Sabre2

everything has been said, but i think the sabre2 offers everything a novice-intermediate pilot is looking for, and even a beginner if flying conservatively. this canopy offers great flaring capabilities for soft landings and also lets more aggressive pilots to swoop it when loading. i know that from the first flight on this canopy i would never go back to aerodyne's pilot..and the same will be apparent to you if you demo the two before purchasing.

I have had this canopy since February ever since I returned from Afghanistan and I have put roughly 40 jumps on this canopy. I have to admit I simply love it. 9 times out of 10 it will open on heading and 10 out of 10 times it wills open nice and softly. It is very responsive on toggle and riser input. There is fairly light pressure on the rear risers so they are easy enough to pull in case of a long spot and you need to lose as little altitude as possible. There is medium pressure on the front risers but if you have dive loops then you will have no problem pulling on them. As far as flaring goes there is plenty of flare to go around and the landings are very nice with moderate winds. The only thing that takes a little getting used to is when you are jumping on no wind days and you come in for your final for some reason the canopy likes to pop up a foot or two. If you are not used to this at first it can be a little scary. Other than that the Sabre2 2 is very responsive at higher wing loadings as well as moderate loadings. I load mine at about 1.25 and I have absolutely no problems with any aspect of my canopy.

Only about 10 jumps on a Sabre2 loaded at about 1:1. I love the flare and lift for landing but had too many line twists - four times of the ten jumps. My last twisted experience was my first with the line twists growing quickly - I kicked out and all was well.
While more experienced jumpers may have the skills to prevent this and to remedy twists if they occur - At this stage of my jumping career I don't need this excitement.

I purchased a Spectre 190 while I may miss the lift, so far always soft and on heading - I update this post.

I got my Sabre 2 135 after doing 150 jumps on various other rigs (Saffire 2 149, Sabre 1 and others...). Since jumping it i have been madly impressed by its performance. It has a wicked flare, instantaneous response to toggle input and is generally great fun to fly. It was forgiving when i first jumped it whilst allowing me to progress to more aggressive turns, landings etc.

All in all this has been a perfect purchase for me. It will see me through another 300 jumps before requiring a change.

I recently acquired a used rig from the classifieds on here and it came with a Sabre2-210 with about 300 jumps on it. This is my first rig and I have yet to even finish my A license. This canopy is SO much easier to control and land than the student rental gear (Nav 300,230,210). I sorta wish I'd started with it. I'd definitely recommend a Sabre2 to anyone looking for a fun, yet forgiving canopy (when loaded at 1.2). I never stood up a landing until I got my Sabre2 and now I tip-toe in every time.

I have only put 7 jumps on my Sabre2 150sq.ft., and I am in love! It is simply awesome... Comparing it with my old canopy (Spectre 190) the Sabre2 has a more "swoopy" flare.. So I'm doing a bit more running than I have been used to doing with the Spectre! The Sabre2 is simply so great to fly and turn and land and I could go on forever, saying the same things! TRY IT! The only "bad" thing about it is the endcells at openings, but it is part of the personality of the Sabre2 as far as I have been told..

I have a Sabre2 170 only loaded a little over 1.0 and this thing flies the way I always envisioned a canopy should fly. Can't wait to get her back in the air again.

I picked up a second hand Sabre2 150 a few weeks back from a friend. I'd previously flown a 190 and a 170 sabre2 so I had an idea of what to expect. The canopy had shrunken brake lines so the canopy was unable to achieve full forward drive, but the canopy was still responsive and produced a good flare. After a new set of brake lines were fitted the differance in the canopy was massive! If I thought the canopy was snappy before, this was like giving it fuel injection. The canopy is only wing loaded at 1.3, and landings in all wind conditions were fantastically soft. I bet given a bit more riser pressure im sure you could easily perform a modest swoop landing!! The openings are soft and on heading, evan after a bit of trash packing.
In the last couple of weeks Ive jumped - Pilots,Safire2,Spectre's and a sabre all 150, and I can say I enjoy flying the Sabre2.. well in PD.

I have put 200* jumps on my sabre 2 170 canopy. My wing loading is 1.2 . I really like it a lot. Nice soft openings . The end cell closer is really no big deal . Real easy to fix. One pump on the rear risers and they are out. Landings are a breeze . This canopy flares real nice . I really dont know what else to say. Good job PD

I have about 60 jumps on a Sabre2 190 now, and still love every flight. It is forgiving of sloppy packing, might be very off heading but will still be soft, or if I spend the few extra minutes for a neat pack it will open soft and not turn 10 degrees. Very responsive, even this sized canopy responds well to harness inputs. I load at 1.35 and have no problem penetrating a headwind. Enormous amounts of flare on landing, even on zero wind days I might only take a step or two to stop, and that's usually not even required. I love this canopy!

