What is the ideal BASE wingloading (pounds of exit weight per square foot of canopy)?

[imported_Tom Aiello]

[crwper]

This depends a lot on the kind of jumping you're doing, doesn't it? Sounds a bit like asking, "What is the ideal car/truck?" Depends if you want to haul large loads, go really fast, or save a lot of money on gas.

Michael

[Andy]

I don't see it. In what way would wingload depent on the kind of jump you are doing?

Andy

[base428]

Perhaps the results of your last poll on wingloading would show us the "ideal" number. It looks like somewhere between 0.70-0.75 was the average value.

Load it too much and your landings will feel the effects.....load it too little and your canopy is not as responsive.

Cya.

------------
Jason Bell (BASE428)
Email: jbell@vertical-visions.com
Web: www.vertical-visions.com or www.bridgeday.info

[motherhucker]

I agree w/ crwper.
It's hard to pin an "ideal" loading accross the board.
I like to jump a smaller wingloading in higher alpine conditions, particularly where I am landing at 11000+ MSL. I also prefer to jump a higher loaded canopy when I know I'm gonna hook it (I'm talking Daggers here, not Stilettos). I think the type of object, as well as current conditions (Wx and planned landing conditions) have a great deal to do with your wing loading choice. If I had to only choose ONE canopy to fly, I would choose somewhere around the .75 range.

[crwper]

There are a lot of parameters one might want to minimize/maximize -- time to bottom/top skin inflation, forward speed, downward speed, reponsiveness, charactersitics in deep brakes/stall for those times when you need to back away from the object...

It is unlikely all of these goals are attained with a particular wingloading, so your "optimum" wingloading depends on which of these goals are most important to you.

I jump a v-tec Fox 245 loaded about .65, which has worked pretty well for me in most situations. But on some big E jumps, where winds are often higher during the canopy flight than at exit, I might choose a slightly smaller canopy to get better penetration, and allow me to stay in a position of advantage with respect to the landing area.

On jumps where I need to sink it in, this canopy has usually done pretty well for me, but for really tight landing areas, or high altitudes, I might go to something a bit bigger (say .75 or so).

Michael