sdctlc

Nice sketch, That is what I would guess the three designs would look like next to each other. Maybe the powers that be could give a little bit of a yeah or ney on the design guess... Scott I still dont think it is a 36 cell but if it flys better who cares! "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

I was looking at a Hurricane yesterday at the DZ. One of the jumpers that comes out now and then normally jumps at Namibia and he had one. The ZP used seemed to be the same used by Aerodyne. I have heard it called the South African ZP. It feels thicker and has a tacky feel compared to the Solar Max that PD uses. The canopy seemed to be very nicely constructed. The workmanship was very good. The one thing I did not like was the line set. I am not sure what it was; it was not anything I have seen on a canopy recently built. It was almost like a cotton line but I don’t think that is what it was. Maybe a thin dacron line. Either way I did not like the lines, anybody know what they are? I did not jump it but the canopy seemed fly nicely and landed well. The guy jumping it was about 170lbs and had a 105 or so. As to cost he was saying that the cost would be about $400 US. With exchange rates changing I would guess between $400-600 is probably about right. It looked like a nice canopy, but that is only from seeing him fly it and looking over the canopy pretty well on the ground... Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

The canopy still seems to not be a 36 cell canopy in the terms of the Tri-cell design. Who Cares! What I mean is that the terminology used to describe it is not important if the canopy performs better than what currently is out. If it does do this, people will buy it! The design seems to be a 9-cell design that has a better "internal support" system. Looking at the new picture a little closer, the "small cells" seem to make up about 25% of the total of each cell, if the canopy is looked at in terms of a 9-cell canopy. Best guess is that they act more as an internal support for the top of the canopy. Aerodynamically if you have a more efficient wing you are going to get more lift. That I would venture to guess is what the internal supports are designed to do. Get better efficiency by making the low pressure zone of the wing (fast air flow portion) smoother to prevent or postpone, until slower speeds, smooth airflow separation. This should translate to more lift at slower speeds which will add to swooping distance. That distance is then based on the initial speed generated in the approach turn. Carrying more speed into the swoop and generating more lift at slower speeds should give a longer swoop unless the canopy has a design that is more drag generating. Lets see how the testing goes and get more feedback after more than 3 people who have flown it! If it is better its better if not and/or there is a problem it will go away! Scott C "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Is this along the lines of "Hope the pic does not make you hurt and by the way Merry Christmas". If you Kick a guy while he is down be sure to at least give him a present at the same time! Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

My New canopy!!

I think if you are a non-rigger and are interested in seeing a glimpse into what a rigger looks for or want some ideas regarding insite with your gear it's a great site. Gives some things to look at and to think about. Vic did a good job on that site and I am sure will be addig to it as he ses fit or as he gets feedback from! There are a lot of people that dont know as much about the gear they jump or how it works as there should be out there, its too bad but a true thing to think about... Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Deb, Thats it make Art slave over a sewing machine by advertising that we should order a bunch of stuff. I can just see it now, Art with his leg extended to one side, probably the one he normally uses to push the floor pedel, thinking to himself "boy oh boy is this fun".... Art, on a serious note, I hope you get back into the air soon. Terri Lee and I send our best wishs for a speedy recovery... Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

