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frost

Scirocco - new x-braced main by Skylark

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Wow... $1845USD with a RDS too... That is a very good deal compared to a Comp Velo or a JVX… What is a JVX going for these days? Is the just the pre-production price?



They are in full production, but perhaps you ment introduction price? I really don't know. The web site doesn't say anything about it (I think, I only read the russian site via Google Translate). Perhaps they want to keep the price low to get more canopies out there to get some brand awareness?

Sure and half of the jumpers in US ans West Europe are flying canopies and jumping rigs made in Russia and Ukraine, right?;)

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They are in full production, but perhaps you ment introduction price? I really don't know. The web site doesn't say anything about it (I think, I only read the russian site via Google Translate). Perhaps they want to keep the price low to get more canopies out there to get some brand awareness?


Sure and half of the jumpers in US ans West Europe are flying canopies and jumping rigs made in Russia and Ukraine, right?;)


I'm probably stupid, because I don't think I understand what you mean.

Do you mean that they have to keep a low price in order to sell them at all because they are made in Ukraine, unlike say Honduras? Perhaps, people have their prejudices. I've previously bought a gear bag, a freefly overall, a camera overall and swoop pants that were made by Skylark and they were all well made so I've only had positive experiences with them this far.

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You will see some Scirocco's during World Cup in Klatovy (i hope 5-10 canopies ;)).
Best place to try Scirocco - 3 competitions In Ukraine this year. You also can meet and speak also with Scirocco's inventor here :)It wasn't possible to organize test jumps in Dubai due weather holds (no time for fun jumps).
We had Scirocco's 72, 77 and 87 with us.

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they have to keep a low price in order to sell them at all because they are made in Ukraine, unlike say Honduras?



In general, as the record proves, there are plenty of great products out there that cost less, are made in other countries and also perform as well or better than most of the US equivalents.

Skylark has been around for many years, they have a proven record with successful line of canopies and gear and are one of the largest companies in that part of the world, if not #1. I experienced first hand the quality of their workmanship and design with a 9-cell Magellan-120 - it is just excellent.

Funny, a good friend of mine and an excellent swooper was very skeptical and nervous to try the Scirocco. His used to say "Velocity forever!". Until he actually did try it. Now he is all about it. :ph34r:

If you take anything away from this discussion, take this: don't automatically dismiss a product just because "it's not made in the US". If you get an opportunity to test jump a different/new canopy [in your experience range] - dont ever miss it!!

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Sad to see there's still nothing really groundbreaking in the HP canopy industry.. [:/]



I'm not sure we're going to see anything groundbreaking for some time. It's like saying "nothing groundbreaking in aviation cause aircraft still have wings".

It's going to be a lot of small steps from hereon out until some wild new tech is developed and someone finds a creative use for it.

Ian
Performance Designs Factory Team

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I'm not sure we're going to see anything groundbreaking for some time. It's like saying "nothing groundbreaking in aviation cause aircraft still have wings"


Agreed. Creating performance parachutes may already be at a point where each new step is just a small enhancement to an already extremely efficient design and the further we go the harder it is to come up with a new "true" enhancement...

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Is he going for 10 or 5ft gates?


He is an Am/measured on 10 footers due to qualifications restrictions, but he is flying and hitting five footers... He is definitely at a Pro level.

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Sad to see there's still nothing really groundbreaking in the HP canopy industry.. [:/]



I'm not sure we're going to see anything groundbreaking for some time. It's like saying "nothing groundbreaking in aviation cause aircraft still have wings".

It's going to be a lot of small steps from hereon out until some wild new tech is developed and someone finds a creative use for it.

Ian


A local former-jumper and mad-scientist came up with a canopy design where you sew the cells out of alignment and you have to load up the canopy to pull the misshapen airfoil into shape. This was instead of crossbracing. It might work, haven't seen anything like it before.

He's also the guy that came up with "Leonardizing" for a F111 canopy (ask in the history forum). Great idea, but it didn't work out so well in the real world.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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@ bofh.

Pictures!!!!

What do you think about the scirocco. Have you jumped it yet? How does it compare to a velo?

Thanks...



