Triangle Parachutes..

[chuteless 1]

that IS a Delta II Parawing. I had several, but most of the ones I had were given to me by Irvin Parachutres of Ft Erie, Ontario. I bought one from the USA and it was a fabulous chute. I only had 1 malfubction with it, and finally gave it away for one jump. I even included a reserve in the deal.

I used my USA Delta II on the hiugh altitude record jump.
I'm kinda sorry I still dont have it.


Bill Cole..


.

[dterrick 0]

pointy bit forward, Bill?

In this photo it looks like the 'centre' lines are the 'spine' and the two triangle shaped sides are like rib cages. If this is so, I'm curious about how the risers were configured... 3 doesn;t go into 4 very well - are the centre lines doubled?

Are there any of these around anymore?

-Dave

[billbooth 10]

I put about 350 jumps on a Delta II. Overall, I loved it. It opened and landed softer than my PC, and glided almost 2 to 1. But what I really liked, was that it was exotic, and eveybody though I was crazy for jumping it. They thought the same thing when I got my first Paraplane (the first commercial ram-air) a year later.

In 1972, at the first RW nationals, I had to fight to be allowed to jump a ram-air, because everyone knew that you couldn't to RW with a ram air, because they opened too hard and "surged" on opening, taking up too much sky. I ended up being the only guy jumping a ram-air in a piggy back container (also a no-no) in the 10 way "speed" event. There were no sliders yet, and I WAS knocked unconscious in the last round, but I somehow lived through, it and proved them wrong.

The Delta II did have one glitch, though. It had separate "flaps" located underneath and near the center of the canopy, and if you pulled on the right toggle too hard from full flight, the damn thing would do a snap turn to the LEFT, and vice-versa...not a good thing at low altitude.

[chuteless 1]

a second look at that picture tells me it may not be a Delta II, but the canopy seems to be the same. The giveaway was the absence of the OSI on the left side rear. Its missing. I think the other photo shows the OSI very clearly, and that for sure is the Delta II.


dumb me....not seeing that at first glance.

I agree too, that the openings were nice, and it would forgive a bad spot.

[jimp 1]

The original delta shaped and keeled parachute was designed by Francis Rogallo (the NASA scientist) as a means to recover satellites after re-entry, and I think that this is one of the early Rogallo wings developed for live drops in the '60s. Not long after, Irvin got hold of the design and brougt out the "Hawk", and a bit later the "Eagle".

In 1971 I bought an Irvin "Eagle" from a guy living on the north end of Vancouver Island. He installed separable "D" rings on the Security piggyback so he could wear a second reserve.

This example was made in 1967, if I remember correctly. It had an OSI retrofitted at one time, but no velcro to keep it from unwinding. Naturally enough, the openings were hard, especially at terminal. The gash above my chin from an especially brutal one healed without a scar, and the Maryland bridge is holding up well. After this. I learned to make sure that the harness was nice and snug, and I used to set up for opening by holding my hand palm down under my chin. This prevented the chest strap from nailing me in the face again.

A bit later we installed a velcro closure on the OSI to try to slow down the openings. this was sewn to a line which ran through a guide ring on an outboard line just below the OSI, then to a toggle on the rear riser, The idea being to release the OSI after opening. This worked ok for a few jumps, with some dampening of opening forces, but then the line jammed, resulting in a wildly spinning canopy and a cutaway (shot-and-a-halfs and a flat 24 foot reserve). Still wondering why, it happened again on the very next jump. Then it finally dawned on me that the guide ring was sewn too high up on the line; it was closer than the OSI was long, so the OSI pulled down and jammed on the ring without releasing. We soon fixed that and the system worked ok.

This was a fun canopy to jump, and great for demos. Landings were super soft, and made even softer by hauling down on the rear risers just before touchdown. I've lost track of the thing - I lent it to a guy and haven't seen him or the wing since.

I've also done 30 or 35 jumps on the Delta II, which were fun, but nothing quite matched the old Eagle for excitement

[annabates 0]

I had a yellow Thunderbow with a red arrow on it. Loved the thing. I traded it for a Paradactyl, which I hated. Triangular, but nothing like my old T-Bow. Long ago and far away -- back when I did things like jump out of perfectly good airplanes.

[wmw999 2,485]

Were you Anna Keeling in the 1970's? If so, I do remember you. You jumped at Weiser and Spring Creek that I remember.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[BASE841 3]

My first rig was a red & white Hanbury with a Piglet II round reserve and a color-matched Paradactyl main. I bought it in 1980 from the gear store at Perris, only 3 years old. Most DZs at the time had restrictions on who could jump a ram air. I chose the Dac because it performed almost as well as a square and packed TINY... and no one had a rule against it. Plus, I learned to fly a Dac from my Instructor at Perris, Larry "Peg Leg" Yohn, RIP.

