Choosing your Canopy

Posted Sunday, May 14, 2000

By Lisa Briggs

Photo: Keith Larrett

Choosing your main is one of the most vital gear selections you'll make, but all the different types and sizes of canopies available today can be confusing. What's the right main for you? That depends on how you like to fly your parachute.

Do you love lots of speed, swoop landings and high-G turns? "Elliptical" canopies are truly super-high-performance wings. They perform best when wing loaded well above 1.0 (suspended weight greater than 1 pound per square foot), produce incredible speed and "swoops" on landing and are highly responsive. These parachutes can be steered with minimal toggle input or by simply shifting your weight in the harness, much like steering a motorcycle. The elliptical shape alone makes these canopies perform differently than traditional rectangular ones.

Be aware that some manufacturers require a minimum number of jumps before they'll sell you an elliptical wing. PD likes to see several hundred jumps on a ZP canopy before you buy a Stiletto, several hundred more on an elliptical before buying a Vengeance or Velocity. Icarus Canopies, the manufacturer of the Icarus Extreme FX series, recommends 500 jumps on an elliptical canopy before jumping an Extreme.

There is good reason for these limitations. These canopies are NOT for the novice skydiver, nor even for the average recreational jumper. The elliptical shape results in unpredictable opening characteristics. Line twists, a simple fix on a more forgiving canopy, are a guaranteed reserve ride on a highly wing loaded elliptical.

They require long, wide open landing areas and a pilot who is aware and in control until the ride is over. The slightest mistake in judgment on your approach to Earth can at a minimum create severe pain, and a glance at the latest fatality reports tells the rest of the story.

For those who don't want to go THAT fast but still want fun under canopy, swoop landings and incredible flares, several manufacturers offer zero P canopies with a "tapered" shape and models with the traditional rectangular shape. Flight characteristics vary, depending on number of cells and wing loading. These parachutes are less sensitive to pilot error than the ellipticals, but they can still bite.

Several manufacturers offer canopies built of both zero porosity and F-111 fabrics. This combination is said to be easier to pack yet still provide ZP performance.

If your main interest is CRW, accuracy or demo jumps, there are canopies built just for you, and your performance in these disciplines might even improve using them.

Also available are the "traditional" F-111 square mains. Offered in 7 and 9 cell varieties, these are the "station wagons" of parachutes. Great for students or the novice, infrequent, older, injured or more conservative skydiver, when lightly (properly) wing-loaded these canopies fly relatively slow and are tolerant of all but the most extreme pilot error.

Mains built of F-111 cost less than those made of ZP, but they generally don't last as long. The coating on ZP fabric seems to resist UV radiation (sunlight) far longer and better than F-111.

WINGLOADING

You hear this term bounced around a lot. What does it really mean? Wing loading is "the payload weight (exit weight of a jumper) divided by the planform area (square footage) of a canopy." (Dan Poynter, Parachute Manual Vol. 2, glossary)

Photo: Keith Larrett

To determine your wing loading for a particular size canopy, first figure your exit weight. Exit weight is what you weigh when you leave the airplane. Take your (honest) body weight and add the maximum amount of weights you wear, then add 20 pounds for your rig.

As an example, if your exit weight is 150 lb. and you're jumping a 150 square foot canopy, you are wing loading that canopy at 1.0. Jump a 170 sq. ft. canopy and your wing loading goes down to .88. Go down to a 120 sq. ft. canopy and your wing loading goes up to 1.25.

So what's the right wing loading for you? Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules. Generally, you don't want to load an all-F111 constructed canopy at more than 1.0 as performance drops off quickly when loaded above that. ZP canopies often perform best when loaded above 1.0.

If you are buying your first main, keep the wing loading under 1.0 regardless of what kind of canopy you buy. Your first couple of hundred jumps are not the time for showing off under a highly wing loaded pocket rocket! Buy something that will help keep you safe while you learn more about flying and landing a parachute under all conditions.

If you are a more aggressive pilot (one who likes to spiral, use the front risers and generally FLY the canopy), go for a higher wing loading. If you are more conservative (one who likes to cruise around, check out the scenery and control the canopy only as much as is required for safety and accuracy), stay below .8 for your first canopy.

Before buying your second canopy, be sure that you have truly outgrown your first one. If you do only straight in approaches, if you jump only at a DZ with a large landing area (and no accuracy target to shoot for), you're probably not ready to downsize. If you aren't bored with your current canopy, you don't need to downsize.

If you are bored, there are still a lot of things you can do to make your current parachute fly "faster" that don't involve buying a smaller canopy. Spend some more jumps learning about the canopy you already have. There are several canopy flying skill development programs on the market; buy one and go do the suggested drills. Once you've discovered the full range of your canopy's performance, you may find that there's no need to downsize.

Photo: Keith Larrett

Your second canopy, one you purchase after 200 - 300 or more jumps, can be a bit more aggressive. This is the time to buy a ZP canopy if your first main wasn't, and fly a wing loading of 1.0 - 1.2. Like your first canopy if you are an aggressive pilot, go towards the higher end of the range; if you are more conservative, stay at the lower end.

Once again, spend time learning about your new canopy. Repeat the drill dives you did with your first main. For most skydivers, a canopy in this range will keep them happy for the rest of their skydiving career.

Canopies loaded at 1.3 and above are very, very fast and very, very unforgiving of pilot error. Wing loadings of 1.3 and above should be reserved for those skydivers who are highly experienced and who stay extremely current. Don't go there until you have several hundred jumps on a canopy loaded above 1.0. A couple of jumps a month is not current enough - 4 or 5 jumps a day, 2 or more days a week is more like it.

If you choose to fly a heavily loaded canopy, be smart. Don't jump it if conditions aren't right. Don't ever let an inexperienced skydiver jump it and don't sell it to an inexperienced skydiver. Don't fly it beyond your abilities and never allow your fun to endanger other people.

These are merely my recommendations. While following these recommendations will hopefully keep you somewhat safer, skydiving is a dangerous sport and you can be injured or killed regardless of what size or type parachute you buy.

Choosing your Canopy

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