Basejumper.com - archive

Also the Pilot is a 9 cell canopy if I am not mistaken. What is peoples opinion on going from a 9 cell to a 7 cell BASE canopy. Do many people strictly do some 7 cell practice before they start BASE.

Flying a typical skydiving canopy at contemporary wing loadings helps you learn to fly a pattern, estimate altitude, and notice the direction of winds aloft.

It doesn't translate well to a canopy that gets much less penetration in winds. Ending up on the wrong side of a ridge because your BASE canopy was different is not fun when it means the best alternate landing area is a 15x15' boulder. Oops.

Recent experience consistantly jumping a skydiving canopy into the pea pit only helps when you use the same approach under a similar canopy. It doesn't teach you to sink a canopy in nearly straight down. Crashing into a tree because you used a skydiving approach that wasn't right for your BASE canopy in a moderate sized landing area is not good. Oops.

Contemporary skydiving canopies won't let you sink in on the edge of a stall and have an acceptable landing . I bought a used Javelin J7 and spent a few weekends doing accuracy practice out of a plane before my last trip. Best $700 on BASE equipment I've spent. It saved me when I got distracted by a guy lying on the ground (oops), overflew half the landing area, and would have hit trees or landed sideways on a steep boulder covered hill if I wasn't comfortable doing that.

They probably won't do a good job flying backwards.


No although they should put a bunch of jumps on large square F111 seven cells out of a plane in various wind conditions and be current from doing that before it matters. You can get a lot more jumps with sloppy pack jobs out of a plane than you can off objects with long pack jobs and climbs.

Although the controls match it's a completely different thing - like backing a semi up to a loading dock vs. driving a race car on the track. Flying a Para Comander round was much slower than my Samurai 105 but closer to it than my 245 Fox.

You also have a lot more lattitude in how you land a big seven cell and less drive under it than a small one. A 245 Fox is quite different from a PD126R, PD143R, Lightning 143, or Tempo which in turn are different from tapered 7-cells like the Spectre and Omega.

I've split this off from another thread. I think this is a separate, and important, topic. DrewEckhardt makes some very good points regarding the transferability (or lack thereof) in canopy skills from skydiving into BASE.

As my own comment, some of these same thoughts apply (perhaps more so) to folks looking to transition from other types of inflatable wings (parapente, for example) into BASE.

I will be looking to get a 7 cell canopy...a spectre ..i guess 170 or bigger...to practice the skills i am going to need. My current 109 crossfire will do nothing to prepair me for what i will need. If anyone has any other suggestions about canoies i would love to hear them.

Thanks All...Chris

the most obvious would be to get the canopy you would be jumping and practice with it.

Pretty sure you can just get a BASE canopy and put it in a skydiving container. I don't however know the logistics involved so you will have to talk to someone else about that. That would at least save you from getting an extra canopy.

Its not hard at all. Just have to get a student rig and a base canopy. try to get a small mesh slider if possible. I am sure if you talk to the local school they might let you borrow or rent a rig...

Yep thats exactley what I did. If your a current local your DZ should be more than happy to let you barrow student gear. I put my Troll in it and practiced. I will tell you dont do a hop and pop form altitude. Way too much canopy time and legs were asleep on landing. 5000 ft is plenty. Just like a regular canopy find stall points, back it up, half breaks etc. I hate to say nothing will totally prepare you for the quick decions that have to be made under canopy in BASE. You may think hell I got this down and this canopy is dog slow but if your in a ravene like Bday or at night off an A. You feel like your a velocity well almost!!!

I have 3 rides from altitude, the rest from 4-6k. My legs didnt fall alseep though...

On the advice of my mentor, I picked up a SuperRaven III from eBay for about $150 to practice my BASE canopy skills before my FJC. It flies quite a bit like a "real" BASE canopy.

My DZO let me borrow a student rig that had the main out for service and I put about 30 jumps on it from 5,000 feet. Most of them I'd track for the hanger for a couple thousand feet then pitch and start going through the drills I found on CR's website.

Lou