cobaltdan

are you asking about an Atair alpha (label may read skydepot or winchester) or and icarus alpha? Atair Alpha: jim slaton jumped his progressively loading up with weights to over 3.4#/' best performance for swoop distance is around 2.2-2.4 . they have routinely be jumped at higher wing loadings but swoop distance suffers. hope that helps. sincerely, dan atair

canopy is completely zp is 100% compatible with vector and sigma containers yes secondary flare lines can be left on. sincerely, dan atair

we have produced performance variables tandem 385's for years, making atair the #1 manufacturer of tandems in europe. we are now introducing a tandem canopy of our own design. a 350 sq' elliptical, with 8 second, on heading, 2 stage buttersoft opening perfection. the canopy has a spanwise cross braced nose, making for a rigid low distortion leading edge airfoil. the canopy is very responsive, excellent in turbulence and has more lift and flare than canopies quite larger. construction: built like a tank. (if you cant tell i am very excited) pictures and video (openings and flight) will be up on our web site by friday. sincerely, dan atair

you must have tried to log on while we were uploading. let me know how you like the new site. www.extremefly.com sincerely, dan atair

a while back we asked boeri to make skydiving helmets, but they felt the market was too small. i like the axis but the vents have sharp edges and i would worry about snagging or cutting a line. sincerely, dan

hi rob, actually the weight of the canopy doesn't matter much. its the breaking strength of the rubber bands, pin pull force and ability to get out of the burble. even the smallest pilot chute has many times the drag force of the heaviest canopy. the idea that the pilot is lifting the canopy up and away is only a relative view from a jumper perspective. btw in our recommendation i forgot to mention: zp fabric over f111. sincerely, dan

canopy manufactureres have different recommendations. for a cobalt we recommend a 22-24" for sizes up to 135 and a 24" for 150 -170. sincerely, dan

i was told by a major paraglider designer that hma was not legal in germany. apparently about 12-18 months after it was adopted by a few companies there were enough accidents and fatalities to ban it. hma is simply another kevlar aramid: #49 as opposed to kevlar #51.(vectran). looking at the fibers spec sheets hma seems less appropriate to use than vectran. it has 1/2 the elongation 2% as opposed to 5% buit also has 1/2 the elasticity and is more horribly degraded by exposure to blue-uv light. i requested accident reports involving hma from dhv in germany but have not received them yet. sincerely, dan

been off line for a while and playing catch up. we have not done any testing on mismatched 2 canopies out. what i have read agrees with jlb post. i am not sure what to say, i also chose to fly a highly loaded main and as part of the equasion a highly loaded reserve. i am confident in my choice of reserve size with respect to openings and piloted landing. an unconsious landing under such a small reserve is risky, but then again as jlb pointed out given so many variables it is risky under any size. my personal feeling is that when jumping a highly loaded main you are accepting certain risks, those risks extend beyond just flying that main. remember its not a parachute, it is a parachute system. sincerely, dan

jyro is paul martin's nick name. info as follows: NZ Aerosports Ltd, PO Box 68117 Newton. 46A Sussex St Grey Lynn, Auckland New Zealand. Ph 64 9 3600045 Fax 64 9 3788571 A/H 64 9 3766558 MOB 64 21 931895 sincerely, dan

if you redirect your literature search to paragliders you will find a wealth of pertinent information. sincerely, dan atair

since you play high not low, i would not recommend an x-braced canopy to you. as far as that extra lift you are looking for: choose most any 9 cell canopy and you will have it. sincerely, dan

hi guys, howard-mod, aka h-mod: nose mode to vipers,alphas,& cobalts by howard adams (not atair). triangle braces on the nose loaded ribs. reduces drag slightly on the nose, reduces spanwise distortion on the first 8" of the airfoil, changes angle of attack slightly and increases speed. pros: overall a slight increase in high end performance & can be added to an existing cobalt. cons: as an after market modification performed outside our factory and our controll, atair can not endorse or support the modification. competition cobalt: are now available to the public after a full season of testing by our pro pilots. based on the proven planform & airfoil of the standard cobalt but taking our tensioned skin technology to the next level. the nose is closed and taped in a triangulated fashion crossbracing only the nose in a spanwise direction. bottom skin inlets were added for inflation. crossports are structured to create a multistage opening, ie, 3 then 5 then 7 then 9. the design is a show off of several technologies we are patent pending on. inlet drag is reduced 60%, spanwise airfoil distortion to b lines is reduced in the range of a tri cell cross braced canopies, angle of attack is steeper..... pros: very soft high speed openings, speed of a cobalt 1 size down & lift of a cobalt 1 size up ! equal performance to cross braced tri cells (eric butts 4th place world para games, 300' swoops @ only 2.2#) without the price! and without many of the negative traits, ie. openings/riser pressure/self recovery arc... cons: they are super high performance and not for everyone, available only to qualified swoopers. x-braced atair? yep there here, called the ONYX in 28 and 36 cell. they are chord wise cross braced cobalts with a quad cell confiquration. look for them on the pro circuit with our test pilots. sincerely, dan atair

