The Downsizing Checklist

There is a version of the downsize decision where you read a chart, decide you're ready, place an order, and it works out fine. That version exists and it happens. It also coexists with the version where the same chart number leads to a femur, or a tib-fib, or worse — because the chart can't see the part that matters. The jumps are a proxy. The proxy leaks.

This is a checklist for the actual decision. Run through it honestly. If anything makes you wince, that's the answer. Honesty here is cheaper than the alternative.

Print the PDF version if you want a copy for your gear bag — same content, formatted for a clipboard or a riggers' bench conversation. Free download, no email required. It's safety content.

Before you read further

Punch your current numbers into the wingloading calculator. The verdict it gives you against the APF chart is just the floor — checking the rest of this checklist is what tells you whether you're actually past it. The calculator's verdict on its own is not a clearance. Nothing on this page is a clearance. Your Chief Instructor and a canopy coach who watches you land are the ones who actually say go.

The landings

These are the ones that decide it. If you can't answer yes to all of them on your current canopy, the downsize is premature. No exceptions.

Nil-wind landings, plural, comfortable. Not "I survived one once." Routine. The hardest landings in the sport happen with no wind to bleed off speed — if you don't trust your timing on the canopy you have, a smaller canopy will not improve that timing.
Crosswind landings handled cleanly. You crab on final, kick straight at the right altitude, and land standing up. Not your favorite scenario, but not a scary one either.
A deliberate downwind landing in light wind. Done on purpose, in the right field, with altitude in hand. You know what the canopy feels like with wind pushing you instead of slowing you, because at some point in your life the wind is going to shift between exit and final and the call you have to make is land downwind, calmly rather than do something heroic on final.
A landing in an unfamiliar field. Doesn't have to be an off-DZ emergency — a visiting jump at a strange DZ counts. You found the wind line, picked your spot, flew a clean pattern, landed without drama.
Accuracy under control. You can land within a few meters of where you intended, on most jumps, in normal conditions. Not lucky once a season. Routine.
You know your flare window. Not in theory — in your hands. You know what altitude the canopy wants you to start the flare at, and you know what it does if you start late or early.
You know the full speed range of your current canopy. Slow flight, braked approaches, rear-riser flight, flat turns, hard turns recovered. The canopy doesn't hold any surprises for you.

If three or more of those are "I think so" rather than "yes," the right move is more time on the canopy you have, ideally with a coach. Not a smaller one.

Currency

A downsize during a sketchy currency window is a stacked penalty — your reflexes are dull and the canopy is sharper. Both directions bad at once.

You're current — not just barely legal but actually current. The last 30 days have given you jumps; the last 90 have given you many. If you're coming off a layoff, this isn't the moment.
The jumps are recent enough that the canopy feels like yours. Not "I remember it." Yours. You think about other things on final because the canopy is automatic.
You haven't had a recent close call you're still mentally working through. Stand down on the gear change until that's processed. The canopy decision shouldn't be made through the haze of an incident you're still chewing on.

The people

You can't make this decision alone, and the people who tell you that you can are the people whose advice you should be most suspicious of.

Your CI has signed off — and not as a formality. They've watched you land. They know your canopy. They are willing to put their name on this decision.
A canopy coach has watched you land in the conditions you're worst in. Not your best landings. Your worst. They've given you the read on what's actually happening with your inputs, and you've worked the feedback in until the bad patterns are gone.
You've talked to people who flew the canopy you're considering. Not "read reviews." Talked to jumpers who actually owned it, ideally at your home DZ, ideally with a similar wingloading to where you'll be. The internet doesn't know your sky.
You're not buying because someone told you to. Gear lust, social pressure, "everyone in my crew is on X" — these are not reasons. If anyone in this picture is enthusiastic on your behalf in a way that makes you uneasy, listen to the unease.

The canopy you're considering

No more than one full size smaller than your current canopy. ~15% is the rough upper bound on a single step; sometimes less; never more.
It's the same class of canopy (or a deliberately less aggressive class). Going from a docile 9-cell to a faster 9-cell of similar planform is one downsize. Going from a docile 9-cell to a more aggressive elliptical at the same time is two — that's how people end up in over their heads.
You've planned the first jumps on it carefully. Easy conditions, light winds, your home DZ, plenty of altitude, no group jumps you'll feel obligated to "keep up" on. Treat the first jumps like a license check.
You can keep the current canopy if it turns out to be the wrong call. Not selling the old canopy on the same day you buy the new one is a small move that saves a lot of jumpers a lot of regret.

The variables

This is the section the chart explicitly tells you to consider. The APF Canopy Downsizing Chart says "size up for variables" right on the document — meaning take the chart minimum and make it bigger if any of these apply.

Density altitude. If your home DZ is high, or the jumps you're planning are at altitude, the canopy flies hotter and recoveries are longer. This is a reason to upsize, not downsize.
Disciplines you do. Wingsuit, tracking, anything that puts you a long way from the LZ at opening, anything that lands you tired or off-axis. Bigger canopies are more forgiving on the long walk back.
Your home DZ's actual conditions. Tight LZ, obstacles, gusty afternoons, mountain rotors, anything that complicates the landing. The chart line is the easy line. Your DZ may not be easy.
You've checked your actual wind-adjusted reach. Plug the canopy you're considering into the spotting tool and see what its upwind reach looks like on a windy day at your home DZ. A smaller canopy with the same forward speed has a worse upwind reach when winds are up — and the canopy you'll fly when the spot is long is the canopy you actually have. Make sure the smaller one can still get you home from the kind of bad spots that happen.

The honest answer

The questions above don't add up to a yes/no score. They add up to a picture, and the picture either looks ready or it doesn't. If yours doesn't, the answer isn't "but I'm close." The answer is more jumps, more coaching, more landings in every kind of weather, on the canopy you have.

Read the companion post on when to downsize (and when not to) for the reasoning behind these questions — the why of every checkbox. Then have the actual conversation with your CI and your coach.

The chart is a guideline. This checklist is a guideline. Even the people who write these tools tell you to consult a CI. We're saying the same thing. The downsize decision is one of the few in this sport where the cost of getting it wrong shows up immediately and visibly — and the cost of getting it right is a couple of conversations and a few months of patience. That's a good trade.

We jump the sport because it gives us back something nothing else does. Stay around long enough to keep getting it back.