I found this list of Laws applicable to air drop during my time at Boscombe Down testing aerial delivery systems. Whilst written as a joke, I can confirm that, like the originator, I've either proved them or seen others prove them to be correct.
Butlers Laws of Parachute Trials
1. The descending parachute and test item will not weathercock; they will,however, home on to the most expensive object on the drop zone.
2. The quality of the photographic coverage, telemetry data and all otherinstrumentation recordings will be inversely proportional to the value of theinformation obtained.
3. The tighter the budget or the time constraints become, the more likelythe parachute will malfunction or the instrumentation will fail.
4. The higher the rank of a visiting observer, the greater the probabilityof a catastrophic failure or malfunction. To ensure the maximum damage to theproject, have them park their new Mercedes on or near the drop zone (see law1).
5. The personnel recovering the equipment under test will exert maximumeffort to obscure any valid conclusions that may be drawn from an examinationof the equipment.
6. The manufacture of the parachute or load will exert maximum effort toobscure any design errors they have incorporated; they will also exert maximumto make subtle changes to their design or test conditions in order to maximisethe perceived benefits of their design.
7. All personnel involved will exert maximum effort to blame someone elsein the event of a cock-up; in the case of a massive cock-up, the degree of creativityexhibited by the explanation is exponentially related to the cost of thecock-up. This creativity is wasted because the cause of a massive cock-up isobvious even to senior management.
8. The schedule and budget will depart from the projected values at an everincreasing rate as the project progresses; the only way to prevent this is toavoid making a schedule and budget in the first place.
9. The probability of aircraft support, range time, and support personnelall being available is very high; however, the probability of all these beingavailable at the same time is approximately zero for any given date more than30 minutes in the future.