Nitron

filioque · June 18, 2008

At the time of this review, I have 200 jumps. I’ve jumped a mix of demos throughout my time skydiving. I have jumped a Manta, Sharpshooter, Cruislite, Falcon 235, PD 9 cell (210), Turbo Z (225), Sabre (210), Sabre 2 (190), Fusion (190), and Stiletto (190) . I bought a Nitron 170 (loaded at 1.3) to have a lot more fun, and learn swooping. I custom ordered my Nitron from the Skydive Store. I hooked it up, and set the brake lines with an extra inch of slack. Flight impressions (Comparison to a Stiletto 190): My first jump was a terminal opening at 7500ft to check it out. The openings on this canopy are wonderful, nice and soft, heading on every jump. Toggles turns are very responsive. I performed various control tests at altitude on toggles and risers, practised some flares, and intentionally stalled it a few times. Front riser pressure was very similar to a Stiletto. Recovery arc is just a bit longer than a Stiletto as well, and speed at neutral full flight is faster. Overall, it reminds me a lot of a Stiletto.

outlawphx · April 17, 2006

Background: At the time of this review, I have 580 jumps. I’ve jumped a mix of demos throughout my time skydiving, but my canopy progression was: a Manta 288 (loaded at .75) for 100 jumps, a Nova 150 (loaded at 1.45) for 100 jumps before it was recalled, a Stiletto 150 (loaded at 1.5, since I weighed more back then) for 250 jumps, a nine year layoff because I got bored, and finally a Sabre2 150 (loaded at 1.4) for the last 90 jumps since coming back into the sport last year. I bought a Nitron 135 (loaded at 1.55) to continue to work on my swooping for a couple hundred jumps. My landings are usually either a 90 or 180 degree front riser carve to final based on traffic.

Ordering and setup: I custom ordered my Nitron from the Skydive Store, and it took 6 weeks (which is pretty fast for any custom gear in this sport). I hooked it up, and set the brake lines with an extra inch of slack. I ended up letting about 3 inches out of my Sabre2 to keep from deflecting the tail while front risering. It turned out that the break settings on the Nitron starting deflecting the tail right at the break line setting mark, so I ended up letting out about 6 inches.

Flight impressions (Comparison to my Sabre2 150): My first jump was a terminal opening at 7500ft to check it out. The first thing is that the openings on this canopy are wonderful. It opened nice and soft, while staying on heading on every jump I’ve made so far. I jump a top mounted video camera, so openings are important to me. Toggles turns are very responsive (it is an elliptical), and it was significantly quicker than my Sabre2. I did my various control tests at altitude on toggles and risers, practiced some flares, intentionally stalled it a few times, practiced dive arrests on toggles, used my Sunnto Observer to measure altitude lost in various types and lengths of turns, etc. Front riser pressure was very similar to my Sabre2, but it turned into the dive a little quicker. Recovery arc was very similar to my Sabre2 as well, and speed at neutral full flight felt a touch faster. I’ve just done double fronts and 90 degree front risers so far, and I’m getting about 10% more surf out of it. Overall, it reminded me a lot of my old Stiletto.

Overall: I think this is going to be a great canopy for continuing to progress with swooping. I’ve done a few high opening jumps, and I’m continuing to do so to get familiar with it. I’m planning on grabbing one of the badass canopy coaches here in Eloy after another 25 jumps, because I want to be comfortable with the general flight characteristics before really wringing it out with a coach. I’ll post a follow up after that.

mattjw916 · January 4, 2006

edit: It's been many years but I still love my Nitrons. I've gone though a 170, 150, and a 135 since I wrote this review originally. I still haven't found anything that beats it in overall performance. They have literally never scared me or spanked me in any way. I definitely can't say the same of most other canopies I've used.

My recent canopy history: Sabre2 190, Spectre 190, Safire 175, and Stiletto 150. After about 40 jumps on my brand-new Nitron I have to say I have no significant complaints about this canopy. I've lost some weight recently so I am only loading it at about 1.2 right now but even so it opens, flies, swoops, and lands beautifully. The riser pressure is relatively light and builds up predictably. Recovery arc is longer than a similarly sized "semi-elliptical" canopy making it a very good canopy to learn to swoop with when light to moderately loaded. Just don't go crazy until you wring it out up high first obviously, lest you desire a trip to the ER. I pro-pack the canopy and leave the nose alone, nothing special. I have had no opening issues whatsoever and jump camera 90% of the time as well now and found the openings to be soft and consistent.

