JVX review

[superstu 0]

I had a chance to demo Jim Slaton’s JVX 83 that he used during nationals and the one he won nationals with. First off I would like to comment on the canopy itself. Right when I got it out of the packaging and opened it up I noticed how small it seemed without any stabilizers, however after laying it over my vx84 (my regular main) they were pretty much identical in size. Next, I lined up the slinks and the lengths of the lines on the JVX were at least 1’ longer than my 84, almost comparable to my friends vx 89, and only slightly shorter than my other friends velocity 96. The nose construction is also different and the overall profile is thinner however, it’s not as noticeable to the naked eye, at least when it’s laying on the ground, in flight however it is very noticeable. Lastly the slider, the slider is absolutely huge, which has “some” influence on the openings.

Opening:
One of the first and most major differences one will find when jumping this canopy is the openings. It’s pretty much a 180 from the vx. I had multiple openings that sniveled well over 800 feet and opened up beautifully. However, it was almost to the point where it would open up too slowly, at one point on a hop n pop from 5k I finally was able to release my brakes after stowing everything at 3k and that was with a 3 second delay. I was able to kind of control the openings however with the way I left the nose and the slider. In short if the nose was covered a little bit by the slider then it would snivel for days. If I left the nose a little more exposed to the open air it would open quicker, but not uncomfortable. I did open at varying speeds from sub-terminal, to dumping in a track, to coming right out of a sit (still on belly when deploying). One last thing about the slider is that it’s an annoyance to stow because it’s so big, if it was removable it would be absolutely awesome. Over all I would give the openings an 8 out of 10.

Flight Characteristics:
This thing is an absolute missile compared to my vx 84! Just to give you an idea I was loading the canopy a hair over 2.2 and I was pretty much even in full flight with a velocity 96 loaded at 2.3-2.4, and compared to my friend under a vx 89 at 2.3 I was flying away from him. There is noticeably more speed with this canopy. In the harness this canopy is pretty twitchy compared to my 84 which might be because of having no stabilizers, but once you get a feel for it it’s nice. Toggle turns and rear riser turns seem pretty much the same.
The rear riser feel to this canopy is probably my favorite aspect of this canopy besides the speed. With the D lines being taught instead of slack like on the vx the feel for rear riser flying and landing has been dramatically increased. It feels like I have more potential lift at my disposal on the jvx then on the vx and this definitely comes into play when landing. Flying side by side one of my friends when utilizing rear risers it was noted that the “regular” kink that is in a canopy that is on rears isn’t there and actually the canopy is pretty much “flat as a board” as he says, which means to me that there should be less overall disturbance over the wing which means it should be more efficient in the end.
Diving the canopy was also fun as the speed produced is very noticeable. I did practice turns up high on the canopy (270’s) and found that I lost just a little more altitude then on my 84. I primarily used harness turn with a little bit of single front riser, and it should be noted that the rear riser pressure is heavier than the vx but the front riser pressure is pretty much the same, maybe just a hair less.
I will give fight characteristics about a 9 out of 10, it was a really fun canopy to fly and it’s definitely stable as we did get a 3 stack with a velo 96 and a vx 89.

Landing:
All I can say for landings is that they are fast, far, and make a crap load of noise coming in to land that will get the whole dz looking. As I said before the jvx lost a little more altitude than my vx 84 in a dive, so my first few turns were about 50-100’ higher than normal and in short I was planning out too high. On my 3rd jump I tried doing a turn at roughly the same height as my vx and found it to be perfect, while covering 300+ feet in a very short amount of time. I found out that even though this thing has so much more speed to it it does have more of a built in slingshot effect which almost helps you out/ shoots you out of the corner with very little input needed. I personally think this is a good thing because you can maintain maximum efficiency but still turn very high, then once planed out you can stay on the rears just a tad longer because of that new trim on the canopy. On average I was going about 300’ which is pretty much my norm for distance, however I only have 8 jumps on the canopy and I believe if I had an 87 and I was able to dial it in I would be going much further. Lastly, I felt the bottom end lift on this canopy is much better than my 84 and really wish I had an 87 to try out.
Overall I would give landing an 8.5 just because I think the canopy was a little small for me, but I see the potential within this canopy and had a blast flying it.

My overall impressions of this canopy are good, I like almost everything about the canopy and really think it would be hard to improve on it but who knows what we’ll see. I think this canopy is a definite upgrade from the vx and is one of the smoothest canopies I’ve ever flown.
The conditions were nearly perfect at 65 degrees and no wind.
one last thing, this canopy had a lot of jumps on it so it was not new and this was considered the last prototype before the production model. i don't know what's different about the production model.

For more specific answers please post the questions. Thanks…stu
I will also try and post some pics

Slip Stream Air Sports
Do not go softly, do not go quietly, never back down

[Jimbo 0]

Quote

With the D lines being taught instead of slack

Completely taught? No slack at all? And there's no tail deflection?

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[superstu 0]

When you look up at your lines on the vx you'll notice that when you pull down on your rears your D lines BECOME taught, so they have little bit of slack to them and that's why the rear riser pressure on a vx is less then a velo or jvx(someone correct me if i'm wrong). on a jvx the D lines are ALREADY taught or at least tighter then the vx, which increase the rear riser pressure which makes flying on the rears so responsive.
as for deformation of the tail, there doesnt' appear to be any deformation until you provide input of somekind. also, when you hit the toggles like on all canopies the D lines go slack but that's just cause you're mashing the tail inward.

one thing i forgot to mention was that on my vx when i was doing a harness turn for a long period of time building a lot of speed there was tail flutter, on the jvx there was none of that. this also probably do to the D lines. but i could be wrong

Slip Stream Air Sports
Do not go softly, do not go quietly, never back down

[Designer 0]

Very Cool,TY

[superstu 0]

Alright, I have some pictures, however they are too big to put on here so email me or PM me and i'll get them to you.

all pictures were take by "tictoc", if you want copies he'll be glad to send them to ya.

Slip Stream Air Sports
Do not go softly, do not go quietly, never back down

[superstu 0]

i've posted a 34 second video of 3 swoops on skydivingmovies.com under the landing section titled "jvx". it's not the best quality but you get the point.

www.skydivingmovies.com

Slip Stream Air Sports
Do not go softly, do not go quietly, never back down

[pilotdave 0]

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2127

Dave

[psychonitro 0]

nice swoops!

[Bartje 0]

Yes they are

A FreeFly Gypsy