Pilot's parachute lifespan ?
Daniel
In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
Dale & Rosemary Thompson
: Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
: In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
Interesting enough, I just had this conversation with my rigger, Allen
Silver, last week. Allen is a FAA Master Rigger and a Designated
Parachute Rigger Examiner. He tells me that there are no "life limits"
placed on parachutes by the manufacturers....but pull-tests and visual
inspection of fabric and hardware will cause most parachutes to fail at
about 20-25 years.
If you want more specifics, you can contact your personal rigger or Allen
at: P.O. Box 6092, Hayward, California, USA 94540-6092.
Hope this helps,
Dale Thompson
near San Francisco
oscar_s._alonso
> Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
> In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
>
When a rigger won't repack it. Figure around 20 - 25 years if
kept in good condition.
Oscar.
Keith Whittingham
>
> Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
> In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
We are using a few 20 year old + parachutes in some of the older-timers.
I think as long as they are looked after and re-packed regularly
they should last quite a few years.
I doubt they'd print an eat-by date on a parachute, you need to
inpsect it to know if it's usable or not.
--
Keith Whittingham
w...@zurich.ibm.com
Hans Trautenberg t2466
: Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
: In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
Don't know about the Pioneer Security, but there is no LBA approved
parachute that has a livespan of more than 15 years. After 15 years
no rigger is allowed to rig a parachute in Germany.
When I rig the parachutes of pilots, that fly very often after the rig
intervall of 4 months, I often find that the fabric is glued together
by sweat, tee and other dryed fluids.
Testing of parts of parachutes by the Bundeswehr showed, that the strength
of the fabirc is reduced for some parts of the fabric by 90% whereas other
parts of the same parachute have still the original strength after 15 years.
--
=============================================================================
Dipl. Phys. Hans L. Trautenberg Universitaet Regensburg
Institut fuer Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik D-93040 Regensburg
phone (49) 941 943 2466 fax (49) 941 943 3196
e-mail hans.tra...@physik.uni-regensburg.de Germany
privat
phone (49) 941 949211 fax (49) 941 930792
10161...@compuserve.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/HLT
Flurstr. 14 D-92348 Berg Germany
=============================================================================
G. Frank Paynter
>Path: magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.sprintlink.net!hermes.is.co.za!news
>From: Dan...@fnbtig.co.za (Daniel)
>Newsgroups: rec.aviation.soaring
>Subject: Pilot's parachute lifespan ?
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 10:40:18 GMT
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> Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
>In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
Dan,
I'm a licensed rigger. In my experience, the life will be limited primarily
by how much direct sunlight, dust, and grit the parachute sees. If you take
good care of the canopy and container, and keep the system out of the direct
sunlight, it'll last quite a while. Other responders have suggested a
practical life span of 15-20 years, and that's not too bad a range, IMHO.
However, if the system has been abused, it could be unusable after just a few
years.
Pay attention to the harness too, as it tends to suffer from abrasion and from
the pilot's sweat. It's not that unusual to see harnesses and containers that
become unusable before the canopy.
Frank
Dale & Rosemary Thompson
: Daniel (Dan...@fnbtig.co.za) wrote:
: : Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
: : In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
: Interesting enough, I just had this conversation with my rigger, Allen
: Silver, last week. Allen is a FAA Master Rigger and a Designated
: Parachute Rigger Examiner. He tells me that there are no "life limits"
: placed on parachutes by the manufacturers....but pull-tests and visual
: inspection of fabric and hardware will cause most parachutes to fail at
: about 20-25 years.
Here's a follow-up to my previous follow-up...... Allen Silver tells me
that I didn't quite understand what he told me. Manufacturers do provide
recommendations on life, but don't issue hard "rules" about a chute's
life.....leaving the rigger with the responsibility to make a judgement on
the chute's servicibility. As another poster reported, and Allen showed
me in his junk pile, straps, cases and hardware can and often do fail
before the canopy.
The rigger is our link to an extended life span.
Dale Thompson
Mike Cohler
>
> Dale & Rosemary Thompson (da...@crl.com) wrote:
> : Daniel (Dan...@fnbtig.co.za) wrote:
> : : Does anybody have any idea about lifespan of pilot's parachutes ?
> : : In particular about Pioneer Security parachutes ?
>
> : Interesting enough, I just had this conversation with my rigger, Allen
> : Silver, last week. Allen is a FAA Master Rigger and a Designated
> : Parachute Rigger Examiner. He tells me that there are no "life limits"
> : placed on parachutes by the manufacturers....but pull-tests and visual
> : inspection of fabric and hardware will cause most parachutes to fail at
> : about 20-25 years.
In the UK the parachute manufacturers and riggers are not allowed to
re-pack parachutes over 25 years old. ie once over 25 years, you have to
throw it away...... in any event most parachutes that age that I have
seen are big, heavy, and very uncomfortable to wear. We had to buy a
new parachute for our syndicate a year ago, and it made a huge difference
to the comfort of flying our glider. despite setting us back over 600
UKP. However what price your life (and comfort !)
Mike
Geoff Butler
> In the UK the parachute manufacturers and riggers are not allowed to
> re-pack parachutes over 25 years old. ie once over 25 years, you have to
> throw it away...... in any event most parachutes that age that I have
> seen are big, heavy, and very uncomfortable to wear. We had to buy a
> new parachute for our syndicate a year ago, and it made a huge difference
> to the comfort of flying our glider. despite setting us back over 600
> UKP. However what price your life (and comfort !)
and riggers aren't allowed to extend the life of a parachute, only
the manufacturer can do that. Irving recently increased the initial
life of their parachutes from 10 to 15 years. I think Thomas start
at 15 as well.
