Choosing a main canopy is one of the biggest gear decisions you make, and the internet is full of canopy tier lists that rank wings from “best” to “worst”. Those lists are fun, but they mix up two different questions: how good a canopy is, and who it is for. We built something that answers only the second one.
Our new page, Main canopies by experience level, shows all 77 sport main canopies in production that we have in the catalog, sorted by the experience level their manufacturer recommends – from student canopies at the bottom to cross-braced high-performance wings at the top.
How the page works
The page looks like a tier list, with one important difference: the rows are experience levels, not grades. Each row has a colour, a short description and the number of canopies in it:
- High performance – cross-braced wings that their makers recommend for expert canopy pilots: swooping and competition (17 canopies).
- Expert – fast, highly responsive wings for very experienced canopy pilots (13).
- Advanced – higher-performance canopies for experienced jumpers who have done canopy training (34).
- Intermediate – everyday canopies for jumpers building experience (30).
- Novice – forgiving canopies for newly licensed jumpers at low wing loadings (30).
- Student – large, docile canopies for students in training and on their first solo jumps (12).
Every tile shows a photo, the model and its manufacturer. Click it to open the canopy’s page with sizes, specifications, prices where they are published, and the sources for every value.
Where the levels come from
We do not rate canopies. Each level comes from what the manufacturer says about who the canopy is for, and that is why the page is not a ranking. A canopy in the Student row is not “worse” than one in the Expert row – it is built for a different pilot.
Many canopies are recommended for a range of jumpers, so they appear in more than one row. The Aerodyne Pilot 7 appears in five rows, because Aerodyne describes it as a canopy for everyone from a beginning wingsuit flyer to a world champion, and says students will benefit from it too. The PD Sabre3 and PD Storm each appear in four.
The top row needs a word of explanation. “High performance” is not a separate level used by the manufacturers. We use it for cross-braced canopies that their makers recommend for experts, such as the PD Peregrine or the JYRO Petra, so that they do not get lost among the other expert canopies.
A level is not a permission slip
The level tells you who a canopy is designed for. It does not tell you which size you should fly. The same model can be a gentle wing at one size and a fast, demanding one at another, because what matters is your wing loading – your exit weight divided by the canopy size – and your experience under canopy.
Before you buy or demo anything, work out your numbers with our wing loading calculator, read our article on downsizing, and talk to your instructor or a canopy coach. Follow your national association’s rules and the manufacturer’s recommended range for the model.
What is not on the board
Tandem, canopy relative work (CRW) and accuracy mains are specialist canopies, so they are not on the board. You will find them in the catalog: tandem, CRW and accuracy. Discontinued canopies are left out too – they are in our historical gear section.
Help us get it right
The page updates itself whenever we add or correct a canopy in the catalog. If you know that a manufacturer recommends a canopy for a different level, or you know the level for one of the canopies that the page shows under “Level not stated by the manufacturer”, please send us a correction with a link to the source.