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Any one with experience with the larger canopies on the marked now? Had and interesting talk to two excellent members of Team Bautasten, who have gone big. 293 sq ft, with a wingload of around ,5. I find this concept highly fascinating and am looking at up sizing from my old 260 to the biggest size BlackJack there is. I don't care if I'm landing backwards if I'm landing soft... In other words: I'm soft.

My great question is: Weighing about 210 lbs fully equipped, how low could I go and still be comfortable. A canopy of the magnitude I am thinking of would surely take some time to fully deploy... Can I still free fall our local 63 meter cliff, or should I keep the big one for higher places. Most my jumping will be lower things and if the parachute is not fully out on landing it would be rather sad. Funny to think that I have a few tandems with canopies in this size range. Flying them on your own is a docile experince. Still. When your old and slow, it's time to adjust the speed accordingly.

Any comments/thoughts (not on the being old stuff, but the bigdaddycanopies)?

Cheers! CJ

Well, I can kind of comment?!? On the size but not the loading. I have a brand new Troll in the 305 size.
After talking to a few people most seem to think that any opening speed differences will be small and quite likely undetectable. That being said I am pretty green so I am interested also in other's views on this.
My canopy has vents/valves and seems to open pretty friggin fast. I have a 46 inch ZP and it does its job. I am loading the canopy roughly .83 when geared up. Opens great, flys very nice and has a great flare! So far................very happy with it!
Hope that is somewhat useful?!

I used to jump a 280, and now I own 2 310's, one is an Ace and one a BJ. I upsized due to the types of jumps I usually do, mostly slider down, lots of time landing downwind or in tight areas. Since I've switched over to the larger canopies, I'm landing alot softer.
In regards to opening speed, I believe it does take longer for a larger canopy to get flying for a few reasons, but the most basic to understand are longer lines and more fabric. I have no hard data to support this theory, but MANY MANY times I've jumped with a friend who jumps 240's, and even with the same delay, he always has a longer canopy ride. Does he get open higher?? I believe so, but not by much, however his canopy rides are exponentially longer. I'm not sure how to explain this, but it may due MORE to 'suspended weight' than wingloading or opening speed.
That said, are you ok to freefall a 63 meter cliff with a 310.....hhhhmmmmm probably, but I'd definitely want the BlackJack overhead. Of course, if you are freefalling a 63 meter cliff regularly, where I'm from that's not soft at all, that's hard as fuk!!! I guess the best thing is to get the larger canopy and start up a little higher with some testing, maybe 300' or so.?
Hope this helps,
Blair

PS my wingloading is about .77PSF

I jump 285's and a 293. The friend I normally jump with jumps 205's and a 220. Using the same size and make of PC's, the difference in our opening altitude is very noticeable on go and throws. The longer the delays, the less noticeable it is.

Definitely get a vented canopy.

Below about .65, my openings on unvented canopies degrade noticeably.

I've not pushed a vented canopy below about .55 (and that was quite a while ago), but I'd guess that they'll be ok as long as you're not talking about sub 200' freefall. If you're under 200', I'd probably make the canopy smaller again.