Quick Attach Seat Parachute

[SEREJumper 1]

Just found these pics while browsing the interwebs. Very interesting, I never who they made a QAS.

We're not fucking flying airplanes are we, no we're flying a glorified kite with no power and it should be flown like one! - Stratostar

[JerryBaumchen 1,068]

i SERE,

I would not want to be trying to snap that thing into place when the airplane is dancing around the sky.



JerryBaumchen

[pchapman 262]

Nice timing. I recently saw pics of another even older style Switlik quick attachable Back parachute -- one of the oval shaped containers.

Someone is selling one on a military collectibles site, for only $200. Search for "Switlik" on this page
http://oldguns.net/catusmil.htm for the description. Built '43, last packed '54. I've attached their photo in case the link disappears.

It looks like the snap on hooks are on webbing that goes from the sides of the back container, wrap around the sides of the pilot, and connect to rings on the pilot's chest. Not quite sure how it all works and whether the risers would tend to scrape past one's arms if one had to deploy.

The Switlik advertising in the photo says that they made quick attachable Seat, Back, and Chest parachutes. It sound like it was one of their selling points, to be able to leave the container in the aircraft and just wear the harness before getting in the plane.

[dpreguy 14]

The appearance of this rig in the historical photos , with white webbing, brings up a question: Was there any harness webbing made of hemp fiber?

I heard that because of no silk from Japan and a lack of other fibers from Malysia or somewhere, and before nylon was invented, that botonist Luther Burbank transformed the doper variety of hemp to a fiber producer, by making the plant taller by 3 or 4 times and a woody stalk.. In the Midwest during the war, the farmers did grow hemp for fiber, and to this day, the railroad right of ways are covered with 10 foot tall , or taller, hemp plants. I know this because they were near my dad's farm and as kids we made sprears out of them.I stinks like the doper variety, but has almost no THC. Later, "80's" the leaves were harvested to "cut" (dilute) the real maijuana yo increase the profit margin for the drug dealers. Hence it was, and is, called 'ditch weed". Question is, did the military actually make parachute harness webbing from the hemp stalks during WW II?

[dpreguy 14]

Actually I just googled hemp fiber and found it was indeed used for parachute harness webbing. I think the harness webbing in the Switlik quick attathch parachute photos shown were hemp fiber.

[stratostar 5]

While your history lesson on how wild hemp "ditch weed" is now found, currently growing all over KS, MO, NE, IA and a few other areas is correct, I have to find fault with your statement of:

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Later, "80's" the leaves were harvested to "cut" (dilute) the real marijuana yo increase the profit margin for the drug dealers.

Having lived in a wild hemp producing state all my life, we have never had anyone, ever, busted for harvesting ditch weed, the only people who get busted for picking wild hemp are collage kids from out of state who don't know it's bunk as hell and some farmer's wife see them stop on the side of the road to pick it and calls the cops on um.

All this bullshit about major drug dealers coming to our state to harvest in bulk wild hemp to thin out and product more profit is a total lie spread by L.E. to justify the wasted millions in drug war monies.

Not only has there never been any major bust of these so called drug king pins who show up here to bulk harvest it..... the fact of the matter is, no self respecting bulk weed dealers are going to do that shit because the whole name of the game is SALES!

Who in the hell would buy from you again if your selling bunk ass over seedy wild hemp mixed in with your good shit.... NO ONE would do that and your dealing days would soon end due to lack of buyers and a reputation for selling shit weed that don't get you high.

And besides that, any real weed users could spot ditch weed over real weed just from seed content and how different the leafs look on the hemp strain compared to high grade pot and if you couldn't..... how many joints or bowls of that shit are you going to toke up when all it dose is make your head hurt before calling your dealer up to bitch.

Where I jump the shit is every where, right on the DZ, as in step outside the club house and there it is next to the building and lining the fence around the ghetto, and all along the roads and fields/acres of the shit. I always find it funny how the farmers are going broke these days and yet there is a crop they could harvest for fibers, bio fuels, and hemp oil production, just like in the war days, and we made a lot of shit out it, in fact hemp was a major player in winning the war... yet the current government policies is to spray harmful shit on it to try to kill and that fails time and time again, so now they have to put up signs on the river about not eating the fish due to all the nasty man made shit in the water.... remember it's ditch weed, where dose the runoff go? (in the water supply)

The United States imports all of it's industrial hemp from other countries while keeping the growth and harvesting of our own national supply of FREE industrial hemp is illegal under federal and state law.

The attached photo is just down the road from the dz, note the cluster of wild hemp.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[dpreguy 14]

I was the District Attorney for 8 years in a midwest state where hemp grew everwhere. Especially on the railroad right of ways. But, it grew everywhere, Yes I have personally prosecuted and sent to jail persons in three cases where they came in from other states to harvest ditch weed, the sole purpose being to mix with/"cut' strong marijuana to increase profits. The defendants told me this on each occasion. Prosecuting these cases has always been common and continues to be done to this day. Even ditch weed leaves come back from the lab with reportable THC, so it is illegal and prosecuteable in every state, even though it is (so I have been told) not very good to produce the stoner's high desired by marijuana smokers. The defendants I talked to said all it would do was to give a person a sore throat

But I can see this discussion could be headed towards the whole argument about whether marijuana/hemp growing should be legal, etc. The legisators in each state have created the drug laws to be followed; and for law enforcement, not following the laws is not a discretionary option. Best move to "Bonfire" for any legalization discussion.

