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RickyGood

Ideal Skydive Canopy for Ground launching

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Hi there everyone.
I did some ground launching today on my JVX89 loaded 2.4ish. The wind was about 15 knots I reakon. It was awsome really fast and tight to the ground. But when the wind died down a bit later on the canopy was sinking too much and on my last run I had to fly on brakes to stop myself eating the hill.
My buddy was flying a xaos 108 which was doing real well and my other buddy was on a FX 119 which was wicked too.
So this made me want to get a new canopy for ground launching. So I'd like to hear from people who have ground launched alot of canopies, what canopy they found the best to fly?

Cheers
Ricky :)

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I was taught that the ideal wind loading was in the 1.4 range and that open nose canopies were good for low wind scenarios while close nosed canopies are good for higher winds. Unless you are using a GLX (engineered for ground launching), there is no "one" canopy and you choose the wing based on the wind and the hill conditions.


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

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Yeah Ricky,

been up to the old spot I see.

Sweeeet! If you really want one, get yourself a 109 or 120 around there somewhere. For the light wind days it will be sweet and when it is working, JVX on!!!

I'm gonna be in QT on the 14th and 15th of October. I will be making a B-line for the remarks with my JVX 84.

I have more than 150 flights on the remarks site it is so easy with absolutely no walking, The amount of times there is less than 10 knots is not too often. I can remember seeing you guys working at NZONE with a glassy lake and nil wind down there but we were getting about 10-15 knots up on the hill.

Also I noticed when I was on a 109 loaded at 1.5, flying with Aaron and Tuks, I had less performance on that hill that they did being loaded at around 2.0!

Sometimes the paragliders were long gone and the hang gliders were thinking about going home and we were having a ball on or crossfire 109's and 120's.

Be careful, and I'll see you in a few weeks for a few flights, I hear even Krasmir went up for a go?

Charge on bro,

See you soon.

Rhyso
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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In my opinion, an old stiletto is the best GL canopy, and ill give you a few reasons why.
1. Open nose - makes it way easier to kite. I did most of my early launches on a XF which flew awesome, but is harder to kite, especially when dragging up on skis because it tends to want to bowtie and spin if you do not get the correct inflation.
2. Short recovery arc - if you are planning on doing any kind of swooping such as is possible at some launch sites around my area, it is really nice to be able to get a front riser 90ish from pretty low and have confidence in not killing yourself.
3. Price and availability- there are tons of cheap ragged out stilettos around, and many places you are launching you arent going to want to bring your $2000+ canopy to play. I paid exactly $150 for my stiletto 120 which is actually in pretty good shape.

An old sabre will do the trick as well, but I prefer the flight characteristics of the stiletto personally. Enjoy this video as proof of ease of inflation and short recovery arc. I dragged my toe in the water for just an instant to long and threw off my balance to wind up with a face full of sand. Enjoy the manic laughter as proof of just how fun this sport is!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDoYM--PBA

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How steep are the hills you ground launch off of? I live in an area with more than a few sizeable ski jumping hills (I was in the sport for about 10 years) and that seems like the logical place to start.
There's no such thing as free will; everything is dictated by the Uncertainty Principle.

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