[Land-speed] Chute Question..

J.D. Tone gmc6power at earthlink.net
Fri Jun 26 18:41:08 MDT 2009


Personally when I inspected a car with a chute I didn't give a damn if it 
came out or not. I only cared if the actuator worked. If the pin moved that 
was good enough for me. I'm not running behind anyone's car to pull the 
chute out so it was really no big deal to me..............

If it saw the "string/cord/loop, or whatever you call it"  stiff and I mean 
stiff enough to still hold the chute in with the pin removed, I would call 
attention to it and have them soften it up with sun block or something like 
that. When I would find one like that the chute would magically end up open 
laying on the groubd in the inspection area............. OK OK I had my way 
of checking by moving the pack to see it was stiff or newly packed and you 
can tell.

You can also tell by the general condition of the vehicle too. If the fuel 
shut off didn't work very well the chute actuator/cable usually didn't 
either and that guy was in for a long inspection. the entire chute and his 
lines were looked at.

Streamliners in tube were normaly the best. If I saw the chute in a box I 
would have them operate the acuator and look at the cord or loop to see if 
it was soft and they were good to go. At least you knew it was freshly 
packed. I would rather be prepared as a competitor to do WHATEVER the 
inspector wanted and have the tool right there to do it.

I also washed my chute after every run. We always had a 5 gallon bucket and 
plenty of water to rinse it out and hang it from our canopy. By the time 
were done checking or changing the car it was dry and ready to repack.. I 
also wash it when I come home form El Mirge in the washing 
machine............Good Luck



> Just sitting here wasting my time surfing the net and decided to waste
> your time also, lol...  question relates to para 3.M.    says "*all
> chutes SHALL be opened during inspection*."  Now I have been in the tech
> line a few times and have actually only once been asked to launch the
> laundry.  And I don't remember seeing a lot of others released at that
> time either. I could read this another way  and that would be that the
> chute is opened and there for inspection but in a box or on the car or
> something for the inspectors to look at.  So what is the inspector
> looking for? A chute in good repair?  That it will launch when required?
> Or what. Last year I had the chute in a box on the car and nobody seemed
> to mind that it wasn't packed and no one asked me to do so... I like
> that method of inspection but what is correct? If it is to be opened
> using the chute release hen maybe some additional words to the
> paragraph?    SOmething like  " *all chutes shall be packed before tech
> inspection and released during that  inspection.*" Or words to that
> effect.
>
> mayf


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