Icarus Tandem anyone?

[skydiveoc 0]

Any pos / neg about this canopy? I have a demo one and it seems to fly and land great.

j

[ccowden 0]

I jumped one a while ago and thought it was pretty amazing. Very light toggle pressure and awesome flare. I was told that they weren't very good in high winds and that they don't do well in turbulence, but I didn't experience that, so I can't say for sure.

All in all, I was impressed with the canopy during the few jumps I did on it.

[nightjumps 1]

I'm coming up on 300 tandems on an Icarus 365.
It is an awesome canopy to fly and land. You will need to be IMMACULATE in your pack jobs each and every time with 8 brake lines on either side that are not stowed for packing.

I love this thing.

[skydived19006 4]

I have over 400 jumps on Icarus tandem canopies (330, and 365). They do well in all conditions in my opinion (I jump in Kansas). I’ll take a tandem in up to 25mph wind, and load the 365 up to 525 lbs. They do have a fast ground speed in no wind, so it’s a “sit down landing”. They actually land better with a heavy wing load. Openings are consistently slow/soft regardless of loading/fall rate. They seldom open totally on heading, and sometimes will take you all the way round, but in over 450 tandems I have had line twists once or twice.
I like the 330, but if you’ll only have one Icarus Tandem Canopy I would recommend a 365. I don’t see any reason to go with a 400’, unless you’re planning on loading it up to 600 lbs. I like the “2/6” steering line configuration, with 2 points on the outside toggles, and 6 on the inside. A little girl can totally steer it by her self.
My only complaint with Icarus Tandem canopies is related to work done by Precision Aerodynamics. I had the 330 relined by Precession, and it flew like crap! After 20 or so jumps, I sent it to Skyworks Rigging, they looked at it and the line trim was totally wrong with the A lines way to long (no speed, no flair), they relined it for half regular cost (even though it wasn’t their screw up) and it flys like new again! I don’t know how Precision stays in business, seems they screw up more than they do correctly!
If you’re going to buy a new one, go to Icarus!

Martin Myrtle
DZO
Air Capital Drop Zone
Wichita Kansas

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[livendive 8]

I've got around 100-150 jumps on 330s and 365s and love them. The openings are a little odd (they sometimes take awhile to pick a heading), but steering and flaring the canopy are both sweet. Light toggle pressure to keep fatigue at a minimum but plenty of power once the flare toggles are picked up. I've yet to find a downside to them.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[mfrese 0]

I have over 500 jumps on Icarus mains, 330 and 365. They fly great, and generally flare great, but we've had a few issues that seem to be related to line trim that seem to impact the flare, particularly on the 365s. We had one canopy that flew and flared great, went in for first reline, and lost about half the flare. According to our rigger, the line trim didn't change, but suddenly no one wanted to fly the thing. After the second reline, it seems to be fine.

Either way, I don't think you can go wrong with these mains, they are rugged, fly great, and feel more like flying a Sabre2 or a Stiletto rather than a tandem main.

Nick Bosco from Aerodyne was at our DZ over the weekend, and had an A2 demo with him...a few of our TIs jumped it and seemed to like it, but I didn't get a chance to jump it myself.

Doctor I ain't gonna die,
Just write me an alibi! ---- Lemmy/Slash

[linestretch 0]

over 500 on the 300's and 330's. LOVE THEM! Wish the DZ I'm at now uses them. In high winds, they were very reliable. (20+mph) I thought packing them was a breeze. No brake settings. Quite a few line twists, but never chopped one. But I don't think they are for everyone. If the TM is having landing issues on bigger canopies, this is NOT the canopy to for him/her.

editededed to add that the openings were the best ever!!!

my pics & stuff!

[AggieDave 6]

I've put only a handful of jumps on the mains, but it was enough to compare to my normal tandem main, the Sigma 370. Personally, I prefer the Sigma's openings and flare, although the Icarus does fly very nice.

My thought is this, though, without brake settings, line twists could be harder to get out of then on a tandem canopy that isn't in full flight already (has brake settings). This, however, is just my thought process and didn't experience line twists while flying an Icarus tandem canopy. I have had line twists a couple times under a Sigma and an old EZ, it wasn't that big of a deal, pulled hard, didn't even have to kick and we spun out of the couple twists.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[linestretch 0]

good point. I did have one incident where the line twists were pretty bad. And we ended up getting stuck with our backs to the wind, and I couldn't kick us around. The canopy was flying straight. I had to have the student kick with me. Thank god the guy spoke english. It took both of us. Pretty funny in hind sight.

my pics & stuff!

