Diablo, Nitron, or Cobalt

[beavdog 0]

I am looking at getting a new canopy and don't really know which to get. I jumped a Diablo this weekend and liked everything except for the landing. The flare seemed a little weak (could have been cuz I only made one jump on it.) I have heard good things about the Nitron and the Cobalt, but haven't gotten the chance to try them yet. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions on their performance?

Here's to the Breezes that blows through the Trezzez.....

[diablopilot 2]

The Diablo is a fun canopy. If you have been used to flying 9 cell canopies the flair is going to feel much different (it's a 7cell if you didn't know) so that may account for your weak flair feeling.

The Nitron is one of the nicest non-crossbraced elipticals on the market right now. Great openings, sporty feel, and superb landings. If I were to go to a non-crossbraced canopy again this would be it. Ask Mike McGowin, he loves his.

I have had bad luck with the Cobalt. Out of 15 jumps or so I've had 6 openings I would call unacceptably hard, and am not real impressed by any other carachteristic of the canopy enough to want to risk it any longer.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[hookitt 0]

The Nitron kicks some serious ass. Call em up for a demo.

-

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[skygod7777 0]

out of those three i have only jumped one, the cobalt.

i have seen the diablo flown, and wasn't too impressed.

the nitron seamed like a nice canopy, just a short recovery arc, but still a nice swoop and good bottom end.

the cobalt, i wasn't impressed at all. bad openings, and the performance wasn't all that impressive (or at least what it's made out to be)

i like the crossfire 2. it is a step above these canopies (the nitron is kinda in that class i guess), and it just rocks. nice openings, good recovery arc, long surfs, and great bottom end.

that's just my opinion of the canopies.

again, demo them all and find what you like the best, it is different for everyone.

later

[apoil 0]

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out of those three i have only jumped one, the cobalt.

i have seen the diablo flown, and wasn't too impressed.

the nitron seamed like a nice canopy, just a short recovery arc, but still a nice swoop and good bottom end.

the cobalt, i wasn't impressed at all. bad openings, and the performance wasn't all that impressive (or at least what it's made out to be)

i like the crossfire 2. it is a step above these canopies (the nitron is kinda in that class i guess), and it just rocks. nice openings, good recovery arc, long surfs, and great bottom end.

The Blade which is the next generation Nitro from High Performance research is in a class by itself. I haven't jumped a cf2, but I'd put my Blade up against it without reservation.

The Nitron and the Nitro are the same canopy.
If precision gets to produce the Blade in the US there will be some fun times.

But make no mistake, the Blade is intende to be loaded above 2.0, so it's a high end canopy. Just a smidge below the crossbraces in terms of overall performance.

The Nitron can be mid range or high depending on wingloading.
At 1.4 it's fun and safe. At 1.8 it's as aggressive as you want it to be while still retaining a ton of controllability.

Put a nitron in deep deep brakes and watch what happens. It just STOPS in the air. Very very useful. And the short recovery arc, and deep powerful flare means you can dig out of just about anything.

Its only shortcoming is when you really want to build up speed and you need to keep it diving after starting your hook too high.

[D22369 0]

Demo them all.....

its cheap, and what someone else loves about a canopy ....you may hate.

Roy

They say I suffer from insanity.... But I actually enjoy it.

[rgoper 0]

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Demo them all.....

if you just want to see what a canopy's abilities are, then demo the hell out of them. but DO NOT expect the brand new canopy that shows up on your doorstep 20 weeks later to fly the same way. been there, done that, got the tee-shirt, but still don't have the replacement canopy. (after only about a year)

--Richard--
"We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

[trigger 0]

The guys are right.Demo everything and not just 1 or 2 jumps on each,10+ would be good.
Personally i think the cf2 just rocks and i'm confident that to try is to buy,it's that good.
But wait a while as i'm sure you will as PD has a new baby in the offing and if the rumours are correct should be market ready v.soon.

.CHOP WOOD COLLECT WATER.

[jmfreefly 0]

I have jumped all three. I own a Nitron 108 (one of the first produced in the US), and a crossfire 115 (original, built 'post fix').
Here is my opinion (and only my opinion).

Diablo -- dont like them. way too twitchy for me. It harness turned way too easily. Dont like the flare..
heck, they are 7 cells, and I like to swoop. Being a camera guy for tandems, I need glide to get back from nuckleheads taking too long in the door. But, if you like super quick turns, and like 7 cells, this might be the canopy for you. (Jumped a friends canopy in their rig which was not a perfect fit for me, so that might have amplified my dislikings)

Cobolts - they are ok. Not a huge fan of them. I put maybe 20 jumps on a 105 demo, at the same time I was demoing a 119 crossfire ,and the crossfire won out. The recovery arc was weird for me, and I never really got the sweet openings they claimed (certainly compared to the crossfire).

Nitron - Bought one during the Ground Zero intro deal. Developed a love/hate relationship for a while with this canopy. It smacked me so hard one time that I had to quit jumping for 2 weeks because of my neck (stills and video on a dang Ash jump, no less.. ugh). I bitched to precision and they said 'Oh yeah, we revised the slider spec.. we will send you a new one..' duh.. would have been nice if you TOLD me that without me complaining.

Got new slider, and changed the packing style a tiny bit (double stow non-locking stows with small rubberbands), and it is a whole different ballgame,
opening wise. Old slider was tiny, with SS grommets (heavy and slick) and the slider would shoot down the lines quick. New slider is bigger and non-ss grommets, and doesnt drop as quick..

Nitrons (or any HMA-lined canopy my suspicion is) are prone to bad line dump.. so preventing that is key.

