Same canopy different recovery arc

[gresende007 1]

Ok guys this one is weird but here goes:

A while back I was flying a Velo 96 and I had 2 rigs, both with VE96, one of them, lets refer to her as OR (she was orange) had like 1500 or more jumps, almost never wet, i was finishing her life span off. Fabric was very worn and the crispy layer was worn off, with meant it wasn't exactly "zero porosity" anymore. The other one, lets refer to her as BL (she was blue) had like 500 jumps and had been wet a couple of times but it felt way newer and even still a bit crispy. You could feel the crispy layer! 

So I had both canopies and I was doing 270's at the time and noticed right away a diference in recovery arc. Not a huge "immediate toogle stab" difference but a "50ft higher turn" difference. This messed with my head because the OR had a shorter recovery arc than the BL and a since OR was older and lost some of it's porosity I assumed it should be the other way around. I checked the line trim with my rigger and it was the same! I blamed it on lack of experience from my side and moved on.

Later I came to really love the JVX full sail 69 and wanted to get a backup one to train for comps in a constant environment. The thing is, my 69 had 500 jumps and was getting worn because sail doesn't last as long but the only one I found used at a good price was a 70 with 200 jumps, I figured I wouldn't notice the small diference. Wrong! The 70 seems to have a longer recovery arc than the 69. Whats happening! After discussing it with locals the longer lines of the 70 are the current most popular opinion but its like a 2cm overall difference in both from and rear lines. The 70 is a couple of years newer so maybe NZ changed the lineset a little bit. But then why does the VE96 also have the same problem? 

Thank you guys!

[richoH 6]

It can be a ton of things. If your risers have shrunk a few mm that can be a substantial trim change in the grand scheme of things.

I had 2 velo 84's on the same lineset, one opened noticably better, the other swooped measurably farther. Keep on top of it and try to get to the bottom of the reason, but don't lose sleep over it.

[skow 6]

DOM can also influence the way the canopy flies - basically older Velos are not exaclty the same as newer ones as there have been few versions (even if under the same name)

[skybytch 273]

 If the risers are equal, try jumping the same canopy in each rig; it could be harness related.

[evh 22]

The same thing happens every time my canopies get relined. Each time it has felt like a different canopy to me. Changes in riser pressure, recovery arc, the way it dives. And that's on a relatively big, slow Crossfire compared to the OP's velo's.

[JumpRu 14]

I had one velo 84 and it was flying totally different then 2 other 84 velocities. And that was not just recovery arch, but pretty much everything... Now i have only 2 regular velo 84 and fabric condition on those are very different but somehow they fly almost the same...

[skow 6]

18 hours ago, evh said:

The same thing happens every time my canopies get relined. Each time it has felt like a different canopy to me. Changes in riser pressure, recovery arc, the way it dives. And that's on a relatively big, slow Crossfire compared to the OP's velo's.

Somebody can correct if that's not true - but from what I've heard vectran lines, even though marketed as non-shrinkable, do actually shrink a bit after a while. This may be the reason for canopy flying differently

[evh 22]

Could be, I don't know. The point is that even tiny differences can have a noticable effect if you pay enough attention. Probably more so on smaller canopies and higher wingloads. 

[longwhitecloud 0]

Do you have the same length risers on each rig? For example having 26inch risers compared to 20 is going to increase the recovery arc. 

Also yes different DOM can mean a different version without necessary being aware of the changes. I had a 93 and 94 jvx. The 93 had stabilizers the 94 didnt. Fir some reason the 94  had a completely different feel to it and felt SO much bigger to fly then my 93. I could not work out why, the harness that the 94 was in was also a little small and uncomfortable for me maybe that also had a role to play.. there is so many factors and it is hard to pin point exactly but definitely gets ya thinking!