Color Choices

by Dan'l · Published October 23, 2023 · Updated June 2, 2024

It is October 2023, and I am eagerly awaiting my new main parachute. In 26 years of skydiving, I have owned just two main canopies, both made by Performance Designs. I love my original Sabre 170 with my custom colors, manufactured in 2000.

Given the limited color palette available for zero-porosity parachutes, I used nine colors to create a design inspired by a candle flame. It is not quite a rainbow, since it has no green cell.

In 2017, I think, I purchased my second main from Performance Designs, going with their new, at the time, Sabre2, still at 170 square feet in size. I wasn’t willing to wait the additional time required for custom colors, so I got one of their stock color schemes. This is also a very fine canopy. I have it in my newer container, a Vector 3 which I got in 2017. Unfortunately, I injured myself, so I had to wait through months of recovery before I could jump my new gear.

There is nothing wrong with my Sabre2 stock design, but there are a lot of them extant, so it does not stand out.

In February 2023 at a boogie in Costa Rica, I took the opportunity to test fly an Aerodyne Pilot 9 cell, 168 square foot canopy. When I got home, I took the chance to also demo the 150 square foot size. I was able to land both sizes fine, but after consideration, I decided to go with the more conservative choice, and ordered the 168.

On Aerodyne’s web site, you can design your canopy with custom colors, which differ slightly depending on your choice of ZP (zero porosity) or ZPX (zero porosity with smaller pack volume) fabric. There is also a fabric choice called “Ultra PV”, which has yet another palette. I choose Standard ZP, since I was not changing canopy size and I want my new main to fit in my existing Vector 3 container. Here is the color palette I used for my new canopy:

In April 2023, I placed my order and paid for my new parachute. I expected it to take about six months to manufacture. Coming out of Covid, Aerodyne was struggling to get materials and keep employees, so I knew if I wanted custom colors, I would have to be patient. Here are two views of the design I ordered:

By the beginning of October 2023, the Aerodyne website showed my order as “Processed for production” with estimated shipping date 11/09/2023. But on October 17, Christa from Aerodyne sent me an email saying they were out of six of the ten colors I had used in my design, and were trying hard to find out when they would receive more. I phoned Christa the next day and made a contingency plan. We would talk again in a couple days when they would know better when the missing colors might arrive. Meanwhile, I would make a design with the colors they had. When we talked again, I would decide whether to get the backup design sooner, or to wait even longer for the design I wanted.

Here is the backup design, made with the limited colors they said were available.

I thought I would go with this in preference over waiting another six months or more.

Luckily, when Christa called two days later, she had good news. They expected all of their colors to be in stock soon, with the exception of neon pink and neon green. I don’t know why those two are exceptionally difficult to obtain. Armed with this new information, I went back to the drawing board and came up with the current design. It is like a rainbow, but starts with green instead of having green in the middle. I can’t wait to fly it.