Deleted 0 #1 March 20, 2001 hey all, you may call me retarded for this one ("okay, you're retarded." - beat you all to it), but I figured I would ask my own dropzone and as you are my dz away from my DZ, I am asking you.I fly a REALLY big ass floaty thing now (220ft2). I have flown a 195ft2(1x) and a 180ft2(reserve ride). In about 40-50 jumps I am looking to downsize. My question is...How much of a jump is considered appropriate?? Without answering my own question, I realise it all matters on comfort in ability. But, what sorts of jumps in sizes have you all made, say from off student status to now (as far as sizes per year/per 100 j's/per salary bonus$$, per whatever!)My most recent jump was -28ft2. Before that, it was -15ft2.Could I look at jumping to a 180ft2? Or lower?My ideal wing loading would be around the 150-170ft2 mark.I am trying to consider a canopy that is going to last me the longest amount of time, for the least amount of cost (i.e. if I can move to a 165ft2 and keep it for the next 1000 jumps), is this smart, or should I just make incremental jumps and never mind the $$ involved.Okay, all you "geeks" and D licences out there, fill me in with your knowledge!~!Cheers,Arohanui,BNZPF A-2584 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cyberskydive 0 #2 March 20, 2001 Hey Blaine! You know we have a variety of sizes that you can jump at the DZ. Most of the rental gear has Safires for mains now, with sizes ranging from 259 to 169 I believe. You know you are more than welcome to jump my 195 again (its still sitting unpacked in the gear room-LOL), I may be getting a whole other rig and my talon may be put into use as rental gear, but I'm not sure. So dont quote me quite yet. I did a jump on a Safire Sunday, you could do the same and move down the sizes to kinda see what your comfortable with. Just whats left of my senseD.Chisolm C-28534webmaster@sunraydesigns.comhttp://www.sunraydesigns.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stacy 0 #3 March 20, 2001 I don't understand what you mean by -28 ft2, etc... I'm guessing that's some sort of wing loading reference. This is what I did:Student jumps were on a 235 PD. I then started using a 230 Silhouette, then 210 Silhouette, 190 Sabre, 170 Sabre. I tried out a 160 Triathlon as well but didn't like it much so I went back to the Sabre.THese were all rental rigs from the DZ on my first 50 jumps. It might seem like a lot of downsizing for only 50 jumps, but all 50 were in the time span of about 30 days which kind of makes a difference. My thought was if I can land it comfortabley in any condition (down winders even) then it's prolly OK to downsize.THen buying gear comes into teh picture and it's based on cost efficiency too. My first canopy was a Falcon 175. It was affordable to me and it was a really safe first canopy, esp since I was packing it all the time. Easy to pack. a 175 ZP canopy may not have fit in my J2 as nicely.At about 115 jumps I wanted to start having more fun under canopy (the was about a month in a half after buying the first canopy, 3 months into the sport). I demoed a spectre, safire, crossfire (conservatively loaded @ about 1.2).. bought a spectre 150. This is a canopy I can see myself with for at least another 200 jumps. Then again, who knows if I'll be jumping more than I did last season, etc. That said, I recommend the incremental stages. Not buying a new canopy every 10 feet per se, but maybe try a demo program. SOme gear stores have them (Square 1,2,3 do I know) where you put money down towards a canopy and can demo sizes, etc for as long as you like basically. Call manufacturers and try stuff. PD and Icarus are great with demoing canopies. Hope this helps!Blues!Stacyhttp://astro.temple.edu/~sweeks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deleted 0 #4 March 20, 2001 to clarify, -28 means that I subtracted 28ft from my previous canopy. Has nothing to do with wing loading, but since you bring it up, right now I am at about .86 to about .9 on the 220ft2. Only prob is that it is F-111 and is quite beat up (bought it that way, but didn't realise just how much as I was also leaving the country that month and focused on other things)Cheers Stacy. Thanks for the info.Cheers D, I knew we had rental gear, am just looking for opinions. I can tell this post may disappear into oblivion by the end of tonight.Cheers,Arohanui,BNZPF A-2584 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybytch 273 #5 March 20, 2001 My first main was a worn out F111 Fury (220 sq ft) - my exit weight was about 175 lbs. then. I put about 300 jumps on that. Then flew a PD170 (all F111) (exit weight down to 160) for twenty jumps or so, then a worn out PD190 for another 150 or so. Then way too many on a 421 and 500... then a Sabre 170 for two and it's been a number of different zp 150's since then. But when I started jumping the Sabre was pretty new and considered to be very high performance so how I did it doesn't relate to what happens today.If you have access to rental gear in a variety of sizes I'd highly recommend using those to get yourself down to where you want to be. Like Stacy mentioned only go down to the next size when you are standing up every landing (even downwind) on the size you are jumping. pull and flare,lisa Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miked10270 0 #6 March 20, 2001 Hi Wmblaine,I'm guessing a bit here, assuming you're exit weight of about 195-200lbs? About 50-60 jumps?IMHO... If you were comfortable using a "190", the try a ZP170, say a Sabre (which does have forgiving landing characteristics). It's a fair jump from your 220 F-111 but not so much that you're likely to do much more than bruise yourself unless you REALLY screw up the landing.That said, treat it with respect!Mike D10270. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
