I'm after a new canopy.... suggestions please

[shropshire 0]

Many thanks - I full agree... I prefer the S2 to the Pilot... but will continue to look -

Cheers everyone

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Joellercoaster 6]

This isn't actually advice - since I stand by my thought that the whole thing is just personal taste, not one being better than the other. More of an afterthought.

I hadn't jumped a Sabre2 in over a year. But I got the chance to do a real apples-to-oranges comparison last week, jumping a Sabre2 150 and a Pilot 168 together all weekend. To be honest, I still found the bigger Pilot more enjoyable to fly.

The Sabre2 felt, for want of a better word, a little clunky. I was definitely travelling faster forward and down, but the Pilot did what I told it quicker. It also stopped doing it after I stopped inputs quicker - so less oversteer, but also less dive. On landing, this meant letting go of the fronts earlier, but also a longer plane-out, though this was partly 'cause I was going faster I think.

The flares are quite different too. The Pilot flare goes all the way to the bottom of the stroke, but if I did that on the Sabre2 it would surge, then run out of power at about nipple height and drop me. It has just as much power, but in a shorter arm movement, and it took some adjustment - I can see why a person used to one would think the other sucks to land. That said, both of them landed beautifully once I worked it out.

The moral? There isn't one

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[matthewcline 0]

Demo as many as you can from not only PD but ALL the makers out there. There are some great canopies from others who we don't hear to much about since they don't have a Factory Team or Mega Marketing Machine working for them, I.E. Flight Concepts and its Sentry series would be a good fit at the 145/150~ size (in comparison to the 150 your already jumping and the others your looking at).

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[pilot-one 0]

Quote

This isn't actually advice - since I stand by my thought that the whole thing is just personal taste, not one being better than the other. More of an afterthought.

I hadn't jumped a Sabre2 in over a year. But I got the chance to do a real apples-to-oranges comparison last week, jumping a Sabre2 150 and a Pilot 168 together all weekend. To be honest, I still found the bigger Pilot more enjoyable to fly.

The Sabre2 felt, for want of a better word, a little clunky. I was definitely travelling faster forward and down, but the Pilot did what I told it quicker. It also stopped doing it after I stopped inputs quicker - so less oversteer, but also less dive. On landing, this meant letting go of the fronts earlier, but also a longer plane-out, though this was partly 'cause I was going faster I think.

The flares are quite different too. The Pilot flare goes all the way to the bottom of the stroke, but if I did that on the Sabre2 it would surge, then run out of power at about nipple height and drop me. It has just as much power, but in a shorter arm movement, and it took some adjustment - I can see why a person used to one would think the other sucks to land. That said, both of them landed beautifully once I worked it out.

The moral? There isn't one

I did the same Pilot vs Sabre 2 comparison and I totally agree. The Pilot is simply more fun to fly and the openings are softer, more consistant and end cell closure free.