(Chapter 1279 Home)

  Our featured presenter, this month, was our President, Steve Williamson. He brought his personal emergency 'chute, and gave an engaging illustration and demonstration of the basics ('turns out that's pretty much all there are are 'basics'!) of parachute construction and operation.

    The chute Steve brought as his demonstrator was an emergency-use-style round chute. It had non-detachable risers and no opening (or opening-delay) device, as found on most skydivers' parachutes. Steve did a great job filling in some gaps we had in our knowledge of parachute construction and operation, and showed us differences between sport parachutes and emergency parachutes.

    Steve took his first parachute 'rides' in the Air Force, learning to pack his own chute from the riggers on base in El Centro. At the time, he was installing telemetry in parachute test vehicles for the military and was able to spend time in the riggers' shack. The riggers and test jumpers began inviting him to jump with them on weekends, where he made about 50 jumps altogether, before leaving the service.

    He said an emergency parachute was good to have when flying gliders in close proximity to other gliders. Afterwards, other members shared their personal para-chute stories.