base615

They are not aimed at a similar level. Not sure where you're getting that from.

Jumped both and enjoyed both. There’s no ‘best’ here. Katana dives and recovers much longer than the Crossfire 3 and my turn height went up 50% when I went from Crossy to Katana. Crossfire openings are slightly better I’d say but don’t listen to people who just slam Katana in this area. Katana openings are usually awesome but, on the odd occasion they can go bad. Any higher performance canopy you go on after this will be the same though so just pay attention to the openings and it should be all good. I had to chop both canopies and they were all pretty violent mals, including the one I had on the Crossy. Katana will fall out of the sky more than the Crossfire so may be less appropriate for long spots or having an AFF student take you into the basement. Ultimately, it depends what jumping you do and what you want to do in the future along with a bit of personal preference. If you want to swoop and see yourself on a small crossbraced canopy in the future, the Katana is the only non-crossbraced canopy that truly prepares you for that, IMO. The jump from the Crossfire would be pretty big. If you don’t see yourself downsizing or changing planform in the future, do AFF, camera or just skydive for fun, maybe a lot of movement jumps with potential for long spots, go for a Crossfire 3. There’s also personal preference so it’s best to demo both if you have a chance. Just remember that the recovery arcs are very different so don’t go out and turn a Katana 120 at the same height you turned your previous canopy. Do some high pulls or hop and pops and get the data before doing anything close to the ground. Also, I recommend not going to your first canopy in this class and also downsizing at the same time.

I jumped a Pilot a few times when I came back from a long break and got absolutely walloped on one of them resulting in some pretty full on bruising. I've occasionally been slammed by all sorts of parachutes though, it happens.

Seen it happen a couple of times in large aircraft and both times the jumper went to the front and everyone got out after a go-around. Honestly, it doesn't present too much of a risk in a Caravan / Otter, etc. but you obviously couldn't consider that in a small Cessna.

Sounds like a terrible DZ. The DZ I jump at (in Australia) is smaller than some of the massive US DZs but is big enough to be simultaneously running two caravans and churning out tonnes of AFF students but all of the instructors know the students they bring through.

When I first started jumping in 1994, we’d regularly do hop and pops at 2.5k (or below) and would break off at 3.5k on height loads. These days I want 6k for hop and pops if I can get it and am breaking off at 5.5k from height. Times have definitely changed and for the better IMO.

lol, that’s fair

680 for a 270 on my VC96 loaded at 2.1. It’s worth noting that, due to some perfect intersection of short risers, short body, turn mechanics, etc, I always tend to be turning lower than people on similar canopies and wing loadings so most definitely don’t be taking my heights as an example of where to turn. I’m in the turn for 8 seconds.

I don’t think doing nothing is the drill. If I’m too low to cutaway under a malfunction, I’m not cutting away but I’m sure as hell getting more fabric out rather than just going in on my main alone.

You’ll be fine. That’s a pretty small change. That said, I just want to take up some things you said about how you’re flying your canopy. The aim isn’t generally to fly canopies aggressively. You need to fly them predictably in a pattern to keep you and others safe and, even when you get on to high performance landings, the aim is to do it as smoothly as possible to get the best performance although it may look aggressive from the ground to the uninitiated. There are specific techniques to learn in time but you need to do them with proper canopy coaching. IMO doing pull ups on fronts on a student canopy or aggressive 360s without instruction is not the right approach and, when you do downsize, doing what you’re doing can have very adverse effects. For example, the manoeuvre you’re likely using to initiate an aggressive diving turn on a student canopy may well induce line twists on a smaller canopy and you need to be above your hard deck if you’re doing this as you may create a malfunction you need to chop.

My coccyx has been a complete mess since November and every time it starts to feel a bit better I do something to smash it again. Unless you do most of your landings downwind like I do you'll probably be fine but it does take a long time to heal.

Definitely not my experience. It’s about 450 jumps since I returned and I’m back to flying sub-100 parachutes because I really focused on that but it was slow going and, as for freefall, I can’t freefly for shit since coming back. Sure I’m safe enough as long as I stick to 2 or 3 ways, but no chance I’d feel safe on anything bigger. I think you often don’t realise what you’ve forgotten until put in a stressful situation so I think it’s best to err on the side of caution.

I had about 1300 jumps before I took a 16 year hiatus and my first couple of jumps back were honestly worst than some relatively talented AFF students I’ve seen, possibly made worse by the fact that I was absolutely shitting myself. My experience was that it’s not like riding a bike. If you only had an A license before, I’d say it’d be like you never jumped before after that gap and I’d recommend doing AFF again, irrespective of what they make you do. Don’t let that stop you though, it’s awesome to get back in the air. I can’t believe I stayed away for so long and it would take me going in to leave the sport again.

Sadly not so lucky. Got a 2 week grounding.

Lost altitude awareness on a night jump and pulled really low. I was fully open below 1,000ft and had to land in a paddock next to the DZ in almost complete darkness. I bought a Time Out the next morning.

Update on this one for anyone looking for similar answers in the future. I did go straight to the 96 in the end BUT I had lost 7.5kg (16.5lb) in weight and was wearing a weight belt with 7kg to bring me back to about 1.8 wing loading on my Katana. Without the weight belt on the 96 I load it at around 2.1 and it didn’t feel like too outrageous a step out of the gates. I can’t be sure, but doing the same downsize without the ability to instantly shed 7kg might be a fair bit more hectic.

Edit: Already posted

I've had a total where I went straight to reserve without cutting away and I would also do so for PC in tow as I've seen a high speed mal resulting in broken lines (long time since I've seen it so might have been a riser) on the reserve from the hard opening and the jumper only being saved by being able to fight the main out as he was spinning to the ground. This is just my personal choice and many would disagree with me. YMMV as there are all sorts of things that can happen but I'd personally rather two canopies out with all the fabric associated with that and an opportunity to get them apart than my worst nightmare of having a completely unworkable reserve and no main because I chose to cut it away.

You're better off using the accuracy trick.

I realise this is a little bit old but I’ve done tonnes of BASE jumps to terminal and not in a wingsuit. In fact, I’d say there is a subset of jumpers who’ve only done terminal BASE jumps. Also, the primary reason for burning it down is not for either of your stated reasons but to get just a little further from the object to avoid a cliff / building / dam strike which has killed and injured many more jumpers than pulling too low has (or at least when I was active. I haven’t seen the BFL in a while so maybe there’s a recent epidemic of low pull fatalities to prove me wrong)

I stand corrected. Still a death trap though :)

Yeah but this one has happened over and over and they refuse to accept it's a problem.

This can be avoided by not jumping the deathtrap Racer double RSL

I only jump in non-polarised (Oakley Gibston) for just that reason. Also better for seeing the surface of a swoop pond.

Double posted accidentally