Leia vs VK

[nzdan 0]

So who's jumped both and what are your opinions?

I will demo both when I get the chance but for now I'm stuck having to live vicariously through other peoples experiences not having jumped much in the past 6 months.

Children in the dark cause accidents, accidents in the dark cause children.

[Di0 1]

While it'll be a while before I can help with any first hand experience of these 2 beasts, yesterday I stumbled upon this nice video of a head-to-head comparison of a Leia and a VK so, well, probably good starting material for the thread:

https://youtu.be/hTyPopph5XE

I'm standing on the edge
With a vision in my head
My body screams release me
My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

[danielcroft 2]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4716466
I've since done a few more jumps on a VK79 with full RDS, really makes a difference to the wing but can't see myself making it my standard unless I'm swoop "training" but then I'm only training to be better at my every day canopy configuration so probably just from time to time for lols.

My VK79 should be here this week.

[mx19 0]

I have about 15/20 Jumps on a VK75 and about 200 on a hybrid Leia74

My wingloading is around 2.7 on these.

Openings:
Vk-positive but not hard by any means, Consistent.
Leia- Longer snivel, Softer, still pretty consistent.

Flight characteristics and landings:

They are both a step above your velos/jvx and should only be flown by people with a lot of x-brace experience. They are definitely not a canopy for someones first x-brace. That being said I find the Leia to fly like a higher performance canopy to the VK. The Leia will over rotate more if you are not onto it during your turn and definitely dives more, and dare i say it flies further (for my turn/technique) I found the Leia to be a lot closer to the Petra than the VK and it also seemed faster.

The Vk has slightly higher front riser pressure and slightly weaker rears but seems to have a lot bore bottom end shut down on the toggles.

Sorry for my lacking descriptions but I'm in a rush.
To sum it up in my experience they are both Awesome canopies and I'd be happy to fly either one but in my eyes the Leia is a higher performance canopy and along with that you also need to be a bit more heads up while flying it as I feel it may bite you a little easier than the VK.

Edit to add for clarity: I'm not sponsored or a diehard fanboy of either company. I love flying canopies and will fly what I like regardless of who it is made by. My favourite canopy before my Leia and Petra was my Comp Velo.

[danielcroft 2]

mx19

I have about 15/20 Jumps on a VK75 and about 200 on a hybrid Leia74

Nice comparison/review, thanks.

[shogo 0]

one thing i thought was interesting about leia is that c4 and d3 are cascaded (grouped together). i have never seen this on sports canopies. maybe i am wrong.

compared to vk, leia is made more ruggerd, i think. not that the ruggedness is necessary. for e.g.: it is very heavy duty at the tip of the inflatable wing tip. unlike vk, the tip has additinal strip of light weight nylon tape (material for the premeter of sliders). slider stoppers are actually sawn inside of this strip of wingtip reinforcement.

[Charless 0]

So to sum it up, the Leia seems to be a litter higher performance wing than the VK, maybe a little more demanding/technical on the pilot (the "roll" needs to be countered, etc.) but with less toggle shut down (what I understand by that is that you're more prone to slide on your butt with this wing in comparison to the VK).

Other jumpers may confirm that ?

One question though : how is the Leia shut down power compared to say a similarly sized/loaded JVX/Velo ?

Regards

[morris 0]

I dont confirm that (sorry in a hurry)

[angryelf 0]

disclaimer: I have only jumped VK 90/79, never a Leia. This is XRW based only...

VK 90 w/ wt @ 2.9 flew okay next to a Aura/C2. VK 79 w/ wt @ 3.4 flew awesome next to Aura/C2/Freak. VK 79 next to Sensei 71 ( w/WS'ers) at 3.5= VK pilot hanging in brakes to stay with it.

VK 79 @ 3.4 in full flight 78-92MPH horizantal speed/45MPH vertical descent.

Buddy of mine in Freak next to a Leia at 3.4 couldn't hang. My guess is the Leia is trimmed flatter than the VK.

-Harry

"Sometimes you eat the bar,
and well-sometimes the bar eats you..."

[Jiggs 0]

At what altitude (and density alititude) was this recorded?
This is not corrected for winds aloft?
How was this recorded?

Charless - while I don't have many jumps on my Leia (82) I would say that it is more 'floaty' than either my JVXs (79) or velo (84) of a similar size. It flies closer to my Petra than either of the two earlier wings. In full flight it is definitely more ground hungry than the earlier generation wings, but you can fly them slow and swoop them long.

FWIW - I think in terms of steepness of trim it is Petra>Peregrine and probably Leia>VK

"Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain."

"In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

[caso 0]

[url=http://www.gclubth.com/][color=#ffffff]gclub[/color][/url]

[angryelf 0]

78-90 between 9.5k ft and 5k ft, DZ was at sea level. Winds aloft were forecasted at 7-15 mph on mark schulze and usairnet (tail wind), which puts true airspeed in the 65-85 mph range. Data was recorded on fly sight worn by WS pilot.

-Harry

"Sometimes you eat the bar,
and well-sometimes the bar eats you..."