==> {convex!smu, ut-sally, texsun, rice}!waltz!meyer
brent@phoenix.UUCP (Brent P. Callahan) (02/01/85)
As I heard it, the openings were VERY scary at terminal. The use of a direct deployed canopy never caught on for that reason I guess. The reliability of pilot chute deployment is due to the tensioning & acceleration applied to the canopy & lines by the pilot chute. The surfaces of the canopy are exposed to the airflow much the same way every time. -- Made in New Zealand --> Brent Callaghan AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ {ihnp4|ahuta|pegasus}!phoenix!brent (201) 576-3475