Static Line Parachutes

Jump a full stick out of a moving helicopter. 

THE JUMP

Sit in a passenger seat of a helicopter wearing an unused parachute and a hint appears. Press JUMP and you go from your seat to hanging under a blooming canopy in one motion, moving with the aircraft. It works at any airspeed, because you are never falling: the jump is a straight transfer from the seat to the canopy.

BAILING OUT

Leaving the aircraft any other way, ejecting from a crew seat or walking off the ramp, gives you no automatic canopy. Press JUMP in the air to open one. That works when you are slow; at real airspeed the game cannot seat a falling jumper into a canopy, so the chute comes out but cannot catch you, and a hint tells you so. From a fast bird, jump from the seat. A pull the game refuses outright, no canopy at all, also says so on screen instead of doing nothing.

SLIP TO STEER

A round canopy is not steered, it is slipped. Hold A or D, or push the stick left or right, and the canopy slides that way without turning, up to a brisk walking pace at full deflection. Slipping costs lift, so a held slip comes down a little faster. Enough to pick your field and miss the tree line, not enough to fly cross country.

CREW SEATS DO NOT JUMP

The jump key does nothing in a pilot or crew seat, so a pilot cannot leave the aircraft unmanned by brushing it. Crew who need out use the normal exit and open by hand.

LANDING

An ordinary arrival costs nothing and a heavy one still breaks legs. The jump ends cleanly: you are set down, the jump state clears, and the canopy is removed instead of standing in the field.

THE FIELD CLEANS ITSELF

Bags left in the world are removed after five minutes used, ten unused, and never while a player is within 50 metres. Canopies orphaned by a disconnect go after three minutes. For persistent servers, where a few mass drops otherwise leave a field of bags for good.

FOR OTHER MODS

Since 1.2.0 the parachute component offers an airdrop API: a mod can put a standing player under a canopy of its choosing, poll the seat, then commit or abort. It is called by name through the script module, so the calling mod never has to list this one as a dependency and keeps working without it. See the README in the repository for the five calls.

FOR SERVER OWNERS

The automatic canopy on leaving the aircraft in flight exists as a component setting and ships off, because a fast exit cannot be caught and the failed attempt spends the jumper's chute. Turn it on for slow insertion work if you accept that trade.

REQUIREMENTS

None. The T-10 chute, rig and animations from Prontos Parachutes are included under the same licence, with credit below. The mod also loads alongside Prontos Parachutes without conflict.

CREDITS AND LICENCE

Built on Prontos Parachutes by Pronto, which is itself an adaptation of the Arma Reforger Parachute Framework by Alphaegen. Framework source: https://github.com/Alphaegen/ArmaReforgerParachutes

Distributed under the Arma Public License Share Alike (APL-SA), the same licence as both. Prontos Parachutes v1.0.2 is redistributed inside this mod: its scripts (renamed to this mod's class prefix, otherwise unchanged), its T-10 canopy and rig models, textures, animation set, prefabs and loadout slot, all under APL-SA, with the Framework's licence text carried in the mod. Changes made here: a seat-to-canopy static line transfer, a manual mid-air opener, on-screen verdicts for refused and failed openings, slip control, per-jump landing cleanup, cleanup of abandoned bags and orphaned canopies, retuned landing settings, and subclassed components that hold the canopy on the jumper until seated.