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JP535

New Pilot7 from Aerodyne, any reviews?

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I recently saw an advertisement for it and looked it up on the Aerodyne website. Besides all the info that the manufacture says about it, has anyone jumped one yet? What are your thoughts?

I currently fly a pilot 9 cell and was looking at the pilot 7 cell for a wingsuit canopy which they say it is great for.

I am interested in hearing some reviews if others have been flying one. I hope to do a demo soon to see for myself.

Thanks

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I am a big guy and I demo'd a 230 last weekend. It had a very nice opening and it was snappy in turns and generally fun to fly. At 1.2 WL, in no wind, I felt like I was swooping and ended up sliding in. People watching said they thought it looked really fast on final and sounded like I was swooping. I felt like I couldn't get it to slow down, so I decided not to jump it again. I love the Pilot, but Pilot7 scared me. My normal canopy is a Sabre2 260 or Silhouette 210.
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bodypilot90

from three people I spoke with that jumped them. Great flare, flys a lot like a pilot and sweet openings. Flys a lot like a 9 cell.



Is the Pilot7 meant to compete directly against the Epicene (i.e. meant for wingsuiting and provides mediocre skydiving openings)? Or was it meant to compete with the Spectre and Storm? (i.e. has great openings all around and isn't strictly a wingsuit canopy)

I really like my Spectre for both skydiving and wingsuiting. The Epicene beats the Spectre for wingsuiting but I've seen some weird skydiving openings on the Epicene.

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I snatched a demo Pilot7 167 at Z-Hills the day it was released, I believe it was the ZPX version. I put a total of 14 jumps on it over 2 days, in variable (1m/s to 11m/s) winds. I'm around 87kg out the door, which puts my WL at 1.12. My impressions:
  • It opens fast at terminal. Hop'n'pops give you a nice long snivel, but terminal openings are, uh, "positive". I had the packers pack the slowest openings they could manage, and it was still just on the edge of uncomfortably fast. Great thing for a wingsuit canopy, which Pilot7 clearly is, but I fly belly, and that's not as great. Don't believe the claims about openings being great for infirm, elderly and pregnant women. Not the one I jumped. But at least it slams you on heading.

  • It flies very well, and wasn't hard to adjust to (I fly Sabre2 170 normally). The "flies like a 9-cell" claim is generally borne out and not much of a stretch.

  • The flare is really impressive for a 7-cell, and it responds very well to a full 2-stage flare. It still levels out pretty deep in the control range though, deeper than is usual for a 9-cell. Landings are pretty fast, expect to run a couple steps in very light winds.

  • Glide is noticeably steeper than in a Pilot, somewhere between Pilot and Sabre2, closer to the latter.

  • Toggle stalls are twitchy. It gives you plenty of warning so it's not in any way abrupt, but if you stall it, it will dive on recovery. No matter how gradual your input. So don't stall it I guess.

  • I don't swoop, and fly a conservative WL, so take the following with a grain of salt, but: front riser pressure is very high. I can normally do a 360° with no braking on my Sabre2, on Pilot7 I could maybe get a 90°, barely a 270° with braking. Interestingly enough however, the recovery arc seems longer than in Sabre2. It's pretty weird, and very possible that you can get a decent swoop out of it in smaller sizes.

  • Harness input is decent, though not super responsive. No canopy is likely to be at my WL.

All in all, seems like it'd be great for wingsuiting, and in LPV you can probably pack two sizes up. But I wouldn't choose it for regular freefall, and would definitely recommend anyone who can't take a harder opening to stay away from it.
"Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

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