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Hi guys, I'm not a base jumper, but I thought this would be a good place to ask about a related topic.

I'm involved in a science competition called science olympiad and one of the events heavily involves parachutes.

What kind of parachute packing technique would you guys use for the hardest, fastest possible opening?

Thanks in advance.

the lubed up kind.

make a fold in the third quadrent to the nintey third angle, measured to the dangle or the trident. then roll the bitch in a unicorn shape and lick it twice for good luck. stow in the tailpocket. and kapow! hardest fastest opening EVER

You'll be using a small round parachute, I would guess.

If you're building the parachute, then how you build it will have a lot more impact on how quickly it opens than how you pack it will (unless you were planning on tying the thing in knots -- don't do that). A poorly-constructed round parachute will oscillate, and give a hard landing. And smaller parachutes generally open faster than larger ones (but land harder, so there's a balance).

If you're just packing it, then one thing you might try to speed the opening is to somehow restrict the hole at the apex until the thing is open (in BASE, we'd put an elastic around the apex, but I'd bet that'll never come off in your case). And I'd wager that that'll do approximately nothing for you. You might also want to look up "super mushroom" here on the forum, though that may not have much effect either.

One last thing... A quick search on the net shows some folks suggesting that a weight be attached to the apex of the parachute to make it open faster. I think you'll find that BASE jumpers are decidedly against putting heavy stuff at the apex of any parachute.

Edit to add: Of course, if you don't have to pack it at all, then it'll be even faster to drop it when it's already open...