PD canopy sizes, why nothing smaller?

[mchamp 1]

Honest question, why doesn't PD make smaller canopies than 71sq ft?

I understand their logic about not making "ANY" size made to order, but why nothing smaller than 71? I know plenty of people that would jump smaller canopies than a 71 if PD offered it, but instead have to resort to wearing plenty of lead.

Sure the market wouldn't be all that huge, but still a small niche market nonetheless.

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[stayhigh 2]

to add to this.

Why don't PD only makes their break line either std or by 3 inches??

Or better yet, I think most of us, and I'm guessing like over 75% extend the control lines on velo. Why don't they fucking make STD length like 4 inches longer so that we have room to adjust.

Velo control lines comes so short that if you wanna add more than 3 inches you have to change entire mid and lowers. Bullshit.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[excaza 1]

Part of it comes down to the fact that making a parachute smaller while retaining familiar flight characteristics, particularly in those performance envelopes, is a lot more involved than just saying "shrink everything by x%." It takes a lot of time and effort to ensure you're not compromising the characteristics of the wing and turning out an unsafe product.

[mx19 0]

I've never personally jumped the 71 comp velo but i know a lot of people who have and say the performance really drops off on it and they end up going back to the 75/79. I don't think theres many people out there that compete on a 71 due to this fact so i don't think theres any need for anything smaller as the performance would just drop further?

[Deyan 36]

mchamp

Honest question, why doesn't PD make smaller canopies than 71sq ft?

They do make smaller canopies, but you really have to be from "the chosen" ones in order to buy them

"My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

[riggerrob 599]

There is a logmarithmic curve that says that only a tiny percentage of skydivers are skilled enough to jump sub-71 square foot canopies. PD insists on their factory jumping the bejezus out of any new design before selling it to the public. PD will not sell that new canopy to the masses until the PD factory team have collected their full crop of medals with the new canopy.
IOW PD is afraid that selling sub-71 canopies to regular skydivers will result in too many fractured femurs. It is in PD's best interest to keep your femurs intact.

[Amazon 7]

riggerrob

There is a logmarithmic curve that says that only a tiny percentage of skydivers are skilled enough to jump sub-71 square foot canopies. PD insists on their factory jumping the bejezus out of any new design before selling it to the public. PD will not sell that new canopy to the masses until the PD factory team have collected their full crop of medals with the new canopy.
IOW PD is afraid that selling sub-71 canopies to regular skydivers will result in too many fractured femurs. It is in PD's best interest to keep your femurs intact.

Don't forget the little people market too... just not a lot of call for tiny little canopies for that segment of the skydiving market.

[riggerrob 599]

Amazon

***There is a logmarithmic curve that says that only a tiny percentage of skydivers are skilled enough to jump sub-71 square foot canopies. PD insists on their factory jumping the bejezus out of any new design before selling it to the public. PD will not sell that new canopy to the masses until the PD factory team have collected their full crop of medals with the new canopy.
IOW PD is afraid that selling sub-71 canopies to regular skydivers will result in too many fractured femurs. It is in PD's best interest to keep your femurs intact.

Don't forget the little people market too... just not a lot of call for tiny little canopies for that segment of the skydiving market.

..............................................................................

Agreed.
Most little women are too smart to jump tiny canopies. Some thing about the short lines making the canopies too responsive for them to feel comfortable under canopy.

Did I just say that girl skydivers are brighter than boy skydivers?
Hah!
Hah!

[jumpwally 0]

because at some point it's just plain friggn stupid..

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[ZJumper 0]

Economics. Not enough demand to invest big bucks on R&D only to sell a few per year.

[vision 0]

Quote

There is a logmarithmic curve that says that only a tiny percentage of skydivers are skilled enough to jump sub-71 square foot canopies.

Rubbish!


If a comp velo performed at 69 or 65 square feet then they would have them most likely.

The plain and simple is that they do not.

There are sub 70 Peregrines I believe because that design can actually fly at that size.

As was mentioned earlier, 75's are about as small as you can go and still get any sort of decent distance on a Velo.

Even the 75 is much less popular than the 79, if the 71 and 75 flew well there would be many more of them.

What ever wins comps and breaks records will sell, and at the moment the parachutes winning comps and breaking records are less than 70 square feet.