SFerensak

Mistake (imo) was actually in buying something used over the net from someone I didn't know just because I thought it was a good deal (sabre 170 main, raven II reserve, vector v5 container, 2 jumpsuits, z1 fullface, time-out audible, and an altimeter all for $1700 delivered). I think I did go through the right steps though by having a rigger look at all the equipment before using any of it... the deal on the new main is probably what dealers get, but it was still cheaper than square 1's cash price and I don't know if my sabre was repairable (or if I even wanted it back if it was) so all in all I think it was a good learning experience and yeah, I'm sure I got screwed a couple times throughout the whole process.... good and bad points to it all but in the end, I'm still happy with PD as a company. -FB -FB

Yet another testimony to this thread... a couple years ago I bought a used Sabre 170 off the net (about 400-500 jumps on it I was told and yes it was a newbie mistake)... I had my rigger inspect it and he said it looked fine and saw no problems in jumping it. 7 jumps later on this canopy I had what one might call a "catastrophic failure of the main canopy" (see the attached pic)... All of my openings prior to this one were slow and smooth and I had packed them all and was staying (in my opinion) consistent in my packing technique. The last one was a slammer and blew out nose to tail about 2 cells in from the right, top and bottom skin and my center cell had ripped nose to tail on the bottom skin... 2 different riggers inspected the canopy afterward and couldn't determine the cause (porosity looked good, no sun spots, etc.) and when I sent it to PD, they couldn't tell me why it blew up either but they did like the video! In the end, I received a 35% discount on a new canopy of my choice with custom colors.... even though I had this failure, they stood behind their product even if I wasn't the original owner... either that or they just wanted to keep me quiet and threw me a bone... in any case, I still think they have great customer service! -FB -FB

PD must have been doing something different then when they were building my vengeance cuz they wouldn't send it to me until they liked the openings and I know they even had to put a new line set on it... canopy was done custom too so I know it wasn't used. -FB -FB

I may be wrong, but don't all canopy manufacturers test jump their parachutes before they send them out to customers? So in the case of a new parachute (not a reline) wouldn't the lines already be set from the jumps already put on it or is the manufacturer putting sub-terminal jumps on it as well? I don't remember reading/hearing anything from PD about H&Ps when I got my vengeance. -FB -FB