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Shawtown939

Progressing through flight-1

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Plenty of us started HP landings on the Sabre 2 & IMO a correctly sized ( in terms of your experience) S2 is more suitable than a Stiletto.

If you're making your way through the flight-1 syllabus, your coaches are absolutely the best people to answer these questions. They have seen you fly & very few people will be as familiar with the full range of PD canopies. Always be wary of Internet advice - solicited or otherwise...

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I am 100% Flight-1 trained, all the way from 101, 102, 103, 201, 202 and now I do 1 on 1's, they are the best in the business. You are right in assuming that flight-1 is the way to go.

Your profile says 200 jumps in 3 years which means an average of 66 jumps per year. I highly doubt that a Flight-1 instructor will approve your choice of canopy. Please reference the following materials.

1. Canopy Downsizing chart by Brian Germain ( now adopted by USPA )
http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf

2. Canopy Risk Quotient by USPA
http://694m.be/skydive/canopy_risk_quotient
http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/files/misc_sdriskquotient.pdf

If you put in your statistics HONESTLY you will find that you are already pushing the envelope way beyond what you should. Please stay there, or consider a more conservative approach ( preferred ).

Also to the best of my knowledge the stiletto has the shortest recovery arc in it's class of canopies and is designed for pilots wanting different things.
The recovery arc of the Sabre 2 is the longest in its class. ( I have no knowledge about the newly released Safire 3 )

In my opinion you would be better off at a same size sabre 2 and stay there until you can increase the total number of jumps that you are making per year. My recommendation would be minimum 200 jumps a year out of which half are hop and pop's.

PS --> I am not one of those people that believe that newer jumpers should not think about swooping, believe me I am one of the most impatient people out there, however I realized by competing in 4 way that there is no skipping of anythings when it comes to things that you do in the air. Your total time to become a shit hot swooper will always be greater if you REALLY nail down the fundamentals and get a proper canopy coach ( not your aff instructor that flies a valkyrie ).

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have further questions.

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I also have taken the 101,102,103,201 and 202 courses from Flight-1.

Excellent stuff and well worth the money.
To be clear: If a 201 and 202 would be offered in driving distance I would probably take it again (different canopy now).

My general take a-way for swoop progression:
A long recovery arc lets you set-up high, if you set-up too high, just land normally and hang your head in shame.
If you set-up too low, you got plenty of time to bail.

I have talked to A LOT of swoopers, many of them former world-class and ALL advice me to stay SABRE 2 at moderate WL to learn the basics.

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TorukMakto


2. Canopy Risk Quotient by USPA
http://694m.be/skydive/canopy_risk_quotient
http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/files/misc_sdriskquotient.pdf



Forgot about that risk assessment.
Good tool, maybe with that my wife will let me downsize...

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General consensus is sabre 2's are great but there's not much point in changing at the moment. Start learning on whatever wing you're currently jumping as you'll be the most current on it.

You'll be focusing on your pattern, hitting set-up points, planning, consistently timing a turn etc. Changing wing won't help you with any of that.

At some point, you'll want to move away from the super short recovery of the ST but cross that bridge when you come to it.

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Thank so much for the input. I was told that the stiletto is a swooping machine by my instructor. He got a little excited saying that. Learned a lot to keep myself safe learning hp landings. From high entry to lowest safe hard deck entry and how to properly transition from fronts to rears. Man 201 is an incredible course. I was told to stay the course on the stiletto as it's closer in performance to the katana by many jumps on the canopies. I'm going to rock my stiletto until the day she can't give me any more, then transition to the same size katana and start from square 1 all over again. Let the long road trip begin!

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