HOP330 Performance ReviewAuthor: Krasimir Bankov*

CI, NZONE, Queenstown, New Zealand
20 March 2008

HOP 330 BACKGROUND

This background is based on around 50,000 jumps performed with HOP-330 canopies at 1300 ft AMSL in Queenstown, New Zealand. The landing area is in a valley surrounded by mountains, which are a source of turbulence on windy days. The operational temperatures are between minus 15 to plus 30 in the summer. The equipment used is Strong Dual Hawk tandem. We started using the first HOP-330 canopy at 2001. In a while, all the rest of EZY, Icarus and SET canopies were replaced with HOP-330’s.

OPENINGS

Openings are consistent, with soft and on-heading opening regardless of the loading and conditions. Definitely a good pack job contributes to that, however the canopy openings don’t deviate much from the above if packed with some considerable negligence. The safety record here is pretty high with current malfunction rate: one per 6-7,000 jumps. We’ve had a stretch of 13 000 jumps without any canopy malfunction.

CANOPY PERFORMANCE

HOP330 descent rate is slightly higher than EZY’s and SET’s due to its design. On a nice day with smooth conditions it flies like a sport canopy. However it can easily be flown in a very conservative way as well.
In windy conditions it has more thrust due to its slightly smaller size and the higher airfoil ratio. While crabbing into the final approach it can be flown very easy on deep brakes or full drive, the canopy doesn’t swing more than the rest of the canopies. Flares better. Loses less height when brakes are driven up to pick speed for the final flare.
Canopy is sensitive but not vulnerable in turbulence. Even with our very turbulent conditions, we’ve had many end cell collapses but not a canopy collapse. However this canopy recovers faster than any other canopy - and without loosing altitude. If turbulent on landing conditions, it flares great even loaded to its limits. We take customers up to 100 kgs.
The canopy lines don’t lose their trim for at least 1000 jumps. Currently we have HOP330 canopies in action with more than 4 000 jumps without any significant loss of qualities.

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