Rebecca-Berlin

A friend of mine let me borrow his Safire 2 189 until he found a buyer for it. From April till July, I did 45 jumps on it. I could land it in all wind conditions, but I was really bothered by the fact that it consistently took 300 meters to open. I do a lot of 4-way and we separate at 1500. I had to pull higher than the others to make time for the slow opening, which meant not tracking as far. But now I am beginning to work with a 16-way team, and my coach has asked me to track further and pull lower (at 900). So the slow easy openings of the Safire just don't work for this. And besides, my friend found a buyer, so I had to detach it and give it back. The reason I am buying a Pilot is because I am getting a great deal on it. I had done a day-long demo with the Pilot 168 in May and I just loved it. But the wind conditions were not as extreme as today. On that day I landed great and was sure i wanted it. And I was sure that size was better for me. Today my old AFF teacher was watching me land and he said I better think twice about downsizing. But the wind sack was standing at a 90 degree angle and there were rainclouds in the sky. (We actually jumped through them more than once.) I am thinking if I order a custom Pilot 168, it will arrive at Christmas and I won't be jumping it till next March anyway. For the rest of this season (till October) I can continue borrowing the Quadra V-Tec 190. (I could buy it if I wanted, because the owner just downsized, but I already promised the Pilot Dealer I would buy from him.)

This weekend we had heavy wind at the dropzone and I was testing different main canopies. I tried out a Pilot 188 a Pilot 168 and a Quadra V-Tec 190. The only stand-up landing I made was with the Quadra, which is a rectangular main. Why is this? I am about to buy a Pilot, a semi-elliptical Zero P, and it worries me that my landings weren't as good with this main. The last 3 years I have been jumping a Saphire 2 189 and a Sihouette 190.

I'm thinking of getting a wings rig with mostly royal blue cordura and a few blue and yellow tie dye panels. Does anyone have a pic of a design in this direction?

Glad to be of help.

Hi Yschmael, Check out the websites of the two local dropzones: www.gojump.de www.funjump.de I sent you a PM with the names of some local riggers. Let me know if you need more help.

Oooh! It is rather stunning in its' simplicity. Nice choice of colors. I still haven't received enlightenment. Maybe I will wake up in the middle of the night and have a revelation and scream out "Neon orange with royal blue ribs!"

You have a point there. The coolest canopies only have 2 colors. I am off to the dropzone now and will take a good and critical look at what's in the air.

OK, so no one seems to like any of my previous designs. Here is my original favorite. Very girly, I know.

Until I can scrounge up the money for a new custom rig, I am jumping a 97 teardrop classic. I borrowed a main from a friend, but must give it back in July so I am looking at colors for a new custom pilot. (see pilot colours thread) Thx for asking!

Here are three new ideas. The first is the opposite of sirenoremac: Picture One: Asymmetrical. This design matches my jumpsuit (admittedly only a fraction of the price of the canopy, but what the hell)? There is one problem though, here in Germany there are fields of yellow rapeseed in the jumping season and if I had a cutaway and the main landed in one of these fields it might be really tough to recover. Picture Three: Also asymmetrical, but with yummy sherbet colors and red ribs to complete the sunset look. It successfully avoids the German rapeseed problem. Picture Four: Uni-colored neon orange with navy blue ribbing. My best friend has these colors and his is the first canopy you spot after separation. Very high visibility. As you can see, I tend to like darker cross-braces.

Darned! It isn't my rig.

@degen: Your choice of style, meaning the endcells and the middle cell are a different color then the other 6 cells, will surely help you pack faster. You won't regret it. I personally am considering something more asymmetrical, but am waffeling. Again, if you want to change your slider color from red to yellow, contact Aerodyne. Maybe it's not too late. P.S. Anyone have a pic of a yellow canopy with blue ribbing?

@degeneration[Can't decide whether I'm not as keen on it seeing it properly, or whether I'm now hesitant cause someone else out there has the same colour scheme as what I ordered!! ] Maybe you and pincheck should start up a team! I think his canopy looks great and the yellow couldn't be brighter!! But if you're worried, call Aerodyne.

Why does this canopy remind me of sherbert ice cream? Lemon and mango.

Hey All! On www.dw-world.de there is a new extreme sports Tv show. You should be able to get it using streaming video. It is a 26 minute show and at about the 12th minute there is a report on Felix Baumgartner. The other reports are on the San Diego Red Bull Air Race World Series, the German BMX Extreme Playgrounds Dirt session 2008 and the O'Neill Highland Open surfing championship. I did the voice-overs in English!