[bclark 0]

The Icarus 365 is far and away my favorite tandem main. I have jumps on SET 400's, EZ 385's, SIGMA mains. Our DZ has a couple of old Eclipses with Icarus, and all of our new Sigmas are coming with Icarus. We have 3 older Sigmas with Sigma mains and I would rather jump Eclipse then jump that P.O.S. (IMHO) Sigma main. Yes you do sacrifice a bit on the openings, which can be quite sporty, but they fly and land beautifully and I can always get a positive flare in turbulent conditions.

[Pablito 0]

I love the 330, I haven't had line twist on them and I like that they don't have brake settings. I've been jumping a few IC and SG370 and EZ 384s and they seem to work fine!!
Jump them then make a desicion, try them on no wind days on windy days and as make variables that are safe, that will give you a better idea

"If you don't overcome your fears they will overcome you first"
Shady Monkey/6Segundos Rodriguez/AKA Pablito

[ssmi 0]

We have 15 365s & a couple of 330s we jump in no wind and up to 25mph with very little problems. They do boil on opening more than some others but very few line twist and a very low % of cutaways. About 40% of our cutaways are TMs that have just started jumping an Icarus Main. Very low toggle pressure and seems to last as long or longer than most on the market. We have retired several @ 1500 jumps and still have life in them. We have tried PD's, Strongs and the Icarus works best for us.

Phil Chappell
Skydive San Marcos

[johan 0]

about 100 jumps on a BT80, 300 on a Icarus 365 and a couple on zigma. Icarus is the best no protest the non heqding openings is a minor problem when you get the pleasure of landing it.[www.tandemgruppen.nu]

Show life respect, in every aspect... Dont kill the fly...

[bps 0]

Hello --

I have 400+ jumps on Icarus 365 and 400 mains....and I also own an Eclipse with an Icarus 400.

I absolutely love the Icarus Tandem canopies. I like it over every other tandem canopy I've jumped (Sigma 370, Sigma 395, the EZ series, and beyond).

Openings are consistently soft, even with a field elevation of 5,500ft where I jump. Heading performance is always a question mark, but that doesn't bother me at all.

The real joy is in the super light toggle pressure. Flaring on your own requires little-to-no strength...I can do 12 tandems in one day and still feel fresh.

They fly and land great!

Bryan

[skytribe 17]

Aerodyne guys at Cross Keys this weekend. Drop zone has 20 or so SET 400's which I've found to be a pretty good canopy. In my opinion a better canopy then the EZ's but the Strong container does not look as modern or tidy as the newer other manufacturers. Functionality wise I've not a problem a with it.

However, picked up a rig not realizing the rigger had swapped the canopy and only upon opening did I realise it was the Aerodyne canopy.

Opened nicely - not too quick not too slow. Not sure about the square footage but glided pretty well - I was last out an had to make my way back to DZ. Stayed up with the SET's even though I was carrying a reasonable size guy on the front.

Toggle pressure was lighter than the most of the SET's and appeared to be a little more responsive to toggle input.

I didn't collapse the slider and it did flap around quite a bit making lots of noise. Collapsing a slider is not something I have to do normally with tandems - so wasn't really looking for the small pull tabs.

Flew the landing very similar to SET's. Sit in brakes on approach - let up on the toggles and let it recover and fly and flare. It landed softly and was easy to get a standup landing. The conditions were pretty condusive to good landings with a 5 - 10 mph wind.

Obviously only doing a single jump on it my experience was rather limited but it did leave a positive feeling. But I'd expect good performance out of any new canopy. The question comes how does the canopy fly after 400 - 800 jumps and/or a second lineset on them or if they go out of trim slightly.

Perhaps a DZ doing a few tandems wouldnt be a real issue but extremely busy operations may have concerns if performance chnages quite a bit over time.

Instructors like the new canopys and hate ones that are extremely slow or unpredictable openers, lack response and flare or are not 100% in trim.

Overall opinions from some of the other instructors was positive although similar comment that need to do many more jumps on it to really evaluate it.

[aubsmell 0]

Adrian,

The A2 you guys were jumping was a 389, just for your info. A few of the guys got at least one jump on it, and I know that isn't enough for a really good evaluation, but you may want to ask Marc, he got 7 or 8 on it on Saturday.

"Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it"