natecoon

Same deal for my rig that's up for sale. He must be buying a lot of gear for 'his son'. Wish I was his kid! HA HA. His email to me after I responded that I still had the rig available (got this 18 days AFTER I had responded to him): Hello, Thanks for your swift response, I'm so glad to hear from you and would say that am really interested in buying the complete system, and i will be happy if you can sell it to me because my son has been troubling me because to buy it for him, he use it in Australian so i am getting it for him. i have a Dhl account/UPS Account for shipping pakages and with that i will use to ship it down to my Location. Pls kindly get back with your final asking price and i will be glad to issue out the payment to you which will be in Money order/check for the payment. If you are okay with my arrangement,pls kindly get back to me with the folloowing detail's NAME: ADDRESS: ZIPCODE: COUNTRY: FINAL PRICE: MOBILE NUMBER: I await your response soon, Thank's and GOD bless you and youir family. Regards

Hey Darcy. Not gonna 'hide' who this is - it's Nate from Innisfail. I am in no position to give you any advice on canopie except this: I've been in the exact position/head space you are in (aside from the speed riding experience). Everybody wants to fly a 'hot' canopy. It looks like fun right? Everybody also wants to participate in big ways or fly head down too. Also looks like fun. HOWEVER - nothing but jump numbers and time in the air can get any of us to the point where we are ready to take it to the next level. This sport is all about patience and gaining experience before going to the next big exciting thing. The guys on the DZ with the numbers and experience are an invaluable resource. Listen to them. They're not talking down to you. They're not insulting you or saying that you don't have a clue. They're trying to keep you and everyone else on the DZ safe. If our DZO or safety officer says he doesn't think you're ready to downsize, trust him and make an effort to build your skills and demonstrate that you really do have the skills necessary to go to the next level. Simply saying 'I can do it' isn't going to convince anyone. Prove it. Ask them to watch you fly and listen when they offer advice or coaching. I keep reminding myself that accidents are exactly that - no one does something intending to snap both their femurs but it happens and could usually be prevented if the person would just slow down a little and recognize that you can't do 50, 100, 150, 500 jumps and expect to just be able to do everything as hot as the next guy. Just because he can rock a blind man on landing doesn't mean we all can. Anyway. See you at the DZ.

I've only got 10 jumps on my Spectre 170 loaded at 1.24:1 My wife got a great deal on it with only five jumps on the canopy and I was thinking about going down a size from my Safire2 189 so... she let me have it. Thanks babe! Five jumps on it - Can you say 'slippery'? Gadzooks man. Good times in the packing tent for someone like me with just over a hundred jumps. First and most obvious thing I noticed was the openings. AWESOME. Like a pillow and straight on heading every time. It's a pretty zippy canopy in the air at the loading I have it at. Not high performance or anything but still a lot of fun for someone with my experience. The landings are so easy on this thing. straight in and it will surf for a little while (with no wind) if you want it to or you can shut it right down with a full flare. Haven't even had so much as a stumble on landing yet with it. (including a little down-winder that made for a little faster landing than usual) I'm thinking it'll be a great canopy for my next 100-200 jumps but I think I'll probably go back to a 9-cell after that. Great canopy so far (especially with my experience) but I think I'll eventually want something with a little more drive and a little more 'surf' to it on landing. I have heard that you can get a pretty good surf out of it with a little front riser but I've also heard that it's really not made to be a fast landing canopy. It sets you down really soft, like it was designed to. As I become a better canopy pilot I might start to squeeze more out of it. We'll see. I'll update this after another 50-100 jumps.

I've only put a few jumps on my brand new Safire2 so far but I love it. It's my first canopy (189 loaded at about 1.1:1) and I think it's perfect for me as my first canopy. Fun but not stupid! I was jumping a Pilot188 as a student before finally getting onto my own gear and I have to say the difference between those two canopies really surprised me. The openings of the Safire are a lot softer. The toggle response of the Safire is better. The glide of the Safire is WAY longer which makes for landings that are WAY more fun. I'm still a newbie and it's obviously still a bigger canopy, but for me, the landings are awesome. I'd like to jump a Sabre2 just to feel the differences. But from what I've heard the Safire does have a better glide and flare. So far I love it. I'll post again once I have a few more jumps on it. UPDATE - I've put about 70 jumps on the canopy now and just love it. Openings are consistently awesome. I've taken a Sabre2 up a few times as well and have found that the Safire2 does have a little more drive and seems to level out earlier in the flare. Because I'm still new to the sport I know that I'm not flying the canopy any where near to what it is capable of BUT, I have been able to pull off some great no wind landings on straight in approaches or with a very little bit of front riser. I will definitely be sticking with this canopy as I downsize and learn to fly more aggressively. Loads of fun. The only downside I'd mention (that really isn't a negative, more of just an observation) is that the vectran lineset is already looking old and dirty compared to the spectra lines on a main with similar jump numbers. Update - I went from my Safire2 189 to a Spectre 170. No Thanks. The Spectre had FANTASTIC openings but it's just not meant to fly like the Safire2....and it doesn't. When it was time to downsize again, I went back to the Safire2. Now on a Safire2 149 loading at just over 1.4 LOVE IT. This canopy is awesome. I've been doing lots of front riser carve-in landings and this thing is great. Can get some really nice speed/surf on landing. Obviously it doesn't swoop like more extreme or smaller canopies but it'll give me a nice long ride across the ground at my loading. I'm certain that I'll be on this canopy for at least 300 - 500 more jumps just learning to fly the crap out of it before I downsize again. Glides forever. The openings are amazing. Almost feels like my old Spectre. Consistently 800 - 1000 foot openings. (some don't like that but I'll take 'em.) Sub terminal openings are a little crazy feeling though. You can have a coffee while you wait for it to stop snivelling. Did a few jumps on a Sabre2 - didn't like the openings and it didn't glide as long as the Safire2. Anyway - love it. Would buy it again in a second.

1 - wait for the fricken weather to warm up (Stupid Winter) 2 - Downsize off the 260 Navigator I'm jumping now so that I can start jumping my own rig (Safire2 189) 3 - Get my A 4 - Get my B 5 - Help my wife do the same!

Thanks guys. I kind of assumed most of those things but wanted to see if I was off base, as one of you was able to pick up on - I'm new to the sport! I placed my order late last night - all white with navy ribs, for the centre cell I made the top skin navy and the bottom silver. I think it looks pretty cool. (not that anyone reading this post really cares what my new canopy is going to look like!). Anyway, thanks!

Hey. I'm just about to buy my first rig and have been spending hours on the PD site using their canopy coloring section. I've narrowed it down to two designs and am wondering if it's a bad thing to have the centre cell white? I know that this is the cell that you do your cigar roll in when packing so the odds of it getting dirty are pretty good. Does anyone have any experience with a light colored centre cell? Is it too difficult to keep clean? Can you clean/wash a canopy in any way? Thanks!