Help needed, will be this be a hospital trip

[bdbrown 0]

Hello all, need some advice from the skydiving masses......Looking at getting a heatwave 170....been diving off and on for few yrs....more on now...currently have a clipper 180....have 83 jumps as of yesterday.....weigh 180 lbs.....is this too big a jump to make in canopies, have been told that this is a great landing canopy.....need the opinions of others....thanks, Bob

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[skipro101 0]

Ask your local ST&A.

[skybytch 273]

Going from an all F111 nine cell to a zp elliptical nine cell at 80 jumps over a period of years sounds to me like a recipe for pain.

Look at some less aggressive canopies. Some I'd recommend include the Spectre, Sabre2, Sabre, Safire, Safire2, Pilot, Triathlon, and Hornet. Any of these at a reasonable wingloading will land you great without the opening and turn rate issues of a "fully elliptical" canopy like a Heatwave.

[vt1977 0]

First off - what do your instructors think?

A heatwave is an elliptical canopy - never jumped one, but from what I have heard of it, not too different from a Stiletto. When you say you weigh 180lbs, is that your body weight or exit weight? For exit weight, add another 25lbs.

IMHO at 65 jumps you would be wise staying with the Clipper for quite a while yet (AFAIK a Clipper is actually a 194)

Assuming an exit weight of 180, you would be loading the Heatwave at 1.06... at an exit weight of 205lbs the wing loading would be 1.21.

IMHO this would not be a sensible progression for someone of your experience. You would be downsizing AND changing canopy type in one step and flying at an aggressive wingloading for your experience level.

My advice for what it's worth would be to try to spend some time with a canopy coach and get them to show you how to get the most from your current canopy.

If you really want to get something new, you could consider some less radical designs such as the Spectre, Pilot, Sabre, Triathlon... etc.

Vicki

[bdbrown 0]

thanks for the imput....very confusing subject...reading threads here and talking to people at dz, have gotten alot of mixed feelings about this.....maybe I will get them all worked out....

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[slotperfect 7]

Flight Concepts lists their Clipper 9-cell as being 195 sq ft.

It's my opinion that:

1) you should get some better opinions from highly experienced canopy pilots at your DZ that know how you fly your current canopy.

2) you consider shifting to a semi-elliptical zero-p canopy of the same size, like the Sabre2 and get really good at flying and landing it before going elliptical.

3) with the canopy mentioned in #2, you complete billvon's downsizing checklist before moving to a fully elliptical canopy.

I have done almost exactly what I described above:

-at about 600 jumps, I was jumping a Raider 220 (one size up from the Clipper).
-I made the USAPT and jumped 7-cell F-111 canopies doing demo accuracy through 1700 jumps
-I then jumped a Falcon 235 for a while and began learning how to do 90 degree turns to landing on approach (through the 2000 jump level)
-Next I jumped a "tapered" F-111/zero-p hybrid (Silhouette 210) through about 2700 jumps.
-My first zero-p canopy was a Sabre2 190, which I still own. I have completed all of billvon's checklist except landing with rear risers, which I will get coaching on in August.
-I am currently jumping a demo Stiletto 170 and am having quite successful swoop landings with it, despite their being a new learning curve.
-note: I still do only 90-100 degree (front riser) turns to landing.

I hope this will help!

John

Arrive Safely

John