Meet Octagon and Cires, NIVIUK’s first reserve parachutes

There’s lots going on in the NIVIUK house, and the brand has presented their first reserve parachutes: the Octagon and the Cires.

The Octagon, as the name suggests, is revolutionary due to its shape and air inlets, giving it greater pendulum stability over other parachute on the market. Unique in its category, the Octagon incorporates advanced design technology from round and square models, to provide greater stability during the descent. The swinging action of your average is between 10-15°, however NIVIUK’s Octagon has a maximum 5°, due to the air inlets which help stabilise the pendulum action.

The pendulum action of a parachute is an important factor to consider, because this can radically change the pilot’s speed of impact to the ground.

The Octagon comes in different sizes, ranging from 26m2 for the smallest to 67m2 for tandem pilots, and weighing respectively between 1.22kg and 3.14kg. Made from 6.6g nylon and using Dyneema lines, the cell count is between 16-24, again depending on the size, with a descent rate of 4.9m/s.

Cires, a “classic” reserve parachute, is available in three sizes, 32,9, 40,2 and 62.4m2, for a weight of 1.7kg, 2.1kg and 3.1kg, respectively, with a decent rate of between 5.0 and 5.2m2/s.

Both parachutes have a opening time of between 3-4 seconds.