Date: 30.06.2004
Manual
Revision: 0
DEMON US
Page: 15
Performance Variable e.K. Am Tower 16, D-54634 Bitburg
“DOs and DON’Ts”
For Consistently Good Openings
When jumping heavily loaded, elliptical-wing canopies, consistent, on-heading openings become
exponentially more important. Bad packing and/or bad body position on opening could induce un-
recoverable line twists and a potentially difficult cutaway.
1. DO maintain good body position during pull and canopy deployment.
This means: DON’T look at your pilot chute and
DON’T drop a shoulder to look up at the canopy during opening.
With higher exit weight loads, be extra careful to have a good body position during deployment. If it
is necessary to look up at the canopy during opening—look straight up and NOT over the right or
left shoulder.
Looking up over a shoulder drops the opposite shoulder, which makes the risers un-
even and will usually cause an off-heading opening or line twists.
2.
DO pro-pack neatly.
The drawback of high performance is that faster canopies respond quickly even when you don't
want them to. Sloppily packing a tiny pocket rocket is much more likely to result in a cutaway than
a larger version of the same parachute.
Over the past few years, more and more canopies are being designed with naturally soft opening
characteristics—without the need for any special packing requirements.
We recommend pro-packing the main almost the same as a reserve, leaving the nose exposed,
slider quartered between the canopy's slider stops, and all fabric flaked neatly between the A, B, C,
D and brake lines. The only difference is that when packing the main, we suggest bringing the tail
around and rolling it just enough to keep the slider in place and the pack job together as the canopy
is gently placed on the floor.
All of the newer canopy designs we've seen recently open soft when the canopy is packed like this.
Softer deployment also puts less strain on the parachute, though some jumpers who are used to
fast openings say it takes a little getting used to.
3.
DON’T over-roll the nose and wrap the tail.
The more you roll the nose, wrap the tail, etc., the less likely it is that your canopy will open sym-
metrically. A super snivel pack job that rocks you around as it twists and inflates can actually feel
harder than a faster, more even deployment.
If your canopy opening goes something like, "snivel, snivel.... Thwack," you may have over-rolled
the nose or tail, allowing the canopy to inflate too much before pushing the slider down your lines.
