Triathlon or Spectre ??

[ShivaDas 0]

Hey all, I've been a lurker for a long while and its time I asked some advice. I am having a hard time deciding on a Triathlon 210 or a Spectre 210. I have an A license, 28 jumps, about 210 lbs. clothed. I have demo'd both I think the Spectre turns better, They both land well, I usually stand up or very close. they both open nice. But some people say the potential resale of a Spectre is way better than the Tri.
All opinions welcomed, anything concerning or comparing the two canopies.
Thanks
Paul

Just havin fun!
Paul

[PhreeZone 15]

New or used? A new Tri packs easier then a new Spectre. A used Spectre packs the same as a used Tri. Initial price is higher on the Spectre so it will sell for more in the end.

This is my opinion.... get the Spectre. I hate the Aerodyne default color pattern. The Spectre opens more consistanly then the Tri in my opinion. Tris some times are known for hard openings. Tris seem to be more sluggish then a same sized Spectre too.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[JJohnson 0]

I may be a little cautious here and I certainly don't mean to preach, but a Spectre is elliptical. At 28 jumps you might be better off under the Tri. You'll certainly appreciate the easier packing. A Tri was my first canopy off student status and it was a great canopy for my skill level. Just my .02 cents worth.
JJ

JJ

"Call me Darth Balls"

[skymedic 0]

Semi eliptical, JJ...

Marc
otherwise known as Mr.Fallinwoman....

[skybytch 259]

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I have demo'd both I think the Spectre turns better

There's your answer. Buy the one YOU like. You're the one that's gonna be flying it after all...

[VectorBoy 0]

The spectre opens better, flys better, flares better and resells better. They can be "in demand" even after a thousand jumps on it. 28 is NOT too little experience for one and 10,000 jumps is not too much to still be flying one. Ask Lisa what she loves about hers and why. Glen

[Cornholio 0]

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Buy the one YOU like. You're the one that's gonna be flying it after all...

I completely agree. My second canopy that I bought was a Spectre 190. I got it when I had about 40 jumps and still continue to jump it to this day (101 jumps) and have NO plans on downsizing anytime soon.

You definitely want to get something that you enjoy and the spectre aint' gonna do you wrong with your low jump numbers and low wing loading. It is very forgiving and I still have not flown it to it's maximum potential yet. Just don't pull a Deuce and you should be fine.

OT: BTW, Bytch, my Infinity will be here next Tuesday or Wed...WOO!!

Butthead: Whoa! Burritos for breakfast!
Beavis: Yeah! Yeah! Cool!
bellyflier on the dz.com hybrid record jump

[ShivaDas 0]

Cool, I am leaning toward the Spectre. Nothing wrong with the Tri, but it seems there are several areas where the Spectre is better.
Thanks for the replies.

Just havin fun!
Paul

[Michele 1]

Heya, Paul...

Not having flown the Tri, I can't compare the two. But having only 46 jumps, I own and adore my Spectre. It's not too advanced for me, now that I've taken the canopy control class (it wasn't too advanced before, either...but I downsized during the CC Class...and that was too much before...).

The turns are fun, the canopy has not scared me unless I've screwed up, and the openings are most excellent. It has been gentle with me, and forgiven my learning curve errors, mostly without protest. and what protest it has had, has generally been mild...more like "hey, Michele, don't try that again...but we'll let it go this time. Let's play!.." rather than "hey, I know, I'll spin up on you, throw you around the sky, and really freak you out...hehehehe"....

But you knew all that - I've told you this before. Just wanted to add my .02 publicly.