I don't have any pictures of it, more than some bad unpacking pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150284974049012.403718.532314011&l=9db35498f9


I currently jump a [email protected] with Xaos lines (X-mod) and I've only done a few jumps with a Velo-96 so I can't really compare them. The Scirocco is a 77.

It is not legal to jump yet, but a friend's friend did test it once...

The opening was a bit odd. It streamed with the slider up, straight and didn't search around at all. The slider didn't go down until the jumper pulled the rear risers gently (after waiting for about 5 seconds) and then it opened softly and on heading with no tendency to turn at all. I think I like that, but it would be bad if one pulled low and/or didn't know about it...

Before the breaks were released it was much more stable than the VX, it didn't want to turn much while being slightly unbalanced in the harness while stowing the slider and opening the chest strap. With the VX I look a bit like a drunk driver while doing that. The rear risers were not tested to turn while the canopy was braked.

Once the breaks were released, it responded a lot to harness turns and wanted to dive a lot more than the VX. There was not much pressure building up in the front risers and even after 720 degrees, it was not too hard to pull at the front risers.

The stall point seemed to be at chest level, it started to rock quite a bit at that point. My friend's friend didn't want to provoke it while it was not legal to jump it... The steering lines was long enough to not break while pulling at the front risers, so the range was much shorter than on the VX.

The back risers seems to behave quite like the VX's. It had a rather long range before the stall point came close.

It had a steeper trim than the VX, but with breaks it seemed to float quite well. Will have to do some flocking to see how it compares.

Once it was diving, it kept diving. At final my friend's friend did a slow 90 degree harness turn that was supposed to end up high, but the canopy was diving really steep and the rear risers had to be pulled to get it to plane out in time. According to the FlySight, the vertical speed peaked at 75km/h and the ground speed peaked at 68km/h (into a strongish wind) and it became a 50 meter swoop without really trying. Up high while playing/testing the different controls, the top ground speed was 137km/h. My friend's friend's freefall speed was 165km/h during that jump.


All in all, my friend's friend liked it a lot. I can't wait until it has been approved (might need to wait for Skylark to write a manual, which is Swedish requirement, on the other hand the Xaos canopies have been approved and they don't have manuals, do they?).

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It is not legal to jump yet, but a friend's friend did test it once...

I can't wait until it has been approved (might need to wait for Skylark to write a manual, which is Swedish requirement, on the other hand the Xaos canopies have been approved and they don't have manuals, do they?).

maybe this would deserve a new thread, but ??? WTF do they need to "legalize" mains ?

Scirocco is not a crimea :|
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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It is not legal to jump yet, but a friend's friend did test it once...

I can't wait until it has been approved (might need to wait for Skylark to write a manual, which is Swedish requirement, on the other hand the Xaos canopies have been approved and they don't have manuals, do they?).

maybe this would deserve a new thread, but ??? WTF do they need to "legalize" mains ?

Scirocco is not a crimea :|

:)
The regulations state that all equipment (mains, AADs, reserves and containers) used in Sweden must be listed in one of our two rule books. For it to be listed there, the manual and some basic information about the equipment (manufacturer, their address, available sizes etc) should be sent to a group of riggers and they decide if they also want to see the equipment (in this case they did want that, probably because no one has previously got a Skylark canopy around here).

The idea is mostly that they should know about all equipment that is being used and ban obviously bad equipment - like if someone would start making reserves without proper reinforcement again. They also monitor SBs and make sure Swedish riggers get to know about them and sometimes write SBs of their own (they've done that to ban some of the alternatives to the three ring system for example).

For mains they mostly divide the canopies in two groups - HP and non-HP and we have rules for when you are allowed to start jumping HP canopies. In the future they might want to start a new category (like "ultra HP") and thus they want to know about the canopies being used.

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like if someone would start making reserves without proper reinforcement again.



Did they catch that problem the first time or was it unknown until problems started coming up and Precision started a recall?
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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like if someone would start making reserves without proper reinforcement again.



Did they catch that problem the first time or was it unknown until problems started coming up and Precision started a recall?



Nope...

When I started jumping the Mojo was not allowed, being a BASE canopy. Today they've allowed most BASE canopies (all people have bothered to ask about). So things have at least become better.

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