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is honestly the shit. i FF a 250'er recently, and was surprised at how high i was open. i know i dont have much experience, but ive jumped a few canopies and im glad to say that this is my chosen beast from now on. LOVE it

however, i recently jumped my first terminal wall. i reefed my (unfortunately large mesh) slider with a big bite and two rubber band stows, and rolled the SHIT out of the outer cells inward, and buried the center cell. i had a 34" PC. my ground crew said he didnt hear much as far as our two way FF, but he certainly heard my canopy open like a fucking shotgun. i dont think i had any snivel at all. my back was fucking tweaked all day, but i had a shit eating grin on my face for 24 hrs nonetheless.

has anyone used the OSP slow slider? i just ordered one from morpheus, and all i really know about it is that it has some of the outer webbing tape from the outside of the slider sewn down the middle, and it has small mesh. im hoping that this will help out with upcoming termial jumps. does anyone have any experience with the slow slider?

will it be innapropriate for things like say 1500' antennas? i prefer not to switch sliders around too much but am prepared to do so as needed stricly for terminal. any opinions on the slow slider?

cheers
chris

I used the OSP with a slow slider and 32" PC throughout the summer for terminal tracksuit jumps in LB. As long as I did not pitch in full flight, I would have a tolerable opening. I pitched in full flight once and saw stars. I had neck pain one day that was cleared by slightly harder opening; it was the last day of a week of much jumping.

I double wrap the slider and take a large bite. I do around 5-6 rolls on each side for the nose cells and then do 2-3 additional rolls with the center cell on top of each side's rolls.

For flaring, I recommend tucking the chin in, bring the arms forward, and arch for quarter of a second and then pitch. The tucking the chin in suggestion is for preventing neck pain from hard openings. Bringing the arms forward helps for swinging into the opening. I progressively shortened the amount of time I flared to a fraction of a second and found the length of flare did not affect the opening significantly.

I cannot speak to the 1500' tower. The lowest object I've tracked off is High Nose which is 1900'. I've jumped the OSP slider up w/ slow slider from 700' and have had poor heading performance with 3-4s delays. My concern for you would be having poor heading performance if you pitched a little too early on one of your first jumps from the A. If you're like me, you might take a few jumps progressively bringing the pull altitude lower for a new object. If it were me, I'd consider doing balloon jumps from 1500' and observe the opening performance for each delay variation. I know a balloon guy who will take base jumpers up in the States; PM for contact info.

Hope that helps!

As long as you don't need to reach a remote landing area, the slow slider/OSP combination will work great for 1500' (or full terminal).

The OSP is an outstanding canopy, and as of now there is no real competition to it.

Stay tuned for the upcoming Squirrel slider down canopy, though. I've been jumping one of the prototypes, and I can honestly say it is the only canopy that I've seen that competes with the OSP in it's areas of specialty (and has a slat system, too). I can't wait to see the next round of prototypes, and I'm VERY interested in seeing what it looks like when it comes into production.

An OSP285 has recently torn Squirrel container apart on terminal tracking jump. Not so sure they are so high speed friendly

I always thought the Fox XS by APEX was the competition for it.

Not really. XS just inflates the already given features to increase low shit compatability, while OSP has a low shit design from the start.
I mean, you can use all the magnets in the worls to stow your slider behind your neck, but RDS is RDS

I have been thinking about shutting down 2 of the valves and just set it like a normal 3 valves configuration

Have you met my friend Chopper? I jump an OSP heavily loaded with a small mesh slider, and its all good... But really..have you met my friend chopper? My suggestion...HTFU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY7lYRneHc

I also have a f111 OSP with a slow slider and I find the terminal openings to be kickass. Nice and positive with good heading performance plus excellent performance for small LZ's and steep braked approaches.

If anyone has jumped a round it reminds me a lot of that kind of opening. It's snivels, stands you up, and then pops open firmly. Nice slider up openings IMO. Again, I jump mine with a small mesh, not a slow slider made for osp.

damn JP, ive literally NEVER seen that video before, where did you find that!!!?

thanks for the input everyone. i pitched in full track, its just what im used to with skydiving tracksuits. im pretty sure that the key to nice, soft OSP openings is to keep my fly down during flight, and at the last second instead of flaring, pull my horse-sized junk out and let the amount of drag increase exponentially, providing a beautifully soft opening.

anyways all jokes aside thanks for the heads up. gnarly squirrel, i have some friends that are going to help me check my nose rolling techniques and i hear you with your techniques for flaring your body during track. cheers. looks like ill be purchasing a slow slider in any case. thanks tom as well.
stay safe
ish

I'm very interested in getting one of these.

COuple of questions for people here:



1. How does the harshness of OSP terminal opening compare to a Flik with 4 vents terminal opening?

( I'd say about one in ten of my terminal openings on the flik have been pretty damn hard, but nothing to cry about or to put me in bed.
I don't flare out of a track and I never rolled the nose or did any slider methods to slow openings. Slider was big mesh. WL 0.75 elevation Lauterbrunnen)

2. If I was getting OSP I'd be getting the light version with small mesh slider, and Dacron. Any difference in the terminal openings of the light fabric vs the f111.

3. why don't they make Black Jacks out of light material?

ANy advice would be helpful and will be appreciated.

Do you have 4 or 5 upper control lines on the Flik?

The Fliks with the 5th upper control line had some snappy openings, not painful, but depending on humidity, there where some stars during opening.
The OSP is comparable, I don't do tracking jumps any more, just flights with Prodigy and Vampires/Aura. I never had a problem there with the OSP, perfect allround canopy.
Configuration and pack jobs for Flik and OSP have been the same, large mesh slider, nose not rolled, no direct slider controll.
There have been some complaints of others that my pack jobs open a bit brisk, but I prefer decisive openings. I just have begun to jump one of my OSPs with a slow slider. I only have one jump with that and felt not that much difference.

