PA Fusion Owners

[AviationTD 0]

Any PA Fusion owners out there? Just got couple questions.


New Fusion owner (used) here.

[theplummeter 15]

I have been on a Fusion for a couple seasons now. What do you want to know?

[flyboy6554 3]

Was jumping a Fusion 150 for two seasons.....go ahead and ask.

[grue 1]

AviationTD

Any PA Fusion owners out there? Just got couple questions.


New Fusion owner (used) here.

On my second one currently, been jumping them since '05. What's up?

cavete terrae.

[AviationTD 0]

Haven't jump my Fusion yet, but probably will within the next few weeks. I did my research on this canopy and found conflicted answers. Thought that I would ask here and get straight answers. Reviews in "Gear" section indicate that Fusion is known for nasty off-heading openings. Comments in this forum indicate that they do not have this issue. Need to know where you stand on this. How do you pack your canopy? Pro? Psycho? Precision? Or flat? I also wanted to know if there is any dangerous gimmicks that I need to look out?

[stayhigh 2]

All the fusions that I've seen, they open really nice.

The opening quality really depends on the jumper's perception. What I call good might be horrible for you.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[theplummeter 15]

I psycho pack mine into a semi-stowless bag (Rigging Innovations). The canopy sometimes will hunt for a heading during the last portion of inflation, I have learned to steer gently with harness pressure only and I get better results. On normal jumps I get nice openings on a heading better than 80% of the time. I do get line twists infrequently with my Fusion on wingsuit jumps, but I have never had to cut away the canopy (just over 300 jumps on it now). It stays stable while I kick out, and hasn't ever tried to dive in twists. This stability is specifically why I chose the Fusion over a Nitron or Nitro, although I had better openings on a same size Nitron without the wingsuit.

While the openings are occasionally off heading, from the first opening until the last one I had I have never had a hard opening (not even a firm one). The openings are incredibly consistent in terms of softness and altitude used. I had a Stiletto before this canopy and really appreciate the opening consistency and stability if it does twist.

With a little over 300 jumps on the canopy it still looks almost new, the lines are not showing any wear, and I'm learning a lot about canopy flight.

[AviationTD 0]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Since I couldn't hold my excitement in, I took advantage of nice, but rare weather yesterday to test out my Fusion. I have been flying F-111 canopies since the inception (with the exception of Sabre 2 (rental) at one point). It was a bit started for me to look up and watched Fusion taking sweet time before becoming fully inflated. In term of hunting for a heading, my canopy was all over the place on first jump. I read your post and took your "advice" before the second jump. With the harness pressure, I saw a huge improvement in hunting.

The softness of the openings blew my mind away. I'm used to brisk openings. Even when comparing to Sabre 2, the Fusion opening are unquestionably and unmatched.

Canopy control is incredibly fun for me, and I only begun to scratch the surface. It is probably more fun for me than rest of you guys because I have been flying F-111 canopies. And they are definitely dull in comparison.

At this point, I went with Pro packing, but will try other types of packing to compare the result.

I definitely look forward to countless jumps in Fusion.

Blue Skies

[theplummeter 15]

AviationTD

Thanks for sharing your experience. Since I couldn't hold my excitement in, I took advantage of nice, but rare weather yesterday to test out my Fusion. I have been flying F-111 canopies since the inception (with the exception of Sabre 2 (rental) at one point). It was a bit started for me to look up and watched Fusion taking sweet time before becoming fully inflated. In term of hunting for a heading, my canopy was all over the place on first jump. I read your post and took your "advice" before the second jump. With the harness pressure, I saw a huge improvement in hunting.

The softness of the openings blew my mind away. I'm used to brisk openings. Even when comparing to Sabre 2, the Fusion opening are unquestionably and unmatched.

Canopy control is incredibly fun for me, and I only begun to scratch the surface. It is probably more fun for me than rest of you guys because I have been flying F-111 canopies. And they are definitely dull in comparison.

