EAerodyne

Yes that is pretty accurate. The mamba was released to compete with the Crossfire and Katana. The Vision, has very light toggle and riser pressure, is trimmed flatter & doesn't dive quite as much after a turn. I'd say comparable to the Pilot. When jumping it for the first time, the first thing you will notice, is it doesn't have a very long snivel during the opening, this gives the sensation that the opening is quick, however timing the openings on video, they are pretty much the same as other canopies from Aerodyne. The shorter snivel, tends to not put so much emphasis on steering the canopy through the opening sequence to keep it on heading, and allows for more consistent on heading openings. Which for an elliptical canopy is a nice plus. It has been very successful in Europe and we've seen that trend migrate recently to the US. Possibly due to putting out a few demo's on the Aerodyne Travelling Demo Tour, which has probably sparked some interest. .... anyway our sales of the product have picked up in the US, and we felt that it was appropriate to start marketing it a little more, seeing it has been well received by those that have purchased them so far and based on it's popularity in Europe. Hope that answers your questions... if you would like to try a demo, give Karl or Sandy a call, they'd be happy to help you out. blue ones Bushman

Aerodyne is currently quoting 10 weeks custom, but at present are delivering in around 8-9 weeks. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to further assist you. Blue Skies Aerodyne Research

Travelling to as many dropzones and dealing with jumpers as a tour rep during my days at PD, I've actually noticed that most jumpers have one brake line more twist up more than the other, (especially in windy area's) My theory. ... (as twisted as it might seem) When you land in a windy enviroment, most jumpers, pull one toggle down while releasing the other just after they have control of their weight on their feet, and turn/spin under the risers to face the canopy and make sure it flies nose first into the ground. Then stow their brakes ... complete with one twist in the line that is attached to the toggle in their hand. (left handed people tend to go one way ... right hand the other) It doesn't take more than a couple jumps to see signficant twists in the line..... with the heat generated by friction of the slider racing down your microline, shrinks the fibres in microline.... those that have a twisted edge against the slider, will eventually become set in their twist, regardless of how many times you untwist them. like I said........ a twisted theory!

By ;heading up", do you mean like supervising seamstresses? Having bought a few Aerodyne canopies over the years, and gotten great customer service under Bill Hazlett, I was surprised last year to find out there was no US repair facility other than a suggestion for a certain master rigger. The folks who build parachutes full-time generally sew better and quicker than riggers, and cost one hell of a lot less per hour. Blues, Dave Dave, we actually have the same facility (Aero-Tech) which makes the ICON in DeLand and who also builds canopies for EIFF, do our repairs. I am not sure who told you that there was no repair facility in the US, but that really isn't the case. Patrick's job, is to co-ordinate the repairs between the facility in DeLand (Aero-Tech) and customers and to assure that there is someone with the correct qualifications, that can answer customer queries regarding their repairs, the time to administer the repair, as well as liase with the engineering dept, should there be a need to do so. I hope this clears it up for you. Kind Regards Bushman

If you do indeed have a friend who had a negative experience, I'd very much like to hear about it. As CEO, I make it my personal goal of striving for our company to reach the absolute best customer service possible. It is at time unfortunate that someone goes through issues such as Northern experienced, and we (Aerodyne) have apologized to him, and have compensated him for his negative experience with us. However, one should not side step the good customer service that Aerodyne customers receive too. We hear repeatedly of people being over the moon with our customer service & products, and whilst we deplore poor customer service, sometimes we too, like any other company in the world just flat drop the ball on something. As mentioned at the start of this post, if you do have a friend with a problem, please have him pm or call me personally. Many thanks Bushman

