Hornet Openings

[steve1 5]

I'm still waiting to jump my new hornet. There's a blizzard outside right now with about three inches of new snow. (Talk about a crappy Spring). At any rate, I was talking to a girl in our club who said she demoed a Hornet and the opennings were extremely hard. She said that one of her opennings ripped the full face helmet off her head even. She says that I should try to send my new canopy back. But I don't understand this. Almost all the reviews I've read were from people who loved this canopy. The woman who jumped this canopy has over a 1,000 jumps so I know she knows how to pack. She had some riggers help her pack it after being slammed with the same results. It was a newer model canopy with the bigger slider. The Demo was from Ralph's in Oregon. Anyone have any ideas on this situation? I'd also like to hear if your Hornet opens okay, and how you pack it. Thanks, Steve

[cloud9 0]

Well Steve
That one kind of baffles me. My Hornet opened great every jump. I pro-packed it some of the time, on the nose I would fold the 3 outside cell towards the center and leave the center 3 cells alone and pull the slider out over the nose. I also pyscho pack most of the time with the same results soft on heading openings. I don't have that many jumps on a hornet only about 30 but never had any problems at all. Its a great canopy in every aspect, I just went to a Heatwave for a little more performance.

[AggieDave 6]

(Note: I only have 130 jumps, take my advice with a grain of salt)
I put about 50 jumps on a Hornet 190 loaded at 1.4ish:1 and never had a hard opening. Infact, my openings were pretty sweet.
Let me tell you how I packed the Hornet, maybe this will help you. Normal Pro-pack, but after flaking the nose, I would take the 4 cells on the left and roll them together, then stuff that in the center, same for the 4 on the right. I would then pull the center cell out, pushing the rolled cells to the back of the canopy, pressed against the bottom skin. I would turn the canopy around and put the nose between my legs, same as a normal pro-pack, do the lines and quarter the slider, taking care to really get it spread out well. Pulled the tail up around the lines, like normal, but I was careful to really get the tail around the canopy for a nice tight caccoon. I would also roll the tail a fair amount.
I never had problems with that pack job, save some collapsed end cells once or twice, from the cells refusing to unroll, but a couple quick pops of the rear risers fixed that.
Good luck with your new Hornet, you'll love flying it, I know I absolutely loved the one I jumped! Aerials
So up high
When you free your lives (the) eternal prize

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

I've put 7 jumps in on my hornet 170 now, and I found that I don't need to bother rolling the nose - I just make sure the slider is clover-leafed nicely before I roll the ail about 4 times, and it opens very softly. I psycho packed it the last time I landed, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
When I grow up, I want to be a post whore

[packman 0]

put some jumps on your hornet and try it out. each canopy is a little different ,the only way to find out how it opens is to jump it ! the key to a good opening is the slider , pull it out in front , pull it way out there. mine opens great , no problems so far.

[rgoper 0]

this is very uncharachteristic behaviour on the hornet's opening from my personal experience, and research i did prior to buying mine. no matter whether i pro-pack or psyco-pack, it opens nicely, i've had maybe 1 or 2 "brisk" openings, but that's largely due to some packing error. most of the time i pro-pack, split roll the nose, quarter the slider and it's never been a problem. having said all of that, it is not the 700'-900' sniveler that my 7 cell triathlon was, which i'm glad of, i can't stand a sniveling canopy! but i don't want to be cracked either. if it were my canopy (and it's not) i'd keep it, i believe you'll love it!
Richard
"Gravity Is My Friend"

[Slowfaller 0]

My hornet is from Ralph's in Oregon and I bought it brand new. I have only 6 jumps on it and 5 opening have been perfect but the 6th one really slammed me hard. I'm still sore. I blame it on sloppy packing, I was physco packing it but I beleive its because the slider was more towards the tail instead of the nose. Oh well, I'm new at this. The first 3 jumps on my own pack job were really nice though. Soft snivel and then opened beautifully on heading. I'd pump the rear risers a little to get the slider down but thats alright w/ me
Its only in drugs or death we'll see anything new, and death is just too controlling - Chuck Palahniuk

[weber 0]

The hornet...it will nail ya if you don't watch it. I put about 200 jumps on my 210 and the first 50 were rough. After I decided to not roll the nose...just take it and shove it all the way to the tail. Some will say this is a bad idea for whatever reason, but it worked great for me and I always had 800 feet openings and no cutaways.

