TALONSKY

When I first took a look at the Safire I called and talked to Icarus reps I was told then about the size issue. I ended up buying a used Safire 1 169. One time I did a hop-n-pop with a guy that had a Sabre 150. After the jump I measured both canopies on the top skin. Taking to consideration that the Safire is lightly elipitcal, I made a solid model of each and looked at volume of each. I turns out that my Safire 169 is just a touch smaller. If you do a search I posted this information way back when I did it. After a while of these kind of seamingly endless debates on this issue I e-mailed Icarus for some information I could post here to end this debate. That is how I ended up with the letter from Simon. If you truely still do not believe measure the canopies for yourself and draw your own conclusion. Kirk

The Safire 2 has a shorter recovery arc this is one of the improvements they made on the canopy ( although I really never understood why). As far as the Safire 1, there seems to be two types of them out there; one has great opennings and a ton of flare , the other has hard opennings and not so much flare. I beleive most of the hard openning ones were built by Presision but they also built some good ones too. Also here is some info on the Safire 1: I e-mailed Icarus and explained that this had been talked about here and if they could give me a reply that I could post so here is Icarus's reply The Safire-1 and the Omega are measured differently to PD canopies. As a rough guide a Safire-1 or Omega is about the same size as the next size down - eg A Safire 149 is about a 135. A Safire 119 is about a 109. Use an equation of 8%. The Safire-2 and Omni (Omni supercedes Omega) are measured the same as PD. All other Icarus Canopies are measured the same as PD. The reason for the difference is due to Precision measuring their canopies differently. Icarus have always measured the same as PD however when we originally commenced in the USA, Precision were building parachutes for us under license and were doing it using their size equations and not Icarus/PD's. We have therefore had to wait to supercede these models to change the size equation. Only the Safire and Omega were affected. Blue skies Simon Icarus Canopies USA: 1S671 Bender Lane, West Chicago, IL 60185, USA Ph. (630) 562-2735, Fax (630) 231-4430 Europe: P.I. El Ramassar, c/ Vallés, s/n O8520, Les Franqueses, Barcelona, SPAIN. Ph. (34) 938 496 432, Fax (34) 938 497 971 www.icaruscanopies.com Kirk

I think the S3 is a great all around suit. You can kick out some pretty slow fall rates if you want or fly fast. The suit is kind of demanding on your arms but it gives you a very versatile fall rate range. It may not be able to keep up with the V-1’s or S3S as far as forward drive but they are pretty great. Kirk

Instead of asking these kinds of questions, you should be asking what you did that apparently got you into a mind set that someone would mess with your equipment. Either fix your head and the relationships that lead down this path or leave that DZ. I a quite sure there is no one there that would hate you enough to try and kill you. Is it not more plausible that you just forgot to unclasped that one side rather than a conspiracy theory that people at the DZ are trying to kill you. Seriously, you need to fix your head and attitude. Kirk

Take the gear to a local rigger and have it inspected. He may suggest sending the canopies back to the manufacturer for a better inspection. Kirk

I think you are missing the bigger picture, we are a community and a very tight knit community at that. Does this mean you have to get along with everyone? No. Does this mean that you should be an adult and just overlook the issues that irritate you? Yes (or find another place to skydive). It really is not that difficult to get along with people that irritate you( hell I work with people I flat out hate at my normal job and I treat them with professional courtesy). You probably have ostracized yourself out of the community especially after this thread, but that is your fault. Oh as far as the kiting your canopy, if you were asked not to do this after landing, Why continue to do it?. Really does it take that much pleasure out of your skydive to not be able to kite your canopy after landing? If you like to kite your canopy go to a local park and kite it all you want all day long(no one will care). Just listening to you, you have brought most of this on yourself and I am sorry to say this but you sound more like a spoidbrat kid than an adult Kirk

Tandem opennings are fairly soft most of the time, however they can be extremely hard on occation. Landing are generally soft but once again you never know when you may hit some turbulance near the ground that may make for a harder landing. If you can not skydive on your own due to back issues you should not skydive at all till your back is better. Kirk

As a lot of others stated you may not have enough experience to be jumping wingsuits with a Crossfire. Personally I did over 60 wingsuit jumps with a Crossfire 129 and a Crossfire 2 130 wing loaded 1.85 to 1. They open fine the only thing to be aware of if you get line twist which I did 4 different times the Crossfire will start diving for the ground. Kirk

I feel alot safer in my Hyundai doing 120 MPH then I did in my 70 Cuda doing 135 MPH. Kirk

