Deimian

Fair enough

I mentioned that because of this: You extracted your conclusion ("XF2 and XF3 are aimed for the pilots wanting the same class wing") from a comment regarding aspect ratio and taper. I just said that aspect ratio and taper aren't strong indicators about the aggressiveness of a canopy, at least when it comes to recovery arc and steepness. That quote just means that the canopy is as twitchy as the Crossfire 2, not that it is equally aggressive

Velocity and Stiletto have both the same aspect ratio. Paragliding wings have a way higher aspect ratio than skydiving wings. Aspect ratio have little to do with the recovery arc and how steep a wing is (there might be some relation with everything else being equal, but it is not a strong indicator for small variations). The taper itself doesn't add information on this regard either. Sabre 2 and Crossfire 2 are both comparable, with the Crossfire 2 being significantly more tapered than the Sabre 2. These things tell you how responsive the canopy might be to input, but IMO the recovery arc outweighs twitchiness to define the aggressiveness of a canopy.

That is my understanding too, but the crossfire 2 was a few steps behind the katana as well in terms of aggressiveness. My understanding of the situation is: Katana-> Mega-long recovery arc, very aggressive dive, comparable to aggressive cross-braced canopies (Velocity or maybe a notch less, like a JFX?) Crossfire 2-> Medium recovery arc, normal dive, comparable to aggressive tapered canopies (Sabre 2) Crossfire 3-> Long recovery arc? Something between Crossfire 2 and Katana? Tesla-> Long recovery arc? Something between Crossfire 2 and Katana?

The cat is out of the bag, and this is what the NZ folks are saying: It will be very interesting to compare the Crossfire 3 with the Tesla from Fluid Wings. These 2 look like very serious pre-crossbraced canopies candidates.

Dude, seriously, stop right now doing that. I've got a friend killed a couple of months ago precisely because of that. He had literally 10 times your number of jumps. There are countless other examples of the same thing. I know that for you standing up 30 jumps in a row seems like mastering the canopy, but standing up is the most basic thing ever. It means nothing and it isn't, nor will ever be, a reason to go for something faster.

That probably a combination of gear that doesn't fit you properly, and lack of proper position under canopy. Talk to some good canopy pilot in your DZ about how to "seat" in your harness as opposed to hang from it.

On the crossfire 3 website it also states: I wonder what are they comparing with. Longer than crossfire 2, or longer than a more conservative class of wing (safire 3)? Reading just the crossfire 3 website it seems like it is more aggressive than the crossfire 2. Then I read the crossfire 2 again and I've seen basically the same description: I wish marketing didn't exist, sometimes it just muds the water if you try to find useful information. An interesting bit (maybe) is that they recommend to load it from 1.5 to 2.0 psf for "maximum performance". That is less than the crossfire 2 (recommended WL from 1.4 to 2.1). They also state that "intermediate pilots" can load it between 1.0 and 1.4, which was not recommended for the crossfire 2. Could that mean that the crossfire 3 is actually more docile than the crossfire 2? I guess we'll have to wait for the first reviews......

You got me hyped for a second there. Here you have an "official announcement" with prototypes from close to 20 months ago: https://vimeo.com/122159755

Where? And what do you mean by "officially announced"?

I generally agree that following the manufacturers recommendation is the way to go. But you have to consider that they can't possibly test all container and canopy sizes together, and that lot of things come into play (humidity, logo or not, type of lines and dbag, etc). I don't think that asking people that tried a particular combination is out of line. Besides that, there are degrees to everything. "Will work, but you have to be a good packer and therefore it is not recommended (because we don't know how good packer you are)" is not the same as "will distort the container so badly and be so damn tight that will be uncomfortable and unsafe". Just my 2 cents.

Yep, that can happen if you use normal risers on a rig with collins lanyard and viceversa. You'll be using the left group of risers on the right side, or the other way around.

This! I remember being really annoying talking about it the whole time at the beginning. Nobody gave a fuck but I kept talking. I reply to statements with an "ok". To questions with the answer. Nothing more, nothing less. If they are really interested then I open up and talk more.

2 for closing main bag nad 2 for closing lines. Mine has 4 on the closing flap and 4 on the lines flap (and the 4 in the bag where the closing flap is attached). 2 is definitely not enough.