The point made is along the lines of my first impression, nothing to do with the quality of the Cobalt line or the company but more the construction of the canopy. I pulled up pictures of the Cobalt and the now accepted "traditional" Tri cell design using the Xaos-27 pics as a comparison. It seems to me that the canopy though having 36 cell when looking at the view from the top, is in acctuality a 9 cell with more internal support. Looking closely at the pictures and thinking in terms of the canopy as a 9-cell design, each half of an individual cell has approx 1/3 segrated with a support or cross brace. This seems to result in making the topskin smoother. Therotically this should improve the airflow and in turn increase lift. My opinion is that it is not a 36 cell in the sense of what is/has been recently considered the multicell or "tri" cell design, meaning a cell with a decernable rib and in some cases an associated cross brace. That said just because it may not jive with the above referenced current notion of a multicell canopy in "tri cell" construction lets not bash right off the bat and say its not in line with what we think it should be. If the innovation of the smother topskin creates an improvement in performance call it what you want (supported 9-cell, quad cell, whatever) and enjoy the performance improvement. My first thought was thats not a 36 cell canopy, but after thinking about it, even though it might not be, it looks like they are trying to think "out of the box". Gotta love innovation, good and bad! The discussion should be less the semantics describing the construction but more towards the gains if any in the design performance. If it turns out to work and is better regarding a performance improvement, every body will tri to follow the design in some fashion and all of the swoop loving jumpers will shell out a ton of money to have the canopy. If not it will fade away like previous innovative designes, couple of examples of this are the AR-11 and the Evolution. Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

It has been a year and you probably will not get much satisfaction from Paragear. They can ship ASAP so they have stock.... A year old seems a bit excessive. If they were offering free assembly and you wanted it sent w/o the adssembly then you probably would not be due a refund. If you were paying for it you may have had a point. I know that nothing is free and that the rigging cost was built into the sale price but still... Was the initial 5 month for custom gear? Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

The Sabre2 is very nice and behaves well. you can go fast or go a little slower. With the load your looking at you are going to not be able to go too slow but you should be ok. Straight in approaches give nice landing w/o extra input but if you go double fronts or a 90 to landing you can get a good amount of speed and good flare. The "2" will tend to dive a bit more than the Sabre so be aware that the recovery arc will be a little longer than the turbo, but if your aware of that and see its characteristics up high you will be fine. The openings with the "2" were, when I jumped one, loaded at 1.65-1.7, mostly on heading. Canopy never thought about opening fast though. They are nice canopies with a good mid range performance. If you want to push it you can or you can get back from a long spot with a little rear and legs up. Have fun with the canopy and be safe! Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

The design looks very interesting. The cross braces are more vertical than the crossbraces on say the Xaos line. Also it looks like all of the leading edge is open so lots of air can get into the canopy which is different then the current thinking on the Cross-braced line out now? Does the top of the cross brace being attached directly to the top skin and not to the next rib increase the in flight structural stability of the canopy? Looking at the pictures of the quad cell design, two of the cells are very small compared to the other two. Looks like the 2 smaller dimensioned cells are less in volume than a single one of the two other cells.. Is this a "brother" of the pDF Ninga canopy? Any way, Looks great and I am sure a very cool color pattern can be generated. If you can shut it down loaded at 3:1 that is Awesome! Hope we keep getting postings from the guys flying it...

Fair Deal! Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

With Exchange rate as of today you get the following. Hope the 40000 is in British pounds and not Euros, much better exchange to USD! Wednesday, December 18, 2002 40,000 British Pound = 63,920.0 US Dollar 40,000 US Dollar (USD) = 25,031.3 British Pound (GBP) OR looking a the Euro Wednesday, December 18, 2002 40,000 Euro = 41,152.0 US Dollar 40,000 US Dollar (USD) = 38,880.2 Euro (EUR) Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

