Remember the Cobra 10?

[pcrt 0]

Does anyone recall the specs on a ram air called the "Cobra 10"? The canopy came out in ~ 1982.

~Paul Creel SCS-5015

[JerryBaumchen 1,465]

Hi pcrt,

As I recall it was just a Strato-Star made for National by Para-Flite but with the Cobra 10 name.

I am sure you can get the specs from Para-Flite.

Jerry

[murrays 0]

I owned one. It was the first square I owned. Opened hard, landings....not good but I only had 1 jump on a StratoCloud before I started jumping the Cobra!

I replaced it with a Pegasus. I remember landing the Pegasus for the first time and thinking why did I wait so long to replace the Cobra.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[tbrown 26]

Quote

I owned one. It was the first square I owned. Opened hard, landings....not good but I only had 1 jump on a StratoCloud before I started jumping the Cobra!

I replaced it with a Pegasus. I remember landing the Pegasus for the first time and thinking why did I wait so long to replace the Cobra.

Very similar to what he says. My first square was also a Cobra 10, after one jump on a Para Plane Cloud that had been modified and relined to Strato Cloud specs. If it opened hard I wouldn't know, it didn't feel any different from any of the other canopies I jumped back then.

The biggest beef with the Cobra 10 was its shitty construction, the things started to tear out at the load bearing ribs very quickly. Mine started to tear after just sixty some jumps, so I sent it back to Para Flite for a free repair. another forty or fifty jumps and it was tearing again. That time I sent it back to National after an angry letter resulted in a cash settlement. I used the moeny to buy a Pioneer Viking Superlite (230 ft 7 cell), which I was very happy with.

As one of my friends put it, "Final score is: Cobra 10, People Zero !"
(By the way, the Cobra 10 came and went in 1978.)

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[murrays 0]

Quote

Quote

I owned one. It was the first square I owned. Opened hard, landings....not good but I only had 1 jump on a StratoCloud before I started jumping the Cobra!

I replaced it with a Pegasus. I remember landing the Pegasus for the first time and thinking why did I wait so long to replace the Cobra.

Very similar to what he says. My first square was also a Cobra 10, after one jump on a Para Plane Cloud that had been modified and relined to Strato Cloud specs. If it opened hard I wouldn't know, it didn't feel any different from any of the other canopies I jumped back then.

The biggest beef with the Cobra 10 was its shitty construction, the things started to tear out at the load bearing ribs very quickly. Mine started to tear after just sixty some jumps, so I sent it back to Para Flite for a free repair. another forty or fifty jumps and it was tearing again. That time I sent it back to National after an angry letter resulted in a cash settlement. I used the moeny to buy a Pioneer Viking Superlite (230 ft 7 cell), which I was very happy with.

As one of my friends put it, "Final score is: Cobra 10, People Zero !"
(By the way, the Cobra 10 came and went in 1978.)

It opened so hard that I couldn't sit up in bed the day after making a couple of jumps...I'd have to roll over to the side of the bed and push myself up.

In fact.....likely in conjunction with the shitty construction you mention....the guy that I sold it to had it explode over his head on its last jump. It ripped practically in two. Good riddance.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[pcrt 0]

My memories of it were that of soft openings and soft landings...but I had been jumping a piglet before that.

But I agree on the construction quality. Mine had a turn in it from day 1.

Does anyone recall the square footage of it?

~Paul Creel SCS-5015

[tbrown 26]

Quote

My memories of it were that of soft openings and soft landings...but I had been jumping a piglet before that.

But I agree on the construction quality. Mine had a turn in it from day 1.

Does anyone recall the square footage of it?

It was a 180ft. 5 cell, although the advertising insisted it was really 10 cells (yeah right). I never noticed the openings being any harder than any other square I tried back then (Strato Clouds, Cruisairs, my Viking Superlite), but they all opend with more "authority" than today's canopies. I never had any debilitating pain that made getting out of bed difficult or anything like that. Of course I was only 23 years old at the time.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[frynsky 0]

Do I remember?!! I had one, they were slightly smaller than a Strato Star at 172 sq ft as I recall. Had an opening once that was THE hardest I've ever had broke 11 lines across the center of the canopy. I sent it back, and wanted a new one but they just re-lined it and returned it. The new lines stretched quickly though. I put less than 100 jumps on that canopy with 3 mals, ended up jumping an old Strato Star with many jumps on it, but it was a much better quality canopy. The Cobra WAS BSBD.

