When to reline

[jcoller 0]

Last year I bought a Sabre 170 that had "less than 300 jumps on it". I have put 250 jumps on it since. So, figure it around 550. I wingload it at about 1:1.2. I haven't noticed anything wrong with the canopy, weird openings, not flaring straight, etc. Since I only have about 270 jumps (and almost all on that canopy) I am not sure I WOULD notice anything unusual until it got to be pretty major. So, when should I think about relining it?

[riggerrob 558]

Depending upon how heavily you load the canopy and how you fly, you should re-line a canopy after 200 to 800 jumps. Blade Running competitors who are fanatics about performance should re-line their canopies after 200 to 400 jumps. Tandem manufacturers recommend re-lining after 300 jumps and if you don't, the openings get weird and they flare like bag locks! If your canopy is lightly loaded, you don't care much about performance and are just plain lazy, you can wait 800 jumps before re-lining.
The other way to decide when to re-line is to examine the lines. One broken strand in any line means that it is time to replace that line. By the time you have replaced 4 or 5 lines, you have spent as much money as re-lining. The other way to determine line quality is to measure the differential across the "A" lines. When the difference across the "A" lines approaches 3 inches it is time to reline the canopy.
Also consider how much the steering lines have shrunk. Sometimes you only have to replace the middle and lower steering lines to get a canopy flying properly again.

[Geoff 0]

Quote

The other way to determine line quality is to measure the differential across the "A" lines.

This doesn't work if you have an Icarus Safire (probably the same for Crossfire, Extreme, etc as well) - all the A lines (or B,C,D) are not the same length when new - it's designed with slightly shorter lines in the middle to make the canopy fly flatter.
Geoff