South African Vortex/Hurricane

[smiles 0]

In Vancouver, Canada quite a few South African- Vortex rigs being sold, and jumpers flying Hurricane mains- at my d.z. everyone happy with performance.
Wondering if anyone can comment on quality of both????

Thanx,
Smiles.

[puffdaddy 0]

I am happy to comment. 1st absolute value for money. The Vortex rig is fantastic and free-fly save. Bought mine from manny@icarus.co.za for $850 with all the bells ect. I have a hurricane 135, fully elliptical. Consistant soft on-heading openings. Great flare and soft riser pressure. All round a good package. The openings are so soft on mine that the slider does not even come over my soft links. The only problem is that a custom rig will take you 12 - 14 weeks, but well worth it if you can wait. The hurricane is definately not a canopy for a beginner.

Cheers

" You have never lived until you've almost died, and for those who has experienced it, life has a flavour the protected would never understand"

[skreamer 1]

Some issues with the Vortex II that have surfaced here in the UK :

* Check that the reserve hard housing has a brass knurl at the end. A couple of Vortex's housings have been found at repack time to be missing these knurls and have rough sawn off edges. This was discussed a recent BPA riggers meetings (I read about it in the meeting minutes)

* A friend of mine has a Vortex II (which he is currently trying to sell). When he got the reserve repacked it was noticed that the grommet that the loop on the 3-ring system goes through had a rough edge and had been wearing through the loop. (this is the loop that your cutaway cable goes through) If he had done maybe 30 more jumps before it was noticed....

Vortexes are cheap - you get what you pay for.

Will

[Satan666 0]

Like PuffDaddy I have the same setup and have absolutely no problems at all with mine. I load my main at about 1/1.6, openings long slow and beautiful, swoops are great but I must agree it's not for beginners even though it is a very forgiving canopy. I havn't heard of any problems with Vortex2, the earlier models did have problems (that's the same as anything) but all that has been improved and rectified on the containers.
In reply the Skreamers quote about them been cheap, True but only because the exchange rate from most countries is so good. You try buy one of those living in SA on a normal wage and you will see that it is very expensive.
All containers have had problems at some stage or another no matter what manufacturer it is, that' why they print "Everything is at your own risk" ( different wording but you get the idea)