I love my Sabre 2

[AggieDave 6]

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My personal recommendation right now would be a Sabre2

IMO, the Sabre2 is the best all around canopy you can buy. It opens nice, it flies nice...loaded lightly its good for a lot of beginners (not all), loaded moderately its great for intermediates who are swooping a bit, loaded a bit higher it's actually a pretty good swooping canopy.

If I had a second rig, my canopy would be a Sabre2 170. Its just that much fun to fly.
I split this off the "learning to swoop" thread in swooping and canopy control as it has more to do with what to swoop than how to swoop.- Tonto

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[dharma1976 0]

I love my sabre 2 170...I recently upsized due to me being a stupid git and having the aforementioned but Ill be really safe syndrome...

and to be honest loading my sabre2 at 1.35 or so....I get nice (for me) swoops...I can steer around others nicely with my front risers should some silly brit cut me off by going diagonally across the landing area in eloy...

and yet it flies dociley enough when I need it to so I can land in a small field between two sets of power lines like I had to today cuz I got lost looking for the ranch :)

awesome canopy love it love it love it...

Cheers
Dave

http://www.skyjunky.com

CSpenceFLY - I can't believe the number of people willing to bet their life on someone else doing the right thing.

[ChrisL 2]

I'll 3rd that. I have a Sabre2 and its awesome. Wouldnt trade it for any other canopy.

__

My mighty steed

[HeatherB 0]

Have you flown a Pilot yet?

[jumpwally 0]

Yeah Dave ! How about the pilot? ;-)

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[Gravitymaster 0]

Have you jumped a Safire-2?

[AggieDave 6]

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Have you jumped a Safire-2?

Yes, wasn't that impressed. Although the Crossfire2 really impressed me (hence me buying one and its what I still currently jump), but the Safire2 just didn't quite perform as well as the Sabre2, IMO.

As for the pilot, I just haven't had a chance to get a demo yet. Everything I've heard from people whose opinion I trust about the Pilot (i.e. BillVon, even though he's an AIC) sounds like it flies just as well as the Sabre2 and maybe even a bit better in a couple of aspects.



Side note, this thread really surprised me, since I didn't start the thread. Looks like Tonto moved a post of mine out of another thread and started a new one. Cool, surprised me, but cool.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[HeatherB 0]

You might be singing a different tune if you try a Pilot.

I love PD (my PD reserve has treated me very well!) and the Sabre2 flies great, but from what I've experienced, the Pilot openings are much more predictable and on-heading.

I demoed a bunch of canopies before buying a Pilot. The Pilot out-shined them all.

(Of course, I am not a swooper, I don't load my canopy much, etc)

[AggieDave 6]

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You might be singing a different tune if you try a Pilot.

Fair enough. I'll get a demo of one (a 170) here in a few weeks to see how they compare.


In my defense, though, I didn't start this thread.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[jumper03 0]

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You might be singing a different tune if you try a Pilot.

I love PD (my PD reserve has treated me very well!) and the Sabre2 flies great, but from what I've experienced, the Pilot openings are much more predictable and on-heading.

I demoed a bunch of canopies before buying a Pilot. The Pilot out-shined them all.

(Of course, I am not a swooper, I don't load my canopy much, etc)

I second everything Heather said! I found that the pilot wasn't quite as aggressive in a turn as the sabre2 and it feels a little more stable to me. Still, it's fun to fly and I have a blast flying it. (this from someone who thought he would only by PD canopies ever...)

Scars remind us that the past is real

[racer42 0]

Yeah. So far this has been my favorite canopy. Sabre 2 170. It's loaded just enough to make it zippy, but still very manageable.

L.A.S.T. #24
Co-Founder Biscuit Brothers Freefly Team
Electric Toaster #3
Co-Founder Team Non Sequitor
Co-Founder Team Happy Sock

[mnealtx 0]

I've read the posts about the occasional "slammer" and the off-heading openings, but I bought one anyway...

I figure if I don't care for it, I'll buy a Pilot and let the DZ use the Sabre as one of the student canopies...

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[ianmdrennan 2]

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You might be singing a different tune if you try a Pilot.

I did, I think it's a great canopy that opens nicely. However I didn't like how flat the glide was and I didn't think much of it's penetration into the wind compared to other similarly sized canopies.

I'm very curious to see how Aerodynes upcoming line will compare against the higher performing canopies though. My prediction is that PD and Aerodyne, together, will be the market "dominators" as both offer good products and great service.