Dear Jeff, as president and CEO at Aerodyne Research, it is extremely important to know that our customers are being taken care of. Our customers, their opinions, experiences and their orders with Aerodyne are extremely important to me and to our company as a whole. While it is true that we have been going through growing pains, (mostly starting afresh just 12 months ago and having to get 2 new manufacturing facilities up, running & delivering product). As the man in charge, the responsibility for your torrid experience with our company lies firmly on my shoulders, and I'd like to offer my sincere apologies for any and all inconveniences you experienced, with such a minor repair. The reason for bringing Patrick on board as our in house rigger (master rigger) is to avoid the experience you just described. I can ensure that I am personally committed to providing every customer with the absolute best experience when dealing with Aerodyne, and Patrick, will play a big part in that, by heading up our repair dept, and being committed to our customers repair and technical needs. Once again I apologize for the poor experience with our company and hope that my staff, has taken care of your situation. If not, please do not hesitate to contact me personally. We hope that your canopy flies a lot better than when you sent it to us, and that you haven't missed too much of the beginning of your skydiving season. Kind regards & Blue skies Bushman

Dear Chris, Please could you provide me with the following information so I may better address your problem: Weight out the door field elevation of your drop zone where you jumped type of Pilot chute (ZP or F1-11) Line type on your canopy (Microline or Dacron) Many thanks

I though I'd add my 2 cents to this as well :-) The stock sale was for older stock canopies sitting on our shelves since 2005, because of bizarre colour schemes (sometimes ordered incorrectly by customers then put into stock with the off chance of selling them) Or smaller canopies also sometimes ordered by customers, and produced, but when investigating further, find the customer is not suited to be jumping at such a wing loading and then added to stock in the event that someone may sell them. As for resale value.... basically, we can't build pilots fast enough. We are producing as many as we can right now and the demand is absolutely higher than ever before. Due to this scenario, we have been unable to stock our shelves with the most popular sizes and colours, as the slots in production which were reserved for stock, have been changed to custom orders, in an order to keep delivery times down, and still get product out the door. The last thing I think you need to be concerned about is that you can't sell your Pilot, and that the value has decreased. This is absolutely not true, and as mentioned above, the demand far out weighs our production capacity at present. The canopies sold on sale were a clear out of older, smaller canopies that had been sitting on our shelves for close to 2 years and hadn't moved due to colour combinations, or size. What are we doing about the increased demand. I leave for South Africa on Monday to further evaluate the possibility of adding 2 new automated cutting tables and increased floor space so as to add new machines and seamstress's... as always I am 100% committed to improving our delivery times to customers, whilst not dropping the quality we have worked so hard to achieve. For those of you waiting on your new canopies from Aerodyne and reading this post. Production times are coming down fast, and we have increased production capacity by 17 % over the past month by means of a total reshuffle of our production floor to achieve more effeciency. Thank you for your patronage, and we hope you are flying your new Aerodyne canopies very soon. Kind regards and blue skies

Hi Nick, A picture of you with the rig on would be far more helpful, than the one posted. The cut in laterals are standard on our smaller icons as requested by the majority of jumpers jumping them, (we try listen to the customer and give them what they want) We used to have the rig without the cut in lateral, however we had complaints that it wasn't offered. A Harness that is made for you, will always be more comfy than a harness made for someone else. although you guys might be quite close in size, you could fall into the next harness size category, by being a mere centimeter taller than him, or heavier than him. Hard to say really.... best we could do is for you to have you take your measurements, and see what harness size you should be, compare it with what you have and if you'd like replace the harness on that rig for you. Harness change will cost you 300 dollars and should take around 3-4 weeks to get back to you. Kind regards

Hi Dan, did you manage to license the X-brace technology from Bill Coe? I believe that patent is still valid, and building this in the US and distributing it in the US could be in violation of that patent. Unless, you have somehow got around the patent issues, (hard to tell from the photo) Kind Regards Bushman

Hi Grant, Looking at your rig my man, I feel quite confident that your rig fits you pretty well. Especially after looking the picture of you in freefall. Agreed, there is a small kink in your main lift web, but nothing for you to be concerned about and nothing out of the ordinary. Could Another centimeter in your lateral reduce the kink? Probably! However your rig fits you fine. Get skydiving! :-) Kind regards Bushman

