'Johnathon' Canopy....any clues??

[andyflylife 0]

Hi y'all

Ive been trying to find out any info i can on the 'Johnathon' Main canopy. Does anyone know who makes/made it and what it is ie 7 or 9 cell, square or elliptical etc...
Searched on forums but didn't come up with anything

Blue, Andy.

"swooper 24/7, 365!"
ME on Myspace
My Project playlist

[indyz 1]

Try spelling it "Jonathan"

[JerryBaumchen 1,454]

Hi Andy,

It WAS made by AirTime Designs, the jumpsuit people.

They no longer make or support it.

It was a 9-cell semi-elliptical canopy. I still have one.

I think Brian Germain was the original designer, you might contact him. BigAirSportz.com (I think).

[gjhdiver 0]

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Hi y'all

Ive been trying to find out any info i can on the 'Johnathon' Main canopy. Does anyone know who makes/made it and what it is ie 7 or 9 cell, square or elliptical etc...
Searched on forums but didn't come up with anything

Blue, Andy.

It was/is a 9 cell elliptical canopy tht was designed and made by Tony Uragallo at his old Air Time Designs jumpsuit factory in Zephryhills, FL. Each one was cut and sewn individually ,and Tony tinkered with the design continually. They were very popular for a while with the locals and staff of Skydive City Z Hills. The individual nature of the manufacture and the floating design standard meant that consistency was variable. If you got a good one, you got a very good one, and the owners would never sell it and would keep it until it was no longer jumpable. If you got a Friday afternoon special, you might not have been as pleased.

As I remember it from my time there, Brian came on board to stabilize the design and improve standards. The air locked Jedei grew from the original Jonathan. This in turn spurred the PD product the Vengeance, so the Jonathan, although not a world beater as a canopy, spurred a whole new growth in the development of canopies.

Brian will probably add to this thread himself, but you can still experience the Jonathan/Jedei design philosophy with one of Brian's canopies from Big Air Sports. I believe the Samurai is the natural successor to these canopies. Brian of coourse, will be able to provide the definative answer to all of this, as this is all from my memory.

[RMURRAY 1]

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Hi y'all

Ive been trying to find out any info i can on the 'Johnathon' Main canopy. Does anyone know who makes/made it and what it is ie 7 or 9 cell, square or elliptical etc...
Searched on forums but didn't come up with anything

Blue, Andy.

As far as I know it is designed by Brian G and built at Airtime. It prompted PD to come out with the Stiletto. I have a 92 sq ft Jonathan for sale. want to give it a try

rm

[crazydiver 0]

Brian Germain will still service Jonathans and enjoys getting them back to see how they're holding up. Dont expect it to be quick service though. RMURRAY is correct. PD came out with the stiletto after the Jonathan was released.

Cheers,
Travis

[gjhdiver 0]

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As far as I know it is designed by Brian G and built at Airtime. It prompted PD to come out with the Stiletto. I have a 92 sq ft Jonathan for sale. want to give it a try

rm

The Stiletto was in development long before the Jonathan came out. It wasn't a reply to the Jonathan. Rather the European market was embracing the Parachutes De France Blue Track, a true zero P elliptical. The Stiletto was the first US elliptical to go head to head with it. I did 700 jumps on a Blue Track, and I have over 6000 on a Stiletto of various sizes. The Stiletto is still the gold standard in performance for size and reliability of any elliptical IMHO.

That's not to say that a Jonathan wasn't a good canopy in it's day.

[andyflylife 0]

Thanks for all the great input about the canopy. i jump a Sabre 135 at the minute and am learning to swoop including using rear risers.

The jonathan 120 im looking at will be used for groundlaunching as i want to put my wingloading over 1.3:1
If i buy it though i could be tempted to rig it up and hop and pop it

Any thoughts??

Blues

"swooper 24/7, 365!"
ME on Myspace
My Project playlist

[DanDruff 0]

I am currently jumping a jonathan 170, it came with my rig when i bought it. It had about 200 jumps on it. I almost replaced it with something newer with out ever jumping it. I am glad i didnt. its actually a very nice canopy to fly, the openings are great and the landings nice. I have no complaints and plan on jumping it for still some time. You just might like it. I'd say its at least worth giving it a jump.

[ianmdrennan 2]

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i jump a Sabre 135 at the minute and am learning to swoop including using rear risers.

Play with them and learn them up high, but I'd advise against jumping on the rear riser landing bandwagon just yet. Of all the landing techniques out there it's become the latest offender in people slowing their progression down. There are a million other things you need to focus on before you'll see any rewards from them, and I doubt you're there yet.

I'll say what I say to everyone I coach - get a SOLID (very very very solid) foundation of your canopy flight and pattern. Building on that solid base is far easier, and better, if done well.

Blues,
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[marks 0]

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Any thoughts??

since your asking about ground launching it, go to www.canopypiloting.com and ask about it..

as for landing on rears, if you can pull them down to flare, you should try to land with them. it is just another control input. and it is easier than you think. talk with someone around your DZ about landing with rears. try it coming straight in. only after you try it up high.

[Tonto 1]

Ahh. The Jonathan..

I got mine, a 120, in May 1992, and jumped it until February 2003 when I retired it. I did 2200 dives in that time, of which about 1300 were on the Jonathan, the remainder being on Tandem and CRW canopies.

It would be fair to say I loved the canopy and was very reluctant to stop jumping it. My reasons were simple. I was a toggle spanking swooper, and aspired to learning riser turns, and my Jonathan (They were all different as someone mentioned earlier) simply detested front riser input.

I replaced it with a 2nd hand Stilleto 107, which is still my primary canopy today, some 1500 dives (and 1000 riser swoops) later. I'm not a quick learner, so I like to do a bunch of dives on the same canopy to narrow the variables. Most canopies are good for far more dives than their owners imagine.

Jonathans can be difficult to maintain. Since they were all different, and few (if any) records were kept, something as simple as checking line trim can be a task which is impossible to do with any certainty. They were quite a machine in their day though.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[ntacfreefly 0]

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as for landing on rears, if you can pull them down to flare, you should try to land with them. it is just another control input.

He said SWOOP not land. Big difference.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. ~ Lao-Tzu

It's all good, they're my brothers ~ Mariann Kramer

[andyflylife 0]

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but I'd advise against jumping on the rear riser landing bandwagon just yet. Of all the landing techniques out there it's become the latest offender in people slowing their progression down. There are a million other things you need to focus on before you'll see any rewards from them, and I doubt you're there yet.
_______________________________________________________

Thanks for your thoughts on my rear riser habit being a bit pre-mature. It is a bit of a habit/trap ive fell into, and i can understand the reasons behind not using rears for swooping until ultra proficient. Being in the corner still on rears and not realizing soon enough to dig out with toggles wouldn't be a good thing!!.........Point taken.

Sorry for the thread drift, back to the canopy im just wondering if the similarity to the stiletto would make it a bit hot for a first Groundlaunch canopy. Maybe a Canopypiloting.com question??

Blues Andy

"swooper 24/7, 365!"
ME on Myspace
My Project playlist

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