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Skydiving Gear and Equipment: Main and Reserve Parachutes: Atair Aerodynamics USA: Cobalt

Cobalt

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Item:	Cobalt
Manufacturer:	Atair Aerodynamics USA (3719 Hits)

Purpose:	Main
Shape	Elliptical
Cells	9
Fabric:	ZP

Description:
The Cobalt canopy is the result of 7 years of engineering and refinement by renown German and Slovenian engineers. The Cobalt is an exceptional computer-modeled and field-refined canopy design, possessing many technical advances that set it far apart from other elliptical canopies.

Added: 2001-01-10 | Item ID: 32

User Reviews:

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Total Reviews: 27

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3 Recent Reviews:

0 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Cobalt 135 @ WL 1.4 - nice intermeediate/elliptical canopy

Rated by: JanuszPS (more about me) on 2009-05-25 06:39:13 (user reviews) Review ID:2185

Pros: openings :-), fabric,! flare!!
Cons: openings ;-)

After 100 jumps on Sabre 2 150 (225 in total) I moved to a second-hand Cobalt 135 my first fully elliptical canopy and I was amazed by it. First I did couple of demo jumps on friends of mine Cob 135. At the date I have 180 jumps on that canopy with 400 in total. My WL is 1.4/1.5 on it and as per Viso my highest speed generated during dive was about 80km/h. Comparing to Sa2 150 which I owned I was amazed with the following characteristics: 1- long and soft* openings 2- beautiful fly - flat glade 3- nice front's dives 4- great and powerful flare - the best 5- Gelvenor ZP fabric The openings on both (demo and my second-hand) were great, but defenitely on my friends nicer. I noticed that my openings with time = jump numbers get worst. Cons: 1- Openings if something is not fully right. 2- Due to the line trim there is low wind penetration at my WL. * Once the canopy had EXTREMELY hard opening broking one of mine ribs and whiplashing my neck putting me out of sport for 3 months. I would put this more on maintenance side as after reline the canopy transformed from a beast to a beauty with soft openings. In addition I don't think that the canopy had exactly declared number of jumps. I found that the lines (Spectra) were 8cm shorter than on line trim chart which defenitely had huge impact on openings as well as flare. At the moment I land 90 and 180 degs on fronts and I have to say that the flare is amazing on this canopy. After opening this is a sweet canopy to fly. The glade is great - no more off dz landings which reduced dramatically comparing to my Sa2 150 which sunk much quicker. Difficult to get to stall point on toggles. The canopy is packing friendly due to Galvanor ZP fabric. After being an owner of another canopy made of Galvanor (Cayeene) I want to stick with it for ever. To make it short - I bought another second hand Cob 120 and I hope to stick with it for another couple of hundreds jumps. Final score - 4 of 5, however it should be 4.5. -1 because of that exploding opening. Janusz

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1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

150 Comp Cobalt

Rated by: gearless_chris (more about me) on 2008-10-24 22:15:33 (user reviews) Review ID:2085

Pros: Light front riser presure, very fast.
Cons: Very hard openings

I ordered a 150 Comp Cobalt demo online when I was looking for my next canopy. After three weeks I called to see where it was, they said they didn't have a 150 Comp Cobalt to demo, that they only have a 135 and a 170. I got the 170 and put a dozen jumps on it, it was as fast as the other 150's that I had jumped so I decided to buy a 150 Comp Cobalt. On the order form there wasn't an option to match the triangular cross pieces to the cells so I called to ask about them. The person answering the phone couldn't answer my questions and she said everybody was out of the office. Square-1 called Atair two weeks after they said it would be done. Atair said it was done two weeks ago, they forgot to ship it. What I wanted for colors was the left end cell black, the cell beside it white, and white diamonds on the bottom. What I got was,the top skin was right, the crosspieces were matched to the cells like I wanted even though I didn't order them that way, the diamonds are white, but for some reason they made the center cell black instead of the left end cell. The first three jumps were fun, then on jump number 4 it opened so hard it broke a brakeline right in the middle of the line. I called Atair, again everybody was out of the office and she couldn't help me. I had already ordered new material since the brakelines came set up from the factory too short to use front risers, so I had my rigger replace them. It has broken the right brakeline twice, and the left brakeline once, in approximately 120 jumps. It also broke the aluminum camera box on my helmet with a riser strike. I sent Atair an email asking about the openings, no response. Once the canopy is open it is a blast to fly. The front riser pressure is very similar to a Stilleto but it dives steeper. I do outside video so I get to pull at breakoff time, but it's trimmed so steep that I usually land second, ground hungry is good. It will cover a lot of ground with rear riser input. This year at Richmond we managed to be last out of the Otter, but downwind of the landing area. Not only was I the only one out of our group to make it to the landing area, but I also passed the 6 way that got out before us.

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5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

Canopy review

Rated by: skyjumper2610 (more about me) on 2008-09-17 18:20:09 (user reviews) Review ID:2069

Pros: Forgiving, Docile, Good transition canopy
Cons: Unpredictable openings, production quality control

The cobalt flies great. It is a good transition canopy that can be forgiving. The front riser pressure is average (a good baseline for HP ellipticals). The flare gives a significant amount of lift which can give you an ok swoop or an easy landing, depending on what you are aiming for. For learning to swoop, it is much better than a stiletto ("spinletto"). All in all, it is much better than a stiletto. However, I feel that I must point out the inconsistentcy of the openings. I have flown 3 different cobalts (2 150sq ft, and 1 135sq ft) and also have known 3 other owners (all have different cobalts than I flew) and the first thing that comes out in a conversation is how hard this canopy can spank you. It's either an opening that is good and opens in about 800 - 1000ft, or as little as 200ft. Aside from downsizing... the other major factor was that at the time I pitched out, I would be wondering if it would be a hard opening or a good one. This was consistent among other cobalt owners I have known. This was explained to me by Atair (who are very hard to get ahold of) that the canopy was out of trim. How can a brand new canopy be out of trim? How can the other 2 canopies, as well as my 3 friends be flying the same situation? It comes down to quality control and poor manufacturing. One advertising point is that you can "safely have an opening while going head down or sit flying." If you look at the promo video on their website, you will see someone who did that, and it didn't look like a "nice" opening. It looked like something that every canopy would do under the same situation. I may be very biased as I am flying a crossfire 2 at 129sq ft. If you are looking to transition to elipticals, you might want to consider if you are willing to risk being stuck with a canopy that can open poorly against a good flying canopy. If you are flying an elliptical already, go to the crossfire 2.

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