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Customer Reviews of the Samurai
Piloting
the Samurai
By
Alan Binnebose
May 2001
Brian
Germain of Big Air Sportz recently tweaked the design of his
Samurai canopy and was kind enough to recently send me a demo
to evaluate. The Samurai is a high performance elliptical
canopy with airlocks and is based on the popular Jedei from
the former Airtime Designs. A little background information
may be in order here. A number of years ago, when elliptical
canopies were first beginning to find their way into the sport
parachute market, Airtime Designs (now known as Tony Suits)
introduced the Jonathan. Brian Germain invented a system of
locking air into a canopy that improved safety and
performance. These “airlocks” improved a canopy’s
ability to maintain pressurization in turbulence and during
maneuvers, keeping the airfoil more rigid and efficient. Brian
teamed up with Tony Uragallo of Airtime Designs and Brian
designed the Jedei, the first canopy to incorporate airlocks.
The Jedei quickly gained a loyal following. Unfortunately,
after just a few years Airtime decided to focus on the
manufacturing of Tony Suits jumpsuits and discontinued making
canopies. Brian licensed the right to his airlock design to
Performance Designs, which subsequently introduced the
Vengeance.
In
1999 Brian re-entered the sport canopy market with the Samurai
form his Colorado based company, Big Air Sportz. Brian
utilized a new type of airlock called the PCS (Pressurization
Containment System), which had a valve flap against both the
top and bottom skins of the canopy. This was the Samurai Model
2000. In the past year Big Air Sportz moved to Zephyrhills,
Florida. It brought the company closer to one of skydivings
main centers of activity. This year saw the introduction of
the new Samurai Model 2001. Brian proudly admits that it is a
return to the Jedei design and airlock system. He took his
basic design of the popular Jedei, incorporated changes that
Jedei pilots asked for and kept the best of the rest.
The
Samurai Model 2001 utilizes an air-locking system only
slightly modified from the original Jedei style. The bias cut
valve panels add a degree of cross bracing to the non-loaded
ribs near the center of lift, reducing distortion. A closer
comparison to my old Jedei revealed a change in the A-B line
reinforcing tapes. They now converge at right angles below the
top skin, providing two loading points that reduce the amount
of visible dimple. Brian retained the cross porting of the
Jedei; two vertically aligned circular ports. One very
noticeable change is the use of Vectran on the brake and
outboard “A” and “C” lines, while using Spectra on all
inboard lines. The Vectran resists shrinking from slider
grommet friction heat. This keeps the canopy in
trim, but they wear quicker than Spectra and will need
replacing after about 300 jumps. Inspect them often. One final
change I noticed when comparing the Samurai 2001 to my Jedei
was the addition of a reinforcing tape to the inboard brake
line attachment points.
The
Samurai 2001 is constructed of the same fabric used by
Performance Designs from Performance Textiles. The fabric uses
the new “Solar Max” fiber made by DuPont. It is very slick
when new and requires good packing technique. The new Samurai
packs about 5% bigger than non-airlocked elliptical canopies.
The 120 that I jumped fit too easily into my Talon2 T-4 and
seemed to be a perfect match for my Talon T-3. I used a
standard PRO pack with each side of the nose folded in. After
a few jumps, I realized I didn’t have to do anything with
the nose and I still got superb openings. I used standard
small rubber bands on my D-bag with the exception of the
locking stows, where I used the larger size. My pilot chute
was the standard 30” zero-p that came with my Talon2.
I
jumped the 120 at a 1.8-lbs./sq.ft wing loading. This is the
maximum recommended by Big Air Sportz. Wing loading should
always be based on your skill level and experience. I
currently have about 250 jumps on an 89 VX and was pleasantly
surprised to find that the 120 Samurai provided all of the
speed and performance I wanted and is much easier to fly.
After logging 15 jumps, I found myself getting better surfs on
the Samurai. The VX simply requires more pilot skill to get
the most out of it.
Openings
I
tried several sub-terminal openings on hop and pops. Every one
was soft and on heading. They required very little steering by
shifting in the harness or using the risers. Snatch force and
opening shock were both very soft and comparable to the Icarus
Crossfire. I tried to intentionally induce line twists by
dropping my shoulder during deployment without success. I
don’t have a death wish, but let’s face it; this is a
common cause of many off heading openings. I wanted see how
the canopy would react. A gentle, carving turn was the worst I
could get.
Terminal
face to earth openings were pretty much the same story. They
required a little more steering by shifting in the harness
during the opening sequence, but all of my openings were on
heading. Dropping a shoulder during deployment at terminal did
result in one opening with two line twists. The canopy flew
straight and it was easy to kick out of the twists. I did one
jump with a video camera helmet and again was pleased with the
opening. There seems to be a very good balance between the
snatch force and opening shock.
I
deployed several times from a sit and several more after a
3-second track. All resulted in a noticeably higher snatch
force, which was still very comfortable, and the opening shock
was about the same as the normal face to earth openings.
Turns
When
jumping a new canopy, I like to do a series of turns using the
front and rear risers to see how it will handle in case of an
emergency collision avoidance situation. I do not consider a
front riser turn with the brakes stowed as an effective method
for avoiding collision after an opening and it can even be
dangerous. An aggressive front riser input with the brakes
still set resulted in a very sluggish and delayed turn.
Mostly, the Samurai just bucked a little and slowed down.
I’ve jumped many canopies and this is a typical flight
characteristic. Next, I tried a series of rear riser turns
with the brakes stowed. An aggressive input caused a very
quick turn with a lot of over steer. It took a few tries
before I could stop the turn before 270 degrees of rotation.
