Unpack Your Parachute: Tech Tip Tuesday!

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[zrxdoug]

We used to dust the chute with a little talcum powder back in dinosaur days..kept the fabric from sticking to itself, and smelled baby-fresh...
😁

[Danglethefinisher]

Doug is the man. I’m so happy for these guys making motion to what is today. Great vision gang ! 😊

[Kuasimodem]

Remember Cleetus's first six second pass in Tom Bailey's car, when the chute deployed but didn't open?

[haworthlowell]

Knew an TA/FC crew that never packed the chute after the last run of the weekend, they loaded the car then hung the chutes from hooks in the back of the trailer. Never had an issue with the chutes.

[chrisobrien]

Great tip.
I guess Cletus knows all about this too. Very Lucky.
Hey is that ya dog that passed away. I really liked the Tribute lids on your containers. Thanks Doug.

[jameswilliams-rchj]

Doug do a video on reading the racetrack. staging lane etiquette etc.

[danmyers]

This is so cool I think I am going to put a chute on my 14 second street car so I can do this at the track to look smart and cool! 👍

[SCA]

Nice tip! Back when I had my dragsters, I would use my chute maybe 4 times a year at the most (avg'd 250 runs). Every off season, I would open it up let it air out for a few days and I totally understand the smell.

[patrickbachman]

Way back in the day I can remember the dragster guys in Brainerd would put a light dusting of cornstarch on their chutes because of the humidity being so bad and that would help the chutes when they were released and you can always tell the ones I get a little over ambitious with the corn starch because there’s a huge white cloud of dust deployed

[thebarkingmouse]

Yeah I don't know how relevant it is for this kind of parachute, but for my Icarus they recommended no more than 2 days packed. FAA rules have changed, but it used to be 180 days then 120. I haven't skydiving in years so I don't know what the current rules are. But the smart thing to do is air dry and clean it and then keep it in a stash bag where it is loosely packed. I think two days is extremely conservative. But I used to always pack mine right before a jump anyway and leave it unpacked after the last. I had my Reserve done every 90 days.

[adrianm]

Great info on parachutes but since we are talking about slowing down, we all need to know about the TBM rotors i know I’m not the only one that saw Beater Bombs post…… i’m actually curious to see what would cause that

[TheFlatlander]

Good tips Doug. I was wondering if you could wash that parachute as it appeared to have some mildew growing on it. Reminded me of unpacking an old nylon backpacking tent of mine only to find it had deteriorated so badly I had to pitch it (no pun intended, ha).

[michaelwynne]

One of the worst feelings is when you pull the Chute and you don't feel it Hit.

[chuxshed]

My chute is only ever packed on race day

[thebarkingmouse]

It seemed some of the parachute openings I've been seeing are hard to the point of nearly causing control issues. Parachute opens big Corrections, I am not an expert by any means. I used to skydive though and we used a slider to slow the opening of a parachute. I haven't seen anything like that, do you use anything like that and would you recommend it? I'm speaking mostly of watching Cletus McFarland at the end of the quarter mile it looks like he's having to saw on the wheel quite a lot.

[wideslammer]

Slightly different topic but related to parachutes. Check Cleetus' recent video " . . . got so close to 6.0s . . ." to see the 7.08 run at 192.93 MPH where the parachute fails to open. (Do you need a parachute on a 192 MPH run?) Back in the pits he shows us the cause of the problem. A MOTION RACEWORKS product (Parachute Cable Billet End Cap at $9.99) would have prevented the failure of the parachute to deploy. Is it worth 10 bucks to possibly prevent a wrecked race car or worse . . .?

[MrFord]

What 235 or 26x8.5 slick does any recommend for rowdy radial class

[IsaiahMT]

How quick can you guys get out of your vehicles, in case of a fire? Is it bad ju-ju to practice exiting the vehicle, full gear and strapped in, as if there was a fire? Maybe use dry ice to create fog as a replication of smoke? Always was curious if anyone in any of the YouTube race channels have tried this? I'd be interested in the content.