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First Skydiving Canopy

• October 2012
• Fly Gear Training

Hey Steph,

My name is Mark and I am a recent “A” license graduate. I love skydiving but I’d be lying if I said I’m doing it just for that. I’ve always wanted to base jump since the first time I saw it. I was wondering what tips/drills you would offer to a skydiver looking to get into base. I’m looking at getting my first rig, I’m just really unsure of what to get. I’ve heard to buy a base canopy and I’ve also heard to just buy a skydiving 7 cell. I’m not planning on taking a FJC until I have 300+ skydives. However around 200 jumps, I know I’ll definitely be itching to do some wing suit jumps :). What size canopy canopy would you recommend to someone like me? I don’t see myself downsizing and getting into high performance/swooping canopies in the future, but you never know. Would you recommend buying used or new? If you could offer me your advice I’d love to hear back from you. In the next couple years I’ll hopefully be taking your first cliff jump course :).

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark,
I’m not interested in high performance canopies, unlike many skydivers. In skydiving, I am interested in flying a wingsuit and shooting accuracy (for base). So my skydiving canopy needs to open reliably and not too hard, it needs to get me where I want to be and land non-injuriously, and it needs to fly as much like a base canopy as possible. I kept my first canopy until last year, when I downsized only because it was a pain packing it into my container (and in the same timespan I have owned 8 wingsuits and 8 base canopies, by comparison). I have no interest in swooping and no interest in downsizing for any other reason. I also have no interest in spending money unnecessarily on my skydiving canopy. So for me, a skydiving canopy should be something like a Honda Civic–reliable, cost-effective, and good for getting me where I want to be without causing trouble. Just like with a car, I would never consider buying a new one and being the one to pay for all that instant depreciation.

For all these reasons, I jump a Spectre. My first one, bought when I’d just finished my A-license was a 170 which I kept until last year, and then my second one that I have now is a 150, which as you know is considered pretty large for my body weight (I weigh 115). There are lots of them around, and I have never had trouble finding a used one (all 2 times I’ve looked). Because I mainly care about accuracy and base-like performance, I like to fly a 7-cell. Also, the Spectre is super stable and reliable for openings, which matters to me a lot for wingsuit use, which is all I do when skydiving. I definitely don’t want an elliptical canopy, because of that, or one that has snappy openings.

Mario my husband has been skydiving for 25 years and has flown just about every canopy that exists in every aspect of the sport. He does swoop, and is a lot more well-rounded than I am, and he is a pretty serious canopy pilot, so he has much more definite opinions about performance in general when it comes to canopies. It’s very rare for Mario to strongly dislike anything, but he has nothing good to say about Spectres, because he says the Spectre is an outdated design and thinks it has a horrible flare. I’ve come to discover that Mario will put up with just about anything and even seem to like it, but if there’s one thing he can’t abide, it’s a canopy with bad flare! 😉 It makes him get all grouchy, seeing people land them and (frequently) pound in. He thinks a canopy should flare, which is valid.

It’s true that the Spectre has a very small flare window. But it’s also true that it snivels for a long time, making for nice openings, and it does fly somewhat similar to a base canopy–and you can usually pick up a used one for relatively cheap, which are the things I like about it.

Mario would be much happier if I had a Storm, which is a more modern-type 7-cell which apparently has a very good flare (and that is something to take into very serious consideration when choosing your canopy, because it could mean the difference between breaking your legs or not, especially as a newer jumper). Since I fly a very big canopy (by skydiving standards), I can afford to have the smaller flare window, and actually I think it’s good training for dealing with no-wind base landings in Moab. But if I ever do switch canopies again, I’ll look at the Storm and see if I can get a used one.

Another canopy that people seem to really like is the Pilot which is a 9-cell canopy. Keep in mind that downsizing seems to be the big trend nowadays among skydivers, but if you will be jumping at DZs much above sea level, that will dramatically affect the behavior of the wing. It’s okay to go on the smaller side at sea level, but you will be unpleasantly surprised by landing speed if you are jumping at higher elevation with a smaller sized canopy (Colorado, Utah, etc.), which is something I see a lot at boogies here when jumpers are coming from Florida and California at sea level drop zones. So start off reliable and big, and consider staying that way 🙂 Jumping is much more fun when you don’t get hurt.
Steph