[skydive4play 0]

I have over 200 jumps on my 170 wing loading it about 1.3 to 1. I have only had 2 hard opening and that was during the first 10 jumps. I have PRO packed and phyco packed my Hornet and it has always opened sweet and on heading. As far as the lady having over 1,000 jumps,,,,,,well like a friend use to tell me, " Numbers don't mean jack shit, it's the quality of the jumps that count"! And I am guessing that she was just not taking the time to pack or the ten thousand other reasons it could be. But I have never heard of this canopy reacting like the one she was telling you about. Believe me you would be making a piss poor mistake if you sent yours back. This is a great canopy and depending on your wing load, this baby can give you some real nice swoops and clean smooth, crisp turns. I really love mine!!!!
Lead Follow Or Get The Hell Out Of The Way!!!...

[rendezvous 0]

Just interested in knowing people's opinion on the bigger slider steve1 mentioned in his post. Could that be an issue. I don't have enough experience to judge here but that sure seems like something that might need a little looking into. From what I understand, if you want a slider to slow down the openings you need to add a pocket to it rather than increasing it's size because the increased size only exposes the nose more to the wind and causes inflation much faster.

[TALONSKY 0]

I have a friend that broke a rib on a hard opening on his Hornet. He said that is was a sloppy pack job, and every once in a while he will still get a hard opening. I think this may fall in to the same category as some Safire’s, some open hard while most do not. I fly a Safire 169 at 1.6 to 1 and have totally trash packed in 6 minutes and never have had a hard opening. On the same token I think it was billvon that had to put a slider pocket on his Safire to keep the openings from being hard.
Blue Skies
Kirk

[steve1 5]

I think that is what I'll do, if I do have hard openings, is look into having slider pockets installed. I've heard of other people doing that on some of the older Sabers. I thought I'd try a variety of packing methods first though (if there is a problem). I've heard Hornet's fly super, and most open fine. I know I was even being slammed by my Falcon with a Womari pack, so I went back to a PRO pack. I rolled the nose and tail several times, and I started having nice openings again. Thanks for the info. I have no plans to send the canopy back. Steve

[Dutchboy 0]

Quote

I've put 7 jumps in on my hornet 170 now, and I found that I don't need to bother rolling the nose - I just make sure the slider is clover-leafed nicely before I roll the ail about 4 times, and it opens very softly. I psycho packed it the last time I landed, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

I do something similar. I have about 110 jumps on my Hornet. I don't roll the nose. I do quarter the slider and make sure that it is pulled out to choke off air going into the nose. I also roll the tail 3 or 4 times, but just to keep everything together mostly.
The Dutchboy
Phil's Flying Enterprises, Inc.

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Funny, with a Sabre-2 demo I tried, I had to do the exact opposite just to get the thing to open in less than a 1,000 feet -> try to get air into the nose as fast as possible. I know alot of people have compared the Hornet and Sabre-2 as being very similar - I guess the opennings are something that differentiate them, along with cost?
Note: I have yet to try a Hornet - I may look them up to see about trying out a demo yet. My comments about the similarities between the two are based on second info from discussions on here.

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

Quote

I may look them up to see about trying out a demo yet

As far as I'm aware, PISA don't do a demo program, but they offer a full refund if you buy a canopy and don't like it.
When I grow up, I want to be a post whore

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Hmm, there is something unsettling about a 'buy before you try' program - though in talking with Big Air (and I guess PISA is in a similar boat)- as they explained it - they don't have the volume yet (still trying increase market penetration and recognition) to have alot of demo mains sitting around to ship out, so they use thier money back program to accumulate demos - problem is, nobody wants to return the mains after taking delivery

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[AndyMan 7]

Brian and his Big Air crew was at WFFC last year and had a big ole' pile of canopies with him for demo's. That's where I jumped the Lotus and Samurai.
I imagine he'll be back this year.
_Am
ICQ: 5578907
MSN Messenger: andrewdmetcalfe at hotmail dot com
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[weber 0]

If the slider is the same size, but more of a dome shape, it'll slow down the opening quite a bit...or at least that is what I have found.

[lazerq3 0]

I have about 15 jumps on my NEW hornet 150 and they all openn very slow about 800ft and very soft for me!!! I really love this canopy......I did however have one slammer but it was my fault....I didnt do anything with the slider...just left it hanging there...LESSONED LEARNED........But if you think about it no canopy is not suseptible to a hard opening!! it happens every once in a while and judging by what others and I have said its usaully packing eerror!!
jason

[TurboChrist 0]

I have about 10 jumps on my new hornet and was stung slightly once, but didn't pack it. I did roll the nose and tail last weekend and had it snivel well over 1000'. (Gets me to thinking about what dangerous mals snivels can be...probably should have been going for the handles instead of spreading the risers and watching the canopy.)
I won't be rolling the nose anymore but will try rolling the tail a bit, after doing a few jumps while making damned sure the slider is ALL the way up.
TC

[PhreeZone 15]

In reguards to a 1000 foot plus opening read THIS thread.
If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will....