This is the first parachute I have owned, but I have jumped on other types. On my first attempt, I was jumping a smaller size than I had jumped previously by 20 sq. ft. and I had by far the best control and landing thus far in my skydiving career. Soft opening, on heading, fast, and forgiving. Go buy one!

I have made 16 jumps on my Sabre 2 (wing loading 1.25) and i think is a great canopy. Very soft openings but end cells closed on all my jumps; no big deal a quick pull to your rear risers and problem resolved. I read about off heading openings before i did my first jump on it and yes that is exactly what happened; started working on stability and body position and it really works you get a perfect on heading opening .Just take 2 seconds to keep a proper body position and it will open just perfect. I have had the best landings on this canopy no matter the wind conditions. I love this canopy.
Luis F Calderon

love them, love them,love them!!!!!! thanx a bunch performance design for lettin a 42 year old man still do camera work!!!!!

I had the opertunity to demo this canopy in a 230 size. It handeled very well. Was more responsive than anything else I have flown, and I have had one of the best landings that I have had in a long time.
I want one of these for my rig when I get it back from my rigger.

I had a chance to jump the Sabre2 150 for 5 jumps over the last 2 weekends. First of all, I'd like to give PD credit for a wicked canopy. This thing does everything almost perfect. The only thing I could comment on was the openings. The openings happened not too fast, not too slow, but the canopy seems to jump around a bit. Could be my body position or packing but it seemed fairly consistent. Still, I'm not concerned about it at all. On jump 3 I had an end cell closure, very minor problem. Jump 5 was somewhat interesting. The canopy opened and started to snivel, it seemed to start turning to the right and invoking a line twist so I grabbed the risers and separated them. The canopy sniveled a bit more the suddenly spun up. I had 4 or 5 twists in it. Again, wasn't worried at this point as I knew It was fine. The canopy was opened square, both brakes were stowed but it was still spinning up. I started kicking out and the canopy was fighting me for a bit, but eventually I got them all undone and all was well.

I would still definately buy a Sabre2. It's a blast to fly whether you want to take it easy, or spiral out of the sky. I was loading it at about .93 and felt very comfortable under it. Flare was incredible as well. Highly recommend.

of my 500 jumps, 450 have been on a sabre2. this canopy was recommended to me by a instructor, and i took the advice. boy, am i glad i did. i now own two of them for good reason. it is the only canopy i feel comfortable freeflying in, then putting it on to do a birdy jump, then a camera jump, then some light CRW, then topping it all off with a nice fast landing. i jump a 150 and 135 now, and have jumped a 120. the parachute flies the same at any size, just faster. when i first jumped the smaller one i wasn't worried at all, i said to myself "hey, it's a sabre2, what could go wrong?" the same was not true for the other 120's i jumped.
trust me, save your money......and buy this parachute.

I've only put about 100 jumps on my Sabre2 but I think Im qualified to give a review. This was the first brand new canopy I've ever bought. I paid to get it packed because it was so darn slippery. When I did pack it I was expecting a line over but it opened as soft as it did when a pro packed it. The openings almost always have end cell closers but I was told thats because the openings are so soft. My exit wieght is about 210 and Im jumping a 170 so its not under loaded. I can fly this canopy just about any way I want. I've always got back to the landing area no matter how far off the spot was. Landings are a breeze as well.

This was the first canopy I've purchased and I am VERY pleased with the way it handles. It's responsive to light toggle pressure yet very forgiving on landings. In cases where I've flared just a tad late I can punch the brakes and get enough lift to land softly and on my feet. Overall it's an awesome all-around canopy!

After jumping a Pilot 188 and then downsizing to a 168, I was advised by the more senior guys at my club to look at purchasing the Sabre2-if I could afford it, as with the exchange rate here in South Africa it would not be cheap. Anyway, I took the plunge, and after a wait of 16 weeks, it arrived.And it has definitely been worth the wait!!
I bought the 170, which gives me a wing loading of 1.32. The canopy is responsive, but it gives you a lot of warning if you are about to take things a bit too far(front riser pressure, etc). The landings are absolutely fantastic, with canopy response to the toggle input spot on! What a great canopy to fly. Just done a canopy control course with Brian Germain, and this has served to open up far more possibilites with the canopy. Pitch high and enjoy the ride.Would recommend this beauty to anyone.

I've learned on sabre 2s, put about 50 jumps or so on em. It was a good canopy, mostly on heading openings. I had frequent hard openings, at least a third of the time. I loaded it @ about 1.25:1. I ended up purchasing a safire and i love that canopy. After I get enough jumps I plan on learning wingsuit flight, and I will most likely get a sabre2 for that because of the minimal snivel and consistent openings. It is docile, but can get cranked up in toggle turns, ive never swooped one however, so I don't know the swoop characteristics. Compared to my safire the glide ratio sucks. I came down like a rock under the sabre2, however it has great flare power so :-). I also had a lot of end cell closures on opening but that is really no big deal. Good canopy, good first canopy, and good to learn on. I think there are better ones out there for more specific flight, or characteristics, but im glad I started on em.

