crossfire2 vs stilletto

[canopywhore 0]

I know things like this have been beat to death, but I was looking for a little input. I did a search but didn't find the answers I was looking for. I was wanting a Stilletto 135 and have found a XF134 at a great deal. I was wondering how they compare.

[ianmdrennan 2]

what would you like to do with the canopy?

Performance Designs Factory Team

[canopywhore 0]

I'm looking for soft on heading openings, lots of bottom end, if it swoops a little fine but thats not my main goal. I've jumped fx, cobalt and xaos.

[Canuck 0]

I have a few hundred jumps on a Crossfire119, and a few handfulls of jumps on various sized Stilettos (120's to 150's).

The Crossfire will dive steeper and longer and has a longer toggle stroke and deeper flare.

The Stiletto will turn faster and may have a slight advantage in glide.

Either one can swoop mega in the right hands.

Openings go hands down to the Crossfire - super slow and usually on heading. And the best part is, even when you do spin them up, the canopy flies straight and level (at least mine does).

The only other thing to consider is the line type. If you aren't partial to vectran, then you better get the Stiletto.

Hope this helps.

Canuck

[ianmdrennan 2]

Well in that case I'd say either will do. They're both good canopies (although the xfire got a bad name from a bad batch of canopies) and Canuck pretty much summed up the differences between them, but I'd add that the stiletto is more sensitive to body position on opening. Jump them both if you can and make up your mind which suits your flying style better.

Blue skies and safe swoops,
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[DF7ZS 0]

I have 170+ jumps with crossfire2 (109 with 90k exit weight) now and I LOVE this canopy.

blues

Helmut

[johnny1488 1]

At 400 jumps, you need to find a cleaner place to pack.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

[skygod7777 0]

Quote

At 400 jumps, you need to find a cleaner place to pack.

if he has vectran line, he needs to replace em at that time, it has nothing to do with how clean your packing aera is.

edit: i take that back, you do need a clean packing area, but with vectran line, it will wear out faster (if you jump very much) anyway.

later

[johnny1488 1]

I got 350 jumps from my safire before I changed the lower brake lines. I was far from a line set on that thing when I sold it. It will last if you take care of it. It will wear like shit if you dont.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

[ianmdrennan 2]

I believe he is talking about Vectran lines (kinda yellow lines instead of white) which have a significantly shorter lifespan than microline.

Blue skies
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[freeflydrew 0]

Right from the Icarus website... It looks like everyone's a litttle right in this case...

Vectran:
Vectran has become a popular choice due to its superior dimensional integrity. In other words, they won't shrink or distort nearly as much as will Spectra. As a result your canopy will retain better openings and flight characteristics for the duration of the line sets life.

NOTE: Vectran does not have as much abrasion resistance as Spectra, and the lines will "fuzz out" sooner than Spectra

It is recommended that you check line wear regularly. In particular, check out the lower control lines; they wear out fastest. 

Once again we recommend a line set replacement anywhere between 300 and 600 jumps but due to the variables involved, we recommend that you pay close attention to line wear and if in doubt at least replace your lower control lines regularly. 

The life of your lines will depend on several factors like your weight, the cleanliness of your packing environment, the number of lines (7-Cell or 9-Cell), how well you look after them and the condition of your slider grommets. Linesets should be monitored for wear and trim and retrimmed or replaced as you would a set of tires on a car. The things to look out for are trims, wear spots, snags and worn stitching. Often wear spots can appear quite bad but still retain much of their strength (such as wear by Velcro) and sometimes a line can appear in quite good condition and be weakened considerably (often underneath a fingertrap). A simple test is to squeeze the line between your thumb and finger and slide it along, if the line or wear spot gets thinner it is more than likely weakened.

Everyone please be safe...

[ianmdrennan 2]

Thanks for clearing that up.

Blue skies
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[johnny1488 1]

Yeah what drew said. Mine were vectran. Attention has to be paid no matter what line you jump.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

[jumperconway 0]

Quote

I'm looking for soft on heading openings, lots of bottom end, if it swoops a little fine but thats not my main goal. I've jumped fx, cobalt and xaos.

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The Xfire2 isn't near as soft opening as the 1. What did you not like about the Xaos? Mine are sweet opening. I can't see jumping anything non-crossbraced again. The Xfire stops turning when you do, the Spinetto has a lot of oversteer and is very harness happy. I would dump my Xfire 1-99' loaded 1.7+ in a full track and have incredibly soft,on heading openings.

[n2skdvn 0]

Quote

It is recommended that you check line wear regularly. In particular, check out the lower control lines; they wear out fastest

i can attest to that my lower control lines are getting replaced within the next week or so when i have the money to.

if my calculations are correct SLINKY + ESCULATOR = EVERLASTING FUN
my site

[rhino 0]

Quote

The Xfire2 isn't near as soft opening as the 1. What did you not like about the Xaos?

My xf2 opens just as soft as the xf1 I had.

The Xaos at 1.9 was slow, sluggish to me. The crossfire2 BLOWS it away at 1.9 - 2.0 as far as I am concerned. I would have to load the xaos at 2.4 to get the turn rate and dive I get from my crossfire2 at 1.9+.