I agree with you there. Unless I am missing something, systems with collins lanyard and LOR have almost nothing in common: -Systems with collins lanyard have: 1) Single RSL lanyard 2) Single riser attachment (unlike Racers with a single RSL lanyard but connected to both risers) 3) Single pin (thus single loop) 4) Release the non-RSL riser if the RSL riser was released before -Systems with LOR: 1) Double RSL lanyard 2) Attached to both risers 3) Two straight pins 4) The release of one riser does not release the other Moreover the pins are straight, not curved as rigerrob stated. They DO have a slight curvature from the eyelet where the lanyards are attached to the straight section of the pin, similar to new vector pins, but they are not curved like the pins in main trays in rigs with throw out deployment systems. That's not true. Sife rigs (www.sife.at) and SWS rigs (http://sws.aero/) both have collins lanyard and pin-based MARDs (RAX and DRD respectively). Admittedly, I don't know if they are simply ignoring licensing issues. BTW: I wish other manufacturers would follow suit and have a detailed website like SWS. Despite their english ("Semi-explosive Pilot Chute of Reserve" is the title of one section), they have made a remarkable effort to explain various technical details.

I suspect the canopy is too heavy for those magnets. How many magnets are there?

Hey Gregor, could you share with us for which container (and container size) was the bag produced, and which canopy you had?

Depends on the course itself. But normally beginner courses guide you to being aware of how much altitude you loose in different kind of turns, where is your stall point on toggles and rears and how to recover from them, they teach you coordinated turns, flat turns, rear riser turns, front riser turns, accuracy tips and tricks, flare timing, dynamic flare, flight cycle and how the canopy reacts in different situations (like how much flare power you have after leaving your canopy surge forward from a previous flare or a turn), how to follow a proper pattern, how to "crab" with your canopy, etc. Besides other related things like gripping techniques to hold your toggles and risers, proper presentation for hop'n'pops, how much brake slack you are supposed to have, proper body position under canopy, slider collapsing and stowing behind your head, loosening your chest strap to allow the canopy to open up a bit more, etc. They normally film your landing and debrief it with you, which is quite useful. I'll chip in even though the question wasn't for me: "land with the wind" is normally referred to as downwind landing. Landing downwind, crosswind or against the wind changes your horizontal speed and direction (when landing crosswind) with respect to the ground. Nothing else. Now, if you have room (read as no obstacles in your horizontal trajectory), that is normally harmless. You can get hurt if you tumble at high speed, but nothing too bad will happen if you slide it out. I know a guy that broke his arm when sliding a swoop, when his arm got caught in a hole (I think it was from a rabbit), but that's about it. On the other hand, turning as a panic reaction to land against the wind has injured and killed numerous people. When you turn your vertical speed increases. You'll go faster against the ground, which is the only obstacle you can't avoid. Never decrease horizontal speed at the cost of increasing vertical speed.

I'd argue that this is only true for spinning mals (which are the most common, but still). I don't think that hard pulls, pilot chute in tow, line overs, snapped lines, tension knots, etc are more likely in tiny canopies than in larger ones. Bottom line, be always prepared. The odds are on your favour if you have a large student canopy, but any jump can be the one when you have to cut away. I friend of mine got a line over at 30-40 jumps and chopped it. Another one is close to 800, he is jumping a CF2 109, loaded at around 1.7, and never had a cutaway. Be always ready, don't think your canopy won't malfunction. That looks like pretty bad judgement from my point of view. I assume you didn't have an audible. Feeling confident about stuff where you shouldn't be is the number 1 cause of injury and death in this sport. What if you got it wrong? What if something distracted you and you are no longer sure? What if you have a partial mal and you aren't sure if you should cut away or simply get more nylon out? I have 520 jumps, 2 audibles and an altimeter, and I'd seriously hesitate to jump without my alti. Maybe I am pussy, maybe I have common sense. Flat turns are probably the most overlooked and underrated skill you can have in your bag. Practice them, they might save your legs or your live one day. Note: Some people might classify differently flat turns and braked turns. The terminology sometimes is not clear cut. Great advice.

To be honest I find the viso and optima interfaces pretty straight forward, you just have to know how to unlock it (same idea as for turning on your AAD), how to cycle through items (press the only button that doesn't change parameters), and how to enter the settings menu (push and hold the center button for a few seconds)..... then again, I am an 80s kid with lots of hours of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Killer Instinct

That is interesting. Any chance you have that number for a Crossfire 2 and Lotus Max as well?

My understanding of the issue is that the snaking between grommets would happen anyway in a pin-pulling scenario, so it is not exclusive to AAD fires. Or am I completely off?

The Speed saved my ass once. It flies as it should. Calmly and predictable. And it flares like a reserve, nothing surprising there. I had a stand up landing, there is nothing to complaint about either.

Thanks! As far as I can tell is all metal. Can't really check right now, it is my mother's machine, and we live 2000+ km away. I have no idea about sewing machines, but I'd like to start learning soonish and I have a tube that needs some work.

What about the 801-z2? For some reason I just get results in Spanish when I look it up in google, but maybe somebody is familiar with it. Is it any good for simple work like tubes?