When's a good time...

[mike_brown 0]

To start jumping a 170 Katana?

I've purchased a second rig that contains a 170 Katana. I'm planning on swapping it out with a semi elliptical canopy like a 170 Sabre2 or a Safire2 169 until I can master the size differential.

I've been jumping a Safire2 189 at 1.08:1 wing loading.

My wing loading on a 170 will be about 1.18:1.

Any feedback is welcome, I am willing to learn.

[riggerrob 643]

How many jumps have you made?
How big was your student canopy?
How big was your first own canopy?
How many jumps did you make on it?
Were you able to complete all of Bill von's exercises on your first owned canopy?
How big was your second "owned" canopy?
How many jumps did you make on your second canopy?
Were you able to complete all of Bill von's exercise on your second canopy?

[mike_brown 0]

How many jumps have you made? 60
How big was your student canopy? 210
How big was your first own canopy? 189
How many jumps did you make on it? 30
Were you able to complete all of Bill von's exercises on your first owned canopy? Yes
How big was your second "owned" canopy? N/A
How many jumps did you make on your second canopy? N/A
Were you able to complete all of Bill von's exercise on your second canopy? N/A

Note: Taking canopy course next month on 189, do not plan on jumping the 170 until August to September. Plan on having 100+ jumps by then.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

These might be of help as you think this over:

"The Katana is a fully elliptical nine cell canopy that is the ride of a life time for the experienced canopy pilot. Warning: this canopy is not for the faint of heart."

Source:
http://www.performancedesigns.com/katana.asp

"As we mentioned in the introduction to this document, the Katana is intended for experienced canopy pilots. Most of the Katana’s performance characteristics are specifically tailored for jumpers who make high-speed “swoop” landings using modern high-performance approach techniques. These same performance characteristics tend to make a canopy undesirable for novice jumpers, or those who consider themselves conservative. Even if you have a relatively large number of jumps and have put considerable effort into developing your freefall skills, but not as much effort into developing your canopy skills, we may have other canopies that you will find more suitable than the Katana."

Source:
http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/KatanaFlightCharacteristics.pdf

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[mike_brown 0]

Glideangle,

That's a good answer. I have no problems leaving the Katana in climate storage for a good long while. Don't want to hurt/kill myself.

Thanks,

Mike Brown

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

Wow.... That may be the best return on investment of 10 minutes of my time that I have experienced in a long time.

Thanks!!!

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[mike_brown 0]

Lol, glad to hear it. I love the sport and the adrenaline, but I don't like pain. At all. Blue skies!

[Joellercoaster 6]

I would second that - PD aren't kidding when they say

Quote

Most of the Katana’s performance characteristics are specifically tailored for jumpers who make high-speed “swoop” landings"

This is just like, my opinion man. But the things that make it a total swoop beast also make it, in my relatively newbie opinion, a terrible canopy for the rest of us.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[mr2mk1g 10]

To be honest, it probably makes more sense to sell it rather than put it into storage and plough the funds released into jumping or one of the semi-ellipticals you're looking at.

Your canopy progression, unless you put on a lot of weight, is not likely to take you to a Katana 170 anyway. It's far more common for people to downsize and increase their wingloading, going via intermediate planforms, before they move to the a canopy of a design like the Katana. If that is the model you follow, it means in the future you might move to a 150 then maybe even a 135 and jump the shit out of each of those for a few years, changing planforms while staying at the same wingloading to a canopy in the direction of but not quite as hot as a Katana before maybe making the further step to something like a Katana later.

By then, will the 170 in storage be of any use to you or seem like a pointless upsize? And by then, will people still want to buy a Katana rather than the next thing on the market? Will you want to fly it rather than the new Megatron ACE (TM) that just hit the gear shops?

I think it's a cash asset that you're best off realising now as you'll probably get much better money from it now than you will in the future. It'll only depreciate sat in a cupboard due to changes in fashion/design. For example, I bought a basically brand new Stiletto last year with only 25 jumps on it even though it was 11 years old. I think I paid something like £250 for it. It'd been stored nicely and it's still a perfectly nice design but was still worth next to nothing in skydiving terms because newer stuff has come along and not so many people want them anymore.

[chuckakers 425]

mike_brown

Glideangle,

That's a good answer. I have no problems leaving the Katana in climate storage for a good long while. Don't want to hurt/kill myself.

Thanks,

Mike Brown

Now here's a guy who might actually be around for a while! BTW, remember that you NEVER have to jump a Katana if you don't want to. There's absolutely nothing wrong with jumping a more conservative canopy your entire career.

If you never jump a high performance canopy you will never die jumping a high performance canopy.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[Remster 30]

Quote

To be honest, it probably makes more sense to sell it rather than put it into storage and plough the funds released into jumping or one of the semi-ellipticals you're looking at.

This. Sell it, and use the money for other gear/jumping.

This being said, and not directed at the OP, I don't quite get the idea of a 170 KA... But this is for another discussion....

Remster

[craigbey 0]

Quote

I don't quite get the idea of a 170 KA

Even if you put AggieDave under it?

[yoink 321]

Sell the Katana and use the cash to purchase a canopy you can actually jump and learn on. When you're ready for a Katana, you can trade the wing you've put hundreds of jumps in against another one.




Doesn't make much sense to me to have all that capital just sitting around, and if it IS just sitting around, you'll always be slightly tempted... "well, as I've got it there..." and that's the path to the dark side.