cobaltdan

hey frank, i answer posts sometimes personally as a skydiver and most times a canopy designer & principal of atair. i believe that my posts on a whole have a strong educational content. the knowledge i present was learned from actually practice, which is my work & passion, i cant separate that. you are wrong in that i am not trying to make sales on this forum. i enjoy the educational aspects of this forum, that is challenge enough for me. i leave marketing to our sales force. sincerely, dan atair

$39 ? ....about $550 / hour a good deal if split with a few people. i was having trouble getting a foward hand dock in a stand position. 1 hour in the orlando tunnel fixed that. warning: an hour is a very long time to fly in a tunnel especially when they crank the wind to maximum for freeflying. simon and i could not lift our arms or laugh too hard the next day. too sore. -dan atair www.extremefly.com

>I get tired of elipticals and their quirky openings. hi kirilis, you might like to try a cobalt. it will definately break the negative mold of what you consider elliptical. sincerely, dan atair www.extremefly.com

most jumpers understand very little about the wings they fly. they learn how to fly the particular wing they have simply from trial and error. as such most jumpers have a very poor foundation for learning swooping. swooping & hooking is a high speed ground maneuver. in the interest in not getting killed it makes allot of sense to backtrack and unlearn bad habits and develop an understanding for your wing, all wings, how to determine their flight characteristics & envelope, and with that under your belt how to fly them. please, put your ego aside and understand that just because you constantly stand up your landings does not mean you are flying your canopy correctly ! below is a repost of mine from a thread called balance and canopy excercises, imo it is key information for aspiring swoopers: >i would like to explain a simple concept for canopy control as i think it would benefit some learning jumpers: on student gear most people are taught a 2 stage flare, when you transition to your first slightly smaller 9 cell zpo sport canopy, you may not have good luck with what you have been taught. flaring is not something you gauge with the position of your hands ! instead understand that you are suspended under your canopy, a weight on a string somewhat like a pendulum. you can tell what you are doing by > feel

a 180' turn once swooping is on the limit of what is possible. swooping down a hill is actually more difficult than up one. one of my favorite dz's is louisberg NC, because they have a beautiful hill in the showoff landing area (not to mention awesome people, planes, packing area). its tons of fun to swoop up it then see how far you can carve. chuck last year was busting almost 180's. my first time swooping down the hill, was a surprise. i carved a 270, built up lots of speed and started surfing about 20' from the drop off of the hill. to get the canopy to surf down an incline at high speed you need to lean on your front risers (the canopy just wants to go straight). i made it about 300' bobing up and down. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com

when you start jumping an elliptical canopy: -no matter how much you think you have symmetrical body position on opening: you dont. but dont worry once you accept that you will learn quickly. -All ellipticals are different and have their own distint characteristics. take advice from someone on your canopy and loading. -cut off your rsl and make a keychain. -enjoy your stilletto and practice your 'ching ching' (cutaway) every time you walk to the plane. sincerely, daniel atair www.extremefly.com

actually the cobalt 120 and stilletto 120 pack volumes are identical. i jump a javelin rs (their current smallest) built for sub 100's, and believe it or not i can pack a c120 in it. (don't ask me to do it all day, its a real pain).... the gelvenor fabric we use is not thicker, this is a misconception that arose because of a bad batch of fabric aerodyne bought from gelvenore about 7 years back. unfortunately it made it through aerodynes quality control and i believe about 70 bad canopies were released. since then btw gelvenore has built a completely new highest state of the art manufacturing line. their fabric is considered the best in the world now. cobalts do have a full cell construction. the top skin as made from 18 panels instead of 9 (like paragliders). we have no i-beam seams on the top skin. it is allot more work but allows us to create a tensioned pattern in the top skin (patent pend) which reduces airfoil distortion. the added seams are said to add pack volume, they do, but it is very slight and unnoticable. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com

welcome to the politics of skydiving.... i get letters from people all the time with comments like: >i never even thought of trying one of your canopies because "we are a pd dropzone"... but as circumstance would allow...i jumped a cobalt last week ...i was blown away, this is the best canopy i have ever jumped.... imo the best way to overcome programmed brand discrimination is simply to educate. if people have the knowledge to judge a product for themselves they wont need to rely on bs opinions. ie. i am willing to bet there is not a better constructed canopy on the market than our cobalt. yet some people with one right infront of them will dismiss it as 'ah probably no good, ill stick with pd'. yet if they knew anything about canopies, a quick inspection should tell them at the very least they are looking at one perfect piece of sewing, if it flies as good as its constructed look out... same thing with wings. if you know what you are looking at, you should be intrigued. when you get someones opinion, make sure to get their logic behind it. do not be happy with 'i wont touch a wings'...that is a valueless opnion, find out why specifically, and see if their exlaination stands up to scrutiny. sincerely, dan

on a small canopy, yes your suit will make a difference... you can see this by flying side by side with someone of similar loading, then experiment, ie. tuck your arms and legs in and watch what happens. many top swoopers wear skin tight shirts and shorts to get a edge.... additionally many swoop competitors are meticulous about stowing their slider, some rolling them into a pencil like roll, a few even removing them entirely once in full flight. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com

precision does not use gelvenor fabric. the early nitro's that atair manufactured for karl were made with gelvenor. the new european ones are also made by karl with gelvenor, i believe assembled in sri lanka i assume precision builds their nitros from their standard domestic source of fabric. -dan

>3 broken line sets what reserve? what conditions?