The over steer is due to the riser input with the brakes
stowed. The Samurai was very sensitive to harness input
(weight shift) and was very easy to steer using this method,
through deployment and opening.
I
was very pleased with riser turns on the 120 Samurai after
releasing the brakes. Carving front riser turns built up a lot
of speed with only moderate pressure on the riser, much less
than on the Icarus canopies I have jumped. Aggressive front
riser input resulted in diving turns with considerable
altitude loss, but not an especially fast rate of turn,
although with a fair amount of over steer. It was very similar
to my old Jedei 136. Again the riser pressure reminded me more
of what I have found on PD canopies than Icarus. Carving rear
riser turns were very predictable and had a higher rate of
turn. Aggressive input on the rear risers caused the Samurai
to turn very quickly with less altitude loss than with the
front risers. Again, it had a noticeable over steer, but after
a few turns it was easily anticipated and corrected. Rear
riser pressure was about as light as I have ever experienced.
Toggle
turns were a real pleasure. I experimented with both carving
and aggressive inputs. Over steer with the toggles was almost
non-existent. Toggle pressure was light and comparable to a
Stiletto. I did find that with very aggressive toggle input,
the line tension on the Samurai was less than I expected. Keep
in mind, I was really pushing the canopy to its limits during
some of these maneuvers and would not recommend them for most
recreational pilots. One characteristic that I really liked
about the 120 Samurai is it has a negative recovery arc. What
this means is that after diving the canopy, the Samurai will
continue to loose altitude until you “bump” the brakes a
little to cause it to plane out. Why do I like this flight
characteristic? Because it allows the pilot a bigger window of
opportunity to dial in the surf. You can do your final turn
aggressively at a higher (safer) altitude and not have to
worry about the canopy planing out on its own at 15 or 20 feet
AGL. If you do your turn a little high just let the canopy
dive; it will maintain a descent and its airspeed. After only
a few jumps, I got accustomed to this and after 15, I really
loved it!
Glide
The
Samurai has an excellent glide. I felt it was flatter than my
136 Jedei, even at the higher wing loading of the 120. It is
by far flatter than my VX or any of the cross-braced canopies
I have jumped. Instead of pulling down on the rear risers to
flatten out the glide, I simply spread them a little. It was
very easy to maintain and dramatically improved the glide.
Deep brakes will give minimum sink rate as opposed to the best
glide. The Samurai is pretty hard to stall; it just gets very
mushy and rocks back. It even seems to fly backwards a little.
Ease up on the toggles to slightly above the recovery point
(about 3 to 6 inches) slowly and hold them there until the
canopy recovers. The Samurai recovers very quickly and on
heading. Lifting your hands too high as the canopy recovers
allows for line slack and excessive altitude loss. By going
into full brakes very aggressively, you can induce a dynamic
stall and the canopy will “fortune cookie”. Recovery is
about the same, but be careful, over-reacting can result in a
canopy that recovers with slack lines and possibly twist up.
This is dangerous because it may not be recoverable.
Landing
Landing
the Samurai is nothing but fun! You can use whatever method or
approach that suits your flying style. The canopy has a strong
flare and will fly slow enough so you don’t have to run out
the landings on those no wind days. Just bump the brakes
enough to stop your descent and pitch yourself under the
canopy. Once you have planed out, use just enough smooth brake
input to keep you close enough to the ground so you can unload
the canopy by putting your feet down. When the Samurai no
longer responds, put your feet down and finish the flare. This
canopy rocks! Let it fly. Keeping the wing level during the
surf is important, but with experience and practice, it is
possible to do nice carving turns during the surf. This is
fun, but it is also a good practical skill if you find
yourself suddenly needing to avoid an obstacle during your
landing.
Conditions
and Turbulence
I
jumped the 120 Samurai 15 times over a two-week period under a
variety of conditions. My DZ is at about 1000’ MSL.
Temperature ranged from the upper 50s to upper 70s. The winds
were anything from light and variable to gusts up to 24 mph. I
intentionally flew the Samurai into the turbulence on the
downwind side of the hangar, some trees, and other buildings
on an 8-mph wind day. It got a little bumpy, but in full
flight, the Samurai handled the turbulence very well. I did
this for evaluation purposes only and do not recommend it as a
standard practice. It is nice to experiment a little under
mild, controlled conditions though, that way you will have
some idea of the performance parameters of your canopy for
when you find yourself in a situation where you have no
choice.
Conclusions
The
Samurai Model 2001 is one of the best high-performance
canopies available today for the recreational jumper. It is
not the “handful” that the highly loaded cross-braced
canopies are. It is fun to fly and provides an extra margin of
safety for the pilot who wants performance. The Samurai is for
experienced canopy pilots and the wing loading you choose
should be appropriate for your piloting skills. I would
definitely recommend jumping a demo of the Samurai if you are
in the market for a high-performance elliptical canopy. We all
have different tastes, likes and dislikes but do yourself a
favor and try one of these canopies before buying. OK, so what
is the downside? Well at $1790, they are not inexpensive, but
you are getting a superb, custom-built canopy from a small
company that specializes in excellence. Besides, Big Air
Sportz has a Client Referral Program that will refund you $100
for every new sale you refer to them. The Samurai could end up
being a real bargain!
About
the author:
Alan Binnebose
Number of jumps:
1450
Jumps last year:
250
Time in sport:
10 years
Exit weight:
215
Recent
experience:
Icarus
VX 89; Crossfire 119; Safire 149; FX 88, 93, 95, 99; Jedei
136, 120; PD Velocity 96; Vengeance 107; Stiletto 135, 120;
Sabre 170, 150, 135, 120; Spectre 180; PD 170; Diablo 150,
Triathlon 170, 160
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