Bufobufo

I'm a somewhat heavy dude myself and from experience I can tell even a gentle canopy can become quite aggressive when you increase the WL ;) Both are great canopies, try to borrow a sabre2 before you make up your mind! :) I hope your profile is out of date, 136 jumps is a bit to low. You should be at roughly 300 by now or you won't be allowed to do the transition if u jump with a Swedish license (picture added).

That might be the best description I've read in a long time regarding transitioning to the velocity, it tells exactly what I felt when I was given the opportunity to try one. I'm still in love with my KA135 and since I'm not into swooping I'll stick to this wing. Though.. I miss that bottom end the velo had and kinda regret ever trying one since now I know what I'm missing out on :P Been following this thread and I'm glad u decided to try the x-braced approach and share your thoughts here. Thumbs up!

I know some canopy manufacturers describe their canopies as "flying with a negative recovery arc", like the samurai. But.. Wouldn't a wing with a negative recovery arc tend to dive more and more even in normal flight without inputs, eventually putting you in a vertical dive or eventually dive in between you and the ground? For me a canopy can have a short or long recovery arc, but never negative?

Everytime I see a Mirage...damn this is a fat rig! It's hard to hide a big ass canopy in any of the smaller containers considering all the fabric, do you imply there are other brands hiding it better? I think my current mirage G4 M1 looks ridiculously small on me, clinging on to my back like a little black beetle, barely noticeable

Mirage G4 M5 Sabre2 210 PD 176r My first rig - bit tight in the bag, but it worked out once i put some effort into packing. Loved the performance and learned it's flying characteristics for three solid years of soft landings before selling the system to a more novice jumper. Thinking back I suspect you will probably be just as happy no matter what canopy you choose;given their size and low WL they all aren't that different really... Attaching some pictures i took before selling. Looks bit round along the edges and she would probably have looked better with a Sabre2 190 or pulse/spectre 210 in it. Good luck!

This one? https://www.facebook.com/groups/sofpidarf/

Still you read through what I wrote so I'm confident it was worth my time. Apart from that ugly_huckling, somehow picturing me with a really high-pitched girlie voice I know the skydiving community got a good base of really clever people from all branches of society. Hence I suspected my message might be bashed at and at the same time silently agreed upon depending on what person you are reading it.

Alexander Polli is an excellent WS pilot and its possible to watch his excellent work without taking a crap on Jeb. You can watch really talented people doing their thing without the drama, turning it into politics or a pissing contest. People might not be wow'ed if I repost a video where I fly through the crack, but it sure draw some attention to the sport back when he did it. Jeb laughing as he landed at the end of the clip gave the viewer a small hint of the pure fun base jumping can be, just like i chuckled when Alexander started singing after precision bashing a pole at the same location. They are artists allowing us to watch their work, no charge and we can at least repay that favor with some appreciation.

Even if it is steeper in flight then a stiletto I highly recommend you try a katana before deciding on buying anything. After few test jumps on a crossfire2 139 @ 2.14WL I felt it wasn't my type of canopy and I liked the mamba better. A visiting jumper had a katana 135 and said I could try it and fortunately I did. 2.2WL and I was able to land it without sliding on my feet in the grass in low wind which is very helpful now when landing in 3 inches of snow in zero wind conditions ~1,9WL. I don't recommend 2,2 WL though or you will notice it gets tough to get home from a long spot even in brakes. 1,6-1,9 somewhere is where I suspect you get the most fun out of it. I also felt the katana was responding well when using the harness, easy to pull the fronts, acceptable on rears and the openings are exciting! :P

For a guy with 2500 jumps you are starting many new threads asking the same questions over and over like anyone would expect from a newly examined AFF student who wants the best now and have seen lots of guys at the DZ flying velos... Why don't you try one for yourself, making your own opinion first hand. If I had more experience that's what I'd do, the same way I tried out mamba, xfire2, katana, electra etc, before ordering a katana. There are also plenty of information here where people have asked the same question and the answers are like one would expect different from person to person.

Had same issues with my new Mirage G4 M1 + katana 135 after selling my old Mirage G4 M5 container. I noticed the bottom of the container was like 3 inches higher up on my back then with my previous system. When bending the arm at pull time the pilot handle was a bit trickier to reach and it was also harder to pull out the pilot chute, like if I was lacking some strength.. At the time I felt like it was less troublesome adjusting my body, then to send the container away for adjustments. My solution was to loose ~40 pounds of bodyweight and that somehow made me more flexible and the system wasn't as tight anymore. I went from beefy to more of a climber body type and as a bonus the katana has a lot more bottom end flare now then on the 2.2WL I had before