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Hi all! I have a 26ft security lopo round which I’m looking at using for some splash dunking! Anyone have any experience with these for water jumps? Dom is 1977 and it was used as a reserve with a few jumps on it and it is in a excellent airworthy condition. Any info would be cool guys

Cheers
Ade

How many skydives do you have?

have many base jumps do you have?

I have 340 s/d 98 base and 75 military jumps on rounds

How high is the object?

I've used rounds from 19 to 26 here, and my experience has been that the larger ones have less consistent inflation. If you're going low (or pulling low), I'd personally prefer to have a smaller parachute, for faster, more consistent inflation.

I've used Lopo's of approximately the same vintage (early 80's) with no issues, but I do think the Lopo has a bit worse inflation characteristics (what do you want, after all, it's a vintage round canopy) than some of the other round reserves I've got. The Phantom is pretty good and the K-20 seems to be the best of the bunch.

The modern, BASE specific rounds are noticeably better (faster, cleaner inflation), although some of that may be because they are a bit smaller. The tektite in particular (no longer available new) seems to have extremely consistent inflation--better than any other round I've seen.

Also, I'm assuming you've got experience packing the round for BASE?

If not, I'd recommend taking the diaper off for anything subterminal (or leaving it on and just not using it), stowing the lines in stows sewn into the bottom of the pack tray (those stows are standard on all the BASE water containers I've seen--Asylum Perigee W, Apex DP H2O, and Morpheus Nano), and putting a large rubber band around the apex vent, about 12-18 inches down from the top. Closing off the vent with the rubber band will help speed inflation (and the band will pop off once the parachute is open).

Hi Tom! yes i have experiance with the round base packing and all jumps will be Diaper free packed in a dpw,from a 150m span.I have heard that they can be inconsistant so as you have jumped a 26ft what would you recommend the minimun safe height to be?
Cheers
Ade

I'm not sure what I'd say a minimum safe height for exit is, because I've never done a go and throw to watch the inflation at low airspeed. I'd say that taking 3 seconds from 500 feet should be ok (in other words, I don't see any issues with taking 3 from the bridge here with a 26), but to really comment on very low stuff I'd want to watch some go and throws from a higher altitude first, to evaluate the openings.