Paraflite Turbo ZX 165

[macksolo 0]

Hi,

I just started skydiving late last season and after 60 rental jumps, I bought an older rig that the DZ had for sale. It is a Paraflite Turbo ZX 165 in an early Vector 3 container. I think the date of manufacture on the main is 1995. The reserve is a PD-143 and it has a cypress 1 in it.

I now have 15 jumps on this rig and I since I don't have a manual or fellow divers jumping one at our DZ, I have a couple questions for the forum:

1) I'm wing loading this at approximately 1.2. Landings without wind now feel like downwinds to me. I've plfed a 3 times out of 15 jumps due to this already. I think I am getting the hang of it but perhaps I'm loading this a bit much still being in nube status? On my previous 60 jumps, only 4 landings were not stand-up. I've jumped a 170 a bunch of times (sabre-1) and it seemed to have a slower forward speed.

2) Pulling down the front risers is almost impossible. Is this by design? An experienced jumper who previously owned a canopy like this at our DZ says this is normal with this parachute and there is no point in even trying. What do I tell Scott Miller or Brian G. when they want me to do front riser dives in their class ? :-)
Should I rent a "normal" canopy for their class?

3) What's the 'glide angle' of this canopy?

4) Are there any other things I should know about this canopy that I might have learned with the owner's manual? Any maneuvers which should be avoided, packing suggestions, etc. ?

Despite some other postings about the paraflite turbo line of parachutes on this forum, all of my openings have been soft and on-heading.

Thanks in advance for any help. I will of course discuss anything I learn here with our rigger and/or instructors before taking any of it as gospel :-)

Take care and blue skies,

[faulknerwn 36]

The Turbo Z/ZX canopies always were very fast for their size. From what I remember is that they can land well, but they're just not as easy to land well as other canopies. Their "sweet spot" for planing out is smaller.

[riggerrob 558]

2) Pulling down the front risers is almost impossible. Is this by design? An experienced jumper who previously owned a canopy like this at our DZ says this is normal with this parachute and there is no point in even trying. What do I tell Scott Miller or Brian G. when they want me to do front riser dives in their class ? :-)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Just tell them that your canopy was designed before it became fashionable to use front risers as controls.

Your other option is to do a million chin-ups.

[ernokaikkonen 0]

It's not an easy canopy to land. I had a Turbo ZX 145 that I loaded at about 1.3:1, and that was definitely too much. I always landed it either with a front riser turn or double fronts, otherwise the landings tended to be too painful for my ankles.

As I recall, the maximum suspended weight for the canopy put the maximum WL at 1.1:1. It really didn't like to be loaded much more.

[lifesatrip 0]

I had a Turbo Z 165, never flown the ZX. So not sure how much difference there is. Pretty sure the design is the same just changed to all ZP for the ZX. My Turbo Z I just loved, flew a couple Sabre 170, 150s but preferred my Turbo Z. Once I put a split slider on it for crew it started flying a little nicer. I have used this canopy for CRW, accuracy, intro to swooping. If you get very aggressive with the risers they do work rather nicely. The only thing is that once you come out of a carve the canopy wants to come out of the dive right away. Very short recovery on it.

[MagicGuy 0]

A buddy of mine has a Turbo ZX 185 and he loves the thing. I've watch him fly it and it seems to fly really well, glides amazingly, but it does seem to come in pretty fast for landing. I've never seen him eat it, but every landing I've watched he has ran it out, especially on no wind days.

He loads it.. MAYBE at just 1:1, and he only has like 40 jumps so he's still learning how to land. I packed it for him once and the line groups are weird!

Sounds like 1.1 might be coming close to it's limits based on what everyone else is saying.