what canopy? for a new jumper

[charly 0]

i've got 120 jumps under my belt on a 230 spectre. i'm 6ft 4 and 16 stone (without my gear on) my dz said i'm ready to downsize to a 190? can anyone recomend a good canopy? i'm thinking of a 9 cell. when i'm more experianced can i swoop a 190 or is it too big?

PLEASE HELP

[danielcroft 2]

No suggestions here as I have NFI.

For convenience sake:

19 stone = 266 pounds = 120 kgs

230 ft canopy = 1.15 WL
190 ft canopy = 1.40 WL

[phoenixlpr 0]

???

16 stones? That's almost 254 lbs with gear. Ops.

[Gary73 10]

14 pounds per stone, so 16 stone = 224 lbs.
A rig that size is going to weigh 25 - 30 pounds, so yeah, exit weight around 254, which is about as much as most containers and reserves are certified for, by the way!

For what it's worth, USPA recommends keeping your wing loading at less than 1.0 pounds per square foot until you have at least 200 jumps, and then they recommend that you downsize by no more than 30 square feet at a time. How many total jumps do you have? At 1.1 PSF you may already be above the recommended wing loading for your experience level, in which case I wouldn't recommend downsizing at all.

There's a pretty good article by Bill von Novak in the Safety section. Don't downsize until you can comfortably do everything in the list on your current canopy.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=47

Having said that, I hear good things about the Pilot, Sabre2, and Silhouette, with appropriate wing loadings, of course.

As for the last question, yeah, you can swoop 'most any canopy, but don't expect to compete on the canopy piloting circuits until you're at a wing loading and flying a type of canopy that puts you one or two toggle-inches from disaster.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

[millertime24 8]

120 jumps you say? Sounds to me like your ready for a Velo 103.
But seriously, the Sabre2 190 is a fine canopy if you ask me.

Muff #5048

[Chubba 0]

Quote

i've got 120 jumps under my belt on a 230 spectre. i'm 6ft 4 and 16 stone (without my gear on) my dz said i'm ready to downsize to a 190? can anyone recomend a good canopy? i'm thinking of a 9 cell. when i'm more experianced can i swoop a 190 or is it too big?

Have you tried a 210 Sabre?

I've jumped both the Spectre and Sabre in the mentioned sizes (although loaded WAY lower) and I found a drastic difference between the 7-cell and 9-cell.

Landings were so much more fun on the Sabre, even loaded at 1.0 and a conservative flare you can surf them out.

[charly 0]

i've got 120 jumps. by the time i get a new rig (5 month wait on a mirage container) i'll be on about 180, maybe more. i'm from the uk. as stupid and strict as our rules are sometimes i'm suprised they didn't give me the info you did about the 1.0lb per square foot. i've got a canopy handling course coming up soon so i'll see how that goes.

many thanks for your advise

[charly 0]

its funny you should ask. today i tried a 210 sabre. man.........my first ride on a 9 cell. its way different to a 7 cell. alot more fun too!

cheers for the advice