Why are Mains BIGGER than RES ????

[Throttlebender 0]

whatever Jesse

Life expands or contracts in proportion to one's courage. ~Anais Nin

[livendive 8]

I believe it's Winsor who says "Nobody ever looks up at their reserve and thinks 'Damn I wish that was smaller'"

My current reserve is the smallest I've had in one of my personal rigs, at 160. My main is a 150. When I was routinely jumping a 99' main, my reserve was a 170. My tandem rigs have 330 mains and 360 reserves. Size your main for fun, size your reserve for landing in town with low light, while injured.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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SORRY just getting into skydiving and saving money for my AFF and have been looking at gear\ info etc and was just thinking
When you look at the size of peoples MAIN 220 etc and they have a 190 RES

Can someone Please Help me get my head around this thanks

( they say new jumpers should have a Main with 1.0 or 0.9 WL i'm 100kgs = 220lbs -- thats a 220 ish main but you never see a bigger RES )

Instead of selecting main and reserve sizes now, too many people buy rigs that they can "grow into." Others just prefer a smaller, sexier to safety margin.

I subscribe to the philosophy that both canopies need to be appropriate for your experience and the inherent physics of the situation. You'll be more likely to be landing your reserve off the drop zone (because you only have 1000-2000 feet left after a cut-away, or you just want to follow your main down), you'll be less familiar with it, and it won't land as well as more modern shapes at higher wing loadings.

So I have hundreds of jumps on a 105 main I'd be willing to land pretty much anywhere, and a few on a 143 reserve that I'd land pretty much anywhere.

[skyrider 0]

BTW. Amazon, they were talking parachute size, NOT thier weight!

[mchamp 1]

Main 120

Reserve 143

For info regarding lift ticket prices all around the world check out
http://www.jumpticketprices.com/dropzones.asp

[JerryBaumchen 1,436]

Hi Nick,

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today's rigs are designed upside down, the reserve should be on the bottom, not the top.

Back in the mid/late '60's the story going around was that the Soviets designed such a rig back in the '30's. They abandoned it due to too many fatalities. The 'story' went that the reserve would interfere/entangle with the main container too often when being used.

It might look great but function trumps looks everytime. Oh, wait this is modern skydivers; I take that back.

JerryBaumchen

[Amazon 7]

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BTW. Amazon, they were talking parachute size, NOT thier weight!

BTW Gypsy

From the OP

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( they say new jumpers should have a Main with 1.0 or 0.9 WL i'm 100kgs = 220lbs -- thats a 220 ish main but you never see a bigger RES )

Based on that.. he is at LEAST 250 out the door and as a newer jumper square footage puts him into the reserve sizes I listed.

[crotalus01 0]

Main - 189
Reserve - 218

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

[BillyVance 34]

Triathlon 120
Tempo 120

That's as low as I want to get on either one.

However, as I get older and the time comes to replace my gear, I'm probably going to upsize.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[jurgencamps 0]

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But never forget that you may have to land a canopy you are not familiar with in a very small, less than ideal landingspot.

BTW: main Velocity 90, reserve Tempo 150

[Cheach 0]

Main: 150
Reserve: 190

I woke up next to a blowup doll Ash....so what do you think?

[Floflo 0]

Main: Katana 107
Reserve: Techno 115. It flies so slowly compared to my main it feels much bigger.

[millertime24 8]

Main: Pilot 150
Reserve: PDr 160. The reserve flies like a 190 IMO.

Muff #5048

[billvon 3,070]

Re - comments about how a reserve "flies bigger."

Some canopies "fly big" and some "fly small." The Silhouette, for example, "flies small" and many people who were unhappy with their Sabre1 150 were perfectly content with their Silhouette 150.

However, this does not greatly affect their stall speed, which is often the important criteria when one has to land downwind or in a poor area. So a reserve that "flies big" may feel quite different than one that "flies small" - but may not be significantly safer to land off-field or downwind.

[millertime24 8]

Good point. While my landing was not off the airport it WAS off the lz. I believe there should be more programs available too for people who want to fly their model reserve just to get them comfortable on it for when they do have to use it.

Muff #5048

[billvon 3,070]

>I believe there should be more programs available too for people who want
>to fly their model reserve just to get them comfortable on it for when they
>do have to use it.

PD regularly does such demos; they are available both at boogies and via their demo program.

Also a few places have three-canopy rigs where you can get experience with the entire cutaway-reserve procedure. I believe UPT has a few they use for Skyhook demos.

[Airman1270 0]

...I don't know of anyone who has ever looked up at their reserve and thought "damn, I wish that thing were smaller."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Yes, Bill. Nearly two years ago, my fourth reserve ride and my first under a square. Had recently "downsized" to a 220 main, but learned I can handle a 190.

Cheers,
Jon S.

[NickDG 23]

I think what people forget (or never realize) is if you have a malfunction under a reserve the bigger it is the bigger malfunction it will handle without killing you. A broken line (or a few,) a blown out seam (or a few,) an uncontrollable turn (or a spin,) is always best survived under a bigger canopy. In B.A.S.E. jumping many think we jump big canopies for better landing performance. But the truth is when you only have one canopy to begin with . . .

NickD

[thrillstalker 0]

210 main
218 reserve

"Never grow a wishbone, where your backbone ought to be."

[brettski74 0]

I currently am jumping a Samurai 136 with a PDR-160 reserve, so my reserve is bigger than my main, although I must admit, when I first bought it, my main was a Sabre2 170, but everything else I've put in that container has been smaller than the reserve.

[aeroflyer 0]

Mine's also bigger. 168 main 193 reserve.

[KrisFlyZ 0]

Reserve 176
Main 170

I did start with a 190 main. The PD Optimum is available now in the bigger sizes. Standard rig sizing is not so much of an issue these days. One can get a big reserve and still plan for the next smaller size main when buying a custom rig.

[DocPop 1]

Main 135
Res 143

"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

[Rick 67]

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Reserve 176
Main 170

Same here 170 Spectre main PD176 reserve

The reserve handles just like the main

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[brucet7 0]

Same here. Main 230, Res 253

POPS #10623; SOS #1672