outlawphx

Background: At the time of this review, I have 580 jumps. I’ve jumped a mix of demos throughout my time skydiving, but my canopy progression was: a Manta 288 (loaded at .75) for 100 jumps, a Nova 150 (loaded at 1.45) for 100 jumps before it was recalled, a Stiletto 150 (loaded at 1.5, since I weighed more back then) for 250 jumps, a nine year layoff because I got bored, and finally a Sabre2 150 (loaded at 1.4) for the last 90 jumps since coming back into the sport last year. I bought a Nitron 135 (loaded at 1.55) to continue to work on my swooping for a couple hundred jumps. My landings are usually either a 90 or 180 degree front riser carve to final based on traffic.

Ordering and setup: I custom ordered my Nitron from the Skydive Store, and it took 6 weeks (which is pretty fast for any custom gear in this sport). I hooked it up, and set the brake lines with an extra inch of slack. I ended up letting about 3 inches out of my Sabre2 to keep from deflecting the tail while front risering. It turned out that the break settings on the Nitron starting deflecting the tail right at the break line setting mark, so I ended up letting out about 6 inches.

Flight impressions (Comparison to my Sabre2 150): My first jump was a terminal opening at 7500ft to check it out. The first thing is that the openings on this canopy are wonderful. It opened nice and soft, while staying on heading on every jump I’ve made so far. I jump a top mounted video camera, so openings are important to me. Toggles turns are very responsive (it is an elliptical), and it was significantly quicker than my Sabre2. I did my various control tests at altitude on toggles and risers, practiced some flares, intentionally stalled it a few times, practiced dive arrests on toggles, used my Sunnto Observer to measure altitude lost in various types and lengths of turns, etc. Front riser pressure was very similar to my Sabre2, but it turned into the dive a little quicker. Recovery arc was very similar to my Sabre2 as well, and speed at neutral full flight felt a touch faster. I’ve just done double fronts and 90 degree front risers so far, and I’m getting about 10% more surf out of it. Overall, it reminded me a lot of my old Stiletto.

Overall: I think this is going to be a great canopy for continuing to progress with swooping. I’ve done a few high opening jumps, and I’m continuing to do so to get familiar with it. I’m planning on grabbing one of the badass canopy coaches here in Eloy after another 25 jumps, because I want to be comfortable with the general flight characteristics before really wringing it out with a coach. I’ll post a follow up after that.

When shopping for a freefly suit, I looked at most of the manufacturers, and I quickly narrowed it down to Body Suit, Flite Suit, Firefly, and Michigan. I liked the reputation of Flite Suit, but it was the most expensive and had a 6 week delivery time with no rush available. Firefly also had a great reputation and low price, but they were backed up 8 weeks or more. Body Suit had a good delivery time and low price, but I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of their RW suits and had heard their freefly suits were built similarly.

I couldn’t find anyone that had anything but good things to say about Michigan Suits, and I’ve seen Michigan RW suits that were very well built. On top of that, the price was right and the quoted standard delivery time was only 2-3 weeks. I called and talked to Mike Michigan about what I wanted before I ordered, and he was very friendly and helped me decided what cut and material I should use based on my shorts & t-shirt fallrate.

The suit only took 3 weeks from order to delivery. It fits great, and it looks really well built. The double Velcro closures on the wrists and ankles were standard and look bulletproof. All of the seams are finished on the inside and outside, so I’m sure this suit will last. I've owned RW suits from Bev Suit, Tony Suit, Flite Suit, and Body Sport, and this is the best built suit I've owned.

My custom Voodoo came in last month, and I've put a dozen jumps on it so far. It's very comfortable, well built, looks great, quick delivery (7 weeks), and it comes with all of the bells and whistles standard. They even built me a freefly handle at no extra charge. It's not listed on the order form, but they can do it. I really like the velcroless RSL setup, the way the tuck flaps cover the release housings and everything else but the 3-Ring, the way that the kill line bunches up (instead of having a big loop of line inside the dbag when it's cocked), the v-flex legpads are great, and great main pin protection (the tuck flap doesn't even open on deployment). The only thing I'd prefer are dive loops that "popped" out more, and a split dbag for packing new zero-p.