unicyclistjoe

I've been jumping my Leia 82 for a while now, so far i've put about 150 jumps on her for work & play. Running with a wingloading of around 2.5psf. She's definitely one of the most consistently nice opening canopies i've had the pleasure of jumping, soft and long snivels, very reminiscent of the JFX and with very little searching. I don't find it overly twitchy when opening compared to other high performance canopies and a lot more docile in the moments just after opening than Petra. The one thing I did find was that you have to be quite quick grabbing the slider, otherwise it sits quite high as she is flying. For those interested in her suitability as a work canopy, I wouldn't bother with anything else. From a low hassle view point, it doesn't get any better. As I said, amazing openings, the majority of my jumps were filming tandems and to have such reliably good openings is nice, especially with a solid camera setup on my helmet. Long spots are not a problem either, she has a huge amount of range in the rears as well as a beautiful sweet spot if you're leaning out of the harness a touch (Kitsch can attest to that) I've purposely put myself out from long spots and had no issues from over 2+miles out. She packs up super easy with a really low pack volume and doesn't require much attention to make her open beautifully. Even with different people packing load to load the openings were always consistent. The performance is where she comes into her own. With a harness sensitivity far beyond other crossbraced canopies (with the exception of her big sister) initiating and rounding out turns can be done with the smallest shift in weight. I've had to completely rethink my flying style, as those of you who have jumped Leia/Petra will know. A bit of oversteer if you're a bit heavy with your weight shift but nothing hard to overcome. A longer recovery arc and more glide on landing with a huge stopping power in the flare...ideal zone acc canopy. Goes wild with a full RDS on too. Stalls are pretty hassle free, with a full toggle stall she bucks a little bit before the stall point but rear riser stalls aren't so scary. Front riser pressure is almost nothing and I couldn't get her to do anything out of sorts while giving them a good thrashing. I also had no issues with her at low speeds, still plenty of range for manouevring and fine for half braked landings etc. I've found brake fires to be completely cancelled out with counter harness input too, which can come in handy on occasion. Nothing bad to say about her at all...if anyone has any more specific things they want answered then go for it and i'll do my best