The four attached photos, circa 1989, may be of the canopy that he was referring to.
This was used in a variety of ways.. Shown here is probably the Skiing worked quite well if there was a reasonably brisk wind. The canopy could be attached to your waist and used to pull you along while you skied. By edging you could angle off at up 30 deg to the wind. Of course eventually someone would need to fetch you back on a skidoo.
The climax of our experiments was probably parascending behind a sno-cat. Using a skidoo for parascending didn't work because as soon as the chute started to lift it would pick up the rear of the skidoo - even with a couple of people on it. Sno-cats are a bit slow so we needed a day with just the right wind. Note the home made parachute harness - a classic Fids bodge. It even had a release mechanism although no-one was brave enough to try it. Several flights were achieved with an altitude of a couple of hundred feet. The wind picked up during the day which meant that getting the last person back down proved to be a bit of a problem. The basic idea was to run the 'cat into the wind to pull them up and then slow down so they would descend. Normally you do this in still air with a vehicle capable of 40 mph or so. With a 'cat we needed to make use of the wind to get sufficient air speed. Initially just stopping the cat was enough for a steady descent. As the wind picked up we needed to start running it downwind a bit. The first attempt to get James down was a flat out run downwind which had to be aborted to keep him out of the AIS antenna. There was some careful manoeuvring prior to the second attempt to get a run which was free of aerial or ground obstructions. Finally there was a lull in the wind and by driving the cat flat out he eventually came down.
Consideration of other options had he not come down occupied us for several hours that evening in the bar.
Photo by Simon Salter
Photo by Simon Salter
Photo by Simon Salter
Photo by Simon Salter