Mayf,
I scanned your essay and appreciate people like you that have the
knowledge in the engineering arena. Most of what you had to say probably
went right over my head, but I am amazed at the force applied in an
opening parachute.
First, I want to say that no one should be making assumptions as to why
the failure occurred. This should only be done by those that are
qualified and are able to inspect the remains of the chutes. I know that
the Whites are very safety conscious and am convinced that all was done
with safety in mind. Obviously the chutes did work on the down run.
I was talking with Jeff Shipley about chutes and he made an interesting
observation. He said that with the long tow lines used by liners, the
chute is fully deploy, before the tow line slack is removed, which
causes a tremendous yank load when tightened. It occurred to me that
there should be some thought given to a shock absorber unit or tow lines
with stretchable quality which would lighten the initial shock of
deployment. I will leave the design of such up to you engineering types.
BTW, a great web page.
Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/GCC
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