Ceils-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[cousindave 0]

Quote

dave
www.cousindave.com

David Ames
Used Gear Specialists
http://www.cousindave.com

[Austin 0]

Having never jumped a Spectre, here's my opinion of the Tri 190 I jumped for 75-80 jumps after I first got my license. I never had any of the "hard" openings that people say Tri's are prone to, in fact, the first few times I jumped it, I was starting to have thoughts about cutting it away it seemed to take so long to open. After I got used to it, I loved the way it opened. In addition, that canopy was a breeze to pack. What I didn't like about it was that I feel that it has very little glide (which is definately reinforced after jumping a cobalt, diablo (another 7 cell by Aerodyne only eliptical), sabre and my current safire). Also, I don't feel that the canopy had as much flare as any of those other canopies that I just mentioned. I stood up pretty much all of my landings on the Tri, but a lot of the time my feet would hurt from landing, and no I don't just get to a certain height and flare the exact same way every jump. I varied my timing and flaring technique many times trying to get softer landings out of the Tri and never seemed to find how to get them. Now I jump my Safire and I like it much better. However, it should be pointed out that my Safire will bite me harder than my Tri would have in the event that I screw something up in my opinion (hasn't happened yet).

So there's my Tri review.
Austin

[ShivaDas 0]

Thanks for the review Austin,
Hey I see you're from Skydive Kansas. Say hello to Jen Sharp for me, I got one of her jumpsuits, which I like just fine.

Soft landings,
Paul from Joshua Tree

Just havin fun!
Paul

[ramon 0]

Don't worry about a spectre being eliptical that is old school BS when concerning this canopy.

They are very similar and very forgiving. The triathlon is a great all round canopy and so is a spectre. the specte is capable of being loaded a little more (I jumped one a 1.5 it was fun). I did 180 jumps on a tri at 1.3

It all depends on price and color, at your skill level they are extremely similar. good opening stable, versatile.

Get whichever you find a good deal on, the person that said a new tri packs easier is right. the slightly sticky south african fabric is easy to get in the bag.

You can do crew with both if you get so inclined and aerodyne can convert a tri to a CRW bag if you want.

they are both good.

also considering your weight you may want to demo a 190...good luck

ramon

"Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.", Ambrose Bierce.

[drenaline 0]

I have never jumped a Tri but I own a spectre and been jumping it for about 55 jumps and gotta tell ya I love that thing!

I had a neck injury years ago and I need it a canopy that opened nice, so I read the classifieds and went for the spectre, that thing forgives almost any pack and its easier to pack than a 9 cell.

My wingload is a 1.2 and its fun to play with.

HISPA 21
www.panamafreefall.com

[darkwing 4]

The Spectre. I have 400 jumps on my Spectre 190. It is a great all around canopy. Safe, reliable, comfortable, capable of being fun. It is a generation ahead of the Triathlon in design and performance. Resale better too.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[Deuce 1]

Yeah, Spectre. Very sporty when loaded up. I jump camera and I NEED those soft on-heading openings. I've got 320 or so jumps on Spectres and I've never been spanked or spun-up. Veteran jumpers get nauseous watching me pack, so it's real forgiving of that, too.

Safe?

Don't let anybody fool you. You can easily, very easily, hook it to death. My 150 is loaded nearly 1.5 out the door, and I love the way it flies. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking "It's a Spectre, what could happen" a couple weeks ago and I went from euphoria from flying that wonderful canopy to death-terror when I over-amped a landing and cratered.

My experience with Triathalons has been uniformly bad, but that's anecdotal.

Good luck!

[AggieDave 6]

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You can easily, very easily, hook it to death.

You could easily hook a Navigator 300 to your death if you tried.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Deuce 1]

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Quote

You can easily, very easily, hook it to death.

You could easily hook a Navigator 300 to your death if you tried.

Absolutely. That's why I encourage people to reject the notion of any canopy as "safe". Almost all the canopies on the market now would have been "high-performance" canopies just a few years ago.

[darkwing 4]

I only meant the Spectre was safe in comparison to what a lot of my pals jump. I had a tension knot once and had to land at full brakes. No problem. Most of my pals would have had to cut away their zoomier canopies.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[Deuce 1]

Darkwing, I do know what you mean, I guess I just don't have the right vocabulary to express it.

Canopies go from "hella dangerous" to "real f*cking dangerous". Yeah, when I had a brake unstow on deployment I pulled some G's while I figured out why my inflated canopy was spinning, if that had been a highly loaded elliptical maybe I wouldn't have had that time, and maybe I would have had to chop. That makes the Spectre "safer" in that it gave me a little more time to assess.

