Mamba anyone?

[shellm1 0]

Has anyone got any experience with the Aerodyne mamba? any views/opinions on it ..??
am thinking of test jumping one ...

any thoughts?

---------
"Life is an adventure, dare it"
Mother Teresa.

[slotperfect 7]

Forum Search Results

Arrive Safely

John

[Tink1717 2]

The one I jumped as a demo had a very sweet opening, but was all down hill after that. My Katana flies and lands much better.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[MB38 0]

Check out the swooping/canopy control forum. I've read through several threads on the canopy over there.

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[shellm1 0]

thanks john

---------
"Life is an adventure, dare it"
Mother Teresa.

[shellm1 0]

thanks too! will check out the forum you guys have mentioned

---------
"Life is an adventure, dare it"
Mother Teresa.

[hjelle 0]

It is probably wise to put a little bit more than a couple of jumps on a new canopy before you can make a qualified judgement on how it performs compared to a canopy you are very familiar with.

For those interested; here are my two cents on how the Mamba compares to the Katana. I have over 1000 jumps on the Mamba 96, and approx. 1500 on the Katana 97. Besides my teammates, I believe no one has more jumps on the Mamba. However, this is in no way an unbiased view, as I am currently sponsored by Aerodyne, and was prevously sponsored by PD.

The Mamba has superior openings compared to the Katana. In over 1000 jumps I have not had a single hard opening on the Mamba. The canopy has a long snivel phase, much longer than the Katana`s, and a soft inflation. Mostly every opening is on heading or 90 degrees off at the most. The opening characteristics of the Mamba are very similar to the Crossfire 2. In my opinion, the openings are the biggest difference betwen the Katana and the Mamba. The Katana has a shorter snivel phase and a much quicker inflation, with a considerably higher percentage of off heading openings. I have had my share of hard Katana openings.

The Katana and Mamba have similar flying characteristics and both are great fun to fly. However, there are some notable diferences; the Mamba has a slightly higher front riser- and toggle pressure and is definitely more sensitive to harness input than the Katana. The Mamba beats the Katana hands down when it comes to glide ratio; easy to see when you are flying a Mamba next to a Katana trying to get back to the DZ from a long spot. The recovery arch of the two canopies are very similar, but the Mamba has more flare power.

In my humble but biased opinion; the Mamba is a superior canopy to the Katana. It is hard to go up against a company like PD, that has such a stellar, and well deserved, reputation for making great canopies, but I think the Mamba will be a more than worthy contender to the Katana.

[Dazzle 0]

I've just had my Kat 107 relined with HMA (standard now) and the openings have changed massively. It is now a much more snively canopy.

Previously I'd have said it was on the brisk side of perfect, now it's gone to the other side (similar to the few Crossfire jumps I've done) Not too long but getting there. Quite controllable during the snivel, the inflation so far (20 jumps) seems more variable but slower as well (is this possible with a lineset change?)

Not managed to try the Mamba yet, hopefully in a couple of weeks.

[Professor 0]

Quote

(is this possible with a lineset change?)

Pretty much anything is possible with a lineset change. If the old lines were out of trim, or if PD tweaked the trim slightly, then you've essentially got a different canopy. Also, if the old lines were spectra, they may have been slicker than the hma lines, which would have let the slider come down faster.

Ted
Like a giddy school girl.

[proswooper 2]

Quote

but was all down hill after that. My Katana flies and lands much better.

i did a back to back comparison jumping the kat107 and the mamba104 for 14jumps and i found that the mamba swooped consistently 70-80feet further than the katana. I had a lot more katana jumps at that point and the conditions that day were no winds at sea level. the mamba was a lot more responsive to toggle input and riser pressure was higher.

I would be interested to know why you felt it was all down hill after the opening?

[Tink1717 2]

My impression was that under risers (both front and rear), the performance and flight characteristics were essentially the same. It was the behavior under the toggles that I found objectionable. Specifically, the tendency to make a minimum of 90 degrees of over-steer after a deep toggle input. The degree of counter steering needed to compensate for this was time consuming and made the flight more difficult to manage. What I mean is the more inputs you have to make, the longer a given maneuver takes this is fine up high, but down low it can put you behind the curve. Secondly, if you compensate for this by not counter steering but slowing the entry and exit of the toggles, you still are wasting time.

Maybe if I had one for more than a day I might feel different, but I don't see myself doing that any time soon.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[proswooper 2]

i understand completely. the toggle response is just something to get used to. im not big on toggle turns at anypoint in my flight plan so oversteer from toggle input is not something i am confronted with much. During R&D testing on the mamba i found the oversteer a little more than the katana which is still a lot by most standards. it is not a canopy for everyone.

thanks for taking the time to reply.