Costyn

I jump an Electra 170 at a windloading of 1.2. It is a very good intermediate canopy to jump after one is off student status and is allowed to buy their own gear.

The Electra is a well behaved, stable canopy. Good flare characteristics. A relatively flat glide slope and excellent half brakes distance capabilities (it'll get you back from a bad spot). The recovery arc is fairly short, what you'd expect from an intermediate canopy. Toggle and front riser weight fairly heavy but responsive. Again characteristics of an intermediate canopy.

A down point is that the bottom skin is made of F111 fabric. I guess therefore it wouldn't last as long as a fully ZP canopy.

Another down point is that you can't get custom colors. They have stock canopies in various nice color schemes from which you can choose, though. The canopy looks very nice from the ground though, with the "smiley" in front.

All in all I highly recommend it as an intermediate canopy.

The Merit is an older canopy, and its successor is the Electra, which is a much much better canopy.

I'm writing this review on the basis of a canopy I jumped which already had quite a lot of jumps on it (500+). I can't tell how a new Merit would behave, although I've heard that some of the characteristics (hard openings, difficult flare) happen during all stages of its lifetime.

The Merit is a semi eliptical canopy (tapers at the trailing edge) which was meant to be an intermediate canopy.

The Merit opens hard. I've tried all sorts of different packing techniques, some of which reduced the opening shock a bit. It is unfortunately a design issue which parachutes from Parachutes de France of its generation had.

The canopy turns nicely, although it takes a while before it responds to toggle input. The toggle input is not crisp, that is.

The flare was exceptionally difficult, although the age of my canopy might have been to blame. I tried many different flare techniques and asked lots of people, but the canopy kept slamming me into the ground, especially on low wind days.

The pack job was always pretty easy, especially since the fabric was somewhat worn and no longer slippery (your mileage may vary).

Parachutes de France no longer manufactures this canopy but there are still many second hand Merits available.

All in all, I don't recommend this parachute. Get a PdF Electra instead (see my review about this canopy here on dropzone.com too).