The jumper is made of wood. Of course there are carbon fibre jumpers for sale but the question is whether this has any advantages. Wood is much easier to repair and you need to have a set weight.

So saving weight with a carbon fibre jumper is only a disadvantage.

 

You can choose between bent arms in a fixed position or movable arms. These can also bend at the elbows. The advantage of this is that you have extra deflection and therefore can fly the parachute less brake. This in its turn is an advantage with higher winds.

 

The jumper has to make a clearly visible free fall. The parachute is usually opened with a separate servo (most reliable solution). This can be a standard servo. For the arms an extra heavy duty servo with metal gears is recommended with a torque of at least 9 kg. For instance the Hitec HS645 MG.

A number of safety items are obligatory.

You can make a choice between two options:

1. You make a safety switch, for instance 2 micro switches who turn the jumper off when it is mounted under the aircraft through use of a safety pin. When the doll is dropped, the switches will be turned and the jumper will be turned on.
2. A safety line attached to the back pack of the jumper. This is an

   extra safety so the chute can not be opened when the jumper is mounted under the aircraft. When the jumper is dropped, the pin will be pulled from the pack and the pack can opened on command.

    

   This is all to prevent the chute being blown out of the back pack when the jumper is mounted under the aircraft. The effect of a parachute which opens under the plane is that of a large dragchute and there will be no way of controlling the plane

 

Homemade or bought?

 

There are several drawings going around of different parachutes. You can also easily find drawings of the jumpers, for instance the Cool Boy.

 

I myself started with a parachute made by Robbe, the Charly. After that I bought a parachute from RCSkydive USA.

Erick made several parachutes himself after that and finally I chose to get a parachute made by TV Products in Belgium.

Theo Vaesen makes the parachutes and most competition jumpers jump with his parachute or a derivative of one.

 

The costs come to about 220 euros per parachute. Expensive?? Well, it’s just how you look at it. About 100 euro’s worth of material goes into it and there is quite a lot of handwork involved in producing a good parachute. Many man-hours need also to be taken into account. But you are sure that you get a parachute which has been tested extensively over the years.

 

 

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