I posted this in the beginning of December under the thread "Canopy Progression - the Pro's way" and I am re-posting it because it seems to fit here nicely, probably better in this thread than that one. Speaking of canopy progression and performance, I remember reading an article that basically stated (paraphrased) the following: "as people progress downward in canopy size seeking higher performance, they don’t realize that they have not even come close to the performance limits of the canopy they had been jumping" I think there is a lot of truth in that statement. Something has to be said for jumping a canopy for a longer time and really learning how to fly it before going small really fast. The mistakes you make while learning on a slightly larger canopy don’t bite nearly as hard as they do on the smaller ones. Even in a time of rapid development of very good parachute technology. The thought above was from a number of years ago and I still believe that it is true today. It is like the recent discussion about the detachable D-bag. Would an average swooper feel, or for that matter, get the performance out of it that a "pro" level swooper possibly would get/feel. For that matter given that there is a great difference in the capabilities from the best of the best down to the lower level of the "pro" qualified swoopers, would all of them notice the difference? The best and all too common example is seeing a swooping machine canopy being piloted by a really good pilot. Next, see the same wing piloted by a so-so pilot, no comparison. Approach is probably not as smooth, maybe a little stab or too much rear riser, but most assuredly a shorter swoop. Sure the wing is a higher technology and aerodynamically is designed to surf like mad but if you don’t have a high level of the "how too" it is not going to do you any good. The other question to ponder than is why do many people get the swoop machine? Pressure to be the “Big Dog” at the DZ?? Desire to have the hottest or the latest and greatest?? What do you think? Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Keep the same slider and when your ready for the canopy to open tug the rear risers. I have a canopy that was consistent with its snivel, soft openings though. I would look up and everything looked great the canopy just sat there with the slider and everything looking perfect. If I wanted it to open faster I just pulled down on the rears evenly and the canopy opened.... I tried to switch sliders but the openings became inconsistent and I switched back to the old slider. I knew what to expect and how to deal with it if I wanted it to open faster.... Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

I have no sympathy for that weather, I covet thy weather right now.... Rain rain rain, all I saw last weekend was rain! Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

The thread reminded me of a conversation I had with Billy Weber a number of years ago (probably in '94 or '95) at the Lost Prairie Boogie up in Montana. I was talking with him and noticed his rig was set up for a left pull and not a right pull! I asked him and his response was something to the effect that I have X-thousand jumps with my right hand pulling and I wanted to give my left had a chance! I guess that makes Billy ambidextrous...

Go directly to the source! http://www.skydivenet.com/vse/contact.htm I dont think that the web site has any history information but I am pretty sure that Kelly bought Infinity from Larry well after 1996. Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Up in the Seattle area the same thing. Looks like the northren half west coast sucks for the most part! Bummer! Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Your right you do have way too much time, any-hoo nice job. The differences are subtle between the 4 different formats, took me a minute to see it. I guess after looking outside today in the greatter Seattle area I have no doubts as to why we are not jumping and that winter has set in Scott C "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

I bought a copy of "Golden Knights 4002" from the NSL page the Shop link. http://www.skyleague.com/NSLShop.html There is also a description of it on the "news" page close to the bottom.. http://www.skyleague.com/NSLNews.htm It is the Knights doing each block and random. Blocks out the door and at terminal at speed then slowed down. Randoms out the door. The difference between this and the Airspeed 499 tape is that they do not do the creeping for the door or at terminal, its all in the air footage with a brief title prior to each block and random. Also there is not a manual showing a continuity plan. That said, If you know a little about 4-way and are familiar with 499 tape and book this is very easy to follow and to get awesome info from. For only $10 + $4 s/h I thought it was a smoking deal!!! I received mine the other day and have watched it a number of times. The other cool thing is that it is based on the current dive pool. Even if your not into 4-way it is cool to see the exits and and how fast points can and need to be started with one of the top teams in the world! One of the best $14 I have spent on a skydiving tape... Espically if your doing 4-way... Scott C "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

I think this is similar but different for two reasons. 1st is that the removable D (actually modified Free)Bag allows for a freefall so you dont have a subterminal opening under the highly loaded swooping canopies being used. Terminal or subterminal is of course up to the individual jumper. This adds choices to the user as to his or her preference of exit (terminal or sub terminal) and takes out of the equation the need for an attachment inside the plane or a guy that has to hold the "brown bag". As someone else also noted it allows for a "Freestyle" exit. 2nd and probably bigger difference is the fact that the system allows for removal of the slider once under canopy.... Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Maybe you will be too late if your getting there tomorrow, they may do iut today! Good luck to all!! Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

http://www.performancedesigns.com/hotnews/RDS/rds.htm Should take you to the PD page that has the info on the RDS Scott C. "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

Well Ill be darned I did remember the correct number of jumpers for both! Scott C "He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"