lisa: it is not my intention to try to create a rumor. only state fact and not interpretation. in this interest i asked sangiro to delete the offending line "i would expect.." from my post. rm: we tested the canopies in house but then comissioned a study by an agency that no one could poke bias at. and make no mistake if my findings were proved wrong, i would make that known. i am not out to hurt anyone, whole point being to prevent that. -dan

we use the european equivalent of 'sharpie' markers on our lines to mark the cut and finger trap points. additionally for ease in packing different color tape is used on the line attachment points. sincerely, dan

soda lime float glass can transmit, at high attenuation, uv down to just below 220 nm, well below the 300-400nm black light region. the thinner the glass the less the attenuation. the lower uv is there just at much lower intensity, because most of it, not all gets absorbed by the glass. as to weather or not the uv intensity is low enough to be below any damage threshold of the fabric after being filtered by window glass is valid question. the outdoor flag suggestion should answer most questions here (but will take at least a few months). sincerely, dan

lisa: fair enough... btw simon of icarus did start a liable law suit against me after my first comments about the crossfire and the accident i witnessed at the ranch. the case was droped after one response from our lawyer. it seems the truth is the best defense in a liable case. for further protection of both myself and friends jumping crossfires, i funded an independent test. so far tested in a fullsize wind tunnel are 5 crossfires both on the 'list' and not on the list. i am waiting for 2 more crossfires with newer line trim modifications to arrive for testing before the report will be released. sincerely, dan

ok. -dan

5 crossfires were tested by nasa in a windtunnel. the report should be published next month. sincerely, dan

rigger rob, changing the lines to open up the angle of attack will give you a flatter glide. but it will not increase the glide ratio of your canopy. it does in full flight but does not make the modified canopy capable of out gliding the unmodified canopy. a given airfoil/planform design is capable of a maximum glide, this will require pilot input, no line trim modification can increase this maximum glide for the particular design. opening up the angle of attack to provide for maximum glide in full flight will translate to undesirable flight characteristics, ie. slow foward speed in full flight, very hard to extremely hard front riser pressure, greatly reduced performance flight envelope. there is no point to doing this. sincerely, dan atair

"Not having flown a Stilletto, that is pretty much its reputation. But part of that is just the nature of an elliptical." the twitchness is normal, the design of the canopy is as such and it does not reduce with increase wing loading (just the opposite). the twitchyness is not however "the nature of ellipticals", this trait is governed by a series of variables. being elliptical is just one. this is a misconception born from a negative aspect of the stilletto, one of the early and most widely known elliptical canopy. the cobalt design canopy, which is elliptical, is anything but twitchy. elliptical design canopies can be very stable, and more efficient: something we are proving on begineer, tandem and extreme and even base canopies. sincerely, dan atair

hi bill, it's a decent test: yes the windows attentenuate the uv itensity. only meaning exposure time needs to be increased. the area gets full unobstructed sunlight all day, and after a year the fabric even with the filtering of the single pane windows has taken more uv abuse that a normal canopy used in skydiving. for kicks i will test the red in this canopy when i get the chance and let you know if it differs from the white. sincerely, dan atair

as far as i can know the line modification does not fix the aerodynamic instability the crossfires have, only cause the problem to happen deeper in the control range. sincerely, dan

>Dark colors are best, white is worst. Bright colors tend to fade quickly. For some reason, the real neons lose their color the fastest. we made 2 black cobalts for a dz owner in CA, i'm not into all black canopies but they did look kindof cool. as far as 1 color lasting longer than another according to gelvenor all colors will exhibit equal wear, some pigments will degrade faster than others. degraded pigments have nothing to do with the structural integrity of the fabric. neon colors fade because active components in the pigments actually flouresce. these flourescent compounts degrade over time with exposure to blue and uv light. uv coatings protect the fabric but the do not filter the blue spectrum of light. most all our demo's are white, with the gelvenor fabric they do not seem to age any faster than other colors. we did have one hanging on a wall in our office subjected to constant direct sunlight. after about 8 months the bright white was noticable yellowed. interesting note we tested the fabric strength and it showed no difference from new. the fabric has good uv protectors but the courmarin whiteners are still degraded by blue spectrum light. sincerely, dan atair

are there any military riggers on this forum? -dan