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wildernessmedic

Evolution 160 main?

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Another member on here gave me an Evolution 160. It's about 27 years old but feels newer than my current canopy. However there are some things I'm not too sure about...

3 risers on each shoulder

The bridle is just kill line

The slider is connected to the kill Line to pull pc in

21 cells

The pin just slides around the kill line



If it all checks out is the canopy something I can jump regularly? Or should I find another use for it? I am looking for downsize so I'm hoping this canopy will work out. Even if it's old and different.

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The plain Evolution, I believe that was F-111 style fabric - still should be good for some hundreds of jumps. The later Super Evolution is ZP on the top skin.

I put some jumps on a Super Evolution 140 and still have it. Fun to play with and it was someone's regular canopy... but these days I'd say it is so weird that it isn't worth using regularly.

I can't recall what all changed from the original Evolution, but they went to a conventional slider and ZP. Pilot chute controlled reefing was a thing in the early days of squares and ParaFlight gave it one last try it seems on the Evolution. But companies were able to make sliders work reasonably well without the complexity. (Not that all normal slider equipped canopies open well.)

The Evolution's lines cascade side to side instead of front to back, attaching to every chamber. Bit of a pain in propacking where one faces 10 lines to each side when flaking... but one just doesn't try to be exact and count. (Some sizes had 23 not 21 chambers though.) At least one only has A,B, and C lines, no D lines.

It is made for those old (unreinforced) triple risers, and mine uses a 6 grommet slider. So putting it on regular risers might be a little odd, even though the A and B risers I think stay close together.

My Super Evolution tended to spiral a bit on opening, like a Vengeance (though even that is a dated reference!), but always came out fine. (ie, it would FLY in a turn at the end of opening and not try to twist up before turning)

The lines are a very soft, thin Spectra which also makes packing messier. They are rated to 600 lbs so there's no strength issue.

Since the front risers connect only to the A lines, pulling down the front riser only can easily tuck the nose under. Great fun at altitude as one can do a quick turn by collapsing the nose, spinning around, and then letting it recover. Don't "front riser" down low though.

They fly with a flat trim. The selling point back in the day was that it had a great glide ratio, because of an efficient airfoil and trim. Glide ratio wasn't a marketing thing later on.

They pack "big" I think, partially because ParaFlight used an odd sizing calculation. E.g, for my "140", they call it 140 without the drooped outer chambers, but with them, it is a 154. But those outer chambers are really part of the canopy as seen from above so should be counted. And some packing charts show the "140" to have a greater volume than a Sabre 1 170. So expect some bigness.

Good luck!

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wildernessmedic

Thanks for the info. Is there anything I should change or do before jumping it?



Hmm, not sure. Guess I'd start with medium speed openings, taking a moderate delay. The closing-pin-on-a-cord bridle is something that has been used in CRW so an experienced CRW jumper might help for having a look at that. Should be ok but I'm not experienced with them.

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pchapman

Here's the ad for the Evolution in the 1990-1991 ParaGear catalogue. ParaFlight was big on detail and data.


That is me jumping the canopy on the brochure photos by Mike McGowan taken at the Z-hillz Turkey boogie.
Interesting side note: During testing the day before we were leaving for the U.S. Nationals in 1989. I jumped in a tuck to terminal. When i deployed it opened so hard I have a herniated disc at c-5/c-6 and bulging at c-4/c-5. It delayed the introduction of the Evolution. The pilot chute controlled slider made openings softer. We didn't find an obvious reason for the hard opening Such as broken locking stows. Later we converted most of the standard Evolutions to non pilot chute controlled sliders. The Super Evolutions hard zero-P on the top skin. Para-Flite always measured our canopies differently than all the other manufacturers, so if you use their standard way of measuring Para-Flite canopies were alway larger and bulkier.

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accumack

***Here's the ad for the Evolution in the 1990-1991 ParaGear catalogue. ParaFlight was big on detail and data.


That is me jumping the canopy on the brochure photos by Mike McGowan taken at the Z-hillz Turkey boogie.
Interesting side note: During testing the day before we were leaving for the U.S. Nationals in 1989. I jumped in a tuck to terminal. When i deployed it opened so hard I have a herniated disc at c-5/c-6 and bulging at c-4/c-5. It delayed the introduction of the Evolution. The pilot chute controlled slider made openings softer. We didn't find an obvious reason for the hard opening Such as broken locking stows. Later we converted most of the standard Evolutions to non pilot chute controlled sliders. The Super Evolutions hard zero-P on the top skin. Para-Flite always measured our canopies differently than all the other manufacturers, so if you use their standard way of measuring Para-Flite canopies were alway larger and bulkier.

I'm guessing this isn't the super?

Since you flew it...Would you have any problem with jumping this canopy today? I understand it's not ideal and there are many more modern/better canopies, but is there any reason not to jump it?

Sorry photo won't load. It doesn't say super on the label. Already have herniated discs, was this problem corrected during trials before production?

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I had a Super Evolution 160 and loved it. One thing that no one has mentioned is that if you pull down on a center riser, you will get a diving turn that is a lot of fun to do at altitude and when the air is clear around you. I jumped at the old Woodstock DZ in Connecticut, and with the good glide ratio, I would get myself back to the target area and still be at 1500' or so and then make a couple of center riser turns. I used a bit of front riser for a swoop.

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Good point --Using paraglider terminology, pulling that middle riser would be doing a B-line stall. So yeah one could do a turn that way.

If both middle risers are pulled, the B-line stall is symmetrical, the canopy stays square but is dropping in a stalled configuration. More fun for up high.

The canopy also had a tight recovery arc. I found an old outside video of me doing something like a 720 toggle spiral really low, and flaring out of it to landing:
https://youtu.be/Ty5hl5Hq4vo

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