Geoff Butler
Rick Filipkiewicz
This seems to be a good thread to ask how often a 'chute needs to be
repacked, given that it spends most of its life in a bag in the
parachute room and maybe 4-8hrs being sat on at the w/e. The guy who
repacks both the Club's and mine recommends every 4 months.
What is it that happens inside the bag that re-packing fixes ?
_________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Richard Filipkiewicz phone: +44 171 700 3301
Algorithmics Ltd. fax: +44 171 700 3400
3 Drayton Park email: ri...@algor.co.uk
London N5 1NU
England
Don't listen to what I say, listen to what I mean - Richard Feynman.
Larry D. Goddard
Rick Filipkiewicz (ri...@news.algor.co.uk) wrote:
: This seems to be a good thread to ask how often a 'chute needs to be
: repacked, given that it spends most of its life in a bag in the
: parachute room and maybe 4-8hrs being sat on at the w/e. The guy who
: repacks both the Club's and mine recommends every 4 months.
: What is it that happens inside the bag that re-packing fixes ?
Rick,
Plain and simple...it get's squashed. Seriously, our rigger points out the
the time required for the parachute to fully deploy after you pull the
release is directly related to the length of time from last repack.. due
to the fabric getting mashed flat putting folds that are set into the
fabric. When you are falling at terminal velocity that extra second or
two could easily mean the difference between life and death. Also, it
is the time for checking all the other aspects of the chute.
Here in the US, every 4 months is not just a recommendation... it's the rule.
Larry Goddard
LS-3a USA
Peter Chapman
In article <4lr3s3$g...@crl13.crl.com>,
lar...@crl.com (Larry D. Goddard) wrote:
>: What is it that happens inside the bag that re-packing fixes ?
>
>Rick,
>
>Plain and simple...it get's squashed. Seriously, our rigger points out the
>the time required for the parachute to fully deploy after you pull the
>release is directly related to the length of time from last repack.. due
..
>Here in the US, every 4 months is not just a recommendation... it's the rule.
>
I don't think the effect of compression on a canopy is as bad as has
traditionally been thought.
I've seen test results in a couple places of opening times of emergency
parachutes packed and stored, for up to a year or more. These results have
been for both round and square canopies. (Sources: "Skydiving" newsmagazine,
within the last year; Dan Poynter's "The Parachute Manual", probably part II)
The results showed that freshly packed parachutes would open somewhat quicker,
although I don't off-hand recall the exact packing durations reported.
Roughly, perhaps within a week or month of packing the opening times were
significantly shorter. Beyond this initial time, however, the increase in
opening time with respect to time packed quickly stopped growing and pretty
well levelled out. Yes, creases do set into the fabric, but unless something
else has gone wrong, any such 'set' won't take much force to unfold.
I wonder about other types of chutes that are pressure packed: military
ejection seat canopies or ballistic recovery chutes for light aircraft all can
have lengthy repack cycles AND are pressure packed, to a density far beyond
what a well-muscled rigger could achieved. It seems perfectly accepted to pack
tightly and repack at long intervals with such canopies. One difference,
however, is that they usually have a very 'positive' method of canopy
extraction. Instead of using a pilot chute, there's often a rocket or
ballistic slug that yanks the canopy from its container.
I think an important reason to have short repack cycles in personal parachutes
is to guard against deterioration of components like elastic bands. It's an
old problem that can occur if a rig isn't well taken care of, such as left in
a trunk on a hot summer's day. I don't have any stats on whether overheated,
overaged, gummed up elastics have contributed to accidents. However, in my
rigging experience I have seen or heard of cases where elastics have become
quite sticky.
Hang gliding reserves are particularly susceptible to problems, at least in
practice deployments on the ground. In comparison to the rocket extractions
mentioned earlier, or even the plain old pilot chute deployment for bailing
out pilots, there's relatively little energy applied in trying to extract the
canopy from its deployment bag, when tossed out by hand by a hang glider
pilot. (The canopy stays in a deployment bag until the lines have been pulled
taut, as the canopy and bag are thrown clear of the pilot's harness.) In such
cases, on the ground, I have seen gummy old elastics prevent the canopy from
deploying. As I've said, these cases involve low energy extractions and
aren't expected to be as bad when bailing out from an aircraft.
In the US, the repack cycle is indeed once every 120 days. There is at least
one country where the repack cycle has been increased to 180 days or a year. I
don't recall which it is -- maybe Australia or someplace. This applied to
skydiving reserve parachutes, so I expect it would apply to pilots' chutes
too. The former are more likely to be 'used in anger' than the latter. Just
because they've done it doesn't mean a longer repack cycle is good or bad, but
it shows that some believe a longer period to be safe.
Although I'm not familiar with whether repack dates are checked at glider
contests, I've heard of glider pilots often just getting their rig repacked
once a year. If you take care of it, that's probably enough. But I'm not the
one who would be using your chute...
An experienced rigger should have an idea just how well glider pilots' rigs
hold up between repack cycles. It would be interesting to know more about how
well elastics hold up in practice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Chapman
Management Sciences
U. of Waterloo, ON
(519) 885-1211 x3675