Once I did a cross country at "Parachutes Are Fun" on Maryland's eastern shore, exited over the Bay Bridge and made it all the way back to Ridgely. I discovered my single keel Paradactyl would fly with the wind as fast as a Cloud but wouldn't penetrate any better than a round... go figure.

Out east, few people had ever seen a triangular Rogallo wing. When I jumped at a new DZ, my wife would love to listen to the people watching from the ground. "Ooh, that's a hairy line-over. Isn't he going to cut it? Oh my GOD he's going to try to LAND that thing!"

I only had a single malfunction, and I caused it. I wanted a snappier opening, so I detached the slider. I only snapped one suspension line on a HARD opening and still landed it stand-up! Ah, angels do look out for fools, huh? Yes, I put the slider back on after that.

I traded my Paradactyl five years ago to George Galloway of Precision for a hefty discount on my new Irarus Omega. I would have kept it, but it had so many jumps on it, the material was as porous as cheesecloth and I was getting some pounding landings.

[CrazyDave 0]

hmm i never knew that there were triangle parachutes... it does sound a lot like the handglider ones.. is it?

[jaymundo 0]

I had a Paradactyl for a while....No honking down on toggle pleaseThat will give you about 3or4 more seconds of freefall

[tulinov 0]

Russian reserve is called PZ-81. It was most popular reserve in Russia about 10 years ago. (it saved me a couple of times :))
Now it mostly replaced by ram-air reserves but CRW jumpers still use it (because it works good even when main canopy is not cutted)

[skydiverek 63]

Quote

Russian reserve is called PZ-81. It was most popular reserve in Russia about 10 years ago. (it saved me a couple of times :))

Yup, it saved me once. Very light toogle pressure, not too hard landing for non ram-air canopy.

• Quote

[BASE841 3]

Two other memories of the Paradactyl; I was told but never witnessed that the Dac was TSO'ed as a reserve. Larry Yohn was my source, as he considered a small RW rig with a pair of Paradactyls. As far as I know, he never made the rig.

The other was watching a BASE jumper take a double-keel Paradactyl off the New River Gorge Bridge about 10 years ago. It opened and flew just fine.

[jonstark 8]

Mike Barber of Deland had a rig that held two single keel Dactyls. It weighed about 14 pounds and was about an inch thick. Everybody was concerned with getting as light as possible to keep from going low and trying to get as thin and wide a profile to be less drag during a swoop to the formation. We were all "racing in the back". I jumped it a couple of times and was pretty wowed by the feeling of such a light rig. Almost like wearing nothing compared to my StratoStar/Tri-con rig of about 24 pounds.

I had a ThunderBow that I shortlined about 3' that opened and landed great. It was still just about as bulky as a PC so I didn't use it much. As a matter of fact I used to put it into a Piggly Wiggly bag with the risers taped to the top of it. I'd stash it under the pilots seat and after throwing three static line students out at 2800 would hook it up to my harness as the pilot took one more climbing orbit to let me out around 3200'. I'd climb out with the bag in my arms and hop off back to the wind and release the bag to watch it open. Always entertaining.

jon

[Pilgrim 0]

Hi,
I found this group while getting nostalgic about skydiving. I learned skydiving when I lived in Papua New Guinea (in the South West Pacific) in 1971. We had a small group of skydivers who jumped from Cessna 172 and Cessna 180.
I bought a Thunderbow in 1971.I believe it was the second one exported from the USA. Red with a white arrow. We carefully unpacked it and examined the packing procedure. The instructions were of little help. just said "pack as normal." I found that the T'Bow opened a little harder than a PC Mk1. It had slightly more forward speed than a PC, but sank slightly faster too. Controls felt slightly dead in comparison to the PC. About all that can be said in its favour was that it looked different (which was why I bought it). If I was to do it again I'd probably buy a PC.
Mike Smith

[fergs 0]

Quote

Hi,
... I learned skydiving when I lived in Papua New Guinea (in the South West Pacific) in 1971. We had a small group of skydivers who jumped from Cessna 172 and Cessna 180....
Mike Smith

Mike,

I did my first jump in PNG in '73 and did my first few hundred jumps there over the next few years - mostly Moresby (Tanuabada DZ), but also Lae, Hagen, Goroka, and other exhotic spots for those magical displays into the shows.

Other than ex-PNGites, no other jumpers con earth an appreciate the sight and sound of opening up over Goroka showground during a Highlands Show, looking down and seeing a small patch of green surrounded by 100,000 local natives, bushy afro hair, dressed in grass skirts with spears pointed skywards. It redefined the term "there's no outs"!!

Or how the same cargo-cultist locals called a parachute an "umbrella bilong jesus christ".

