What was your safest parachute?

A question in another thread got me to thinking about what canopies I've owned that felt the safest. I'd have to say that it was my Cruiselite. Whether we're talking about opening, getting you back, landing, any of it, I just never worried with that canopy.
So what parachute do you remember, or have now, that made you worry the least?

My reserve..

rmarshall234

My reserve..

Really? I give the five of mine I've used big points for openings but not so much for landing and getting back from a long spot. The 24' flat round wasn't much for getting back from a long spot and the 20 SAC wasn't reassuring for landing, though that wasn't fair since it set me down in the driveway to Z-Hills sewage plant with me only going down on one knee.

Bob_Church

***My reserve..

Really?

Yes.

'Cause if it don't open everything else is superfluous.

I have never, ever, ever had any doubt that my reserve would open. (And I've had a couple rides like you mentioned - a navy conical 4-line release and a strong lopo.) My mains...not so much.

"Just open baby", and I'll take care of the rest.

I had two.
Both five cell mains. Strato Flyer then Kestral. Low aspect ratio. Opened well at any speed, fast or slow. Good for base or skydiving. Never a line twist. Never a worry.

Of course I weighed far less so landings were a breeze. We all knew how to spot back then so getting back was rarely an issue.

Cruiselite by ParaFlite, I jumped it from early 1982 until 1988. The best all around Main I ever had until the FireBolt from Parachute Laboratories Inc http://plabsinc.com/1.html

Best Reserve's: 23' Tri-Conical by Pioneer and the Handbury Preserve. Stood up the landing's every time on both.

Drop Zones today wont let me jump a round Reserve, except one http://www.skydiveohio.com/

3331

Cruiselite by ParaFlite, I jumped it from early 1982 until 1988. The best all around Main I ever had until the FireBolt from Parachute Laboratories Inc http://plabsinc.com/1.html

Best Reserve's: 23' Tri-Conical by Pioneer and the Handbury Preserve. Stood up the landing's every time on both.

Drop Zones today wont let me jump a round Reserve, except one http://www.skydiveohio.com/

I love Xenia. I don't get over there much, my back doesn't like the drive, but when I can get out to a DZ that's the one. It always feels like pulling into home.

Fury 220! Put 800 jumps on it with no malfunctions. It always opened cleanly and on heading in 400~450 feet. Lost it after a cutaway doing CRW.

Like other people, my 'safest' (other than a reserve) has also been an F-111 style canopy. A Maverick in my case, a 200 ft sq 7 cell.

I use or have used it for demos, CRW, intentional cutaways from other canopies, having fun trashing a canopy in the air, plus a couple intentional low pulls. Good for reliable openings that are quick but not hard.

The flare isn't great any more, but I can put up with that.

An RW Challenger 240....
made by New England Parachute Co. Made over 1,200 jumps on it... Never a Mal...
I side packed it on One chord, for about 800 jumps. then flipped it OVER and side packed it, on the Other Chord !!!. good openings, good landings... Was jumping it when I started shooting videos in 1995...and was Wearing, ALOT of cameras on my Helmet !!( see Attachment ) It WAS F 111.... and so it Earned it's retirement... I had ONE new set of Lines... It now sits on a Shelf in One of my Gear closets
jmy

I think the safest canopy I ever owned was an LR288 predecessor to the Manta. I put about 500 jumps on it until ZP came out.....and then went thru a series of Sabres and finally a Spectre 210 which was an awesome canopy. I still have warm fuzzies for my LR288 though.

26 ft Navy Conical reserve. I needed it. It worked. Cost $25.

377

The question is, "So what parachute do you remember, or have now, that made you worry the least?"

I guess that would be my most often used canopy nowdays, my Flight Concepts fully zero porosity Manta, a rectangular design, at 290 square feet.

But I have had others, mainly large canopies. (This seems to be a common theme among those responding.)

The big ones are not the most exciting, but they sure can be reliable.

Nimbus 9 cell F-111 230 sq feet......

peek

The question is, "So what parachute do you remember, or have now, that made you worry the least?"

I guess that would be my most often used canopy nowdays, my Flight Concepts fully zero porosity Manta, a rectangular design, at 290 square feet.

But I have had others, mainly large canopies. (This seems to be a common theme among those responding.)

