Stiletto Spins?

[Dirtbiker 0]

I'm looking for a new high performance canopy. I like what I hear about the Stiletto. Rumor has it that if you open with line twist the canopy can go into a wicked spin leaving you with no choice but to chop it. Any stories or thoughts?
Dirtbiker

[PhreeZone 20]

Any elliptical canopy can easly spin on opening. Semielliptical canopies can do the same but it is harder to get the spin started.

What canopy are you jumping now? And at what loading? Have you learned to fly the opening or will you need to learn that?

The Stiletto earned the nickname Spinletto since it was the hotest thing around years ago and no one had to ever fly openings before and as such it caught an entire generation of jumpers off guard and led to a lot of spinning mals and chops when it surprized jumpers that were not expecting it.

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And tomorrow is a mystery

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[SkydiveMonkey 0]

I've read that canopies with very tapered leading edges (like the stilletto) are more prone to off heading openings and spinning mals than straight leading edge canopies. A friend of mine used to jump a stilletto 150 and a few times it's gone into line twists while the canopy was diving. I've learned recently it's very important to fly the opening.

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[diver123 0]

I just happen to have one for sale... PM to discuss...

"pull high! It's lower than you think..."

[Watcher 0]

The stiletto though has a tapered Tail, not a tapered leading edge. Its leading edge is pretty straight, the crossfire is the only canopy that I think markets the canopy as an elliptical leading and trailing edge. And a Stilletto is a great canopy on openings. The stories of a Spinnetto come more from the early days when it was first released because many people did not have square body positions on deployment or weighting the harness evenly. Since then people have become much better at being stable, and you do not hear the stories much anymore.

Jonathan

Jonathan Bartlett
D-24876
AFF-I

[maretus 0]

Uh ? I've always thought that stiletto has a tapered leading edge ? Look any picture of a stiletto and it doesn't look too straight in my opinion.

And to the original question : The stiletto is the sweetest opening canopy I've ever jumped. It is true that it is prone to start spinning if line twists occur but there's nothing one couldn't handle.

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[Kris 0]

Quote

The stiletto though has a tapered Tail, not a tapered leading edge.

Wrong, the Stiletto has a tapered leading edge. Here is a pic of mine when I had it hung up to install it.

As for the person who asked about the openings, spinners are possible on any canopy but are really easy to have on even a moderately loaded elliptical.

My experience with my Stiletto has been fabulous. I use a pretty trashy Psycho pack on it and I rarely get more than a few degrees off-heading, but the openings are butter-soft. I just make sure that I am level to the horizon when I deploy.

The few times I have had line-twists, it just sat there flat & level and waited patiently for me to catch up.

Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[Kris 0]

Here's a better picture of one in flight which shows the tail & nose better.

Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[cloud9 0]

Well I jump a Heatwave very similar to the stiletto and very recently had a malfunction cutaway that started as line twist. The canopy started spinning in the direction of the twist and I could not recover. However I don't think its prone to line twist anymore then anyother canopy. Just when you get them its iffy on recovering. The openings for the most part are great!

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

The outer 3 cells on the leading edge of stillettos are tapered. There are several "fully eliptical" canopies on the market - Cobalt, Samurai etc..

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Say no to subliminal messages

[skybytch 273]

Something else to think about. If it opens in a turn and you aren't "there" to take care of it... these canopies will keep turning until control inputs are given to stop the turn. It appears that the fatality at Perris was related to this - the jumper was said to be "limp" under canopy and the canopy kept turning all the way to the ground...

[Kris 0]

You raise a very good point, Lisa. After my last malfunction, which was a high-speed spinner, I could easily see how easy it could be to pass out from the force of the spin if I didn't either correct it or get rid of it.

Which also made me wonder about people who think that they should wait to get stable before opening their reserve if they have that type of mal. If they tried fighting the spinner for a while before chopping, they may not know which way is up or down until their inner ear stabilizes, which could take too much precious time.

Just doing more than three intentional fast spins on my Stiletto is enough to make me woozy for a couple of seconds.

Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[flipper 0]

I did 900 jumps on a stiletto 120, cant really fault the thing at all....had 2 mals on it, number one was a break locked on type thing....number two was spinning on opening....on both occasions....i didnt fuck around...just checked out the situation and chopped..

i think out of the900 or so jumps the thing had twists maybe a dozen times...so i found that you could get the twists out no problemo

i reckon that its a real good canopy that everypne should jump when there experience level is correct

flipper