JT-Mirage

Hello Everyone, Although my username is my old one, I am now working as the marketing director at Performance Designs. I first want to thank all of you who have posted regarding this thread and Performance Designs appreciates the support. We also want to thank all of you who have participated in our demo program and we appreciate the opportunities we have had to earn your business. As some of you know, we do have guidelines for giving canopies out to customers and if a demo request does not fit into our parameters. In this situation, Kim our demo coordinator, felt like she needed to check some references and it took a couple of weeks to get to the person who had the best information. We apologize to this customer that we were not able to process his request faster.As normal, we sent follow up e-mails informing this customer about our progress. I publicly would like to commend Kim on doing a great job handling the demo requests and if any of you have not worked with her yet, please e-mail her at kimp@performancedesigns.com. Thank you. Justin Thornton

Fergs, thank you for your question. We are working with another potential service center in Europe but do not have anyone set up in Australia. Did you buy your container from Total Control? JT

Very quick. We are quoting two business days for the work plus two or three days for the return shipping. JT

Hello Everyone, I am writing this post to get everyone on the same page about our PSB that was released and to answer any questions that have been posted. First to clarify the pricing for the modification and where to send it and the proper procedures. If you choose to have our factory service center do the modification for you, please download a repair order form which can be downloaded from our website and fill it out completely with all of your contact information and nature of the work you need. Some want a re-pack done with the mod and some want the mod only. If you want a re-pack done, please send your container without your main canopy. If you only want the mod done, your container can be sent disassembled or with the reserve but please specify on the repair form. We have received containers with no contact information so please send the repair form. The modification is free whether there is a re-pack or not. We will also pay for the Fed Ex Express Saver shipping back to you as well. Our standard factory re-pack is 60.00 which also includes canopy inspection and pull test. For all customers who want the factory to do your modification, our service center address is: Chuting Star Rigging Loft 493 Airport Rd Cedartown, GA 30125 Attn, Mirage PSB 12-04 Now to address some of the posts, any Master Riggers can do the modification and you do not have to send it to our service center if it is not convenient for you. For those who want to send it to our service center, it is free and Mirage is NOT making profit on this as one gentleman posted. We started doing this mod on Dec 1st and finished the PSB in Dec. but did not want to release until the first of January because as some of you know we are closed for 10 days during Christmas and did not want to be away from the office and not be able to answer questions concerning this. The assumed cost seems to be an issue as i have read in BIGUN's post. Remember, all you have to do is get your rig to our service center and we will pay for the mod and the shipping back. The re-pack is your choice. 60.00 has been our standard rate. We have found that re-packs range from 45.00 to 80.00 depending on what part of the country you live in. This also supposed to be done on the next re-pack cycle so anyone would have to have paid for a re-pack as they normally would. We also want to apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our loyal customers. We have built a container that has been a benchmark for many years and we have found a way to make our container safer. As a manufacturer, this is not the easiest thing but the right thing to do for our customers. We are skydivers here too and we do care about our fellow jumpers and our customers. Many of you i have met on the road and consider friends. The car analogy is a good one as well. I am a 7yr veteran of the car business and know first hand that if there is a service bulletin that the customer does not pay for the part affected but if you want your tires rotated and need and oil change you would pay for that. Also you have to get your vehicle to the service center for the work to be done. Our situation is no different, you get it to our service center, we do the mod for free and if you need any other service work done, we can do it for you. Chuting Star will contact you if there is any other rigging work that needs to be done. I hope i have answered most of your questions and i will be monitoring this post to answer any more. If anyone wants to contact me directly, i can be e-mailed at justin@miragesys.com or call 386-740-9222. Thank you. Justin Thornton General Mgr

Dave, to help shed some light on this subject and back Egon, sponsorship is one of those things as a manufacturers rep is somewhat difficult. Theoretically, a sposored jumper is a direct representative of the gear manufacturer him or her is sponsored by. I can understand you concerns about someone being ethical when recommending gear to a newer jumper but ethics should not have to do with the sponsorship but rather the individual. I cannot speak for the other manufacturers, but with Mirage Systems, a majority of our sponsored athletes did not get their rigs for free. Especially the first ones and some did not get them for free for several seasons. What a manufacturer definitely does not want is a sponsored athlete pushing a product because it was free to them. We want our athlete to push the gear because they believe it is the best gear for the end user may it be a newer jumper or an experienced jumper wanting to know about new advancements in technology. The manufacturers do want to see a return on their investment so of course the sponsored athlete is required to perform for us. So should the athlete reccomend the gear, of course that is what they are supposed to do. I do not know who this sponsored person you are referring to is but if if he i fact believes in his product, it shouldn't matter if he discloses if he is sponsored or not. MANY dealers recommend to newer jumpers what product they like for one reason or another so should we mark them too? JT

Jim, since you have no e-mail posted, send me an e-mail to justin@miragesys.com. Thank you for your inquiry. JT

Well said brother blue. JT

Ah, there is the smack talker. What's up brother!!

As stated previously, the manufacturer requires 1000 jumps at any wingloading on that canopy. Lets also remember that wingloading is not the only factor to consider. You will also have a shorter line set, less surface area with the smaller wing which will equal significantly different performance characteristics. If you are basing your answer soley on wing loading ask your self would a sabre 2 210 loaded at 1.5:1 have the same performance characteristics as a sabre 2 135 loaded at 1.5:1? the answer is no. JT

Yeah, there has not been much chatter from the smack talking South African lately. Are you and Greg going to Sky Quest?

Just make sure you make it down for Sky Quest next week. Brian says he is going to smoke you there and you gotta represent.

Yeah, if you came to swoop instead it might disrupt your marital bliss.

Change your plans!!! You can't miss round 5.

Not to open a can of worms but here goes. I once asked Jay Moledski the same question this jumper is asking about wing loading. He replied that it was a question hard to answer because the canopy has different performance characteristics at different wing loadings which i am sure everyone reading this post will agree. I guess the question would be easier to answer for this jumper if he was specifying what performance characteristics he was looking for. For example, distance, speed, accuracy, or a somewhat equal combination of all. And also to ask the question again is this jumper asking just for the sake of wanting to know or is he considering jumping the canopy? JT

Hopefully this canopy is not for you. PD also recommends no less than 1000 jumps for the use of a Velocity. We all know people jump them sooner than that but if your profile is correct with 300 jumps, you have no business on a Velocity. JT