PV Demon; first impression

[jerry81 10]

And by first impression I mean "what the two jumps I did with it today were like".

I've actually had the demo for ten days, but since I was in Germany last weekend and the only dz within reasonable driving distance was cypres-mandatory, I had to wait until today to take it up.
It's supposed to be a 120, but when compared to Atair's canopies, it's much closer to an Impulse 135 than a Cobalt 120. So my exact wingloading remains unknown, although I'd estimate it just a bit above 1.6.

Openings; both from terminal, not excessivelly snivelly, but quite comfortable and on heading. It reputedly opens more or less the same every time, regardless of body position, but it's too early to tell if that's true.

Flight; in brakes, the canopy seems to have a very shallow glide. I need to do some flat turns lower, but at a few hundred feet, it almost felt like I could turn the canopy 180° without losing any altitude at all.
Regular toggle turns are a whole different story...the pressure is lighter than on the Impulse and it definitely dives harder. Coming out of the turn the Demon also didn't seem to oversteer as much.
(intermezzo to remind you that these are just my first impressions)
Front riser pressure was also a bit lighter, but built up very fast after the first 360°. Harness inputs need to be explored further.

Landing; I was very wary of stalling it, since I've heard a few stories of the canopy folding up before the end of the landing, so I spent a lot of time doing practice flares at different speeds while looking up to see how it behaves. On the two flights I didn't manage to stall it like that and I had to pull the brakes as deep as possible to even start that pre-stall buckling.
Winds were moderate, although they lessened by the second jump and considering my very high 60-something carve followed by double fronts, the landing was very satisfactory.

In the following two weeks I plan to put about 30 more jumps on this canopy before I decide if I really like it or not and maybe take advantage of our local canopy designer and have Stane Krajnc jump it to see what he thinks. I'll post my opinions (for what they're worth) then, although I'll wait with writing a review until (if I decide to buy it) I've done at least a couple of hundred jumps on it. But so far, I like it.

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[speedy 0]

Maybe I'm a slow learner but, I have over 1200 jumps, I have recently purchased a velocity, I have 60 jumps on the velocity, but I would not dream off putting a first impressions post about the canopy. I am still doing all sorts of things with it to find out how it behaves.

When I had 280 jumps I had just switched from a Springo 160 loaded at 1.1 to a Stilletto loaded at 1.34 and I considered that to be agressive downsizing. I now know that I did not know the very much at all about canopy flight with just 280 jumps.

So, while you are welcome to your opinion, I think I will take with a large pinch of salt. Either update your profile (jump numbers) or be very careful with your new Demon.

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl