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scratch05

Crossfire 1 109 Flare

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I just started jumping a crossfire 1 109sq.ft canopy that had the factory mods to it. The fabric is still crisp and the lines are slightly freyed in some places and appear dirty. The openings and flight characteristics are great except for the flare. I have to bury the toggles just keep from busting my butt, and this is in 15 mph winds. What is going on? I would like to purchase this canopy but not with a flare like this. All I can think of is the line set is out of wack. Does this canopy just need a new line set? I have flown larger crossfires and they were nothing like this.

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Yea check the brakes to be sure they are right. Also remember you downsized and eveything is different than your bigger canopy. I downsized and stayed on the same canopy too and the first landings werent great I noticed the same thing, no flare. Smaller canopy, smaller control surfaces = more input. Smaller is faster and has more lift but you have to learn how to use it. You need to loose the muscle memory from the old one and learn the new one. I went from final flare being at the lower rib cage to final flare all the way down as far as I could go. My flare point probably dropped a foot. It was fun learning how the smaller one flew and once I got it dialed in it was all tippie toe landings! :)
Or there could be a problem with the canopy and Im rambling on for no reason....... You could have someone else jump it. ;)

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

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In general Icarus canopies tend to have longer control strokes than most other canopies, it may just take some getting used to. If they're just enough slack in the brake lines to not deflect the tail when on frontrisers, the brakelines aren't too long. Of course it's possible the canopy is out of trim but then you often see very short brake lines too (unlesss they've been replaced already).

ciel bleu,
Saskia

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In general Icarus canopies tend to have longer control strokes than most other canopies, it may just take some getting used to. If they're just enough slack in the brake lines to not deflect the tail when on frontrisers, the brakelines aren't too long. Of course it's possible the canopy is out of trim but then you often see very short brake lines too (unlesss they've been replaced already).




This is true, I have also seen some people over extend their lines, this takes away from the bottom end.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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In general Icarus canopies tend to have longer control strokes than most other canopies



While this may be true, any canopy that is 'used' could have any length of brake line installed. Maybe it was set up for a very short female, and the stall is chest-high for a standard height person.

The point is this - any jump on a new canopy should begin with an evaluation of the set-up - brake line length, stall point, slow flight, etc. This need is magnified the higher up you go in WL, as the behavior of the canopy close to the ground becomes even more critical. Any unusual findings should be investigated by a check of the line trim before the next jump.

So the guy in this thread, who claims to be an aeronautical engineer, is jumping a 109 at 1.87 and doesn't have this basic information. I would suggest that a 109 at 1.87 is an expert level canopy, but his knowledge of canopies and their set-up appears to be far from expert. It's sad.

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Slight arc in the control lines is not what you should be looking for.

How far can you pull one or both control lines down before it deflects the tail is what you should look for.

Can you stall it the way it is set up?

Can you use the front risers with the toggles still in your hands and not deflect the tail?

And of course check the line trim.

Keith

''Always do sober what you said you would do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.'' - Ernest Hemingway

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So the guy in this thread, who claims to be an aeronautical engineer, is jumping a 109 at 1.87 and doesn't have this basic information. I would suggest that a 109 at 1.87 is an expert level canopy, but his knowledge of canopies and their set-up appears to be far from expert. It's sad.



I bought/sold/traded/flew a number of 2nd hand canopies and usually those of a beginner nature (sabre 150 etc) were set up with shortish-to-too-short brake lines. One of them flew in brakes even at "full flight" the previous owner didn't notice. But these all were from newer jumpers.

I thought it was quite sad/funny when we used to have a few canopy controll courses in a row by Icarus Team Extreme, PD guys ets where in the first video debrief they showed that every time about half of the attending swoopers had too short brakelines :S those swoopers were told to take a short trip to the rigger next door, preferably before the next jump.

Heck I've got some video somewhere from a swoopcomp where 2 swoopers had the top skin of their canopies doing very weird waving motions while swooping B| Of course nobody takes advice from me about swooping so they didn't even believe me when I told them I could see their brakelines were way too short

ciel bleu,
Saskia

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