This is a fairly common problem with electric windows. As they get older either the motor has issues carring the load. Sometimes all it needs is some lubircation, Tri-Flow is a good one. To do this you will need to remove the door panel and spray the Track. When this first starts happening you may be able to have someone push the button as you try to pull the window up(this makes the electric motor try to push it as you assist). I have owned many vechiles that this has happend to from Chrysler to Ford. If you still have the warranty I would just take it to a dealler. As far as Hyundai's being crap. I have owned two( I put 78000 on an Accent in 3 years and never had a problem. I currently own an Elantra with over 36000 miles in a year in half. Hell I would like to see how many other cars cost $11000 (that come standard with power most everything and AC)and get 28 MPH with a top speed of 120 MPH(oh and the gas mileage stays the same regardless of the speed). Kirk

As Chuck more or less stated if you exit without being fully zipped in or as with the arm wings at least zipped to the elbow, you have no control of what that material is going to do. Early on in my wing suit career I had a full attitude jump turn into a hop-n-pop (at the time I had less than 15 wingsuit jumps) I left fully zipped in from 3500 AGL and it worked fine. A fellow wingsuit pilot had the same thing happen with about the same about of wingsuit jumps as I had. He decided to leave unzipped. Upon exit one of his arm wings inflated putting him into a spin as he try to deploy his bridal ended up wrapped around his arm wing. He was able to deploy the reserve and land fine. As Ed pointed out figure out your emergency exit plan and stick to it and remember if you are not zipped in to all the wings by some extent you do not have control of what they will do. As for me I zip in on take off. Kirk

I was watching behind headbangers ball a while ago. There was a sagment about Ricky Rackmen going skydiving with Dave Mustane. It was quite hilarious because Dave had on a purple RW suit with pink Grippers. Kirk

I worked 2 jobs for two years in order to fund my skydiving. Now I work at the DZ so I still have two jobs but the second one is now much more fun. Kirk

I use to own a Crossfire 1 129 and a Crossfire 2 130. The Crossfire 2 has about 50 to 75 feet longer recovery arc with about half of the riser pressure of the Crossfire 1. The Crossfire 2 is also much more sensitive to hip input. Kirk

If you really think you are so special and great of a pilot you should check this out. http://dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1154538;#1154538 I am quite sure he also thought he was flying inside his limits too. In my opinion you will generally only know your over your head when you hit the ground really hard or have some scary landings. Kirk

Once again your totally avoided the question of why you change your original post from looking at buying a crossbraced canopy loaded at 2.3 to 1 to buying a Crossfire 2 139 or 149(which by the way why does your profile say you fly a crossfire 2 139?). Most everyone that has ever hurt them selves or died doing high performance landings thought they knew their limits too and were flying inside of those limits. We also thought we were special and smarter than the last people who hurt themselves. Bottom line for every person who really push’s the limits and makes it without getting hurt there are a lot that try and do get hurt. Most everyone that I know that has pushed to downsize quickly has gotten hurt to some degree. There is no substitute for experience. Kirk Oh and by the way flying a canopy at 2.3 to 1 is a complete different beast than flying 1.8 to 1.

Interesting you change the question your asking it originally was asking about buying a crossbraced canopy loaded at 2.3 to 1. I also find it interesting that your profile states you already are flying a Crossfire 2 139 and yet your changed question is asking if you should buy a Crossfire 2 149 or 139 so what do you really want to know or are you just trolling. Kirk

Maybe you did not look at how he is loading his canopy. He weighs right around 255LBS out the door. The next step this guy wants to take will put him past your current wingloading on a crossbraced canopy with only 300 jumps. Kirk

I sure hope your trolling, otherwise you are a DGIT

I would think that one of the many reasons for people jumping mini Risers would be, being able to stow the slider. Which to me would have a whole lot more drag factor than the risers either being Type 8 vs Type 17 Kirk

I agree totally. Personally in my limited experience I have always researched the canopies in the class I was looking and made my decision based on performance. Then I would wait around and eventually I would find one for sale at a great price and buy it that way. Kirk

Just one thing you may want to consider and that is how easy it would be to resale the container down the road. I realize you need to really like the colors but some rigs are really hard to resale because of the odd colors of the rig.

On thing to think about in moving to Crossbraced is currancy. These canopies fly fast and need a very current pilot under them. One of the many reasons I am selling my Xaos is the simple fact I am do not get a chance to stay current enough to really be flying a Crossbraced canopy loaded 2.3 to 1. When thinking of downsizing and going crossbraced you should be honest with yourself and really look at all of the reasons you want to change. Kirk

I went from a Crossfire 2 130 to a VX 109. I found that the VX has very high front riser pressure and due to that I had to relearn how to apply input in order to get the dive I was looking for. The VX is a great canopy and flies nice but you will have to change how you initiate your turn. I have about 40 jumps on a Xaos 27 cell 98 and just a couple jumps on a Velocity. I personally find that with these canopies the front riser pressure is considerably less than the VX and because of that you can transition from the Crossfire to them without having to change how you initiate your turn they will dive a lot more than the Crossfire 2. Kirk

Well it was quite a few years ago and when your 24 and going out with a stripper, weird just kind of goes with the teritory. Kirk