The reason we discontinued it was due to the fact that it was no longer selling very well. Those that bought them loved them and there are those that owned them that wish we'd build them again. However, the design didn't sell that well believe it or not.... around about 30-40 canopies a year.... to give you a comparison, we sell approximately 1500 Pilots a year. There is so much more to continuing a dying canopy like that, such as maintenance etc, materials that we no longer use that have to be stocked to maintain it, build etc. It just doesn't weigh up in the end. Aerodyne Research still owns and excercises the rights to that canopy and we at present have no intention of ever selling them or licensing the design. I am happy to hear that people loved the canopies they had... However it is a canopy that we will probably not release again in it's original form. That doesn't mean we don't have a canopy in R&D that is due to replace the high performance 7 cell void in our line up right now... but it's a ways off the mark from being released at present. Hope this helps quell the rumours and the questions. have a good weekend Kind regards Bushman

Hi Kim, there is another post called miniforce in this forum that would perhaps help answer your questions. Kind regards Bushman

Actually, this was invented at Aerodyne before I was asked on board as CEO here. However perhaps I can throw some light on the topic. The basic concept is that (and most people agree) that the leverage effect of larger 3 rings vs smaller (mini) 3 rings is less. Not only that the tolerances in manufacturing are less as well. However, consumers are not really interested in buying a nice tiny small new H/C and putting gigantic rings on the rig in an order to reduce cutaway forces....there was a period around the time the miniforce was developed where high cutaway forces were being found on most H/C's in the industry and they seem to have gone away of late. Perhaps it was that everyone has moved to hard inserted housings in the cutaway channel. Perhaps it is that there are less reported (for what ever reason) reports of violent spinning malfunctions. Perhaps this is addressed in the latest canopy designs. I know for sure that it was on our list of criteria in developing the Mamba. The idea behind the miniforce is to have the same leverage effect of a large 3 ring (middle ring) but on a small (mini) 3 ring system. The length created by the miniforce design adds to the leverage effect, and thus reduces the forces needed to cut away. In the support section of the Aerodyne website, under the drop down menu "articles" there is some documentation that may offer you more reading material if you are interested. Kind regards Bushman

Top and bottom skins are ZP, but the ribs are 0-3 cfm I was referring to R&D canopies that have zero porosity ribs as well. However inflation is no where near as smooth and as consistent. hope this clears it up regards Bushman

We currently have pilots in active R&D (active meaning currently being jumped) that are fully zero porosity, however the openings are not as nice as on the existing pilot and they remain tougher for inexperienced jumpers to pack consistently. We are in 2 minds as to where we go with the project. However for right now, we can't keep the existing design on our shelves, so perhaps it'll be something to explore at a later date. From most response's we get people are satisfied with the existing design and performance of the PILOT as it stands. Kind Regards Bushman

At this point I am not sure we will be able to offer a retro fit, due to the change of the RSL to the other side, as well as the work we may have to do with the collins lanyard. Although we expect we will have less work to do on fitting the skyhook to the ICON than Sun Path had, we at this point are not sure we will be able to offer a retro fit in the field. We maybe able to offer it as a factory retro fit option, but this will have to be determined still. Thanks for the positive questions and feedback via PM to all those that have written to me. I appreciate hearing what the riggers in our community have to offer. Kind Regards Bushman

During the recent PIA symposium, in Reno NV. Aerodyne Research signed a licensing agreement with Bill Booth to install the Skyhook on the ICON. Aerodyne's technical team will meet with Bill Booth in the next 10 days to discuss the complexities (if any) of fitting the Skyhook to the ICON. Aerodyne has been working on a similar concept up until now, but feels that with the skyhook already having become a marketable and tested product, that licensing the skyhook from Bill, is an easier and more cost effective solution. I am very proud to announce the coming of the skyhook to the ICON, and would like to thank Bill Booth for his efforts in making this happen. Bushman

Also new at PIA: Aerodyne Research signed a licensing agreement with Bill Booth to install the Skyhook on the ICON

