Gear Development (split from mini-riser discussion)

[Faber 0]

Quote

In theory, if you put airlocks on the front of a canopy, and valved secondary inlets on the bottom skin (and perhaps airlocks on the tail, as well), you ought to be able to create a canopy that can "slip" backward (in the same way a round moves when you pull a side down to spill air) without deflating.

wouldnt that request 4 controllines? and could give problems as:bigger chance for lineover,more dificult packjob and onheadding problems...

would that be worth it to the realative few times you want to use this mod???

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[TomAiello 25]

Quote

wouldnt that request 4 controllines?

I don't think so. You would just use riser input to control the canopy when you wanted it to "slide".

In theory, you wouldn't really need to modify you reactions very much. If you opened facing an object, you'd just grab both rear risers and pull. The canopy would spill air out the front (but remain inflated), and slide away from the wall. It's essentially the same thing we are doing now, but we'd lose a lot less altitude, because the canopy wouldn't deflate during the process.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[Faber 0]

your talking about making a canopy that cant stall,but can fly backwards? wow if that should be the meaning.
but sounds great if it can work

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[TomAiello 25]

I think it would technically still be "stalled" when viewed as a wing.

The difference is that a traditional ram air parachute deflates when stalled, so that it loses the majority of it's aerodynamic deceleration properties. In other words, it's no longer working as a wing (square parachute), and it's pretty lousy as a round parachute, too.

This design could, in theory, create a canopy that flew like a square in the forward direction, but could be "flown" (moved by spilling air, as a round is, actually) as a round in the backward direction. As a side benefit, such a design might also be able to open in a "stall", but still open (as a round). This would mean that you could set your brakes so deep that the canopy could have literally zero forward speed on opening (if you screwed it up the canopy could actually open in a sustainable backslide).

The next step would be adjusting the trim such that it could move in a sideways direction as well, but I think that would take a lot of work on the trim, and sacrifice a great many positive forward flight characteristics.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com