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I'm buying my first rig. I need to decide on a canopy. There's no shortage of peeps praising Atair stuff. They look like good canopies. Same with Apex.

At the moment I have three questions...

*Anybody have any experience with Mayhem's?

Most of the objects in my neck of the words are pretty low, like 200-500ft so this will likely be 90% of my jumps. I have some taller targets in mind too.

Are valves and vents on canopies performing well?
Can I use a vented canopy on terminal jumps?

I'm 175lbs and will get a 280sqft.

Thanks in advance.

I was lucky enough to inspect a Mayhem 280 after it blew up at ITW. Vents were shredded and lines were broken. Lucky-ass jumper walked away with only bruises after being dropped on the talus.

All-in-all a good choice. Enjoy!

Shit.. Maybe everyone that buys those things is dead.

Only jumped one once in base, it had 3 vents

And that was a 2 second delay hand held.

But have jumped it out of a plane 3 times.

It did not feel as easy to fly as my flik but that could be currency. It feels like it has more performance and is faster/ less docile.

On the base jump it opened very nicely, maybe not as hard as i was used to with the flik (4 vents), and it was pressurised and flying just as quick. Seemed to have a very slow forward speed after opening with brakes still set compared to my flik - whcih i thought was a good thing. I used the factory deep brake setting same as i did on my flik. The mayhem did seem more of a handful to control for landing.

On the skydives it was okay with a large mesh slider, but the last jump slammed me but i did take it terminal and opened at 11k amsl after jumping from 13.5 amsl - not the cleverest height to open anything.

They do seem to be really well made, and the customer service is excellent. If you buy a second hand one make sure it has had the A lines replaced. The earlier ones had an issue with a dodgy batch of line which Bad seed did a full recall on and replaced free of charge.

Sorry i do not have more experience on it yet.

Be aware that I am a total beginner with less than 50 jumps experience which is not enough to make an informed opinion on anything. Also I was loading it at 0.85 compared to 0.75 on my flik

> Anybody have any experience with Mayhem's?

Yes. Do you have specific questions?


> Are valves and vents on canopies performing well?

Yes. There are some situations where I'd rather not have them, but they do work well.


> Can I use a vented canopy on terminal jumps?

Yes.


> I'm 175lbs and will get a 280sqft.

Sounds about right.


If you're looking at a Mayhem, I'd consider just moving up to the Blackjack for a hundred bucks more.

I have a Mayhem 260 which I load at 0.65. I only jump it slider off.

As alluded to by Tom, the Mayhem is a copy of the Ace/Black Jack. The only reason I got a Mayhem instead of a Black Jack is because I could get different vent placements on the Mayhem. There was some technical discussion at the time about which is a better vent configuration (for speed of pressurization) for a general purpose vented canopy (as opposed to a specialist slider off canopy with five vents); some suggested a 3/7 configuration rather than a 4/7, 4/7 being standard with the Black Jack. My Mayhem has the middle three cells vented.

Performance: the Mayhem is less docile than a similar-sized OSP (I have one). It lacks the excellent deep brake and flare characteristics of the OSP and is less stable in flight. On the other hand, it has better glide than the OSP.

Pressurization: it pressurizes fast! This is, I feel, a factor of vent size, vent placement and the ZP topskin. Looking at video, it may well pressurize fractionally quicker than the OSP.

Factory brake settings: my similar-sized OSP required some adjustment to fine-tune the custom DBS, whereas the factory deep setting for the Mayhem was deep enough. Several videoed deep brake/custom DBS check jumps on both canopies proved this.

If I remember correctly, the Mayhem line-set is longer than the OSP's.

Although I am content with my Mayhem, if I had to buy again, I'd get a Black Jack. My first canopy was an Ace (essentially an unvented Black Jack) and I still have it. The manufacturing quality, the longevity of the design, the versatility, the relentless field testing ... all help to explain the enduring popularity of this canopy.

This is precisely the summary I was looking for. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the input all. It's a huge help.
Pretty torn between the blackjack and mayhem... Asylum is pricey

mayhem 4 vents 1675
blackjack 1747

you get what you pay for.

also, Asylum has nothing to do with the pricing structure of Black Jacks. They're manufactured by PD.

Nah they are pretty close. I didn't take into account that vents aren't mayhem standard

Pricing on the Ace and Blackjack are set by the manufacturer (Consolidated Rigging). Dealers (like Asylum) don't have any ability to change the price.

i liked my bj260 so much i bought a second 1. ive jumped a mayhem multiple times and am not a fan of it. pretty snappy for a comparable size canopy and im not a fan of snappiness in sketchy landing areas or objects where youre open in close proximity. the blackjack is a phenomenal canopy and well worth the extra hundred bucks even just for the resale value.

I put 80 Jumps on a Mayhem and it hurt every time, no flare, mushy turns, lines have been braking at cascades.
Don't do it to yourself.

Don't listen to anyone except me ,my brother !

Do what you want , get the most beautiful canopy with the worst material and oldest lineset and inspect it after everyjump,you are your rigger ... the best advertised harnesses and canopies have failed before becoming successful .

The mayhem is an awesome wing with wonderful flight characteristics either with brakes routed in or out the rings. it is much more responsive because of its profile. if you like BMW & Mercedes you will not enjoy it but if you find fun riding a Lotus Exige , you will love it !

i witnessed a slider down single stow mayhem deploying in Brento , strong sound from the canopy , really fast opening . jumper complained about the lack of bar and beer after late afternoon jumps. his back was fine,the canopy was previously relined with speedwing lineset for jumping the castle ...

the performance of the Mayhem is remarkable in SD envirnoment and quite competitive on SU. if you don't put enough training jumps on the wing,you will lack of the opportunity to know where the excellenet deep brake setting is and of course you will complain about stability if you don't hold the brakes in your ears ...
Have fun jumping anything on your way !

signed by someone who has been on trees with MOJO , TRANGO , RAVEN but standed in wooden sticks on Mayhem ! !

I personally think that a blackjack is the best currently mass produced vented canopy (that being said I like my vented seven more). The OSP is fine, but I like the flight characteristics of the BJ better.

Tom, have you seen Mayhems with weird vent configurations at the bridge? I swear I saw a Mayhem with only cells 2 and 6 vented, which made absolutely no sense to me. Can anyone confirm this?

Oh, and just based on the quality of products ive seen come out of badseed in general, I wouldnt jump a mayhem if I was given one.

I haven't seen any Mayhems with weird vent configurations.

I tend to agree with you that the Blackjack is my favorite mass produced canopy. I recently sold my vented Se7en to a student, so I'm in the market for another one to add vents to. Aside from those, the canopy that mosts interests me is the Outlaw, which I'm still waiting for a release date on.