The big ones are not the most exciting, but they sure can be reliable.

In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.

Bob_Church

In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.

My guess would be in the 80's, when the 'higher' performance 7-cells were the norm. Ravens, Cruiselites, Comets, Pegasus', those sorts of canopies. When you could skydive and base jump with the same gear. I kind of liken that era to the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's. They didn't go as fast or handle as well as what you can get today, but they were badass and we had a lot of fun with them.

377

26 ft Navy Conical reserve. I needed it. It worked. Cost $25.

377

This brought me a smile. My first reserve ride was on a 26' Navy Conical that was four years older than I was.

dudeman17

***
In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.

My guess would be in the 80's, when the 'higher' performance 7-cells were the norm. Ravens, Cruiselites, Comets, Pegasus', those sorts of canopies. When you could skydive and base jump with the same gear. I kind of liken that era to the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's. They didn't go as fast or handle as well as what you can get today, but they were badass and we had a lot of fun with them.

That's a good description. My Cruiselite was like a Hemi, tiny ZPs are like Maseratis. I loved that Cruiselite.

Did it still have the sea anchors? Mine did. I think I paid a $100 for mine. In fact I still have it out in my shed.

Since the sea anchors are sewn on after the fact, you could take them off if you were very cautious with a seam ripper. It took me about a week doing a couple of hours each night to take it off. I had three rides on mine. One at Yolo and two at Pope Valley.

Yes, mine did initially have the "sea anchors", yellow nylon tape pieces as I recall. I bought it from a Navy guy who had returned from Iwakuni Japan where they had a sport parachuting club. The timed out Navy canopies from the air station found their way into sport rigs instead of being scrapped.

My rigger, Perry Stevens, refused to do an IR on it. He said the sea anchor tabs were not in the TSO. He said they had to be removed. Perry removed them and did a very careful job, leaving no trace. He only charged me the normal IR price ($20) for all the work.

It's funny, the ONLY cheapo standup I ever did was on my 26 Navy Conical reserve. It landed far softer than my worn out 1951 USAF orange and white candy stripe C9.

377

zoobrothertom

Fury 220! Put 800 jumps on it with no malfunctions. It always opened cleanly and on heading in 400~450 feet. Lost it after a cutaway doing CRW.

I loved my well used Fury 220, my first square. Finally upgraded to a ZP Triathlon and found that the upgrade wasn't much as much as I had expected performance wise. I love my Tri but the Fury flew damned near as well. The Fury was an old Crew dog canopy with trim tabs. I didn't do Crew but I loved my "autopilot", what I called my trim tabs. After opening, I would trim the canopy for absolutely straight flight and then hip steer most of the way down. The Tri flared better, but just a little bit.

377

dudeman17

***
In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.

My guess would be in the 80's, when the 'higher' performance 7-cells were the norm. Ravens, Cruiselites, Comets, Pegasus', those sorts of canopies. When you could skydive and base jump with the same gear. I kind of liken that era to the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's. They didn't go as fast or handle as well as what you can get today, but they were badass and we had a lot of fun with them.

What are the smaller, very high performance canopies being jumped today like for distance? My Cruiselite would get me back from anywhere and I often suspect that my current canopy, a 210 Hornet, is just a knockoff of the Cruiselite but built with ZP. I love being able to fly around and check places out under canopy even after opening at normal 2k. When Chesapeake was open and the winds out of the East I'd open a little high, maybe 3k, over the airport/dz in Chesapeake Oh, fly across the river to Huntington Wv, which is beautiful from the sky, then back.

wmw999

For me probably the Viking Superlite. 230 sq ft of F111, my 125-lb self could sink it into anything. I was able to stand up a landing when I hooked it on backwards once

Wendy P.

Small world!I had a Viking Superlite back in the day. It was the first canopy I owned.

Definitely my round Piglet II. 400+ jumps and 100% reliability....we had over a dozen jumpers using them at my DZ (Issaquah Parachute Center) and not one malfunction in fact we never heard of a malfunction at any other drop zone either. Once in a while they would have a slightly delayed opening (maybe 1 or 2 seconds)but always opened cleanly afterwards.....and that was rare. I don't know of any malfunctions on the previous model either (Piglet 1).