Sabre2s can open soft, but they can also open hard, and anywhere in between. I understand it to be pretty sensitive to packing.
My Sabre2 (170 sqft, WL: 1:1) opens really soft. I have about 35 jumps on it now and had not a single hard opening. Sometimes the sliders stays half way up, so you have to pump with your back risers to get it down.
Packing: Just a regular pro-pack packjob. I quarter my slider, fold the stabilisers towards the middle and leave the nose hanging (do not roll it) with the slider in one line with the nose (I do not pull the slider out/in front of the nose).
Openings are very soft and almost every time the endcells are closed which can (sometimes) cause a 90° turn.
It is a toss up between my old PISA Hornet... and the old Monarch. My hornet opened occasionally (OK more than occasionally) in 200 feet. I nick named it the WHOOOOOOOORENNNNNETTTT. I would spend the time regaining conciousness by cursing the canopy.
Maybe a Monnnnnarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrcchhhhhhh.
In all seriousness my first canopy, Pilot 168, was one of the best opening canopies that I could recommend for a beginner / intermediate canopy pilot. At lower loadings it does so many things so damn well! Opened so soft and like a dream, but unlike other soft openers it had a reasonable snivel. Very stable in deep brakes, floated back like a ballon. Stable in line twists. Great great canopy!
(This post was edited by DougH on Oct 3, 2011, 6:55 AM)
No, I was not paying attention, Radical is NOT for person with 100 jumps, but there is another canopy Atair Dragon uses same 2 stage opening technology, and it is very docile,...
(This post was edited by jerolim on Oct 3, 2011, 7:11 AM)
Sabre2s can open soft, but they can also open hard, and anywhere in between. I understand it to be pretty sensitive to packing.
I'm told it's especially sensitive to how the slider is quartered, particularly the sides being pulled out properly. I pull the sides of the slider well out and make sure it stays put during the rest of the pack job. That gives me openings that are pretty consistenly soft. But I don't have a whole lot of jumps on it.
I've had it slam me once or twice, once really hard from a paid packer.
I have jumped a Sabre2 for a while and had very soft openings.
I am sure the slider has a lot to do with hard openings. I wonder if we're going to see more canopies adopt the snap system currently on Velocities. Any downsides to that?
No, I was not paying attention, Radical is NOT for person with 100 jumps, but there is another canopy Atair Dragon uses same 2 stage opening technology, and it is very docile,...
side question, are Atair still in business for the sport skydiving?
I can tell you which isn't the softest opening canopy, and that would be my Sabre1. Forgot the roll the nose the other day and opening felt like a car crash.
I can tell you which isn't the softest opening canopy, and that would be my Sabre1. Forgot the roll the nose the other day and opening felt like a car crash.
PD says that you must have done something else wrong, usually they say that the slider must not have stayed against the stops. You don't think PD would fail to admit the Sabre had a well deserved reputation for hard openings, do you?
Agreed! The slowest-opening canopy I ever jumped was ragged-out ropes-and-rings Strato-Cloud. It was the only canopy that I could comfortably deploy at terminal! Disadvantages were numerous. It was a bitch to pack. My fingers bled every time. Openings took so long that the team stopped using them for hop-and-pops. One time my opening took so long that I seriously considered cutting away, One look at the industrial park below convinced me that I did not want to land a round reserve there, so I re-focussed my efforts on pumping open the end cells. Speaking of pumping open end cells ... that took half my efforts under canopy. It seems that our ropes were 64 feet BEFORE they were tied to the pilot-chutes!
I think they have things worked out on the Sabre 2, but the Sabre 1 is a completely different animal. Until I got a lip sewed onto my slider, it was Russian Roulette at opening time. Most of the time it behaved nicely. The rest of the time it was trying to kill me... just a little at a time. Once the lip got sewn on, everything mellowed out.
In reply to:
I can tell you which isn't the softest opening canopy, and that would be my Sabre1. Forgot the roll the nose the other day and opening felt like a car crash.
Although the first time I deployed it, I thought I might have a streamer, it took so long to catch the wind.)
Hah. I still remember my first jump on my Spectre (first canopy of my own). I was first out of the plane (did a hop & pop on it for the first jump to air it out) and one of the much more experienced jumpers (who also jumped a Spectre) smiled at me just before exit and said "It will open."
(This post was edited by NWFlyer on Aug 31, 2012, 2:47 PM)
hmm, my Spectre 170 loaded just under 1:1 with a pretty new lineset opens very consistently in just around 500 ft. Plenty soft, just not particularly snivelly; I'm very used to seeing Sabre 2s falling a few hundred feet past me. In 64 openings on it, 61 came in at right around 500 ft, 2 in 2-300 ft that had me checking that I still had my shoes, and one over 1200 that had me hauling on my rears for the last 500 ft to my decision altitude.
Gotta say I love the Icarus canopies. Switched from rental (215 falcon) to 169 Safire of my own. First opening on it scared the hell out of me but my thighs loved it. Since then I have jumped a 150 Saber 2 (it was ok) then went to the Crossfire 1 139 (back in love) and am currently on a Crossfire 2 129. The Safire was a nice all round canopy and pretty manageable with my earlier jump numbers. Chris G.
What's the softest opening canopy you've jumped? I'm looking to buy a new canopy and noticed the last thread on this topic is from 2005. Post away!
Gotta agree with AggieDave. The hands-down, softest-opening canopy I ever jumped was a Spectre-170 with Dacron lines, loaded at about 0.9 to 1.
(I was still a student. And it rocked. Although the first time I deployed it, I thought I might have a streamer, it took so long to catch the wind.)
Since I finished AFF, I've been jumping the exact same main. Absolutely LOVE the spectre for it's openings. 300 jumps later, I still haven't downsized. I've put on some weight so it's as good as.
I've test jumped many other canopies and EVERY one opened harder for me than the spectre.
I've test jumped many other canopies and EVERY one opened harder for me than the spectre.
I had almost the exact opposite experience with the Spectre. So much so that I gave it back to PD earlier than my demo turn in date. My Sabre2 and Safire2 both opened better than that dang pile of nylon. My Safire2 has the sweetest openings I've had in my limited canopy experience. (Navigators, Sabre2, Nitron, Spectre, Pilot, Precision Tandem and Safire2)
I continue to hear people with Pulse's saying how smooth and easy and consistent the openings are.
My wife broke her neck a couple years ago. So after recovery, she immediately switched to a Pulse (PD's recommendation and several others) and a semi-stowless bag and for the entire season so far it's smooth, soft, and clean (not necessarily slow openings, just very consistent and smooth). FWIW
