Basejumper.com - archive

About how many jumps are people getting on their
F-111 BASE canopies before they're starting to think of them as ragged-out, scary to use...?

30 jumps...
Okay im a newbie and it were a Fox 225 multi br whith aprox 350 under its belt when i got it..
I will only use this canopi to water jumps from now on.

Edit:After reading Toms post... when i bourgth the canopi,i were told that it never have been in wather or trees.It have no damegeds to it,but cant tell if it really wasnt used to waterjumps(but i belive the jumper that sold it to me).However a 225 aint a newbi canopie for BASE.

I've got a FOX with around 350 jumps that I'd definitely classify as ragged out. However, it has had an unusually hard life (it was my first BASE canopy). I'd say it has around 40 water landings (1 in salt water), several tree landings (14 patches, all told) and a lot of packing on sub-optimal surfaces. The openings are a bit less consistent than I'd like--although bottom skin vents have helped a lot (I'd bet that the effect of secondary inlets on an old canopy is roughly four times their effect on a new one). The canopy has virtually no flare remaining. At this point I only use it for water landings, really muddy landing areas, or those canopy-confiscation loads in NPS land.

I'd hazard a guess that a canopy that is well cared for should last around 400-500 jumps. However, a well cared for BASE canopy is usually an oxymoron. Even now, when I'm trying hard to preserve my newer gear, it still sees all kinds of use that a skydiving canopy wouldn't. At least my BASE gear gets less UV exposure.

Hope this helps.

We bought second hand rigs when we started, both with Raven3. Mine was new, less than 10 jumps. But the other already had 500 skydives and some basejumps on it. After making another 100 jumps, the openings started getting weird. Now we all have base canopies, much better!!!

Ferry

..Or for McConkeys From low bridges into a sick landing areas :)

Heh heh that was cool...