jbscout2002

Just to point you in a good direction, I'd suggest looking at the Silhouette, Pulse, Pilot, and Saffire 2. Read up on their flight characteristics (opening, snivel, stall, flare, control range, ect). its always best to try before you buy. I have several jumps on a Silhouette 230, and I'm about 275-280 going out the door. The Silhouette 230 (according to PD's wing load chart) is maxed out at that weight, but it flies beautifully. I can practice all the my canopy drills on it like front riser dives and turns, rear riser turns and flares, but it is still a large and tame canopy. I've also heard nothing but good about the Pulse. Many people are telling me that it is basically the next generation Silhouette. I went with a Pilot when I bought my own. It's generally accepted as having the best openings on the market right now, and being a big boy, I feel those openings more than the average jumper. Once open, it flies a lot like the Saber 2 and just seems to have a wider range of use than the Silhouette did. It can be loaded light and used for students or loaded high and used for swooping.

The "PRO" in Pro Pack stands for Proper Ram-air Organization. The point is to neatly and evenly/symmetrically organize the lines to the center and the nylon to the outside. You wrap the tail around it to contain your pack job in a neat package so the lines and nylon don't shit out of place while you fold and bag it. IMO flaking isn't that big a deal (as long as it is done to some degree), but all lines need to be accounted for and placed correctly or you could get a line-over mal. The more important part is making sure the slider is quartered and properly seated smugly against the slider stops. Then folding and bagging. I see many new jumpers taking great care to walk the lines, count the nose cells, and flake. They do this meticulously, and then they jam the nose cells all the way to the back of the pack job (pushing the lines apart) and then they go to the ground and get sloppy trying to wrestle it into the bag. Everything you did up to this point makes no difference if you let your slider move out of place, and your lines bleed back out into the nylon while you fight with it. It simply will never come out of the bag more organized than when it went it. I got an Aerodyne canopy so I have color coded line attachments, which really helps out when your new to packing. Perhaps you can mark your lines close to the attachment points with a sharpie to get that same advantage. (not the attachment points themselves, but a little bit of the lines that will be replaced at some point anyways)

- Also, there are two types of people in the 101st. There are Rakkasans, and then there is everyone else. Let Valor Not Fail

For the main, definitely "Saber 2 Pro Pack" by Nick Grillet, or "How to Pack a Large Canopy" also by Nick Grillet. For the PC, watch "The Secret to Pilot Chute Packing" by Brian Germain. For closing the container, they are all slightly different so go to their website and see if they have a video. If not, you can download the manual for a step-by-step with pictures.

I wouldn't make the decision based solely on his weight. Aside from a 289+ canopy, do you have a rig with a harness that will fit him properly? Do you have two AFF instructors with the skill level/confidence level to work with him or chase him down? (in case he breaks loose and executes a perfect head down dive for 40 seconds but forgets to pull ) In free fall bigger (fatter) guys actually take to it quite well. The belly makes them more aerodynamic and gives them a good center of gravity during their arch making stability easier for them. They just have to learn from the beginning to fly more spread out. (I know because I am one of them). As for wing loading, remember that a 1:1 on a 300 is a lot different than a 1:1 on a 190. I weighed about 250 when I started, and I'm 5'11. I was one of those individually based decisions, but I was active duty military so health wasn't a concern. my first jump was on a 289 (I don't remember what), but I was probably a good 280/285 going out the door. On the first landing I drift across the DZ wondering if I was ever going to touch down. Next 7 jumps were on a navigator 260. That felt better, but I still felt like it was flying me and I lacked the control to feel confident in all landing conditions. By jump 10 I was on a silhouette 230 (wing load of about 1.2:1) and that was perfect. Obviously I only get away with that wing load because my canopy is a 230, but what I'm saying is that the scale skews a bit as the sizes go up. Weight is something I have always struggled with, but I can fall under 130 without a jumpsuit, 120 with (and I did get swoop cords, but I never use them). My suit isn't rediculously baggy or anything like that. It's just a loose fitting cordura RW suit with booties (that I also don't use half the time). For his weight, of course he needs to lose some, whether he ever jumps or not. Maybe this will motivate him. It worked for me. I've been steadily dropping weight every since I started.