Solo

The solo is a good student canopy that will bring first timers to the ground relatively safe, even with major piloting errors.

On the other hand as a skydiver you will quickly overgrow it if you search for a bit more fun in the sky. The inputs are sluggish and the deployment takes forever to fully inflate the canopy, which often results in an off heading opening or some linetwists. It doesn't dive at all it is just a nuissance that with a bit quicker deployment would quickly resolve. The flare is not that strong and the canopy tends to sink even at full flare but it is nothing that you couldn't stand up if you put some effort into it.

It has a very flat glide ratio and will get you home from those long spots. I've also noticed a lot of canopies have issues with harder openings, some turn without any input which makes it frustrating. There are better options out there.

The Solo seemed to me what the description says: a good student canopy.

I learned to fly on different Solo 230s with Dacron lines (in my feeling a bit annoying to pack) most of them packed into Icon containers. I then piled up more than 20 jumps on this model afterwards. WL: a mere 1.00

Openings were at all times soft (except once, my bad!), sometimes I wondered if it actually had opened, so much I missed the shock! A couple times it slowly twisted (my bad arch, again), but no big deal.

Turning with either brakes or a bit strong effort on back risers were smooth and absolutely forgiving. No chance to do anything with the front risers (after all: those were heavy student canopies and with large risers!). Tried full flare on height, no chance at all to get anywhere close to stall.

When on a long spot, they glided slowly and far with half brakes (other story than a ZP EXE for example). Landings were relatively soft for a student that initially flared too early, I hardly ever needed a PLF.

All in all: not extremely much fun with the 230, but I felt very safe even when spiraling. The 210 instead (WL 1.1) I've jumped a couple times with so far and I found much more responsive and fast to fly (not as fun as a Silhouette, but still..)

I got to fly a Solo 230 on it's first 5 or 6 jumps and it was great! It opened a little off heading every time but at least it was consistent.

Really stable, even in a thermal or last second wind direction change and great flares. Students with higher jump numbers or intermediate jumpers will probably find it slow and boring at landing time.

Today I jumped an Aerodyne Solo student canopy and got bored.
The secanrio included: sea level, about 65 degrees farenheit, 10 knots of wind and a test jumper with 4300 jumps and 190 pounds (before dressing).
I rolled the nose a little and packed the Solo 270 into a Student Sidewinder container (made by Flying High Manufacturing of Alberta). The new Solo has about the same pack volume as a Manta 290, while its combination of ZP top skin with F-111 bottom skin made it easy to compress, even for a brand new canopy.
My jump was a 2 second delay from a Cessna flying at 80 knots, 3,000 feet over the DZ. Opening was so slow that I regretted rolling the nose at all! Line twists were easy to kick out of.
Toggle pressures were light. When I pulled a toggle to shoulder level, turns were boring.
When I pulled a toggle to hip level, turns got fast enough to be interesting.
Stalls were impossible at the factory settings. However, when I took one wrap and held my hands all the way down, the Solo stalled deep enough to fold up and bump the rear corners together. The surprising thing about a deep stall with the Solo 270 was that it continued to go straight ahead, with hardly any buffeting. As soon as I released the brakes, the Solo quickly recovered, with minimal dive and end cells remained fully inflated through the stalls.
At about 600 feet, I initiated a half-brake 360 degree turn. I was pleasantly surprised when I was easily able to complete the turn and raise the toggles in plenty of time for a stock standard, one-shot student flare.
The Solo hovered! It stopped completely and I hovered with grass tickling my toes for three seconds before it set me down softer than I have landed in years.
Next time jump I will not roll the nose at all. This is good, the less you have to do while packing a student canopy, the less likely to mess up on a busy day.
I found the Aerodyne Solo 270 to be a boring canopy. Turns are docile with the toggle-to-shoulder technique preferred by first-timers. Packers won't whine, students won't complain about hard openings or hard landings and ambulance drivers will get bored, really bored.
In conclusion, I would cheerfully hang a first-jump student under an Aerodyne Solo 270 canopy.

Rob Warner, CSPA Instructor since 1982