'quicks' are the reserves we manufacturer for performance variable(germany) for the european market. they will be available in the usa in a couple of months. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com

a student protec helmet might not be best, i am guessing that 120mph wind blowing into the mic port of the hearing aid could be a problem, resulting in hearing aid damage or user discomfort. ask your friend if they could comfortably stick their head out the window of a speeding car for a minute without problem... perhaps a closed face helmet would be better? -dan

rigger rob: assuming your reserve will never have more than say a dozen rides on it, the fabric will fly basically identical to z-po. granted there are many reserve designs that are old tec and fly/land like shit, new material or not, but there are good design reserves, ie atair 'quicks' reserves and pd reserves (give credit where due). a good design reserve reserve will fly and land identical to a modern high performance zp 7 cell main canopy. please do not further any misconceptions that people need grossly bigger reserves than their mains because f111 reserves lack flare power and will land hard. i have test jumped most reserves currently made and again a good design reserve will fly and land exactly the same as a modern performance 7 cell main canopy. if you fly a 135 main and are not comfortable flying a 135 reserve, or even a 150 reserve, imo either your logic is faulty or you should not be flying that 135 main. sincerely, dan

we like to see a minimum of 4" of toggle pull on our canopies before the brake lines can pull the tail. simple watch the tail pull toggles and see how far the toggles are below your keeper when your tail just begins to lip under. with that said i really doubt your lines are too long. you might want to consider some canopy coaching, and viewing your landings on video. the coaching is important because: 1 it will teach you a routine to fly in the air to determing the flight characteristics and envelope of your wing and 2 how your wing works and how you should fly it. just because you can land your parachute and walk away does not mean you are flying your parachute correctly. understanding of your wing will lead to good technique, and good technique will make you a better pilot (and save your ass sooner or later). sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com

hma and vectran are both aramids. vectran is just a trade name... as far as when to reline, simply learn how to measure your lines and do so every once in a while. to check you lines: 1) get a line dimension chart from the canopy manufacturer 2) stretch out a tape measure on the floor and nail the start to the floor, leaving the nail sticking up 3) put you links on the nail, and measure 2 lines at a time, (same lines one left and one right) 4) measure all lines and record on paper, try to use even force when tensioning the lines. 5) subtract out the length of the link and compare your chart with the factory specs. simple, should take you about 10 mins. note: uneven dimensional change is an indication for reline on lines such as spectra, aramid based lines will not appreciably change dimension, and will: develop micro filament fractures, and uv fiber strength degradation that are both difficult or impossible to tell by a simple inspection. best senario for these lines to to treat them very well and religiously change then based on the # of jumps recommended by the manufacturer. sincerely, dan atair

safires and saber2s are elliptical. remember it a combination of design variables, not just if a canopy is tapered or not that determins if it is suitable for a student or hot dog. sincerely, dan

add a cobalt to your demo list as well. better glide, flare and safer high speed openings.... sincerely, dan

best advice demo all canopies you are considering. my advice try demoing a c-170. foward speed will be equal to your 190. glide will be better, flare worlds better, and turns a bit faster. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com

not likely.....but depends on the speed its used at... wing loading + speed are required to answer a question like that. sincerely, dan

at 2:1 your weight shift in your harness or pushing on risers should be very responsive. give it a try over your toggles (in addition to geting used to the effective toggle control range of your canopy) sincerely, dan

i am not against hard housings. they are a good idea, but i do not believe they are the solution for hard cutaways w/high performance mains. every hard cutaway situation i have looked into has had a kinked yellow cable. the force needed to overcome the mechanical advantage of the detent mechanism formed when a yellow cable gets even the slightest kink into the gromet is huge. we are addressing this in a different way in our up-coming rigs: the 3 ring release mechanism is fliped upside down (main ring on riser), and the yellow cable is replaced with a steel pin (system patent pending). now there is no longer a possiblilty of either twisted risers increasing friction force on the cables because there are no cables on the risers and with the steel pin there is no possibility of a gromet kink. I felt it was the safest possible solution to redesign the entire section rather than try to implement incremental fudge fixes... sincerely, dan atair

cells are defined from loaded rib to loaded rib. loaded rib being one with attached suspension line. beyond that designs obviously can have differences ie. an fx is a 9 cell canopy with tri-x construction, a sabre is a 9 cell canopy, a cobalt is a 9 cell canopy with 1/2 cell construction (18 top skin panels), etc... sincerely, dan

as far as i know the stilletto, spectra, and vx/fx use exactly the same airfoil. canopy designers in jest reffer to it as the "pd airfoil" as so many "new" parachutes simply copy this airfoil. ps. i have this airfoil on my 2d cfd program, but i will have to check if i we have a naca # for it. sincerely, daniel

side note: the spectre uses a stilletto airfoil, the vx also is based on a stilletto airfoil... sincerely, dan