Butts Aerowing-The Only Way To Fly

[Jeff Akers]

Hmmm, seems like this hapend to another hero of mine.
"Evil Knievel's Snake river jump"

Great thread and great story!

[Jeff Lytle]

I wore a both Lifeline and Security chute jackets. To "Accidently" pull the pin would have been nearly impossable to do, but with racing, who knows?? Anything IS possible

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Yeah Jeff, When I read Dan's post I thought about the same scenario that John posted. How scary. But that's not what happened. It's not clear to me, but if there is a rumour involving the chute it may go back to Ray Hardy. Tim, Ray and I think Bob Smith wore the parachutes. The only ones to flip with one one that I knew about were Ray and Tim. Ray flipped in a turn and the lanyard was so long, it never popped open. Ray was a frequent visitor and it may have been as a result of their conversation that Tim shortened his lanyard. It may be that on his run Tim tried to move forward and was restricted by the lanyard or it may have hung up on something. I am beginning to think however, it was after the blowover he had problems with it. Only Tim would be able to tell us. What were your experiences with the chute Jeff?

[Jeff Lytle]

When I ordered my Security, I told them it was for PRO racing........They changed 2 things: The skid collar was back further so I could lift my head while kneeling, and the lanyard was shorter than they normally were.
I was told that unless the chute either fully deployed, or at least was pulled out all the way, it could do more harm than good. Imagine hitting the water with that big lump on your back the wrong way

I never went swimming with the Security, but did with the Lifeline. It didn't have a skid collar, and had a longer line. It was similar to the Gentex as far as the leg straps went. They buckled up on either side of your gonads. The Security had the thigh skirts to take the impact.
I went out in the 1st turn at Valleyfield. I have no idea if the chute deployed fully or not. (The gonads were fine ) I do remember the feeling of being all tangled up in chute lines when I came to the surface though........Not nice at all. The rescue team in Valleyfield was top notch though. They were in the water with me in what seemed like seconds. All was fine.

Chutes jackets were designed for 120 MPH + blowovers, we with the speeds we went in the corners were no where near that speed. I just liked the extra piece of mind it gave me since a blowover was always the type of spill I feared the most.

Remember one thing about the lanyard getting "hung up". Most of the line was nested inside a spring, that had quite a bit of give to it before it had enough "umph" to pull the clevis pin. There was a small braided string looped around the clevis to keep it from accidently pulling out without a good strong tug. The string loop had to break before the clevis would pull out. The other end of the string was attached to the top of the chute to pull it out quickly after you and boat parted company. The string would then break off as the lanyard stretched to it's limit.

That's me in my Pugh 700ccH........See how the static line looks like it is stretched tight? It would have taken another good 3 feet of pull after that to pop the pin.

[jrome]

I have so many movies of Tim. I filmed all most all of Tims testing so he could see what the boats were doing, but they are all in beta. I have alot of tapes but nothing to play them on any more. Tim never really knew
for sure about the chute. The only thing for sure is the pants worked great.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The only deployment I ever had was driving that Butts later model Aerowing with an FE Mod Merc 44 here testing props when the whole boat lifted and the back end started to sway side to side, spit me out, the chute pack on the Security jacket deployed. That was slow by any comparisson to your Alkys but that woosh / bang and jolt is something I will always remember, just that once and I am praying never again. My Aerowing remained upright, the ignition tether cap popped off killing the Merc , the current brought her right back to me, I got back in her, scopped up the lines and chute (minnow catcher!) and paddled to shore, not far away. I can still imagine what that felt like and sounds like, but at your speeds, you would never hope to want to feel or want hear that ever again either. Jeff! No damage that time and years later, see what technology can do! The raceboat suffered nothing! I hear that, that was not the case for quite of few Alky drivers who dumped over the years and got fouled in the cute lines. The only thing scarier is dumping and getting run into or run over by the guy behind you.

[Jeff Lytle]

Oh yeah !! I hear you on that one.

I lost a good friend Vic Pede' in Acworth Ga. that way. Never forgot that weekend..........Long drive home.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I did't know that's what happened to Vic. Another friend of mine Erwin Zimmerman from Austria was run over. Lower unit in the helmet. I was run over once, but by luck and the skills of a stock racer I came out okay. The course was so short and it was so cold it was hard to keep the engines lit even with the smallest props. So we jacked our 350 up high as we could and still pickup water. I was first in the turn, but I hit a wave and the boat swapped ends. No lower unit in the water for control. When the boat flipped over backwards it threw me under water. I could hear 10 or 11 propellers churning up the water and I knew I was coming up under them. I stuck my right arm up so the drivers could see. One guy in a stock B had a dead aim on me and swerved to the right. It was in the days before a picklefork and the left part of the bow where a fork would be now hit me in the back of the helmet. That knocked me forward and flat face down. The left sponson went over me and the fin sliced my Gentex all the way through to in inside lining but no more. I didn't know the driver and never saw him again, but I am very thankful for his reflexes and driving skills.

[smittythewelder]

One of the Unlimited teams talked about, and maybe experimented with, a drag chute on the boat (this was ten years before capsules, at least). It was to be triggered by the driver when he felt he was getting too far up to come down again. I think the idea was dropped because the consensus was that the driver's reactions wouldn't be quick enough for the chute to snap the boat down, since the deployment takes some time.

Some of you might remember hearing about (or seeing, or trying) a water-brake. As described to me, this was a pneumatic cylinder attached to the transom and powered by a Freon canister, which would thrust an aluminum finger into the water when triggered by the driver. Maybe these were only tried on tunnel OPCs. As the story went, the first experimental version had too big a finger, and the braking action nearly through the poor driver out through the front of the cockpit! I guess the tunnel-boat racers decided that they could pretty much hit the corners flat-out (occasionally ripping the left sponson clean off of the boat!!) and didn't need brakes. But on a tail-dragging (as opposed to prop-riding) PRO boat, a water brake might be nice to have when, as in your picture, you are getting near the point of no return.
What do y'all know about this?

[Mark75H]

I never heard of an OPC driver going out the front because of water brakes, but there were a number of boats that had the transom ripped off the first time the brakes were applied.

Water brakes are allowed in Mod as long as they don't have an actual steering effect, but I've never seen anyone use them.