At this point, I went with Pro packing, but will try other types of packing to compare the result.

I definitely look forward to countless jumps in Fusion.

Blue Skies

I started out on F111 Mantas and put a handful of jumps on a Raven 4 as a main before I ever got to jump a ZP canopy.

Try finding someone to show you a psycho pack if you don't already know how to do it. It improved my openings on the Fusion a bit, the stowless bag make a big difference in my opinion.

I also ordered brass grommets for the slider as recommended by George Galloway at Precision. He said they have had much better openings on the Technora lines with brass grommets.

Enjoy the canopy, it's a great one, as are most of the canopies on the market today.

[rjangra 0]

theplummeter

I psycho pack mine into a semi-stowless bag (Rigging Innovations). The canopy sometimes will hunt for a heading during the last portion of inflation, I have learned to steer gently with harness pressure only and I get better results. On normal jumps I get nice openings on a heading better than 80% of the time. I do get line twists infrequently with my Fusion on wingsuit jumps, but I have never had to cut away the canopy (just over 300 jumps on it now). It stays stable while I kick out, and hasn't ever tried to dive in twists. This stability is specifically why I chose the Fusion over a Nitron or Nitro, although I had better openings on a same size Nitron without the wingsuit.

While the openings are occasionally off heading, from the first opening until the last one I had I have never had a hard opening (not even a firm one). The openings are incredibly consistent in terms of softness and altitude used. I had a Stiletto before this canopy and really appreciate the opening consistency and stability if it does twist.

With a little over 300 jumps on the canopy it still looks almost new, the lines are not showing any wear, and I'm learning a lot about canopy flight.

I am having the same issue with my Fusion 150. On first 4 jumps found the canopy always turning 180 right once it is almost inflated. On the 5th jump it spun me 360 (to the right). The only thing that I changed on this jump was the first stow was Right instead of the Left.

I jump the same configuration as you are jumping - RI semi-stowless bag. Does your canopy always turn in one direction or the direction of turn is random? Have you seen any changes in heading depending on if your first stow is on the left or right? Haven't tried Precision Packing (Pysco packing) the canopy as I found it almost unmanageable to roll it into a bundle.

Any ideas/recommendations that I can try to have consistent on-heading openings? I will practice Psyco pack and hope I am able to try that when I jump next time, which might not be before another month.

I had perfect on-heading openings every single time when I jumped a rental Fusion 170. Never had any heading issues with whatever canopies I have jumped so far, except for Demo Sabre2 150 which hunted for heading on a couple of jumps.

[theplummeter 15]

My canopy rarely turns on opening any more but if it does it seems to be random.

I psycho pack and do nothing to the nose other than aligning the cells during the normal flake, and then pull them all straight and even again when the canopy is on the ground waiting for me to pull the tail around and prepare for the roll. I have alternated which side I use for the first locking stow for the bag but didn't notice any difference. I use large rubber bands and double stow the first two locking stows with about one and a half inches of bight.

I can't say for sure if the canopy broke in, my packing technique is helping, or if the container change helped out but the minor issues I had at first seem to have cleared up.

I hope that helps.

[rjangra 0]

Thanks for the information. Will try to Precision Pack and see if that helps. Trying to reach Precision to see if they have any recommendation. Plan on making couple of jumps with my rigger, to see what's going on at deployment time.

[flyboy6554 3]

Guys, I had a used Fusion 150 I jumped for a season and a half and although I loved the way it flew and landed the openings were a consistent horrifying spiraling downward right hand spin....scared the heck out of me and tried everything to fix it....had multiple riggers check it out etc.....etc......almost had to chop it twice and finally sent it back to George Galloway hoping he could fix it....he just replaced it with a brand new Nitron......which I absolutely love!! So good luck with the Fusion....if you can make it work it is a really nice flying canopy, but I just don't know what to say about the openings.