Jeth

I have been jumping a Pilot 168 for about 200 jumps. I have always liked my canopy, but I am under-loading it and decided it was time for me to experience a higher wing-loading. Wow, it is fabulous!! I went down to a Pilot 140, and am in love with it!! The responsiveness I am getting at the higher WL is awesome. The turns are so much quicker, and with less input. The flares are awesome! I am having better landings with less input. I landed it in fairly high winds with no problem, and also on a no-wind day I got a great flare and ran it out. On the bigger canopy I did not get very good penetration into the wind. What a difference on the 140! I am able to get much better drive, and I actually get some penetration on final instead of coming straight down.
Another thing I really like is that it recovers really quickly from turns. I can whip a 180 and it comes back up really quick - it's so much fun! I demo'd some other 150's (Safire 2 and Pulse), and those were totally sluggish in comparison. A half flare on the Pilot was way better than a full flare on the Safire.
The Pilot is truly a great canopy. The openings are always on-heading and quick, but still soft (the way I like it). At a low WL, it is very easy to fly and forgiving. And now at a higher WL, I am really getting some sweet performance out of it that is really fun. (And I am still very conservative at 1:1.2. I imagine it only gets better as you increase.) This canopy rocks!!

I recently demoed a Safire 2 149. I was looking to downsize from my Pilot 168, which I've jumped for about 200 jumps. I found that the Safire was not what I was looking for. People say that the openings are super soft. For me - that means way too long and no feedback. I like to pitch and feel the tension in the risers right away, and I did not get that with the Safire. It also sniveled way too long for me. There is a difference between quick and hard. I like a quick opening which is still soft.
The canopy also didn't really perform like I wanted. The Safire was sluggish in turns, and I had to bury the toggles all the way down to get a good flare. I previously demoed a Pilot 150 and it was much more responsive. I was previously under-loaded, and was looking for better performance at about a 1.2 wing-loading. I did not get that with the Safire.
I think this canopy would be great for beginners, or possibly at a much higher wing-loading. But for WL around 1:1, looking for a little more performance, it did not deliver.

A great beginners rig! This was my first rig and it served me well for 2 seasons. The Dolphin is a safe, functional, affordable rig. Also, the service you get from Altico is absolutely outstanding! When I wanted it updated, I called and talked to Mike Fury personally. A super nice guy who really wants to keep his customers happy. He had my rig completely updated and back to me within a week and he even shipped it for free! If you ever have something that's not working for you, even if it's something trivial, don't hesitate to call Mike about it. He will do whatever it takes to keep you happy and flying in your Dolphin.

When I got the rig, it had never been jumped, but it was from 1996. In the beginning I had some issues with the riser covers and reserve flap coming open in a sit (the new Dolphins don't have this problem). I called up Mike and he told me there were many updates that could be done to it. He put full riser covers on, all around tuck-tabs on the reserve flap, and I also got a bridle cover and velcro-less toggles. The updates were a major improvement and made the rig much more secure! (Again, newer Dolphins already have all these features.) The costs were very afforable to have all these updates, and he had it back to me in no time.

Even though it is a simple rig, the Dolphin is very comfortable. I could do 6 jumps in a day in my Dolphin and it never bothered me. Nobody believed me that it was so comfy, but it was. (Mike even put in extra legs pad for me for free!) I demoed a Mirage and borrowed a friend's Javelin and I definitely was more comfy in my Dolphin.

This is not a flashy rig, but it is comfortable, safe, and gets the job done. It's great for someone starting out in the sport, or anyone who is on a budget. My only complaint is that with the velcroed main flap, it makes pin checks in a crowded plane a little harder. (Especially for people not familiar with the Dolphin.) But I think thats a minor concession because the flap does stay closed very securely!
All in all my Dolphin was solid, comfy and dependable. A great rig.

I had my PD 9-cell for 6 months. I was going to wait longer to review it, but I recently had to cut it away. Since I lost it, I won't be putting any more jumps on it, so I figured I'd give my impressions from the jumps I did put on it.
This was a great canopy for a first canopy. It was very easy to fly and land. The toggle turns and rear riser turns were responsive and the flare was good for not being ZP. (You do need to complete the flare, though. It will not give you the lift like a ZP canopy does.) I had some fast no-wind landings, and I had a soft slide-in landing on those. It was soooo easy to pack, everyone with ZP was jealous!
The thing I didn't like was that I didn't get very good drive into the wind. I think this may be because I was too lightly loaded under it (~.8:1). I would suggest not going lighter than 1:1 if you want to be able to fly this thing on a windy day. Even with just a 10mph wind, trying to get upwind was a battle. I would basically just sink down and get very little horizontal movement.
Overall this was a great canopy for a beginner. I'm sorry I lost it so soon, I know I could've enjoyed it for a few hundred more jumps.