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Hey guys i was wondering if anyone has any info to which skydiving conainer would fit a BASE canopy the best. I don't intend to BASE jump with it i just want to start skydiving with a BASE canopy so that i can get used to flying a 7 cell with a sail slider. Obviously i will still need to accomodate a reserve so any info on large conatiners would be helpful. Thanks Simon

Many dropzones rent student gear that are big enough to fit a lot of base canopies. Pretty much any big container will fit a base canopy, just look for the size it is recommended for.

All of the vendors have student containers built for 288 Mantas that will fit.

I picked up a used Javelin J7. It was built for 288 Mantas but free packed BASE canopies down to 222 Daggers fit reasonably and a 245 is good with a long closing loop - just looks a little flat. I wasn't fat enough when I got it to worry about something bigger.

I paid $700 including a Raven-3 (249) reserve.

I have a infinity for a 193 lightning and can squeeze my 280 ace in when i wamt

cheers for the advice, just a quick question though. Would it be a bad idea to jump a vented canopy at terminal all the time? Thanks

I jumped an old vector container with a Mojo 280. Did about 20 jumps. BASE packed, lines stowed in the tail pocket. Free packed in the container. Hop n pops out of a C182.

Did those to practice accuracy and set-ups.

Worked nicely. But the guy who was also doing jumps similarly set up but with a modified Pursuit Canopy, did too long of a delay and tore the corners of the TS where the tail pocket (closest to trailing edge) were sewn in. The entire tail pocket had to be picked free. Tail patched, and then tail pocket re-adhered.

Shitty task, but it was excellent practice for my riggers test.

Baseknut,

I have never really understood this and other similar incidents and it worries me as I was also going to do some skydiving with my BJ280.

Question - Why is it that a base canopy can be deployed at terminal in a base environment without incident and yet when it's deployed in a skydiving environment it rips the tail pocket off and other problems occur?

Regards

John

John,
Really I do not have a good response to this question. But I can assume:

It is possible that the integrity of the tail pockets on the Pursuit and similar canopies (skydiving with BASE mods) are less than that of manufacturers Tail pockets. I know that the TP on the pursuit was rigger made, possibly less of quality than that of competitors. It is also probable that the gap between the velcro, from which the lines are extracted, was too narrow.

It should also be taken into consideration that the newly produced BASEX has been taken terminaly on skydives, and there have been no reports (that I have heard of) of TS damage from blown tail pockets.

I have seen many pictures of Morph Tech rigs being taken terminally in skydives as well, and I am not aware of it occuring.

Really this is a question for someone with more rigging experience than me. Manufacturers.

~Jake

From a rigging perspective there are far far wiser people than me on here. From an openings perspective, i certainly prefer my xfire2 to the vented Troll!

Any container that's big enough. I guess you could also tie it to a smaller container and dbag it out the door?

I have 2 larger skydive containers in my shop;
Both would work and are cheap -- one comes
with a reserve. If you are interested PM me
and I will send you some photos of each.

What is the packing volume of F111 fabric compared to that of ZP when considering BASE canopies in skydiving containers? I have heard it is smaller, hence a larger BASE canopy could be fitted? Would it be possible to freepack (crw style) without a D-bag if only used for hop n pops to gain slightly more space in the container?
Thanks

Yes, I freepacked a mojo 280 with ZP TS in an old vector. I did about 20 hop n pops with that set up. No issues.

I'm not sure that I'm following what baseknut is describing, but it's possible that the problem was with the (aftermarket) tail pocket installation. I've seen tail pockets put on quickly by simply sewing all the way through the entire canopy--top and bottom skin (effectively sealing the last few inches of the center cell). This is a substantially quicker way to put the tail pocket on, but might lead to eventual blow out (because the tail "tries" to inflate on every opening, and eventually pulls the stitches out, freeing the pocket and potentially damaging the canopy). This would be more likely to happen with faster openings, because the quicker inflation would create more of a shock load on the stitching.

I second that. I have freepacked my unvented Troll into old Vector2 and used it for both hop and pops and full terminal tracking jumps, no problems there. You freepack the same canopy into BASE container and take it into terminal in BASE enviroment as well so why wouldn't it work on skydiving as well ?

fisrt of all no one actually base jumps with a basex so its not really a base canopy.

And secondly DZ and in closet colecting dust as long as they have a TSO tour good to go

military surplus gear is dirt cheap as well.

My only cutaway on skydiving gear was a BASE canopy (Tom A's Troll to be exact) packed into a Vector BASE style, tail pocket and all.....

I had a bad tension knot between the most inboard and middle brake lines. To get the canopy to fly straight I had to stall it... It would have been landable in water without injury, it would have hurt bad but not been deadly over ground.

I don't know what caused it, still can't figure it out... However there are a lot more snag points and things on a skydiving rig that can cause one riser to pull more than the other, so who knows... Perhaps something random? However, my subsequent jumps I put it the DBag skydiving style and experienced softer openings and no cutaways...

As a BASE jumping friend reminded me: "You don't need to practice hard openings to be a good BASE jumper."

Still way too new to know if I am good
BUT I can tell you that taking my MOJO
out of a cessna slider down only taught
me two things:

1) Do not get distracted when you are packing
2) If your gonna be dumb you gotta be tough

Is it safe to skydive a BASE canopy with big grab toggles? Thanks

Yes...just tuck em alongside the reserve pack tray - loops down. (rig laying on floor)

I'd say ditto but the only 4 times
I have SKY jumped a BASE canopy
it was packed in a Publix bag