caldor78

In theory you're correct, but there's so many other things that might factor into a "violent" turn caused by a toggle fire. Have people at your DZ explain it in detail. I myself didn't experience a "violent" turn because of toggle fire 'till I flew a elliptical canopy with a wingload at 2.0-2.2.

You're contradicting yourself. If you want a newer design you're automatically gonna get better performance then from your katana, and it's gonna cost you if you go for a new design. So, if you want to hold on to your nickels but still upgrade, should probably try JFX or a VC (since you didn't like the VE), at least then you would upgrade to a newer tech, not the latest, but still newer. My opinion is that the Mamba is a far superior wing then the Katana and they are dirt cheap, takes a bit to get used to openings and flying in set brakes. Don't bother with the Zulu, it's not what you're after.

I have just over 300 jumps on each a mamba, xf2 and a zulu. Also a handful of jumps on a KA. My progression: KA 120 XF2 129 @ WL 1.6-1.8 Zulu 122 @ WL 1.7-1.8 Mamba 104 @ WL 1.8-2.1 As mentioned I only did a handful of jumps on the KA and at the time my main was a Sabre1 170, my only memory is that it scared the shit out of me because of how aggresively it dove after initiating a turn. XF2 Openings - Slow and mostly on heading Performance - Canopy flies flat and the recovery arc is really short, decent power on rears, easy to harness and it rolls out of a turn nice and smooth. Versatility - As mentioned it flies flat, but you can really get distance out of it if you utilize rears/brakes. And more... - It had a tendency to dive when I had linetwists, didn't like that at all. I also had a XF2 109 @ WL 2.1 as a demo, and I must say that I liked that one soo much more then the 129 and the lower WL. Zulu Openings - Hands down the best openings on any canopy I've tried. Of all the 300+ jumps I did on it, I can count the offheadings on one hand and of those, max 2 were 90+ degrees. Openings are just on heading and fast. Performance - Flies relatively flat, dives alot after a turn, easy to harness. Longer recovery arc then a XF2, but not an aggressive arc. It rolls out of a turn quicker then an XF2. I could never get along with rears on this canopy, so I went back to pitching with toggles. Versatility - This canopy could really get you back from a longspot, but you had to really utilize rears. Mamba Openings - Really nice quick openings, mostly on heading. When brakes are stowed, it's really twitchy and once every now and then it just takes you for a real nasty dive towards the ground. Most of those I've had to unstow the brakes before I can even try and stop the spinning. Performance - This canopy does not fly flat, it dives and even more so after initiating a turn. It's really responsive from harness input. Recovery arc is a bit longer then on the Zulu, roll outs are also a bit longer. Rears are quite nice. Versatility - It can fly kinda flat, but it really seeks the ground. And more... - This is the canopy that comes closest to a crossbraced canopy without being one.

I put just above 300 jumps on a brand new zulu with the ZLX lines and didn't notice any wear out of the ordinary, except on my lower steering lines, but that was my own fault (on how I stowed the excess lines). Compared to the line wear on my previous xf2 and my current mamba that both use/d vectran 500, I'd say that ZLX and vectran are equally in wear and keeping line trim.