Pilot 210

[billvon 2,991]

I got a chance to put a few jumps on a Pilot 210 at Lost Prairie as well. I made four jumps on it - two terminal, one wingsuit and one cross-country. Openings were excellent, which is par for the Pilot. It was about as manueverable with toggles as my Silhouette 170, which is my usual birdman canopy. The flare was fine once you got used to it; it requires nearly a full stroke to plane out, then you have an inch or two left to finish with. But at a .95 loading that's expected. Front riser turns were funny; I could hang on a front riser and the canopy would just gently turn in that direction, as if I had tugged on a toggle a bit. Very high front riser pressure, like other Pilots I've jumped. Stalls were a non-event; I could hang in very deep brakes for minutes on end barely stalled, and the canopy recovered instantly when I went back to half brakes.

So a nice alternative to canopies like the larger Sabre 2's and Silhouettes out there. About the same in terms of performance as some of the larger Sabre 2's I've tried, with a slightly better opening and lower toggle pressure in the turns.

[jas8472 0]

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Very high front riser pressure, like other Pilots I've jumped.

What others have you jumped? I've got a Pilot 168, loaded at about 1.2:1 and the front riser pressure doesn't seem high to me, a friend jumped mine and said the front riser pressure was lower than on his heatwave 170.

Jas

[billvon 2,991]

>What others have you jumped?

Pilot 132, 140 and 150.

[karlm 0]

I jump a Vision 124, loaded at about 1.5 - I find the riser pressure is OK when you first get on the risers, and the pressure builds up and is rather high towards the end of the dive.

The canopy even at that loading is conservative in the initial turn, and seems to slowly generate speed in the dive, not much of a radical whipping action, it also eases out of the dive nicely.

Now all I need to do is to learn to get on the rear risers ...

Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

[darkwing 5]

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... Very high front riser pressure, like other Pilots I've jumped. Stalls were a non-event; I could hang in very deep brakes for minutes on end barely stalled, and the canopy recovered instantly when I went back to half brakes...

My Pilot 168 (loaded at 1.45) has significantly less front riser pressure than my Spectre 190. I'm not much of a front riser user though, so it isn't an issue to me either way.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[DancingFlame 0]

Comparing canopies of different sizes is wrong thing. Try Spectre-150 and Pilot 150, you'll find they have similiar front riser pressure.
I thought Spectre has higher riser pressure than other canopies until I tried Spectre-135. It had really light pressure and it flew DAMN FINE! Not really slower or in any other way worse than Pilot-132 I demoed.