Blues,
Ian

Performance Designs Factory Team

[darrenspooner 0]

I hope I can agree with you when PD have looked at my Sabre 2. Its a hard diving on opening bitch, and gave me my first mal two weeks ago. Once its open and levelled out its lovely, but til then throw a coin and bet on what might happen.

[HeatherB 0]

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In my defense, though, I didn't start this thread. It was a conversation about Sabre2's in a different thread.

Oh, hush. You love your Sabre 2.

Have fun with the demo. I have no idea how they fly when they're at higher loadings, so post about it!

The only thing I would change about my Pilot is that it's quite pink. lol

[MarkM 0]

Does the pilot have the color line tabs? I have a Hornet that was relined by Aerodyne and it has color coordinated tabs where the lines attach to the canopy.

Makes it soo much easier to sort my lines out while packing.

[rushmc 23]

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I've read the posts about the occasional "slammer" and the off-heading openings, but I bought one anyway...

I figure if I don't care for it, I'll buy a Pilot and let the DZ use the Sabre as one of the student canopies...

I have had one or two slammers on mine. I just changed the spectra lines over to dacron. I have only made a few jumps on it since the conversion but I feel the differnce. (even on the nice openings)

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rushmc 23]

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Does the pilot have the color line tabs? I have a Hornet that was relined by Aerodyne and it has color coordinated tabs where the lines attach to the canopy.

Makes it soo much easier to sort my lines out while packing.

Yes it does.....

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[bdbrown 0]

Love my Sabre2 very much...Have tried others and the one thing I can say about the Sabre2 over the others was I felt safe...Strange feeling but I felt like the canopy knew what I wanted to do before I did it....That is a very strong selling point to me, its my life.....

--------------------------------------------------

[AggieDave 6]

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I have had one or two slammers on mine.

Every canopy can slam you, even the sweet opening canopies that everyone swears open soft and sweet.

I honestly think, except for some actual problem canopies out there (every manufacture has a couple that slip through and have a problem), that it comes down to packing and deploying technique. Coming from a student type canopy to a Sabre2 can accent uneven body position during deployment (as well as sloppy packing).

Literally every upjumper (500+ jumps) I know that jumps a Sabre2 that packs for themselves don't have a problem, BUT that's only about 30 people or so.


Like I said, I don't think that's everyone's problem, but I think its the cause to some of the problems.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[billvon 3,058]

>How about the pilot? ;-)

Pilot/Sabre 2/Safire 2 are all very similar canopies. The Safire 2 is a bit more aggressive; the Pilot has slightly better openings than the other two. But they are all very similar.

[rushmc 23]

Quote

Quote

I have had one or two slammers on mine.

Every canopy can slam you, even the sweet opening canopies that everyone swears open soft and sweet.

I honestly think, except for some actual problem canopies out there (every manufacture has a couple that slip through and have a problem), that it comes down to packing and deploying technique. Coming from a student type canopy to a Sabre2 can accent uneven body position during deployment (as well as sloppy packing).

Literally every upjumper (500+ jumps) I know that jumps a Sabre2 that packs for themselves don't have a problem, BUT that's only about 30 people or so.


Like I said, I don't think that's everyone's problem, but I think its the cause to some of the problems.

Agreed, and I may have one of those problem canopies. I am going to put a few jumps on the new line set to see if I notice a difference.

PD has been great, they have offered to jump my canopy but I want to make sure my packing is not the issue first.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[AggieDave 6]

Something we've done at my DZ when people get a new Sabre2 off of student status and they think something may be wrong is one of the experienced canopy pilots will take the canopy up for a jump or two to see if anything is amiss. If it is then its sent to PD for the real test jumpers with the really serious experience can find something.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[rushmc 23]

Good plan, however, I am the only one at our small DZ that has a Sabre2 (which may or may not make a difference) so we don't have much to compare to.....

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[AggieDave 6]

We have 3 Sabre2's for rental/advanced student use, plus atleast 7 or 8 Sabre2's that people have in their own rigs. Then there's a few of us that don't own Sabre2s but have jumped quite a few of them. For instance I have around 150-200 jumps on various Sabre2s of various sizes, but I don't own one. (Another reason why this thread is humorous to me, since I don't own a Sabre2 and I didn't start the thread, Tonto did with another one of my posts).

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."