Mark wants a:
pattern for a parachute Adams.

The one I use is as follows:
Thread-Grey
Tail- mixed brown and grizzley hackle fibers(stiff ones)
Body- Muskrat underfur
Wing-Calftail,calf body or white poly yarn(latter on smaller ones)
Hackle-Cree(way easier than intertwining a brown and grizzley, although
the mixed version is the standard)
I do dub a small throrax/head region from the body fur. I think it looks
nicer. I seriously doubt that the fish care. The moose fiber tail is a
common western US variation, originated by Dick Cheney, I believeg.
The key thing, as I have always viewed it, with parachutes is to keep them
pretty sparsely hackled. It doesn't take a lot of turns of hackle in that
horizontal fashion to float a dry fly. Too much hackle tends to bunch up and
float worse, if anything, and also screws up the light pattern on the water.
I have a sneaking suspicion that your "improving" versions will work just
fine. Bring them up to PA in May/June and we will try them out. FWIW, the
Parachute Adams might be my favorite small-stream, native brown trout fly. I
fish a few streams with natives in with stocked trout, and the Parachute
Adams seems to be the fly to get the native fish to come out and play. Go
see Walt and tell him to put a nice cree neck on your tab.....although, one
of the beauties of parachute ties is that one doesn't need tip-top quality
hackle for them to work. I am not even sure the color matters all that much.
Tom