siujumper

My friend has jumped a hornet 170 (he weighs about 200 out the door) for about 150 jumps (he has about 210 jumps in roughly 3 years), has rarely, if ever, played with the risors at all. The few attempts he made he ended up with some scrapes on his hands and knees. He wants a little more responsiveness out of his canopy and recently purcharsed a vengeance 150. We had a buddy kill himself on the same canopy and don't want to see it happen again so a few of us have questioned his motives pretty thouroughly to try and ensure that he will be safe with this canopy. Is this an appropriate step for him to take? Since he probably won't get rid of it is there anything we can tell him to make sure that his progression goes smooth and he doesn't make a fatal mistake? blue skies

Were they bucking even when the steering lines were lengthened? Is it a design flaw of the hornet itself? blue skies

There is quite a bit of slack in full flight. I think that the next time I jump I'll do the 360 deg. hook at altitude w/out toggles to see how that works. If it still bucks I'll do two things: 1) loan it to an experienced swooper and 2) lengthen them more if needed. Thanx for your reply. blue skies, siujumper

I jump a hornet (PISA) 150 and almost every time I grab the risors to do a hook turn the rear of the canopy starts to buck and seemingly loose pressurization. Everyone that I've talked to has said to lengthen the steering lines; which I have--about 5-6". It seems that when I grab the risor and start the dive fast there doesn't appear to be that problem, but when I grab the risor and gradually apply pressure to build up speed (carving more than swinging) the faster I start to go, the more the canopy gives me problems. It's just not smooth and I'm afriad that one of these times it will either collapse or loose altitude way more rapidly than what I am prepared for. Comments? blue skies