Skydiving a BASE Canopy
When you plan on jumping a BASE canopy out a plane, there are several things you need to be aware of.
Wear and Age
First, a BASE canopy is generally made out of F111, as opposed to the more durable ZP material. Some BASE canopies can be made with ZP topskin, but in general BASE canopies wear out quicker than skydiving canopies. You might consider getting a skydiving-specific seven cell canopy instead so you won’t be wearing out your expensive BASE canopy on just skydives. Alternatively, you can try finding an older BASE canopy on the used market.
Hard Openings
It is recommended to get an unvented canopy. Vents were developed mainly for slider down and subterminal jumps. Vented canopies generally have harder openings at terminal, and if you plan on solely skydiving with the canopy, your body will thank you for the softer openings. That said, if all you have is a vented canopy, you can safely do the occasional skydive on it.
I have jumped my vented Rockdragon out of a plane many times. I’ve had solid openings, but I’ve never been spanked to the point of pain. That said, I am now jumping a Mojo on my skydives and like it a little better.
When you decide to skydive with your BASE canopy, it is highly recommend to start with some hop-and-pops. If your packing technique or canopy model has a tendency for hard openings, the hop-and-pops will save you. If the openings are comfortable, take it to four and than to eight seconds. If those work, you can consider to take your BASE canopy to full terminal.
Another thing to consider is putting on a sail slider. Most BASE jumps use mesh sliders which generally contribute to harder openings. In skydiving you can afford a snivel, so putting on a sail slider is not a bad idea. On the other hand, if you are using your canopy for both skydiving and BASE jumping, leaving the mesh slider on might be a better idea. Every time you switch a slider, you are doing significant rigging introducing the potential for misrigging.
Packing
There are three ways to pack a BASE canopy for skydiving purposes.
- Find a large container and large D-bag, and pack like a standard skydive. Generally student containers or large CRW containers will hold a BASE canopy.
- Find a large container and freepack your BASE canopy into it. This means you jump without a D-bag, do a standard BASE packjob, and fold it straight into the container. Make sure you know what you are doing, or talk to your rigger or instructor for more information.
- If your dropzone allows it, use your BASE rig, preferably a pin rig (or brand-new velcro). You will most likely have to wear a belly-mount reserve to comply with the law. Make sure your container has the appropriate attachment points for D-rings on the front of the harnass. See the container section for more information about this.
I have jumped both my vented Rockdragon and my Mojo out of a plane many times. I have used all three types of packjobs, and these days I mostly use my Warlock pin rig with a belly mount reserve, and my large-hole mesh slider. I had my rigger install the D-ring attachment points. Next time I buy a BASE rig I will make sure it has these installed already. I have also used my Vision velcro rig several times on terminal skydives and it worked fine (albeit the velcro was brand new).
When I was using a skydiving rig, I had made a deal with my dropzone owner that I could rent a student rig for a good deal (considering I only used the harnass and the reserve). My rigger made a sail-slider the same size as my mesh slider. I started with a few hop-and-pops and slowly worked my way up to terminal, using the mesh slider and freepacking the canopy (without the D-bag).
Freepacking is always fun, especially when there is lots of canopy fabric creeping out from underneath the flaps. It never fails to get some weird looks from the other skydivers on the plane. While funny, make sure you don’t get too sloppy on your freepacking though.
When I jumped my Troll 225, I packed it in a student rig also, only I used the bag and a sail slider. Had a nice soft hop and pop at 4000′. It was one of those nice thermal days; it did not want to come down; had plenty of time to play. I intend to have D rings installed on my base harness. Wondering about a modern canopy in a chest reserve with short risers. Long risers during WWII cut off ears and noses of aircrew so I was told.
I started BASE jumping with a clapped out Cruiselite when you wanted a canopy with a few hundred jumps on it to soften up the slider down stuff. Finding a Peggy, Raven, or Unit with three hundred jumps for 300 bucks was the Jenny in the Barn to early BASE jumpers.
I’ve jumped more than a few demo BASE canopies from BR that probably had a few hundred BASE jumps on them. These canopies lead the life of a rental car and BASE manufacturers get valuable data by watching how they hold up. I would think if this fellow bought a single generally accepted BASE canopy and put 150 slider up skydives on it, he would still have a viable canopy for the next hundred BASE jumps.
In the old days we always put a 1000 jumps on a square before even thinking it was clapped out. The modern BASE canopy has more in common with those old war horses than some smaller and more modern wings that have line trim problems at 250 jumps. With a big docile seven cell if the trim is off you just learn to lean a little more in one direction and that’s the end of that….