*** continued from part II (A)
General use, care and maintenance
A clean, dry chute works best. A chute packed wet with salt frequently
won't come out of the chute can until you hit the crunchies past the end
of the course - if then. A wet or dirty chute will hit harder because
air won't flow through the fabric at the design rate. Unfortunately, we
all know what a damaged chute can do.
The best way to clean a chute is in a bathtub with warm to hot water.
Do not use strong detergent, it may remove a coating on the nylon
cloth or web straps. Use Woolite(sp)or some other mild soap. Rinse it
thoroughly --> don't wring it out<-- just hang it from the shower head
or over a plastic (de-burred) hanger. Howard used the shower at M-6
very effectively.
Get two cotton laundry bags. Use one to hold the clean chute and the other
for normal use.
We had one person assigned to the parachute system. Ed Conway was an Air Force
Academy grad. who flew F-105's over RP-6 until he got shot down the second time.
Parachutes had saved his life twice, which gave him a unique view of them.
Ed would be hard to match, but I would still try to get one person to accept
responsibility for chute inspection and packing.
One final piece of advice:
After listening to people like me, call a REAL professional like Jim or Bob
and get the best CURRENT information for your EXACT application.
That's what I've always done.
Final reminder folks: Do it wrong and you could die.
Bryan
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