Even so, I would very much like to see a souce of this fiber for our country. It is a strong fiber, and can be grown cheaply. How that would be done is not my call. Each state legislature would have to address this hemp fiber production question. I started this side tidbit because I am pretty sure I noticed the white hemp harness webbing on the Switlik QAB harness.

[councilman24 36]

We have a couple of these floating around the area. I have packing instructions for them now. But I think the canopies are such in poor shape in the containers, through a couple of holes, that I don't think I'd open them.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[riggerrob 561]

Quote

i SERE,

I would not want to be trying to snap that thing into place when the airplane is dancing around the sky.



JerryBaumchen

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Agreed!
But the configuration makes sense from a naval aviator's perspective. because they faced different threats at different altitudes.
Back during World War 2, many of them (Wildcat, Hellcat, Avenger torpedo-bomber, dive-bomber, etc) took-off with their cockpit canopies slid open, seat belts attached and life preservers tightened. This was because they perceived their greatest threat to be crashing on take-off.
If they did succeed in taking-off, then their second greatest threat was drowning in the ocean.

Once they survived the take-off and climbed to cruise altitude, they would slip on parachute harnesses. Parachutes would only save them if they encountered problems (loss of control, engine fires, etc.) several thousand feet above the ocean.

After they had finished picking fights with the Japanese Imperial Navy, and were descending to land on their aircraft carriers, they would remove parachutes, while tightening seat-belts. Because the greatest threat - during landing - was crashing into the ship (ergo seat-belts).
Their second-greatest threat on landing was missing the ship and drowning, ergo flotation vests were the last items of survival gear removed after landing back aboard their ship.

In conclusion, quick-attach seat-packs make sense, but only in a narrowly-defined naval attack mission. Otherwise, fumbling to find those clips (after the Imperial Japanese Navy had shot up your airplane) - under your butt cheeks, in a dancing cockpit would be the ultimate foolishness.

[riggerrob 561]

"

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... Question is, did the military actually make parachute harness webbing from the hemp stalks during WW II?

"

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Yes, they made parachute harnesses with hemp fiber.
However, hemp was more widely used for hurricane hawsers (mooring ships), rope and cargo straps.

[riggerrob 561]

"

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...

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Later, "80's" the leaves were harvested to "cut" (dilute) the real marijuana you increase the profit margin for the drug dealers.

... All this bullshit about major drug dealers coming to our state to harvest in bulk wild hemp to thin out and product more profit .... no self respecting bulk weed dealers are going to do that shit because the whole name of the game is SALES!

Who in the hell would buy from you again if your selling bunk ass over seedy wild hemp mixed in with your good shit.... NO ONE would do that and your dealing days would soon end due to lack of buyers and a reputation for selling shit weed that don't get you high. ....

..................................................................

You speak from the perspective of a casual - part time - recreational drug user.
Life is vastly different on the mean streets of hard-core addicts.
You are correct in stating that bulk drug dealers (who import recreational drugs by the shipping container) would not bother with ditch weed.

HOWEVER business is vastly different for small-time addicts/dealers who will "cut" drugs with ANYTHING to improve their short-term profit/finance their next high. These addict/dealers have suffered so much physical and psychological damage that they cannot think beyond their next fix. Forget about tomorrow or next week or a quarterly report.
If you don't believe my interpretation, try reading Dr. Gabor Mate's book: "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" about Vancouver's Downtown East Side ... I have driven through that neighborhood for the last year and it really opened my eyes!
Vancouver's DTES may be the poorest postal code in Canada, but it is tame compared with the rougher neighborhoods of L.A., Chicago or Rio de Janeiro.

Bottom line , drug dealers operate on many different levels and mainstream media only gives you glimpses of the surface of tiny parts of their world.

[stratostar 5]

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You speak from the perspective of a casual - part time - recreational drug user.

No I speak from the the perspective of someone who lives in a place where the shit is every where and it a big joke to hear that line of BS. It's even more funny when people are going broke and losing farms and yet there is a crop on their land the county sprays to kill and the government used to pay them to grow it so pilots could bail out and have oil to burn and rope for the boats and hangings.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[riggerrob 561]

Quote

Quote

You speak from the perspective of a casual - part time - recreational drug user.

No I speak from the the perspective of someone who lives in a place where the shit is every where and it a big joke to hear that line of BS. It's even more funny when people are going broke and losing farms and yet there is a crop on their land the county sprays to kill and the government used to pay them to grow it so pilots could bail out and have oil to burn and rope for the boats and hangings.

..................................................................

We can agree that the American "War on Drugs" is causing misery in Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Canada, Columbia, Jamaica, Mexico, Thailand, etc. and the USA.
We will probably also agree that Canadian law enforcement policies regarding recreational drugs are only marginally less reprehensible.
Hint: the majority of murders - in British Columbia involve known drug dealers.