[nitrochute 2]

yup. the cobra was built directly from the strato star patterns.made from para flite's 30/30 1.1 oz fabric . they were made at a time when para flite was not reinforcing the ribs at the b,c,and d line attachement points(l.a.p.).while this produced a canopy with less weight and bulk, it distorted the hell out of the upper surface .eventually after 100-200 jumps the ribs would fail at the b,c ,or d l.a.p.

[nitrochute 2]

came out in 1978.180 sq ft.

[pcrt 0]

I've searched the Internet high and low and I can't find a picture of the Cobra 10 anywhere. So, for the sake of posterity, I will post a pic of mine taken over Spaceland at Dickinson TX ~1982.

~Paul Creel SCS-5015

[murrays 0]

Haha! I have a framed picture of myself packed away somewhere under my Cobra 10 and it is the very same color pattern.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[darkwing 5]

Is that a russian PC in the background???

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[tbrown 26]

Quote

Is that a russian PC in the background???

Could be a Russian, but I was thinking more likely a Starlite. They both had the row of open gores in the back. The Russian PC was bigger though, this one has the smaller & more elliptical look of a Starlite.

My Cobra was a white rainbow, white top skin with a rainbow spectrum underneath. Really pretty canopy.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[darkwing 5]

I should have remembered the Starlite. I used to own one, but I've tried to purge that memory. It was not a pleasant relationship.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[pcrt 0]

Yes the canopy in the background is indeed a Starlite. I had two friends who jumped them. I hear they opened quite hard.

~Paul Creel SCS-5015

[JSBIRD 1]

It even came with a self stowing pilot chute...tossed it over the front.

359

"Now I've settled down,
in a quiet little town,
and forgot about everything"

[wmw999 2,584]

That's a black rainbow starlite. I thought it was a really cool-looking canopy (mine was a white rainbow).

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[JohnRich 4]

An instructor loaned me his Cobra so I could make my first-ever ram-air canopy jump. I thought it was terrific, but was too dumb to know anything better at the time.

If I remember correctly, it was so-named the "Cobra" because when it was flared to land, as the nose tilted upward, it resembled (to someone) a cobra snake rearing its head up in the air. I don't know how many beers that guy had consumed before that revelation, though.

Attached: an old advertisement for Cobra parachutes, from a 1978 issue of "Parachutist".

[tbrown 26]

Attached: an old advertisement for Cobra parachutes, from a 1978 issue of "Parachutist".

[pcrt 0]

Quote

Attached: an old advertisement for Cobra parachutes, from a 1978 issue of "Parachutist".

Hey thanks for the ad. I've never seen that one before. The only ad I ever remember seeing was only about 2 x 3" in the Parachutist.

~Paul Creel SCS-5015

[frynsky 0]

Hey John Rich. Nice picture, mine was the "Sunrise" pattern. Thanks and Blue Skies

[frynsky 0]

I had a buddy that had one also. He cut it away 2-3 times, the last time into the Red River, and he said good riddance. I have a question, after reading all this, does anyone know of a Cobra10 that had MORE than 200 jumps put on it with no trouble? Not me,,,,,

[pcrt 0]

I put ~300 jumps on mine without any problems. It seemed to be in good shape the day I sold it.

I used the standard side pack on it. But I did roll the nose to slow down the openings a bit. It only took about 300' to open. But that was a slow opening compared to my piglet.

~Paul Creel SCS-5015

[keith20mm 0]

Ha ha.. that's funny. I had one sink into the Red River.. doing a demo for Bell's Amusement Park... Had a green smoke on my right ankle... bad hard opening, broke several suspension lines. The hard opening ripped the smoke velcro off my ankle, and the smoke looked like Wily Coyote spinning into the crevasse. Cut away the spinning, snarled Cobra and popped Preserve III. The Cobra dead centered the Red and sank, I presume, like a rock. I landed on the west bank and walked out to the more clear brushy area.

Goodbye to bad trash..

More funny.. I wrote Elek Puskas a nastygram explaining how the canopy lines snapped, the junkheap was cut away, and how it dead centered the Red.

BTW, this was my custom Double Rainbow Cobra 10.

Elek offered me a NEW COBRA at 1/2 price, but only in blue with white alternating.

No thanks, Elek. I did get a custom Cloud Lite, though, in double rainbow, silver top.

Last jump for me was Perris about 2 years ago. No DZ anywhere near here, now.

Anybody seen Scott (Fornification) (Formic Acid) Formby?

Blue Skies.

k