Basejumper.com - archive

What's your wing loading? I'm loading my FOX's at .82 and my Troll DW at .78.

.71 - not fantastic wind penetration with a rock dragon. I might have to get on the pies

I haven't weighed myself all geared up so guessing at a 175 pound exit weight.

Black Jack 240 about .73
Black Jack 260 about .68

The 240 feels Ideal. It's plenty fast when I want it to be and sinks in when needed.

The 260 is nice in really tight areas. Winds have never been much of a concern on either canopy. Primary rig is the 240 but if one is packed and the other is not, then either one is fine.

I used to jump a 220 at about .8 but it wasn't very ideal in an urban environment. The object selection around here can be interesting to say the least.

Useless information: The person who bought the 220, paid the NPS to keep it in storage indefinately.

From what I have seen I think the .7 to .75 range seems to be the best. I like to load my terminal canopy a little heavy because I'm more likely to jump in higher winds on a slider up jump. And at the time I bought my FOX canopys a 285 was the biggest size they had. I'm seriously thinking about up sizing. Alot depends on what will fit into my containers. I would like to try a Black Jack 310 but haven't ruled out any other canopys yet.
Or I need to go on a serious diet.

Are their any disadvantages going with a Larger canopy..... I'm looking at the high 200's or the 305 troll for myself (right now i'm in the 190ish range with no gear on).... I'm thinking these are things I should have knowledge in....
any help would be great.

I've jumped canopies with wingloadings down to about .55 or so, and up to about .9. I've really not had much trouble with the low wingloadings, and am pretty confident with the openings down to about .65 or .6. After that, I start wanting to know more specifics about canopy, venting, etc.

Be aware that poor inflation characteristics of a canopy can, to an extent, be "masked" by high wingloading and/or small canopy size.


Potentially slightly slower openings. I've only seen this make a difference with very low freefalls (under 200 feet). Very low wingloadings (under about .6 or so) have given me some weird openings, too, but only with unvented canopies. Vented canopies appear to have eliminated that issue.



That's the right canopy range for your weight.

I have many times advised,"I've wished for more square footage , but I can't think of time's I've wished for less". keep in mind this is toward the new kid's that think a 190 triathlon is a dog. Arguments could be made for higher wing loading at specific sites for penetration into wind . My old 260 Mojo is just about .75-.80.

That was the only thing that I (with no real exp) could see as a problem.... and I dont see myself doing anything in nasty winds anyway.....

Thanks for the replies...
Tom, look forward to meeting you again at bridge day....

I jump a fox 285 loaded at .59-.61, depending on the day. I have jumped this setup about 70 times out of my total of 75 jumps. Despite my lack of experience with other canopies and wing loadings, I can tell by observing other peoples openings that mine are.... sub par.

The heading and speed of achieving "significant deceleration" seems to be a non issue (save for one opening that slammed the ever loving shit out of me), but I do see a very frequent (almost every jump) problem with cell pressurization. The slow cell pressurization also leads to the canopy not syarting to fly very quick (duh).

This has never gotten me into trouble, but I could see it being a problem on really low jumps.

Tommy, is your Fox vented?

>>It's not a disadvantage, but I've noticed between jumping a FOX 260, an Ace 260, and a Troll 285DW MDV that I can can take it deeper with the bigger, vented Troll (2.5+ secs) lightly loaded and get a softer opening versus taking the same delay under a smaller, more loaded unvented canopy and getting slammed. A lower WL is just gonna help you dude.

Nope. It would probably help though.

i'm loading my fox at 0.55. i've got less than 100 jumps with this setup so it would be interesting to hear what other people with <0.6 think about jumping with low wingloading.

 
If you are jumping a 260ft plus canopy and wear Hanwags, body armour, knee pads, fanny pack etc you need to add at least 27 pounds to your naked body weight. If you are additionally jumping a PF track suit, camera, VHF radio, jacket/rain gear, Mariaposa type back pack, empty water container etc you need to add around 29 to 31 pounds to your naked body weight.

The "add 20 pounds for gear" that we often hear is only true for small canopies and clothes only; none of the above necessary items included.

Having recently read a wee bit on this subject I understand that canopies do not scale exactly therefore we should load-up larger canopies more so than smaller canopies so as to obtain similar performance. Thus using a guide line loading of 0.7 pounds per foot for all sizes of canopy may not be the best solution.

"Rays" table (take your naked body weight and add 100 to determine your optimum mid size canopy) may be more appropriate as it does take into account scaling and does incrementally apply more loading to larger canopies.

John

That's funny, in a historical sort of way. The body weight plus 100 thing is something Bill Dause said 25 years ago about canopy sizing for skydiving. Oh, we were jumping Raven, Pegasus, Cloud,ect (Boxy low aspect 7-cell's) with good sink,on heading opening's and the older one's were built like a truck . Pete.

0.61 to 0.63 on my MDV Troll 245.

I like it. Especcially with my great landing and flaring skills. No problems with trees or stones, you know. As well as with the openings.
But sometimes i'm way to light weighted for the long flights.... have found ~20 reserve landings while doing my 20+ jumps at Italian TW.
Used to jump unvented 220 canopy havin' 0.71 to 0.75 on it.... That was ok too -- i'm still alive and unhurt. I was experiencing same problems with flare but that wasn't about the wing loading but about the skills.