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Just wondering at what point people retire their canopies from regular BASE usage? (not including water landings, etc.) I have heard figures ranging from 300-700, and was interested as to what the actual data was.
Cheers

I know people who put more than 700 jumps on their canopy! But one of them had a rescue when the all the lines broke, and some of the cells bursted up! Jumper unharmed!

Time factor is something you should consider to,and personally I never but more than 120 jumps in mine before I sold it! I also had one Pegasus from 1982, no idea how many jumps was on it before i got it, and i jumped it between 94-95. I also had a Maverick before that I did skydive 450 jumps on it before basejumping it! It was only 2 years old! Today I would not jump any of them!

What kind of jumps would put more wear on the cannopy, Slider up/down? I would assume slider down cause it opens really fast, but I dont rightly know.

Slider up is harder. More wear and tear on lines to start off.

I would be more concerned about where the jumps were made and when. If you get a used canopy that had say 100 jumps on it from Moab, it would be in FAR worse shape from 2 major factors. Sun and sand. One of the biggest enemies is UV, add to that packing in the sand. Compare that to a canopy with the same 100 jumps on it, that had never seen daylight, landing in grass,and was packed indoors there'd be a huge difference in the life span of those 2 canopies

it TOTALY depends!

I have yet to fully retire a parachute, and am no expert, but here is my sit.

I have a Dagger 222 made in early 2004:
learned to pack with it, put 300+ BASE jumps, ~200 bandit load airplane, ~ 50 skydive container wingsuit, probably 45 total water landings, a few days of powerboat tow paracending, about 20 nights of ground launch paracending. two minor repairs, original tailpocket, original lineset.
I let a freind use it for land jumping in early 2007, that was the last time it was used to land on the ground off an object.
the lines look fine, well used but fine. the f111 is very poris, but it still flies and lands.
I use it now as my water rig for the perrine. thats it.

I have a fair bit of experience with paragliding canopies - where porosity is the main problem, and I have heard that UV is not actually as big a problem as people think. It's apparently more to do with the cleanliness of the canopy and the dirt being abraded into the surface, thus wearing out the coating that keeps the ripstop non-porous. It can be seen that paragliders that are flown in the UK on grassy sites last longer than those flown in the Alps off rougher ground where the material is worn on take-off and landing, sometimes including sand being packed into the material. Any opinions on this?

I do not believe that UV is a major wear factor for most BASE canopies because (a) the flights are usually very short (reducing exposure) and (b) they are often deployed at night, when there is minimal UV exposure.

i've had a mojo 220 for over 650 jumps and it still flys great. Sent it in to CR 4 times for inspections- all fine. Take care of your canopy, track any damage and its progression, let the manufacturer inspect it periodically and your canopy will have a long and happy life.

Blake