Chemtrail

I can second the first reviewer, opens nice and never had a single line twist. Long slowish ( at 1.5 loading) recovery arc. Has a very elliptic shape, but handles more like an Icarus Safire with a few Crossfire traits, but never attains the good qualities of either of those canopies. Landings, while not particularly demanding, can be quite variable as the first reviewer mentioned already. Not very stable on approach in choppy winds.

Thank you for this. No photo's yet. Hopefully it won't go as far as needing evidence. The dust will settle here too!

With your 4000 jumps, and from the comfort of an arm chair, you can analyse this and that, and chip in with clever retrograde advice. Now imagine you are young person with a handful of jumps, it's all new, but you trust in the system. Descisions have to be made on the spot. Had my daughter been wiped out via reserve problem, or off site landing. Would they also have the balls to send me a bill for their dodgy antique canopy that got lost in the woods? I've never used a lawyer in my life for anything and I hope I never have to. Skydiving is a high risk sport, we all accept that, there is no place for lawers within the context of acceptable risk. The camaraderie of the skydiving community also extends to going easy on a young person with limited financial means.There are many hepful comments on this thread. I'm grateful for the advice. But sarcasm, less so. But hey, you said it yourself with your opening comment!

While I won't reinforce your own opinion of yourself. Perhaps you are not aware of all the facts. My daughter had just received her own rig, she was attending a canopy course on this DZ. The instructor suggested she take a DZ rig for the first instruction jump as it contained a larger more docile canopy. It was pre packed with no way of inspecting the lines. After the malfunction, the summer resident packer was pissed with the DZ director and openly said, "If you find the canopy, don't bring it back to me until it's been relined". Now if he will repeat this story in a legal proceedure, I'm not sure. But that's how it went down. Neither my daughter or myself will pay one cent for this fiasco. It's their tough luck. They should be happy that we don't take it further for wrecklessly poor maintenance of life saving equipment. Also for the record, 4 weeks ago they had 9 malfunctions on one weekend (28 caravan loads) something stinks.

Thanks Sombra 2 and Gowlerk, "The last thing I want is young inexperienced jumpers and students factoring in the cost of equipment before they cutaway". Very good point. The case in question relates to my daughter who just started skydiving in March, she has 42 jumps to date, the reserve was yesterday. Unfortunately the DZ director made the stupid comment That they would be sending the bill if they can't find the gear. This is in Germany, they usually try that kind of trick just to see the response and hope the person yields to the demand. This regardless of ruining someones week and causing anxiety and sadness to a young person just starting out in the sport. I will be certainly using my lawer for this dispute.

This question has certainly been discussed before, though I can't locate it. If I'm using rental gear from a DZ, ( paying a fee of course) and the canopy malfunctions on the first jump. Slider hangup, tension knot and right hand cells not inflating, autorotation .. Said canopy having been packed by a member of staff. I cutaway and land uneventfully under the reserve but the main was chopped over a large forest area and nobody can find it. Who is responsible for the loss? Mitigating factors in this particular case: The packer concerned is angry because he says the lines were too old and fuzzy, slider hangups were happening regularly. In other words, the lines needed replacing many jumps ago. I'm aware the policy could vary from place to place, country to country, though if there is a general consensus on this , I would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Thanks, makes sense!

Thank you, great info. I'll keep a look out for a 2nd hand Infinity, I like them too, New with options would be outside of her budget!

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Yes, I also thought something like a Safire between 150 to 170 sq. ft. An aspect of this of course is also the reserve, which shouldn't be smaller than the main, especailly in the case of a novice pilot. Thanks everybody !

Yes , though it would be nice to get as many disparate opinions as possible, a few more at least than the opinion 2-3 instructors, some who may want to sell on 2nd hand gear for girlfriends or friends. The general consensus is a WL below 1.2. But canopy type? profile, 7 or 9 cell? etc. etc.

My daughter recently took up skydiving this year, as she is quite small and light, 5.4" at 105 lbs with 42 jumps. Most of the rental rigs are way too big. Some look dangerously too big in fact. ( like not being able to tighten the chest and leg straps up properly) So, she is already looking for her own gear. I'm a skydiver myself, though not experienced enough to advise someone just off student status. The harness needs to fit of course, that's clear. My main concern is canopy type and size, wing loading. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks.

No, not French, I'm UK expat. living in Germany.

I had anticipated this kind of response. And if you read my comment again, it clearly states that in principal it may not be a bad thing to reduce potential accidents. Your profile stats. show you to be a man of experience and worth listening to, so thank you for the advice on the new canopy. However It's more the grey zones that cause a certain grief. My current 130 ( actually a 129 Icarus Omni) flies and lands easier than my previous 135 er. ( Stiletto). So it's really that kind of variable that I'm referring to rather than anything being over restrictive. I can manage max.80-90 jumps in a year so I guess France is out for 2016 ! * Error on my opening post, I meant 7 cell not 9 cell. My bad..

Seems like like France's Féderal Parachutisme has brought out yet another "law" ( directive technique) on permitted canopy sizes relative to jump experience. While I suppose ultimately it could be a good thing and reduce landing accident statistics. It's sure inconvenient for a lot of skydivers who may have recently downsized and find out that they can't use their canopy anymore on French territory due to the new rule. I was looking forward to touring some of the French DZ's this summer but find myself in a similar predicament, flying a new 9 cell 130,( a modest down size from a 135) when according to the chart I'm busted back to virtual student status with a 170 because I don't qualify for an exemption by having at least 100 jumps on the current canopy.! The chart is an over simplification in many ways as it doesn't take into account variables like the differences in canopy taper and cell nr. ( 7 or 9). Or that jumper weight can vary by up to 5-10 % in a year, i.e. faster than most jumpers could afford to upsize accordingly. http://www.ffp.asso.fr/dt046-nouvelle-reglementation-relative-a-lutilisation-des-voilures-principales/