APS Rascal tail crossports

[mark 107]

Crawling down inside the cells of an APS Rascal today, I saw the trailing 8-12 inches of every internal rib missing, making what are essentially triangular crossports. The construction is not easily seen from the outside, since the stitching for the rib seams continues all the way to the tail.

What was the design intention? Crossports? Simpler construction of the tail seam? Change toggle pressure?

Mark

[riggerrob 643]

Simpler construction of the tail seam?

[JerryBaumchen 1,466]

Aren't PdeF reserves built like that?

Jerry

[caldwellbuilder 0]

Bob Chaffin, owner of APS, had told me that
the design was a continuous cross-port of
the tail of the canopy. I jumped a Rascal
230 9-cell and it would occaisionally have
end cell closure which would not clear themselves
due to this continuous cross-port feature. A
simple depression of toggles would always open
them up-- just like any other canopy. So, it is
an interesting design but I don't know that it
is any better. It was an F-111 fabric , so perhaps
ZP fabric would have better response.

Later,

William Caldwell