shortstow

I purchased my custom ordered glide a couple months ago. This was a new decision since I had previously owned three Javelins. I received my container in a little over four weeks. There was a quick question about my order (what reserve I was using) and they called me directly to get the answer vs. emailing me. Once I received my container I was very impressed with the workmanship and the quality of the system itself. I am a FAA rigger so I assembled the container myself. It is as straight forward as it gets. Packing the reserve canopy was one of the easiest ones I have ever done. The free bag has a built in Velcro protector that keeps the lines from snagging which I really liked when stowing the lines. When packing the main it was simple and straight forward like the reserve. The Glide also has great bridal and curve pin protection. It is a very comfortable rig to wear and fly in. The customer service was fantastic and very professional. I would highly recommend the Glide to anyone.

I had ordered my Axon 170 but was still in the need of a main to fill the void while I was waiting on my Axon to be manufactured. I figured I would demo the Furai 170 and see how it was too. I ended up jumping it for two weekends and put quite a few jumps on it. Packing the Furai is nothing special. Being I was jumping a Sabre previously I was in the old habit of rolling the nose when packing. No need to do that on the Furai. The openings were incredibly smooth and predictable on every single jump. The glide while using the rear risers was great. On one jump I was with the first group out on the first lift in the morning, needless to say the spot was a little short and I was on the side of the formation that ended up tracking away from the DZ. Once the canopy opened I kept the toggles stowed and flied the canopy back to the DZ using rear risers. The riser pressure was a little more then I had previously experienced while jumping the Axon. This is probably due to the increased speed with a more aggressive canopy. The pressure though was still nothing that a jumper cant handle and I was able to hold the rear risers down all the way back to the DZ. I did a couple hop and pops to really see what the capabilities of the parachute really were. The Furai is a speedster. It is fast, aggressive, and incredibly fun to fly. When using the front risers there is moderate pressure, however, there is no delay time or a sluggish response when pulling down a riser for a turn or swoop, the Furai just goes. Toggle pressure is light across the board and very very responsive. It has a quick back to normal flight recovery rate when coming out of an intentional stall or a toggle turn. When coming in for landings like the Axon it has an incredible amount of flare at the bottom end. I was able to get the canopy to go into flat flight coming out of a swoop really easy, and when it was time to stop there was still plenty of flare left to finish the landing. I was jumping this canopy at a wingload of 1:1.41 and was completely comfortable with it there. IPT's customer service was great and responded in a very timely manner when I asked about demoing this while waiting on my Axon. If I had not already placed the order for my Axon I would have had a tough time deciding which parachute to get. Who knows, I might get one of these too and switch back and forth depending on what I feel like jumping that day. If you are even slightly thinking about it, I would highly recommend a demo of the Furai

Quick background: My wingload on a 170 is 1:1.41, I've been jumping since 1998, military/FAA rigger. I was in the market for a new main canopy. My current one was a Sabre(1) 170 with more then a 1,000 jumps on it. Its life span was about over. Some of my friends knew I was in the market for a new main and one of them had an Axon 170 and another a Sabre II 170. I jumped the Sabre II for a weekend and it was what I had expected for an upgraded version of the original. I then borrowed the Axon for the next weekend of jumping. It was for what was supposed to be a weekend that ended up being over a month and 30 some jumps later. I found that packing the Axon is simple. No rolling the nose like I had to on my old Sabre. Just pro pack it like any other main. The openings are smooth, on heading, and best of all predictable. It nice knowing when I throw out my pilot chute I know I am not going to get slammed or have a 180 off heading. While in flight with the brakes still stowed it takes very little pressure to pull down a rear riser for a quick turn to avoid fellow jumpers or get on heading to get back to the DZ. While the are brakes stowed I also discovered it is very easy to do harness turns too. A little weight shift to either side and it does a nice turn. The glide with the brakes stowed and rear risers pulled down is great. I have had some REALLY long spots and have been the only one out of my group to make it back to the DZ a couple of times. Once the brakes are released the fun begins. This canopy is more aggressive while in flight I feel then the Sabre II. It is super stable in flight even in the very turbulent air we have in the summer desert in AZ. The canopy will do what you want it to do. If you want to cut through the sky using the dive loops it really makes this canopy just come alive. Light dive loop pressure and the canopy just goes. At the same time if there are a lot of fellow jumpers just using the toggles it becomes a very docile and forgiving parachute. This is great since it almost acts like two parachutes depending on what you want to do after your open up. With the aggressive flight of the Axon I was a little worried about the flare on landing. Nothing to worry about here. It has all the flare you will ever need. My days of swooping the landing area and sprinting out a landing are about over. If you want to land and only have to take a couple steps you can do that, if you want to come in fast and swoop it out for a nice little surf it flattens out and flies that way too. All of this is done with a little use of the risers and toggles. All and all this is a great canopy and after a month of jumping my buddies I ordered one. I have been jumping it like crazy and enjoy every flight under it. Innovative Parachute Designs was great when ordering it. They kept me updated on what was going on with my canopy and where at in the process it was. I would recommend this canopy to my fellow jumpers over and over again.