Use of drag chutes

On Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 9:46:34 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I tried to use the tail chute twice in my H-301 Libelle. First time was during an off field landing, I pulled the chute and stuffed the nose down...........next thing I knew I was scooting through the weeds doing 80. The chute hadn't deployed! Next time I gave it a try was a landing at Winnemucca, Nv. I popped the chute on down-wind and soon found I was going to be way short, so I pulled the jettison handle..............you guessed it, it didn't jettison! I made the runway, but was a half mile from my desired stopping point. The chute worked fine on the ground, before and after both incidents. My conclusion, unreliable and not necessary in a ship that had landing flaps and dive brakes.
FWIW,
JJ

JJ - I object to your comment 'unreliable and not necessary'! Tail-chutes become unreliable if they are being neglected, i.e. hardly used, never allowed to dry/air out and if the operating mechanisms are not maintained! I flew an Open Cirrus and a H101 Salto with chutes and never had any malfunctions of any kind. I wished my H301 had one but the first owner didn't order it from the factory.
Uli
AS