The PlAProducts - Parachute Industry Association

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COH}TIT'I'EE PROJECTTA
PROJECT ID NUMBER: TC-OO]-
PROJECT NAI{E: TS-1O4 Canopy weight and. volume atudy.
COORDINATORS: Sandy Rei-d and George Gallohray.
PROJECT GOAL/PURPOSE: Standardlzeil measurement of maln and reserve
canoples for volume, area, and welght to deterrnlne conpatiblllty
between canopies and harness and eontainers.
PROJECT BACKGROUND: Begun in 1985, to date over 15o different canopLeE
have been meaaured and
'
lncorforated into a referenee chart. bhls
chart Ls updated on an annual baslE, usually at the PIA summer
meeting. because of certain anorualles exhiBlted during the study,
that the system waEi imperfect. In
any obtalned a copy of the prA
ng tests on thelr own canoples to
uiil.
ll:nil"Xltllu'iE'ffi 'EHI"Sh:ffi :I .
end result was that the volurue of the subJect cAnoplee varied by
as rquch ae 25& over the aampJ.lng.
Contlnul-ng lnto phaee rwo of the etudy, precision measured an
additional. 1r134 canopies durlng productl-on, both BEFORE ANd AFTER
installation of the llnesets. The resultE of thls etudy ie
attached ae Tc-ool.l-.
CURRENT STATUS: George Galloway wl1I contlnue h1s efforte in monltorlng
11" progucts. lo-gqlher rnoie data. Sandy Reld w111 also contlnue
hts work on the PIA chart on all canopies.
COI'IPLETION DATE: Ongoing
SUMMARY: Whereas the orlglnal study was the major emphasls of thls
project, lt ls now felt that the work tfrat ceorge calloway has
begun shoul-d become equalLy j,mportant. Along wl-tn that, other
canopy Inanufacturere should be encouraged to partlclpate in order
to broaden the data base available for-study.- At present there are
7 known volume chah.bers bullt to the pIA specs. ether
manufacturers w111 be encouraqed to obtaln thelr own chamber and
to start monitoring their canSpiee to Eee if the trends identified
by eeorge are common to all canoples. A standardlzed data sheet
wlf1 be generated so that the maxlmum amount of data can be
collected and that lt can be utilized 1n a computer data baEe
program.