As for the canopy itself.. it is great.. long surfs, lots of flare.. the ears seam to work great (fly to a stop.. lots of low speed flare), and I -can- just stop the canopy into the wind holding up high for pattern to clear. I can float with 170s easily.

I would have said that the recovery arc is long, but now that I think about it, it isn't that long.. but, it is much easier to keep in a dive than my crossfire, which is what I like about it.

I demoed a crossfire 2, and it is nice, but not as easy to front riser as the nitron.. and not as good slow speed flare.

Anyway.. I like flying my Nitron a lot, and I would
probably do it again.. almost a toss up between it and a crossfire 2. The others are further back in my list.

[panzwami 0]

Love my Nitron 150. Nice and nimble, very responsive.

It's true what everyone else is saying about the short recovery arc. You can get it out of the corner in a big hurry if you need to (not that you ever want to be in that position). The drawback is that it's harder to sustain your dive if you lay it over too high.

It will slow way down when you fly in brakes, so you can hang out with almost anything. Landings are great, with more than enough flare all the way to the bottom.

The only gripe that I've had is the openings, which were initially very hard. I changed my packing procedures somewhat to compensate (psycho not PRO, tight line stows), and now it opens nicely. Still somewhat brisk, but by no means painful. Those HMA lines can be slippery, so it helps to make sure they are stowed tight.

Matt

[ianmdrennan 2]

Just a thought but I fail to see how double stowing lines can make the canopy open slower. In fact as long as it stays in the bag until line stretch (so only the first 2 stows are important) it should be fine.

That theory is currently being tested by the PD test jumpers who are jumping rubber bandless d-bags with a tuck tab to keep the canopy in the bag until line stretch.

I can't wait to get one
Just passing the info around.

Blue skies
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[apoil 0]

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That theory is currently being tested by the PD test jumpers who are jumping rubber bandless d-bags with a tuck tab to keep the canopy in the bag until line stretch.

I specifically asked one of the PD guys about how the no stow band dbags (in development by SunPath) worked out with their competition HMA lines.

The report is no problem. SunPath is continuously tweaking the system, when its ready it should be nice.

Another plus about Technora (HMA) lines - you can reline them yourself. No bartacking is required and no funky cascades to get you into trouble.

[ianmdrennan 2]

Yeah I asked Jay about the bag and he said he was very happy with it. He mentioned that it felt nice and clean...like a base deployement! I'll have to take his word on that seeing as I have ZERO base jumps to date
Interesting how many hard opening theories it screws up though eh?

Blue skies
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[rigging65 0]

I've been jumping a Xaos (HMA lines) in a rubberbandless D-bag since about the first of the year. There are no problems with this setup.

As for HMA being more prone to line dump: This is a silly statement. First off, line dump doesn't do crap to make openings harder, bag dump does. And there is no reason why you should have bag dump any more often with HMA than without.

I've jumped my Xaos with rubberbands and without, and never had a problem either way.

HMA: It's all good

"...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.
For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

[skymonkey 0]

I had purchased a Nitron 135 in 2001 and also had REALLY hard openings pretty consistently.. Early on I called Beezy Shaw at Precision and explained my problem, after some brainstorming I talked him into sending me a bigger slider, this was probably around Christmas 2001. We didn't know if it would work, I think I was the first to get that mod. I had a buddy who got a Xaos at the same time I did and his slider was huge. In addition some old jumpers had told me stories of bigger sliders being put on old Jalapeno and Nitro canopies fixing their hard opening problems. As it turned out that solved the whole problem completely. It opens soft like a spectre except a bit more twitchy, not anything that any experienced canopy flyer with the right amount of skill can't handle. I called Beezy and told him that it fixed the problem and that a slider in a size between what was originally sent with the canopy and the new one he sent would probably be the best fix. In my 400 jumps with this Nitron I've had only one line twist which started out spinning to the left but went straight to level flight shortly after. I was able to kick out no prob. You have to treat this elliptical like any other and have propper body position on deployment, and expect it to hunt for direction, which is pretty much standard to most ellipticals. The only other thing I did was to put more slack in the brakes ( about 1.5 inches). It seemed to brake( or what ever you want to call it) itself a bit on front riser carve approaches. I stow with mini bands and don't roll the nose at all. The lines with 400 flights on them look pretty much the same as they looked when I got it. It is a bit heavy on the front riser pressure, especially if your carving turn is initiated a bit high and you need to hold both front risers down a bit extra. She's not designed for swoop comps, but she'll do during weekend fun jumps. Has a short recovery arc. Easy to land deep in the brakes for a PLF in a pinch. And will definitely prep that aspiring swooper for the cross-braced realm. I haven't had one hard opening since the mod. It is Z-po just like PD. This canopy will be around with me for a while to come. Oh yeah avoid the Lime green color it looks like shit.

[skymonkey 0]

OBTW I load at about 1.6 if any one cares

[chronistin 0]

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I had purchased a Nitron 135 in 2001 and also had REALLY hard openings pretty consistently..

Funny that you all should say that - over here, the Nitro (european original version of the Nitron) is known for its soft, almost snivelly openings.

gree'z
chronistin

Chronistin
(Home @ http://www.fallschirmspringer.net/)

[apoil 0]

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Quote

I had purchased a Nitron 135 in 2001 and also had REALLY hard openings pretty consistently..

Funny that you all should say that - over here, the Nitro (european original version of the Nitron) is known for its soft, almost snivelly openings.

gree'z
chronistin

The nitro has a gigantic slider and is made of a different material.

My nitron 120 had one of the smallest sliders I've ever seen but I didn't find the openings to be too hard.