How did you do that, angrypeppers? On the PC I used alt + (the key above insert) to get the screenshot. But how did you chop off the rest of the screen and lower the byte size? Photoshop? Cool! Today I am considering the neon orange canopy colors in the Mamba advertising (if it isn't red) or the mixed colors in the Triathlon ad (all neons: purple, pink, orange, yellow). I don't have Aerodyne fabric samples, but I do have PD fabric samples. Do the following colors correspond? PD on the left, Aerodyne on the right. I know PD has 23 colors and AD only has 15. black (BLK) = black (BLK) white (WHT) = white (WHI) Jade (JAD) = jade (JADE) Navy Blue (NBL) = Navy Blue (NAVY) Royal Blue (RBL) = Royal Blue (RBL) Turquoise (TUR) = Neon Blue (NBLU) Red (RED) = Red (RED) Magenta (MAG) or purple (PUR) = neon purple (NPUR) neon pink (NEP) = neon pink tangerine (TGR) = neon orange (NORN) lemon (LEM) = neon yellow (NYEL) silver (SIL) = Silver (SIL) gold (GOL) = Gold (GOLD) kelly green (KGR) = Green (GRE) lime green (LGR) = Lime Green

Thx Radioshack! Your canopy suits you well! Here is a pic of my jumpsuit colors. I tried to upload a screenshot of my latest main design idea but it is over 300 kb and I can't figure out how to downsize it. The idea was to get blue and yellow in somehow but still have the orange visibility factor: neon orange - all 9 cells on the topskin royal blue - all ribs neon yellow - all 9 cells on the bottomskin Would red ribs work better?

Thanks for the pix. Maybe i'm just more into girly colors. Somehow I don't see myself flying a black and silver canopy. I'm tending towards neon yellow and royal blue or neon blue (my RW suit colors) or all neon orange (high visibility) or purple/neon pink/neon orange/gold/neon yellow/gold/neon orange/neon pink/purple (happy rainbow stuff). Somehow I think mixing neon and non-neon colors might not work well. Hmmmmm.

Hey there! I know this thread is 2 years old, but I am about to pick my pilot colors and would love to see a few more pics. If anyone has time to upload their canopy-in-flight photos I would really appreciate it. The colors I'd like to see are neon yellow, gold, neon orange, neon pink, red and neon purple. Thanks!

OK, I am tending towards the custom Karnage Krew Pilot offer instead of buying the used Pilot, but now I need some input on color options (and a truckload of gold bars). Is there a thread with lots of main canopy jpgs? P.S. I like the GPS-in-the-rig idea! If I had come up with that idea BEFORE my rig was stolen this thread wouldn't be here!

Oh my god! I think I died and went to heaven! Who are you?

Hey All, I am making a valiant attempt to quickly and inexpensively replace my stolen rig with used equipment. So far I have bought an aged Teardrop Classic with a Tempo 150 and nearly dead Cypres. Now I have an offer on a main canopy and would like your take on the price: Pilot 168 DOM Feb 2003 300 jumps colors: Magenta, White and Turquoise (ick!!!) Price: 900 Euros (1,391.18 US Dollars) I did some demo jumps with it and it flies like a dream and opens quickly (200 meters) but softly. Is it a keeper?

Thanks guys, but it's too late. I bought it yesterday. The rigger who was selling it refused to go down in price. He said the container was in good condition, and this allows me to jump for another year. The money goes to the widow of the skydiver, who died of natural causes, not the rigger himself. Because I need a 15"/16" harness, used gear is almost impossible for me to find. Especially with such a large main. I went through this when I looked for my first rig, and that's why I ended up getting my new (now stolen) Viper. Blue Skies, Rebecca

OK, then I'll buy it. It will be my lost Viper's little brother. Now I just need a new main. Thanks for your speedy reply Saskia!!!

Here is some more info on the rig that is being offered to me (I have to replace my stolen rig before team training on April 26/27th or pay horrendous rental prices on a regular basis). Teardrop Classic: DOM 1/1997 Cypres 1: DOM 2/1997 Reserve: Tempo 150, DOM 4/1996 Main: I refused to consider buying it after one jump (it was a Falcon 195, DOM 3/1990) Price: 1500 Euros with the main = $2,369 1300 Euros without the main = $2,053 needs a reserve repack at the end of April 2008 (now) Is this a good deal?