I agree with every other review. The Sabre2 is designed to open nice, soft and slow. It flies very nice and you can create any landing you wish may it be a slow stand up landing or a high speed swoop I have a 260 exit weight on a Sabre2 170 and every opening amaze me.... if you dont believe me demo one and I garuntee you will buy it.

I have a Sabre 2 170 and with my body weight it's quite lightly loaded (0.8 ish). This has proven to be a great canopy for myself (a beginner) who has now donw around 45 jumps on it. It's my first canopy and have only jumped student gear before, apart from one jump on a Spectre 170 (which was also a good ride). Having just completed a canopy control course with Brian Vacher - I now prefer to open really high 5,000ft as I am now learning to FLY it as opposed to using it just to get down to the ground safely. Performance design canopies rock!

I recently made several jumps on an Aerodyne Pilot and was very impressed with the canopies performance and controllability. It is a great starter canopy and is very well priced in the market. While talking about how impressed I was with the Pilot I heard from many jumpers that the Sabre2 has a far greater performance range than the Pilot and is a far better canopy for progressing to higher performance landings. So, I got my hands on a Sabre2 and took it for a spin. It is in no way an overstatement for me to say I was quite simply blown away with the canopies performance range.

Opening: The openings were consistently smooth and on heading. I found the opening sequence to be a little quicker then what I prefer as a videographer but it was by no means uncomfortable. After several jumps I wore my camera helmet with both video and stills and felt no strain during the opening sequence. I did see the occasional end cell closure but experience tells me that it is the product of a nice slow opening. A tug on the rear risers or a pump of the brakes and things open right up. All in all I give the Sabre2 an A- for opening.

Normal flight: The Sabre2 has a nice flat glide path and was very responsive to toggle and input. I was able to go into deep brakes to get plenty of separation from other jumpers or make it back from a long spot. Turn rates were just right in my opinion, the canopy was very controllable and I didn’t note any oversteer in either toggle or riser turns. I give an A for flight characteristics.

Front riser turns: Front riser pressure was what surprised me most, for a canopy aimed for the new skydiver I expected high pressure. Instead I found the Sabre2 had perfectly stable medium pressure in front riser turns. The pressure built as you continued in a dive but was manageable. I found it easier to maintain a front riser dive with the Sabre2 than I do with a Stiletto. If you plan to progress into higher performance landings a Sabre2 could easily cover all your landing needs for a long time. Front riser pressure gets an A++.

Rear riser control: The canopy felt less responsive in rear riser input to me, but I’m comparing it with fully elliptical canopies I’ve jumped. If needed it could be landed with rear risers but I didn’t feel comfortable using them when I was performing higher performance landings. I experimented with the risers up high and found it stalled rather easily with rear riser input. I give rear riser control a grade of B.

Landings: The Sabre2 had a strong flare and was very easy to land both in normal and fast approaches. For high performance landings the canopy would dive very nicely and had a long recovery arc. With a little toggle input the canopy would plane out quickly and glide very nicely to a long swoop. At the end of the swoop there was plenty of flare left for either a soft landing or for a showy pop-up landing. In the straight in approach I could easily use brakes for accuracy and still have plenty of flare to stand up the landing. Definitely a grade of A for flaring ability.

I believe the Sabre2 is currently the perfect starter canopy on the market. It can either be flown conservatively or aggressively. As you progress in abilities the canopy is still able to meet all of your needs. In all honesty, other than downsizing with experience and a need for more speed I don’t see the average jumper ever needing another canopy other than a Sabre2. Admittedly the Sabre2 is priced higher then comparable canopies on the market but it is well worth it. For the more experienced jumper I would suggest giving the Sabre2 a test flight sometime, you may be pleasantly surprised if you do... I know I was.

I'm a fairly big guy flying a Sabre2 170, loading of 1.45-1.5 I have about 100 jumps on the canopy and love every minute of flying it, i have even started giving myself more height on deployment to enjoy the ride, smooth slow opening, easy to pack, responsive, nice glide powerful flare. What more can I say ... I LOVE my canopy. and would recomend it to anyone.

The sabre 2 is a wonderful canopy. Packing was a bitch for the first 100 or so but no problem now. Openings almoust every time I need to induce the end cells to open, in addition sometimes I even have to induce the slider to come down all the way but I can live with that becuase the flight characteristics are awesome; front riser turns are awesome as long as you have the strength to hold em down. The canopy has a very powerful flare, I can even flare in a hard corner no problem. The canopy is very forgiving, It is amazing how slow you can get the canopy to fly when you want it to. The glide ratio was suprising as well, bad spots at not as big of a deal. Over all it is the best canopy on the market hands down.