I think that in my little pebble of a brain I was thinking of Spectre's as safe compared to Velocities and Stilleto's. 300 plus nice comfortable landings lulled me into complacency about every landing being life threatening if you don't f*cking concentrate. Lots of people are smarter than me, but the funny thing is that most of the veteran jumpers have had a wake-up call like mine about landing. I was lucky to get away with no stitches and my head thoroughly removed from my *ss.

The last thing I want is to sound like one of those recent weight loss successes who talks incessantly about how everyone should diet, or a recent AA grad who wants everybody to stop drinking. The cool thing about jumping out of airplanes is not getting killed by the planet. Every jump can kill you. (Yeah, I know "Duh!") I could have killed myself under anything out there on that particular day.

Anyway. Spectre! "Less dangerous!"

[JJohnson 0]

My point exactly, you can hurt yourself under any canopy. Yet here we have some people telling a 28 jump skydiver that a semi-eliptical canopy is fine for him. I disagree. I think the Tri is a better choice for a few 50 jumps.
In another post we got people talking a guy out of going to a Diablo at 70 jumps. I'm not familiar with either canopy, (one jump on a Spectre) but the Tri would seem to be a safer choice at 28 jumps. Just my .02 again.
We got a few people out there that know the Spectre pretty well, if they think he's good under it at a 1 to 1 ratio at 28 jumps, who am I argue?

JJ

JJ

"Call me Darth Balls"

[Deuce 1]

Hijack alert.

I just sold my Wings rig (PDR 176 reserve/Spectre 170 )to a new jumper under this condition. He'll jump a 190 in it 20 times before going to the 170. (I've arranged for him to borrow a Spectre 190). The 190 will be at .95/1 and then the 170 will be at 1.05/1.

I know this guy, and I like him. I'd be very upset if he hurt himself as a result of the equipment choice, so if it's good enough for a freind of mine, I'd hope it would be good enough for you.

[rendezvous 0]

Well I haven't ever flown a Spectre but I sure do own a Tri 175 loaded at 1:1. It's very easy to pack, has flown very well through winds a bit on the high side and turbulant,opens great never had a hard one,off field landings have been safe and great, getting back from a long spot hasn't been difficult. Doesn't surf much but I guess with 105 jumps I'm more interested in getting my technique right first and then I'll worry about distance. Flown it in slow too and it landed fine. Over all I don't have any issue with it at the moment.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

I have close to 20 jumps with a rented Spectre 210 and another 48 jumps with my own Triathlon 220 (loaded at about 1.07:1). And I've never had trouble landing either canopy. I've stood up close to 40 of my last landings using my Triathlon in all sorts of conditions (high wind, no wind, crosswind, downwind and off field). But that's not to say that I couldn't have a brain fart and biff in on my next jump.

As said by some other posters, both canopies open very well, fly well and are relatively easy to land. To me the biggest difference between the two canopies is the ease of which a novice can learn how to pack a Triathlon compared to the Spectre. But the Spectre is a sought after by more people and maybe this is like the first rule of real estate (you know the location message). Sometime in the next few months I will find out whether my Triathlon investment was a wise one as I will be looking to sell my Triathlon and I wonder how many people will pass me by for the sake of purchasing a Spectre instead. Time will tell.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[AndyMan 7]

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You could easily hook a Navigator 300 to your death if you tried

Have you ever jumped a Navigator? Most are trimmed in such a way that it would actually be very dificult to "hook" one. Navigators are trimmed to turn very flat, for exactly the reason you're alluding to.

To "hook" a Navigator, you would likely need to hook your foot through the toggle.

Back to the original question:

Spectre's and Triathlons are very similar canopies. The Spectre came out on the market shortly after the Triathlon, and was designed specifically to compete with it.

Both are virtually rectangular. The Specter has a bit of a taper to it, but the small degree makes it meaningless.

Both have seven cells, which makes for landings with slower forward speed, one of the reasons many people consider them safer canopies. The downside to it being a seven cell is that you will have trouble getting back from long spots.

The triathlon and specter are both very versatile canopies. I flew a triathlon for two hundred jumps, and a spectre for 30 while I was recovering from an injury.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.