Anybody Out there Jumping An AMAX

[flipper 0]

Anybody Out there Jumping An AMAX ?

[gus 1]

I heard that they've been discontinued due to Aerodyne being unhappy with the openings and that they're starting from scratch on a new design. Anyone else heard that?

Gus

OutpatientsOnline.com

[koz2000 1]

Best bet is to contact Aubrey who is often on this page. aubsmell He's the rep for Aerodyne

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- Does this small canopy make my balls look big? - J. Hayes -

[phoenixlpr 0]

Nice gosip

[meatbomb 0]

I've got a friend who's trying to wangle one through the ASIP. He loved the demos he jumped...said they kicked the arse out of the Velocity on turns...and opened sweet. When Aerodyne told him that they were holding off on them for a while, he told them just to give him one of the demos!

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Swoopert, CS-Aiiiiiii!
Piccies

[flipper 0]

I also jumped one, 90, 94 and 99 sq footers

they are the best that i have ever jumped

openings were the best that i have ever had

flew and landed better than the rest i have tried ....stiletto...vengeance...velocity

was just wondering if there was anybody out there that had managed to get hold of one and how they were gettin on with it

[flipper 0]

I'm trying to wangle anything....

[diablopilot 2]

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Nice gosip

I'd only call it gossip if it were not true.....The AMAX is currently not in production. The openings were a bit wild.

I flew the 99 for a while and the landings were great! Handles a 2.0 -2.2 loading well. Even opend pretty slow. Just was all over the sky while doing it.

With the phenominal success of the Pilot, I'd keep my eye on Aerodyne to pop out with a great new design in the future.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[meatbomb 0]

Hehe...doh! Didn't realise you were counting jump numbers in hundreds...

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Swoopert, CS-Aiiiiiii!
Piccies

[aubsmell 0]

Ahhhh, Amax interest, Sweet. It shouldn't be long until we bring the canopy to market. When the Bushman and I came across to Aerodyne the canopy was slated for sale, I put about 200 jumps on various sizes, and he jumped the canopy a good bit too. The canopy is fantastic, as you can see from some of the people who have jumped them. There were just a few things that we weren't happy with. And not all of the sizes were finshed. The Bush decided to hold off on marketing it untl it passed our muster. On a personal level, I'm not happy with selling anything that I would not buy myself. And I'm a bit picky.
I can say, that it won't be long.

Aubrey

"Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it"

[flipper 0]

cheers Aubrey

[Tonto 1]

Any news on this? It's been 9 months.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Squeak 17]

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Any news on this? It's been 9 months.

t

Also where does it fit in comparison to the Stilleto and the Vengence etc...

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[ianmdrennan 2]

It's my understanding that the AMAX project was scrapped and started all over again under a different name. I *think* they're still going to release something like it soon but I'm sure Aubrey will shed some light on it all.

Blues,
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[Tonto 1]

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Also where does it fit in comparison to the Stilleto and the Vengence etc...

Dunna... but flipper said earlier in this thread.. "flew and landed better than the rest i have tried ....stiletto...vengeance...velocity"

I've had a few people at our DZ ask what happened to them and said they were being worked on - and now I have people saying "you said.." and I have no answers...

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[sickwill 0]

any news?

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~~~i love this shit~~~

[Tonto 1]

No... Quiet as the grave...

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Ron 7]

They were not 100% happy with it. So they are not releasing it. Bushman told me they are going back to the drawing board back in Nov.

Everything I have been told about it is good, but not what they want to release.

I commend them for not rushing a product to market.

This is the kind of company I like to see.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[Tonto 1]

That's fine - but over 9 months ago Aubrey said, earlier in this thread, in fact, "It shouldn't be long until we bring the canopy to market."

Well, I think 9 months is long - and so do the people asking me questions. Even your news from Bushman is over 3 months old.

I agree that gear shouldn't be released until it's ready, or that gear already manufactured should be recalled if it's faulty. For those ISO 9001:2000 buffs, that's "Control of non conforming product."

Some communication from the company would be nice though, don't you think?

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Ron 7]

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That's fine - but over 9 months ago Aubrey said, earlier in this thread, in fact, "It shouldn't be long until we bring the canopy to market."

Things change. They decided that the canopy was not ready for market. I'm not going to discuss what the issue was that made them not want to release it...But I really respect a company (particulary a new company) that does not release a product before they are happy with it.

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Well, I think 9 months is long - and so do the people asking me questions. Even your news from Bushman is over 3 months old.

