May 8, 2001, 7:20 PM
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PD vs Dash M
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I'm sure this will start a forum opinion war but does anyone have any real world differences between the pd line of reserves and the dash-m series. Personally im looking between the pd176 and dm218. I just want the stronger more reliable reserve. Im not to concerned with flight characteristics as long as it steers and flares. Let the games begin!
Can't vouch for the PD176R, but I've got 1 jump on a Raven II, a green one. It opened really nice (I think) but need toggle input to stay on course. Great landing, though. (You know, this story sounds like my Spectre.)
I've had 3 rides on a Raven 150. The chute flew great and had good landings....(better than my Sabre main). I still prefer a Tempo because of smaller pack volume.
Skydiving is not a static excercise with discrete predictability...
Had my first reserve ride this weekend after my main blew up. The PD143R opened sweet, flew straight, turned quick, and had tons of flare, it really was fun to fly. I will always use PD reserves in my rig.
Two rides on PD143, loaded 1.4. One cutting away flying canopy (steering line problems), other very fast spinning mal (no RSL). Opened nice, quite firm, steering and landing was great. Sank noticeably faster than Sabre 150 main I first cut away(I guess because of F-111 material most reserves are made of)
Similar-sized Tempos and Ravens have almost identical pack volumes. Because of different measuring methods and more reinforcing tapes, PD reserves always pack one size larger.
brand new spectre 170 on the third deployment, not real sure what happened, but it hurt like a son of a !#?%@. i had been jumping a borrowed spectre 170 for the previous 2 weeks with no problems, packed this one exactly the same. i have sent it back to PD, pretty sure they are going to replace it. other than this incidence , i have loved flying the spectre, it is a great canopy.
Well, there is this other line of reserves form PA, the Raven Dash MZ which has a ZP top skin, many of the folks at Skydive America PB including me jump this type of canopy, and they load the hell out of them, two of them that I know load them at 1.7:1 and 1.8:1 one of them landed his already twice and he swooped it like if it were a main...I load mine 1.4:1. I don't know how superior or how better is a Dash MZ compared to a regular Dash M or in that case to PD's
