My Six Chuter Powered Parachute is running well now however, I did notice one issue a few weeks ago. I had gotten my lines twisted somehow and so to straighten it out I had to detach the parachute from the cables that attach it to the airframe. In doing so I found one of the mallions (also known as a rapid link) did not snug down properly when I re-tightened the turnbuckle to close it. I couldn’t turn it by hand so it was probably safe, but it wasn’t right so I decided to replace it.

This is what a mallion looks like:

To use it you put the rope, chain, or cable through the opening and then screw the turnbuckle shut until it is snug. It should look like this:

But this one looked like this:

This would would turn past where it should have stopped and snugged itself. Probably okay but not right. So as I said I replaced not only this mallion but all six. There are three per side. Why are these so important? Because they attach the airframe to the parachute.

Two mallions connect the parachute lines to the cables that connect to the airframe, and one mallion holds the two cables together. This is what I hang from! Incidentally the red rope is the brake or steering line, it is connected to the rudder bar on the airframe and the back side of the parachute. The are all new now so I can feel a little safer when flying!