SAFETY IN THE AIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 305, 30 December 1935, Page 4

SAFETY IN THE AIR

THE PARACHUTE DESCRIBED AN EXPERTS OPINION VISIT TO WANGANUI One of New Zealand’s four exp e rf parachute junipers, Air. G. Al. Sehar& of Auckland, arrived at Wanganui j Ur ? ing the week-end and will remain ia the city until about Thursday, when he will probably give exhibition jumps at the Wanganui Airport. Air. Sellarg i 8 the second aviator to qualify in New Zealand ae. a highly trained and skilled parachute jumper. He is at present touring the North Island, his object being to give practical demonstrations and to encourage the use of the device as a safety factor in flying. Air. g e j. Lars’ training extended over a period of many months at Wigram, where he did his practical parachuting under supervision of the New Zealand Force and Mr. Bernard fikinnet, forsa orly a United States Army parachitfig and a member of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition. The only other expert parachuligy in New Zealand, apart from Mr. hlkin« ner and Air. Sellars, are Air. “Scotty” Eraser and Air. L. G. Taylor, a pilot of the Wellington Aero Club. Mr. Taylor underwent a coarse in Great Britain. Alessrs. Fraser and Sellara however, arc the only two New Zea-landei-6 who have trained and qualified in this Dominion. Some time ago a number of pilots, of the Cantennirr Aero Club, including two women, went through an elementary course under tie direction of Mr. Skinner. A Simple Operation. Packing a parachute is a simple operation but it must be done with extreme care, as the jumper’s life depends on its proper opening, said 3dr. Sellars in an interview. A practised man can pack a parachute in about aa hour. The 24-foot diameter tilkeu canopy is folded in 2-1 pleats running from, l be centre to tho circumference, and then packed, concertina fashion, jn about four folds from the base of the pleat to its peak. This is au easy enough job, but great care has to be exercised in the paying inside the pack of the 24 cords, attached to the circumference, for should one of them become tangled or twisted the parachute will not open evenly, with results that caa easily be imagined. Then there is the pilot parachute to be stowed away inside the pack. The rip-cord opens the flap encompassing the packed parachute and at the same time jerks out the 36-inch diameter pilot parachute into the clip-stream from the falling body. A little-known fact is that the opening of the pilot parachute is not a very important thing. The rubber bands around the pack are so a»> ranged that at the jerk of the rip-cord they release the main parachute, but a pilot parachute, of course, givas d faster opening. Absence of Danger. “There is practically no risk at all if the parachute is packed properly,” raid Air. Sellars, “but 1 don’t think I would jump in another man’s peraenute now that 1 have learnt to pack my own.” Head first is the best way to teavo the aeroplane when parachute jumping, according to Mr. Sellars, as it is natural fur trie body to fall that way and by starting head downwards ouo clears the aeroplane more quickly. Three or lour secouds are long enough to wait before pulling the rip-cord, and the parachute, if properly packed, will open in 100 feet. Safe jumps have been made from ax< low as 15u feet. No harm would be done by delaying the parachute opening lor as lung as was safe, he continued, as no matter how far one fell with the parachute unopened it would be equal to the strain imposed upon it when it was spread to catch, the air. All British parachutes are tested by being released from an aeroplane at 100 mi let- an hour with a 40U10. weight attached to them. As a human body cannot under ordinary atmospheric conditions attain a greater falling speed than 119 miles an hour, and as no human body comes anywhere near 4001 b. in weight the ample aaioty margin is obvious. Nervous jumpers can also take courage from the know* ledge that each of ih« 24 eupportiug cords of tile parachute han a tensile strength of 4001 b., and that their attachment to the canopy rs strong. “Lifebuoys of the An.” It is Air. Sellar’s ambition to ev-ery aircraft equipped with chutes, which he described the M* buoys of the air. in the event of fre* structural damage, or trouble ! by f°g the occupants of an aircrul equipped with parachutes would •• least have a fighting chance, aaid *• Sellars, and he mentioned the naoM of recent aviation victims in land who he considered would he to-day had they worn parachutes.* Air Force pilots were not pern®* 1 ® even to taxi an aeroplane w^L ho ’i5 n 4 parachute, and in the New Air Force the use of parachutes 1 flying was compulsory. The cost o parachute, about £9O in New was litthe compared with training a pilot, apart from the , of human life, Air. Sellars pmoto*