Yes, but my news was "Stop looking for it, that project is done". I don't work for them, so maybe my info is not good enough....Fair enough. But who says that a company HAS to say what they are doing? That is one problem that websites like this have created. They say canopy "X" will be released next year. But then circumstances change that. Ian was feeling pretty good about the canopy...He died. Bushman did not have the same warm and fuzzy about the canopy. They tried to fix the issues, but in the end the best choice was to scrap the program.

However, they tried to keep the commitments. And people all expect them to deliver a product before its ready. I'd much rather they not.

So I commend them for not bending to preasure and releasing a product they are not happy with.

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Some communication from the company would be nice though, don't you think?

Yes, but is it owed? PD took some flack for not realeasing the Katana when they said they would...Again good on them.

Bushman is a picky bastard...I like that in a gear company. Think of all the problems we would not have had if everyone was that way....NOVA, ect.

Aerodyne is gonna get nothing but respect from me for this choice.

But yes, an "offical" anouncement would be nice...But I don't think its needed.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[aubsmell 0]

Hey Sorry I haven't posted, I've been on vacation and away from my computer. This is going to be kind of a long rambling post, because there is a lot of history on the subject, and I just want you to understand where the project is and why.

I'll try to dance around this as best as possible, in marketing you don't want to put things out, before you have a chance to really try to make an impact. That being said I'll give you the story up to this point but leave out the ending...I’ll give you the long version.

The Amax will never exist! That was a canopy design that they intended to bring to the market when they originally launched Aerodyne two years ago, along with an assortment of products. When the management of this company changed, we evaluated each of the products, and went with what we thought were ready for the market.

Because Aerodyne wasn't a completely new company, more the embodiment of Aerodyne, PISA, and some of the best engineering minds from PDF (paraglider engineers and Michel Auvray) we weren't exactly starting from scratch. But they were a bit aggressive, with what they expected to launch all at once. (for this canopy we are talking about, Dom Hayhurst, the man who designed the Pilot, is the chief designer on this project.)

When the Bushman came over, things on the marketing end had been standing still for a good little while after Ian Bellis' death earlier in 2003, and that included where some of the products were in respect to when they could be launched. Bellis was a big part of the R&D side of things over here, as well as marketing. The Amax wasn’t really ready to be sold.

Shortly after, I followed the Bushman, and I began trying to get a feel for where each product fit in to the market, and we tried to decide what we should aggressively try to sell.

We sort of inherited all of these products. I jumped the Amax a ton, and the flight and landing of the performance of the canopy was great, but the openings left a lot to be desired. So we decided to pull the product and work out the openings. We tried a bunch of various line sets, placement of cross ports, all sorts of things, but we wanted to keep the steep long dive and a satisfactory roll rate, all the while we were still building more prototypes, different plan forms, completely different wings, with the same goals in mind. Good opening, steep diving, and a quick responsive roll rate.

After a while we figured out that with a different wing shape we got the best of all of these characteristics, so we scrapped trying to fix the Amax, and decided to develop a new prototype further so that is where we are.

We have a new canopy, it’s good to go, we are developing sizes (aerodynamic wings don’t scale perfectly so each size has to be built and tested to the nth degree), so it is hard to answer the question: when is this canopy going to come out? The most straightforward answer is: When it is safe, ready, meets our design goals and is thoroughly tested in all sizes.

It is tough, the market wants the canopy, we want to sell the canopy, but the reality is that we are not going to settle for a mediocre product. In the size of this industry, and our position as the new kid on the block, there is no room to come in half stepping, when we introduce a product it has to be as good or better than our competitors in one aspect or another. As a company we want nothing short of the best quality products on the market. And testing is a big part of that, and it takes time to test.

One thing is for sure, all the guys who work here at AR (AR is the Tampa based arm of Aerodyne) are skydivers, first and foremost, and businessmen second. Myself, Bushman, Jody, Paul, and Arnold WILL NOT push any product on to the market that we wouldn’t buy and be happy with ourselves.

So keep your eyes on the magazines, when you start seeing advertisements, that will be a good indicator that the canopy is soon to follow….

Until then if you have any suggestions for a name, I would appreciate them… as we haven’t decided yet….

A

"Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it"

[diablopilot 2]

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there is no room to come in half stepping

"Ain't no half steppin'" ~Kool Moe Dee.


Bring it brother....it will be fun I'm sure.....

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[Tonto 1]

Thanks for the comprehensive response. It all makes perfect sense, and mirrors what Ron said in an earlier post on this thread. Nice to have an unofficial "official" response though.

t

It's the year of the Pig.