Monarch

[pchapman 279]

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[...] [H]e often jumps it with a camera strapped to his head.

I'll second the notion that SOME Monarchs may open just fine, even if they GENERALLY are of the early generation of faster opening zero P canopies.

I know a middle aged lady who recently jumped a Monarch 155 for a few years and had no problems with hard openings, while packing it fairly normally (i.e., no super tight rolling). Some of us at the DZ were a little wary of it when she first got it, but it turned out well and I put some jumps on it too without problem.

[hookitt 1]

Which Monarchs are you talking about? There are 2 versions. The first one sucked and was barely off the starting blocks when it was discontinued. The second version opened a LOT slower. I've jumped many of them without being even remotely slammed.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[pchapman 279]

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Which Monarchs are you talking about? There are 2 versions.

Well, that's something I (and probably many others) didn't know about Monarchs...

[beezyshaw 0]

The difference between the first generation Monarch and the later ones is the early Monarch had no "lip" at the leading edge of the canopy. Later the lip was added to the front of the upper surface/ribs and it helped the openings a lot. Other than that the canopies' airfoils and linesets are identical. Precision updated many of the first Monarch canopies and it improved the openings of most of those canopies.

Note: The lip was added as a separate piece of fabric to the Monarch, rather than an extension of the upper surface. This was due to PD having a patent on their method of forming the leading edge of the canopy.

[skyblu3 0]

I put 100 jumps on a Monarch 155 that I used to own. It was the newer version the one that was supposed to open slower. It still opened very hard but with some practice you could tame it to a somewhat comfortable level.