Pilote Chute question...

[weid14 0]

  Quote

What velcroless system are you using? One like the Sunpath or one like the Mirage system?

I'm looking at a new rig soon and will probally get RWS risers to match to it even if its a non RWS rig since I like their velcroless toggle system.

The newer mirage riser/toggle set up works well. The older design OTOH sometimes had the toggle fire due to the way the tabs were positioned.

[townsrd 0]

The deployment of a parachute has two forces. Snatch force and opening shock. Snatch force can be the higher of the two and that can be controled with pilot chute size. (ie a larger pilot chute slows down the mass of the canopy to a slower speed, then when the lines are unstowed you must re-acelerate the mass. Using a smaller pilot chute does not slow the mass as much thus lower snatch force, and maybe, higher opening foce. Again canopy design.)

[Greig 0]

I was at a freefly seminar put on by Brian Germain in Rantoul and he made a good point about PC material. He pointed out that F-111 isn't as slippery as ZP so it may be less likely to slip out of the PC pocket and give you a premature deployment. Give that some serious consideration especially if you're doing any freeflying. I'd say go for a kill-line F-111. You'll probably have downsized and have a new rig before you notice any significant degredation in the PC material.
IMO there's nothing wrong with velcro on toggles. Just replace it when it gets old and keep an eye on your lower steering lines for any sign of wear. You could get some dive-loops sewn on too.

Greig

[fudd 0]

Here is the recomendation from PISA.

  Quote

We find we get the best deployment results using a standard 36" (914mm)
Pilot Chute incorporating 0-3 / F-111 fabric.

A lot of Skydivers believe that a small zero porosity pilot chute is the
thing to use. However in actual wind tunnel tests , zero porosity pilot
chutes tend to oscillate radically while the 0-3 / F111 pilot chutes are
very stable and generate just the right amount of Drag for predictable and
smooth deployments.

Seems like it's generally true that F111 PC will give better openings. However, a kill line will not create any drag after opening, and increase the speed and performance of the canopy after opening.

As my current pc is within the recomendations, I will continue using it for a while. After a while, I will try a kill-line to enjoy a little more speed.

Is there anyone who sells F111 kill-line PC's? The PD whitepaper on openings strongly warns about this as dangerous since they can go out of calibration.

There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[RTB 0]

They are frequently available, think you might have confused it with F-111 bungee pc's.

[fudd 0]

Hadn't hear or thought about this before I read the PD hard openings whitepaper. They refer to a shock cord. Is that a kill-line or a bungy???
I just assumed it was. I can see how worn F111 can affect a bungee, but when thinking about it I really don't se how that could cause problems for a kill line.

  Quote

Collapsible pilot chutes can affect deployments too. The shock cord method of collapsing the pilot chute is tricky to design so that it works
consistently. It must be properly designed and use only zero porosity fabric to maintain its calibration. Never use an F-111 shock cord collapsing
pilot chute! It can be deadly, because the calibration speed changes rapidly as the fabric changes its porosity. We have seen many F-111 shock
cord collapsing pilot chutes cause deployment problems due to inconsistency or outright failure to inflate.

There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[RTB 0]

I'm pretty sure they are referring to a bungy collapsible pc. They work well when they are correctly calibrated but after hundreds of jumps both the bungy cord changes elasticity and if the fabric also changes drag it might not work properly.
Usually you would be able to fix it but that requires someone knowlegable(sp?) to do correctly.