skymonkey · February 10, 2002

Well, I got my canopy three weeks after ordering it, kudos for the guys working their asses off at precision. It arrived by UPS in a box that apparently had been soaked with some chemical during shipment (UPS's fault for shure). Luckily inside was a bright brand new canopy that had been thuroughly sealed and wrapped in plastic. Yes the canopy had survived unharmed. Oh yeah did I mention the free shirt they sent also!!! I called the guys at precision and they told me that if the plastic bag was intact and not melted then everything would be kosher. Lesson learned, make sure they don't ship yours by UPS, Fed EX is the way to go. On inspection I found out no problems with the workmanship, but they could of paid a bit more attention to detail with the little strings on the stching and tacks and trimmed them away.After all this isn't a $15 dollar T-shirt. Well hooking the canopy up to the risers was no brain surgery. I do recommend having a rigger do it if you have limited exp. They do include instructions for the Slinks. There are 10 lines per riser, was a little tricky, but a line check found no problems. Man these lines are tiny and soft. I mean dental floss. You can't stow them tight enough. After an uneventful exp of hooking the d-bag and pilot chute, it was time for the pack job. Yes, it is soarcoat so it is a bit of a bitch to pack at first but it gets better with jumps. Now for the flight characteristics. My first few jumps with the canopy were a little hard, but after I figured out to make those stows as tight as a frogs ass, the problems went away (remember the tiny lines). Being a previous spectre owner I can say the openings aren't as soft but they are damn close. As with all elipticals you need to watch you body position on opening. It consistently opens with closed end cell which I easily solve with rear riser input, it does have this mesh on the end cells which might be the perpetrator of this phnomenon, but i've already gotten used to it. I found the front riser pressure a little heavier than I wanted to, which is causing me to have to shift my weight in the harness a little more on a fron riser carve. I also found that originally it had a short recovery arc. Enter my toggle settings. Originally I set them on the factory setting(the little paint mark), and after much trial and error i've ended up adjusting the length of my brake lines about 1.25 inches longer. I had noticed when I was performing front riser turns or followiing through on both front risers, that if I pulled down the ammount I needed on the risers, I was also starting to pull on the toggles, which slowed me down and killed my dive. Basically I was losing the dive and speed I was creating. It also solved my recovery arc problem. The carves start out slower than comparable ellipticals, but seem to dive steeper. The flare is powerfull and toggle pressure is just about right at this wingloading. It has a good glide which can be increased with rear risers in case of a long spot. How far you can swoop this canopy is all dependent on you experience, she'll hold her own, but this isn't one that's meant for a swooping contest against those crosssbraced monsters. About those little hot dogs really haven't noticed them and nobody has either, that's that on them. This is definitely not your one jump a month parachute, this is in all aspects a high performance canopy, which you must maintain your skills. All and all I am glad I made the purchase and 50% off at that. It was a steal. This is a good canopy for an intermediate to experienced canopy pilot(200 + jumps) to hone their skills before going cross-braced. I give it a 9 of 10, there's allways room for improvement. About those tiny lines..........

Watcher · November 17, 2001

I have been demoing different sizes of this canopy for about 2 months now. I started out on the 150 and 4 jumps later moved down to the 135, flew the 135 for about 15 jumps then flew a 120 for 8 jumps. I have also flown under a Stiletto 120. I have since ordered a Nitron 120. This is an amazing highly elliptical canopy. The front riser pressure is the most perfectly balanced between light and heavy i can think of. The canopy does not try to pull away from you like other canopies, and stays in a dive very well and does not recover till you apply alittle toggle pressure. This canopy turns faster and dives better than a stiletto, but is not as sensitive to harness input as the stiletto. What this canopy seems to do better than anything else though is the landing. Now, with only 160 jumps right now, im not the best turf surfer, but i can consistently get 60-120 ft surf with this canopy and it still has a huge lift at the end of the flare for me to be able to pop the canopy up and bring my forward speed to zero. There have also been times where i have accidiently lost concentration and poped myself up in the middle of the surf, but instead of it being over, i have been able to continue to surf it out, then pop up agian to let myself down.

The non cascadeing lines are very nice, and with them being made out of HMA they pack very small. I dont know how much the "vortex generators" ie the hot dogs inbetween the 1/2 Cell and the 8/9 Cell, but it does not have an adverse effect. The mesh on the end cells to prevent distortion seems to make a difference, while the fabric that covers the nose, is a completely seperate peice of fabric and does a great job at helping to keep air in the but this does mean that the canopy tends to pack up alittle bigger than other equivalent sized canopies.

All in all this canopy blows away the Stiletto, while i think it would hold its own with the airlocked Ellipticals, but because i did not get a chance to get on the Samarui when i had the demo, i dont know. I do not believe it can compete with the Crossfire, but this canopy wont collapse on you either. As of 11/17/01 there is a 50% sale going on and i encourage everyone interested in this to take advantage of the deal.

Oh and this canopy seems to get better the more i load it, on the 120 i was loading it at 1.55:1 and it was amazing.

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