Basejumper.com - archive

Been thinking about getting a 300+ canopy. Was wanting a little feed back from those jumpers who have the larger canopies. I'm looking into either a FOX 315, Troll 305, Black Jack 310, or a Rock Dragon 313. (I've only jumped FOX, Flik, and Trolls) My body weight is 205 lbs. This is for slider off only. Vents are a must. My concern is that these large canopies are on the outer edge of the original design as far as size is concerned. How big can you make a parachute that might have been designed as a 245 before it needs to be put back on the drawing board.

Base864 jumps a Flik 322. Vents are a must he says. There is a recent discussion on it. He also has a video on SDM.com about a jump he did on them before and after he had the vents installed.
IIRC he wont Free Fall anything under 250'

Stane himself regularly jumps a Troll MDV DW 305 (aside from a 285), so I reckon he has some confidence in it .
And Stane being a pretty meticulous person I am absolutely confident he has dialed in all scaling issues that come with upsizing. We talked about bigger vs smaller canopies (e.g. also in terms of opening speed) a while ago and he told me he had made various calculations as well as tests for the really big canopies. As mentioned, he himself is using a 305 (and he is not as heavy as you).

I have only had the chance to fly one big BASE canopy and that's mine(insert grain if salt HERE). Everyone else around here are narrow assed people with small canopies so I can only tell you what I think of my Troll 305 MDV(my loading is .81).
I have zero complaints about this canopy. I bought it new and have put about 41 jumps on it. Once I learned some packing techniques (thanks Douggs) I got the openings to be very acceptable at terminal. At first I was getting spanked when I went to NOrway. I have done static lines from 165 feet and a few slider down jumps in the 1-2 second range. Again, no complaints. Pressurizes fast, have had great heading performance to date and I love the way it flies! If I am dropping straight down in deep brakes all the way, the landing can be a bit hard but I think any BASE canopy loaded that much will be similar!?!? The flare is great and I have on occasion got some sweet surf out of it when landing conditions and area permit. I have also found that it flies quite well and is very controllable when stalling and flying backwards on risers.
So, that is my newbie experience with the TROLL.
I LIKE IT!

I've flown the Fox285 and the Flik293 both with vTec and Multi. I was considering a 322, but ended up with the 293 because I felt it would give me somewhere to go up or down in size after I learn a little more. I weighed 210, but am now down to 190.

I've gone SL from 170', PCA from the potato, handheld from 1 to 3 sec delays, and stowed from 2 sec delay. I've also taken it out of a plane, a ballon, and a helicopter using a sail and a small mesh slider. It is a great canopy, I wouldn't change a thing. I've never done a slider up BASE jump with it.

It's big to pack, but I flat pack for BASE anyway. I did pro-pack it for skydiving and it's touching the floor when it's hanging over my shoulder.

My openings have been on-heading everytime so far. The inflation is fast, probably due to the vents. I've got quite a bit of video and some photos of openings if you are interested.