The Flik with 4 control lines opens much softer than the OSP.

I have OSPs in F111 and light material, both with Dacron lines. In all I think the openings with the light material are a bit softer. But the difference is marginal.

Thanks a lot for the info.

My flik had 4 control lines, the hard openings tended to be second jumps of the day when the canopy might have not completely dried yet from the morning dew picked up from the first jump.


How does the Troll (5/7) compare to the OSP if you have jumped one? In landing performance, flare and opening characteristics. For both terminal and jumping off low stuff?

From seeing the Trolls in person on loads it seemed that they fully pressurized quicker than my flik on low slider up jumps, and had more flare too, but on the terminal jumps they opened slower my flik. I have no experience of seeing them coming in on deep brakes however.

That's basically what I'm looking for, a canopy for tight landing areas, low exits, and to use mostly slider up, but which I can also take to Europe for terminal with no real stresses.

I'd get a BJ but they don't seem to do them in light material.

I switched from Flik to Troll, because the openings of the Troll were constantly better in low and terminal speed. A lot more controll in deep brake, especially with the 5th control line on the Flik.

I liked to jump the Flik in a good wide landing area, it flew nearly like a Spectre, very dynamic, a fun canopy to fly.
In small landing areas it was too fast for me.


OSP - Overall Superior Performance. Everything the Troll does, but better - especially slow, deep brake approaches. Only the terminal openings feel a bit harder, but that can be compensated by packing style. That is the reason I switched from Troll to OSP.

I don't think there is a good reason to jump a Troll with the availability of the OSP. The OSP is, as you say, just better for everything you want the Troll for in the first place.

The XS doesn't have a slat system, and the slats are the thing that make the OSP flight characteristics so unique.

Almost. The SLAT and the increased thickness of the aerodynamic profile (induced by the shorter lineset) greatly improves the deep brake stability and stall behaviour but slightly decrease the max glide and the max speed.

That said I'm in line with you on the general superiority of the OSP because the safety aspect is the very first thing to consider.

Are they very similar in terms of the riser response for avoiding objects?
Reason I'm asking is I'm considering a second set of gear in addition to my Fox and for the Fox I'd go to risers rather than toggles if I get a 180. Would prefer to have a canopy with a similar reaction and am considering a Troll or OSP....

True.

But if you want glide and speed, the Troll isn't a good choice anyway. Which means if you are going with the Troll glide and speed aren't issues for you, so the OSP is even more of what you are looking for.

The OSP is very difficult to slide backward (parachutal) on risers because of the slat system. Most of the people I know who've spent time practicing/training object avoidance on the OSP end up choosing the toggles as their primary avoidance method.

If the ability to move backward on a riser shortly after opening is one of your primary criteria, I think I'd just go with another FOX to go with your existing FOX, rather than the OSP or Troll.

Given a wider choice, I'd look at the Blackjack, which has a higher parachutal (rearward) rate than any other general purpose canopy. It moves backward faster than any other canopy I've flow except the Se7en and Proxy, both of which have fairly violent stall characteristics.

Thanks Tom. :)

Anyone know why BJ don't have a light material option?

this convo (thats short for conversation, for all you non-internet saavy folks) is going to take a different, hijacked sort of turn!!!

quick question, how easy is it to shred ultralight canopy material? ive heard that the shit tends to just get fucking torn up with normal BASE landing zones, if youre not landing in beautiful, plush green grass fields littered with fresh cow patties with lovely mushrooms growing underneath..........

my train of thought is that i may buy a dedicated, inexpensive slider up canopy a size or two smaller than my helium is built for.........

do these ultralight canopies last in the US of A slider up environment?
cheers
chris

I know that the Porsche fabric doesn't hold up as well to a sharp edge. So another question along those same lines is how well will the canopy hold up as you rag doll down the side of a mountain. Maybe if you end up hanging by your canopy you might start regretting the light fabric choice.

I landed my UL Flik past the beach in the twigs next to the river in Twin Falls and didnt have any problem. Took me about 15-20 minutes to delicately un-snag it though. No rips, holes, or snags. I have a Brand new F-111 flik that just sits in my closet because i only jump the UL canopy now. Ive had some other bushy landings in the PNW and has held up so far. As long as you're not falling through trees and shit, dragging canopy on the ground, or mainly landing on concrete than the low-bulk canopy fabric is the shit.
Absofuckinglutely love hiking with the UL :)

-Rob

I've seen an OSP UL pick up a 3 foot tear down a stabilizer from a normal landing in the main LZ in Twin Falls.

If I lived somewhere with technical landing areas (and wanted an OSP for that reason) I'd go with standard F-111 for the improved impact resistance.

With the ultra light material you have to be super careful pulling it out of bushes/trees/signposts and especially on an illegal jump, you may not have time to be super careful.

It's made by PD, and;

1) A new material option requires them to re-do their process (and their manufacturing certification)

2) The Proxy is their ultralite offering, and I don't think they want to compete with their own products

3) When PD first took over production of it (from the in house CR production), light fabric was not yet used in the parachuting industry.


I agree that I'd like to see an ultralite Ace/Blackjack available. I was hopeful the Proxy would basically be that canopy, but it hasn't turned out that way, which I find unfortunate.

Anyone using the small mesh slider for sub terminal shorter slider up jumps on the OSP?

If so how is the performance?

thanks

Ive done a bit of small mesh slider up jumps with my osp in the range of 5-7 seconds, and the opening are similar to the troll. I really like it for the 5-7 range because I do think that it pressurizes just a bit faster than my troll which is nice for the sub terminal opening performance.