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rippedbx

Noob canopy question

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I have 12 jumps. I weigh 150lbs. I started on a Navagator 220. Then I've used a 210 Spectre for a few jumps. I went to a different dz and used a 190 Sabre. I've had all stand up landings except 1 in the pea gravel.

I know I have very little experience but wanted to know what other people here think. My dz has only one 190 and its a fusion. asked 2 instructors what they thought and one said no way and the other said I should be fine if I felt up to it.

I understand a fusion might be above my experience level but since I only weigh 150....what do you think? I feel pretty confident (for my experience level at least). I like moderately pushing myself but don't want to get in over my head. If it makes any difference, I'm a gymnast and have been doing parkour for years (I'm great at falling!! haha)

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Welcome to the sport! Hopefully you'll keep jumping for a long time. To assist in that, I'd strongly recommend that you stick with manufacturer and USPA recommendations, especially in the area of canopy flying, where most of the injuries occur.

If you weigh 150 and all your gear put together weighs about 30, that puts your exit weight at about 180. That would give you a wing loading of 0.95 on a 190, which is a bit high even for a student canopy like a Manta, much less an intermediate canopy like a Fusion.

If you look at Precision's weight / experience / canopy-size table, they recommend that the Fusion 190 only be used by 180-pound jumpers of "Intermediate" experience or higher. The Fusion canopy size they recommend for a jumper of your weight is 230.

Hopefully that answers your question, even if it's not the answer you wanted. An oh, BTW, from now on I'd recommend that you get all your answers from the Instructor who told you "No way.". That way maybe you'll last long enough to be the one telling the noob "No way.". ;)


"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

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The fusion is similar to a sabre2. It's a bit more high performance than an original sabre and spectre, ie it will turn faster, dive more, and be more responsive to (bad) body positioning (and packing).

Over here you need 100 jumps to jump a fusion or sabre2, in your case a bit sooner would probably be fine but 12 jumps may be pushing it. It's not totally out there IMO, but you'd be smart to wait until all your instructors give you the thumbs up ;)


ciel bleu,
Saskia

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