wrote:
To Fiveniner: you can buy directly from Softie a square emergency
parachute.

To 66: it is called weathervaning...go and make a jump, don't release
your brakes and see what the canopy will do. Especially the big ones
like Raven IV.

You need a relative difference in speed to the wind to weather vane. An
uncontrolled parachute would match the wind speed as it descends. As
you drop through the typical wind shear near the ground, it seems to me
that you would turn to land down wind if you didn't actively steer the
chute.

Shawn