Parachute name

[SansSuit 1]

Hiya-

I am in the process of transcribing a tape made by a blind jumper from the 70's. In the tape he mentioned that he was trained on a canopy that he called what sounded like "lo po one six". How would I write this? Lo-Po 1-6? Secondly, what is this canopy? Obviously, it isn't a 16 foot canopy. What does the 1 6 refer to?

Thanks!

Peace,
-Dawson.
http://www.SansSuit.com
The Society for the Advancement of Naked Skydiving

[zoobrothertom 5]

Lo-po refers to Low Porosity and 1.6 is the material spec. Some of the older guys know for sure.

____________________________________
I'm back in the USA!!

[mccurley 0]

I think it's 1.6oz / sq. yard?

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[lekstrom10k 0]

I will go along with that. The cloth had three designations.
1 . the number of threads in a square inch, usually 200 on rip stop
2. the amount of air to pass through a square foot
3. as you stated the weight per square yard, lo-po at 1.6 a rag was 1.1
PS rip stop got the little squares look by using thicker thread at those places in the loom.
PSS the landings on a lo-po were like jumping off a four foot ladder on to concrete instead of a five foot one

[JerryBaumchen 1,047]

Hi Larry,

You go back nearly as far as I do.

We never called them 'Lo-Pos.' We only called them 'one-sixes.'

We never really used the term Lo-Po until Security came out with their 26 ft Lo-Po reserve canopy.

Quote

the landings on a lo-po were like jumping off a four foot ladder on to concrete instead of a five foot one

How true,

JerryBaumchen

[jackwallace 3]

They were 28 foot round canopies, 1.6 oz per sq yd. Some of the prettiest color patterns. Probably can find some pictures if you google. US team had RWB ones one year. And I think the Army team had some black and gold ones. The one I had was black and red diamonds. They died out quickly because the PC arrived.
I could be wrong (child of the 60's), I think the 1.6 fabric came about as a military idea to have a smaller canopy than the T-10 to jump, but be able to carry the same load.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

[SansSuit 1]

So if you were putting it into print, how would you write it? "Lo-Po 1.6"? "LoPo 1 6"?

Peace,
-Dawson.
http://www.SansSuit.com
The Society for the Advancement of Naked Skydiving

[jackwallace 3]

Quote

So if you were putting it into print, how would you write it? "Lo-Po 1.6"? "LoPo 1 6"?

Wow, some english teacher somewhere is rolling over in her grave. Asking me.
I'd use "a 1.6 LoPo parachute"
Anyone old enough to know what you're talking about would understand 1.6 or LoPo.
Calling the 1.6's LoPos was like calling the 1.1's "cheapos". As much a neck name as an actual discription.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

[danchapman 0]

Hello Jeff-
Before the PC, the LoPo or 1.6 (the way I recall seeing it back in the day) with a 5 or 7 TU modification was a hot ticket for accuracy, but because of the expense, most jumped Cheapos, or 1.1's, the lighter fabric being more porous. I believe the theory was for any given loading, the LoPo would push more air out the modification (however, they were heavier, that would tend to increase sink rate). In any event they were beautiful to look at, when most canopies were all white, 'candy stripers' (orange and white gore alternation), or a few that had 4 different colors, white, olive drab, 2 other colors whose shades I don't recall (I seem to recall these as ex Air Force canopies and may have been called 'quarter panels').
Regarding landings, I never jumped anything but a Cheapo, but for a 140 #er they were easy, so long as you were holding in a light wind without oscillatiion, and we would sometimes try to do stand up landings. George Gividen, a one legged jumper and past pres, I believe of PCA/USPA is reported to have done a one legged stand up landing on his LoPo at Tri-State, but that story may be apochraphal.

[lekstrom10k 0]

White, orange olive drab and a brownish color were the quarter panels . Mostly for hiding in any terrain also for signaling. If you had only white showing and tapering , you were ok and heading in the direction the pointy end was facing. If you had orange ans white showing you needed medical attention. The minimum survival kit that came in the little pouch was a book . It showed how to make a black-jack out of the main lift web , fishing hooks a knife ,a broken arm or leg sling, hammock clothes etc. If you got lucky the guy from the government surplus sales left in the flare gun.
Lower on the list of subjects was "C9 canopies in bulk the picture of the canopy over the tail feathers of that plane looks like a Lo-Po