What an exciting country to jump in! I went from a club 7-TU to a PC to a Pappilon to a thunderbow to a strato star to a etc etc.

My T-Bow was black with red arrow. Maybe you remember who owned it before me?

Sadly it seems that skydiving there has all but stopped. My last visit was way back in 1987. There was zero jumping at all.

Where do you live now? Still jumping?

Blue skies, wantok, and supoz yu laik tokim long lik lik pisin, orait, youpela i ken wokim sumpela PM samtin i kamup long mipela. Or supoz yu lusim ting ting long tok pisin, yupela i ken tokim long english i orait tu.

fergs

[manship 0]

Quote

I jumped the Delta II for years...and at one air show, I had such a strong wind blowing up the rear of the chute, I had a very difficult time turning into the wind.

However, that is what make jumping so much fun....almost buying it....and then beating the odds.

BUMP

Yeah, The new peole (like over 3000 US D-license numbers) will never understand. I always thought your jumps were cooler than cool Bill.

t

==========================================

I didn't invent skydiving, but I jumped with the guys who did.

[beezyshaw 0]

In the 70's at our dropzone in Dalton, GA, we were probably the most "T Bow intensive" dz in the country. We ALL jumped the T Bow...me, George Galloway, Terry Curtis, Eddie Darr, lots of others; then when the RW version came out (lighter fabric and small pack volume), Tom Rambo and Bob Wilson joined the pack. The person I remember most jumping a Thunderbow was a guy in Fernandina Beach, FL who's name was Bill Smith, but everybody just called him T Bow Bill.

[riggerrob 643]

Will some one please explain how to assemble a PZ-81 - with a 2-ring slider - onto main risers?

[lekstrom10k 0]

The trick to get a Delta11 to open was by removing the last wrap. Then retape it. I had two of them and never cutaway either in 125 jumps. I had 1 baby plane ,3paraplanes and3 Para-Commanders all in rigs at the same time .At 9 in a row without a repack you almost do a day without repacks on Cessna DZs. I also had no trouble out flying Strato-Stars and easy to bear PCs. It had a 26 foot nose line which made full stall drop slack line canopy behind you fun then full up dive over the top slack line below you. Mine had British Army Team steering modification done on both of them, got a real nice dive below you spins. I still have one relined to para dactyl specs with both sliders.Never flew worth a damn after that.Lucky and Billy Webers ad used to own the one I have, but he never got to land it.

[lekstrom10k 0]

This is not a Delts 11 maybe a prototype, It dosent have the steering flaps under the outer skin and dosent have the vent slits on the top.I never saw a Delta 1 maybe this is it.The lower leading edges went a lot lower and cupped like the top skin of a square nose . There is no OSI wrap either.

[Beatnik 2]

I don't think that there ever was a Delta I. The Delta II was formed from work that Steve Snyder did with the Irvin Eagle to fix the hard opening problem it had. That photo that Dave posted could have been a Hawk. The parawing in the photo doesn't show any louvers in the skin or at least they aren't easy to see. Being from 1966 would put it in the time frame of the Hawk and Eagle models. More information is on page 259 of Poynters Manual Vol. 1

[davidlayne 5]

Here's a picture of me jumping a Delta II circa 1973. The O.S.I. strap can be clearly seen as can the two MA 1 pilot chutes. The container system would have been a "Mini System" and it appears I have released the reserve from one of its D rings and let it hang from the other ring (usually the left) to give an unobstructed downward view. In approximately 100 Delta II jumps I had no malfunctions.

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[JerryBaumchen 1,387]

Hi dterrick,

That photo looks very much like the canopy that Loy Brydon jumped about that time in a R & D program. I think that it was built by Irvin Industries.

The canopy was glued together, no sewing; except for maybe lines, etc.

It had no opening shock inhibitor (sp?). There was an article on it in about '66 in Skydiver Magazine.

Eventually, Irvin got TSO approval for a delta wing that had no opening shock inhibitor. J. Scott Hamilton jumped that one & wrote an article on it for PARACHUTIST about '67 or so. I once talked to him about the canopy & he said that a hop-n-pop would just about knock your socks off. I think the word he used was 'brutal.'

Jerry

[highspeeddirt 0]

back in the day (circa 1968 or so) we had a guy named charlie pooley that jumped at snyders dz in nj. he had an irvin hawk.irvin, in an attempt to slow the openings down, decided that a really tight deployment sleeve would work(HA).irvin sent him one which he installed .he packed his hawk and was doing a demo for an airshow . the ceiling came in and they only got 1300. HE JUMPED, did a hop n pop(maybe at that altitude it should have been a pop n hop).needless to say , he had a sleeve lock,the sleeve was just too tite at lower airspeeds. chopped it with his oneshots and rsl'd x-bo reserve. time under reserve was about 30 seconds.landed rite next to his main.