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