On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 9:11:27 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 3:16:59 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 5:12:31 PM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 3:53:27 PM UTC-4, John Huthmaker wrote:
I'm hoping to find a softie with a square parachute.

From discussing this with both Don Mayer and the folks at Strong:
A square chute is much more sensitive in deployment (stable and
correct attitude). Both recommend a round emergency chute for
this reason. From discussing my recent bail-out with Don,
I'd probably be dead if I'd had a square chute.

FWIW, from a guy really happy to have had a Strong round emergency chute.

Hope that helps,
Best Regards, Dave

PS: I wish I'd had the larger diameter model, landing on rocks
at 11,000 density altitude my descent rate was a bit high...

That's one thing I disagree with Don about. Student skydivers have been deploying squares from every unstable body position possible for 30 years.. And the darn things still open. Unstable deployments leading to malfunctions with squares is mostly old wives tale. Instead of asking old school riggers in the pilot rig business go to a dropzone and ask an instructor for an opinion. From the folks that toss the general public(with squares) out of airplanes for a living. Buying a new round parachute is the same as buying a new wood glider.

The market for a wooden glider dried up half a century ago. There is still a vibrant market for round e-chutes, both in the US and Europe. Does not the US military use round chutes for aviators?

Glider pilots at the Air Force Academy use squares. Ejection seats still have rounds I believe but that is probably because the R&D money on staging deployments from 0-1,000 mph has already been spent. Paratroopers really aren't being used anymore but if you think rounds are sound look up the percentage of young healthy paratroopers that they don't expect to be able to fight post jump.