Hi Terry, it would seem that whom ever assembled your rig has done a great job by finger trapping your brake lines which definitely makes it neater and look nicer. However it would seem that the tail end of the finger trapped line has escaped through the braid and is sticking out. A good rigger with a finger trap tool should be able to have you sorted out in minutes..... this usually happens when the line at the end is cut off squarely and not at a sliced angle. The sliced angle not only makes the line stronger where it ends inside of the other line (a squarely cut line makes the outside line weaker by a small amount) but it prevents it from slipping out between the braid of the outside line. Hope this makes sense...... wishing you all the best with your new Pilot Kind regards

Could I please ask what email address you sent your request to at Aerodyne? It concerns me that you did not get a reply. Many thanks in advance for your response. Kind regards and blue skies

Rick, I am confused as to where I said anything negative about PD or hybrid canopies. My company builds a variety of hybrid canopies, such as the Triahtlon hybrid and the A2. Hybrid canopies have a place in the market place and as you mentioned are easier to pack.... they don't do very well when getting to high wingloadings and or small surface area's. I still stand by my comment some years back that a hybrid canopy is a better solution than a canopy built entirely from 0-3 cfm. I at no point in my response, say anything negative about hybrid's other than they should be cheaper as half of the fabric used costs half as much as zero porosity. (have a look at the price of an A2 vs a Sigma for example in price comparisson) I didn't back stab anyone .. I merely stated the facts that a Pilot and a Silhouette are not closely the same even in physical properties... let alone flight charachteristics. I have the utmost respect for PD, their products and their staff, they are a top notch company, and i still have a lot of friends and aquaintances there. Regarding the Pilot you managed to stall at chest level, I suggest you get that canopy back to us for an inspection or line change, as there is obviously something seriously wrong with it... they don't stall that easily. Most of all Rick, read my thread again bud, I never dissed PD, or hybrid canopies...I clearly offered a direct comparisson to a silhouette, which it had been suggested was the equivalent canopy to the Pilot. Kind regards

Comparing apples to apples would mean comparing the canopy in all aspects..... The Pilot has both a zero porosity top skin and bottom skin, the Silhouette has a zero porosity top skin and a F1-111 bottom skin. F1-11 typically has a shorter life span than Zero Porosity. Having jumped both I would have to say that they have distinctly different characteristics. The Silhouette doesn't come in the same range of sizes either, this due to the higher stall points that start manifesting themselves on higher wingloaded silhouettes. Whilst the Pilot is sold in as small as a 104. The Pilot also offers you a wider variety of sizes to choose from than the Silhouette. Meaning you can choose a canopy more suited to your ideal wingloading. Despite the above facts the Pilot is built out of more expensive materials (Zero Porosity is almost double the price of F1-11) The pilot is both cheaper to the customer and the distributor than the silhouette. ='s more skydiving Bill Von, is probably one of the the most respected people on DZ.com when it comes to his knowledge of different canopy models, and he has usually jumped them before passing comment. His opinions are worth taking note of. However I would still suggest you demo both canopies and make your own mind up. No matter your experience, you'll definitely benefit from jumping them both and working out which one you feel most comfortable with. Please feel free to contact our offices should you wish us to send you a demo canopy and I am sure they'd be pleased to take care of you. Kind regards and blue skies

We have both the kind described by riggerrob, as well as & over and above the ones Rob describes...I believe close to 40 containers in stock at Aerodyne in Tampa. The harness is not sewen yet, and so it can be custom fit to your measurements and sent out to you. The harness's all include multi ring harness assemblies and all available options for the standard price. So you get a pretty good deal on them too. Turn around to get it custom fitted to your body size is 2 weeks. Go to flyaerodyne.com and check out the stock list or talk to a distributor should you need any further advice, or please do not hesitate to contact myself or any member of my staff, we'd be happy to serve you. kind regards and blue skies Bushman

Were you suppose to get a free t-shirt? Did it say that on your order form? I've never seen a box on an order form for a free t-shirt. I never got a free shirt when I got brand new gear. j All Aerodyne orders come with a free t-shirt. Make sure you check the box for size and gender. blue skies Bushman