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sedsquare

Reserve recommendations

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So I just had a reserve ride on my OP 126. It was surprisingly harness responsive, which caught me off guard. Some people might like that, but I'm not a fan. It was more responsive than the Sabre 1 I used to have.

Does anyone know if other reserves are more boring? Maybe the PDR or the Aerodyne Smart?

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I have a ride on my Decelerator 150; it was boring. Way, way more docile than the Sabre2 170 I jumped at the time, made me think of student canopies. I can't speak of 135, which is their smallest size, but I suspect that anything at all will be surprisingly responsive to harness input at size 126. You just can't have it both ways.
"Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

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Yes,
Wing-loading is the dominant factor.
If you loaded a Raven at 1.3 pounds per square foot, you would complain about the abrupt flare.
The second factor is line length. Any canopy smaller than 150 square feet gets “twitchy” .... er .... quickly responsive.

If you worry about line twists, abrupt flares or being too responsive, you bought too small a reserve.

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PDR 193 loaded at 1.25 to 1 worked well for me in 2005 over Rantoul Illinois. Didn't like Ravens, squirrely flare response.

Back in 1972 I rode a Navy surplus 26 ft conical reserve to a stand up landing on the target. Not bad for a reserve that cost me $25.

I like PD reserves. Reliable, well constructed and, at reasonable wing loadings, easy to fly and land.

377
2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

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sedsquare

So I just had a reserve ride on my OP 126. It was surprisingly harness responsive...



I don't like the sound of that, especially given the crazy body positions/attitudes people get into chopping spinning mals, etc.

Personally I want the most boring reserve possible. My PD 126 has opened beautifully on heading 11 times in a variety of cutaway scenarios. I hope it continues to now that I jump an RSL.
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

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Boring is good! I'm definitely not saying the OP is a bad reserve. I chopped on my back from a spinning malfunction and the OP opened beautifully. It saved my life and I am thankful. Currently looking at all options to make sure I'm using the right tool for the job. I have a demo requests in currently to try out a PDR and a Smart. :)

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I've had two chops on a PD Optimum 143, loaded at ~1.3. I don't think I noticed any harness sensitivity. It flew pretty boring and was a mostly one stage flare, but I stood up both in little wind.

On my first cutaway, I had line twists in the reserve but it flew straight and was easily able to kick out of it.

Both deployments were skyhooks.

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I have had a few reserve landings on a smart 175 at a moderate loading, and the Smart 110 at a more aggressive loading both were relatively docile.

That being said any reserve below a 150, or highly loaded is a compromise in safety, and is going to be more sensitive to harness input..

You would get busted up bad if you were unconscious and rode the 110 in with no flare.
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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I have a ton of reserve rides over the years - my Tempo 120's and PD 113's and 126's (I am not that big so not too heavily loaded) were both very docile and easy to fly and land. MicroRavens suck. Rounds suck.

One of my reserve rides I chopped spinning on my back and my PD 126 opened with a bunch of line twists. I spread the risers and kicked. Got nowhere. Pushed the risers together and kicked and got nowhere. Finally pushed one riser forward and one back and finally got out of the twists. The whole time the canopy flew stable right back to the dz....

I have never ridden a Smart on a true reserve ride but I jumped a demo 135(?) at a boogie. It was docile but super flat trimmed. I was test jumping it so I tried using rear risers and such - I could not use the rear risers at all without stalling it. Which could be good or bad depending on the situation you are in.

My worry with Optimums is the crazy number of videos there are on youtube of them sniveling. In 20+ reserve rides I have never had one snivel. And I am ok with that. I have lost friends do to low reserve pulls so I would much prefer a hard fast reserve opening than a soft one.

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I'm well aware that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", but I kinda wonder if the prevalence of videos of Optimums snivelling and the prevalence of videos of them spiralling are related. As wingsuiters found out, the more time your canopy spends opening, especially in suboptimal conditions, the more time it has to go pear-shaped...
"Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

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faulknerwn

I have never ridden a Smart on a true reserve ride but I jumped a demo 135(?) at a boogie. It was docile but super flat trimmed. I was test jumping it so I tried using rear risers and such - I could not use the rear risers at all without stalling it. Which could be good or bad depending on the situation you are in.



If I understand canopy flight correctly, trimming it like that would put the canopy in a minimum sink configuration, which would mean maximum airtime, and thus maximum decision time. How was the stall behaviour on toggles? Did it stall immediately or did it need quite a bit of toggle input for quite some time before stalling?

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sedsquare

Boring is good! I'm definitely not saying the OP is a bad reserve. I chopped on my back from a spinning malfunction and the OP opened beautifully. It saved my life and I am thankful. Currently looking at all options to make sure I'm using the right tool for the job. I have a demo requests in currently to try out a PDR and a Smart. :)



Consider demoing a nano as well. No rides on mine yet but someone on here actually did a head to head to head comparison of low bulk reserves (smart lpv was not out yet) and came back with the nano as the one he liked best.

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I demo'd an Aerodyne Smart for a few jumps, landing in both moderate-to-higher winds and in dead calm. I found it well-behaved (I don't want an exciting reserve canopy) and I bought one.

Consider making at least a jump or two on whatever you think you might buy. If that's what you get, you'll always know that if/when you have an emergency, you've already flown and landed the same thing.

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