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Skydiving Gear and Equipment: Main and Reserve Parachutes: Performance Designs : Sabre2 : Reviews: Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [>] [>>]

has contributed 69 reviews

(Review ID:2150)

45 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

Sabre 2 -170

Rated by: Megatron on 2009-03-10 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: fun, responsive, no-brainer landings
Cons: the openings

This is my first canopy off rental gear. I was flying a Silhouette-190 prior. I put about 30 jumps on my Sabre 2-170 which I bought new. I jump it at a 1.4WL.

The Good:
From the very first jump it was clear that this was a SPORT canopy. Its agile, very responsive to toggle pressure compared to the Silhouette & student canopies Ive flown. Its generally quicker all around and a hell of a lot more fun to fly. This is what I expected canopy flight to be like before I made my first solo jump! The amount of flare you're able get out of this thing is HUGE! I remember coming in hot on the first no wind day on my Sabre 2 and flaring a bit too low. All of the other canopies Ive flow would've had me picking grass out of my teeth but the Sabre 2 allowed for a pretty decent slide in. Aside from that, all of my other landing Ive stood up and it didnt take much over raw intuition to pull off. I dont swoop but Im slowly learning to bring a 90 turn closer to the ground and from what little experience I have in the matter, I can tell you this thing will level out if and when you need it to (within reason of course).

The Bad:
The openings. Although nice and gentle (so far), they often off heading, always accompanied by end-cell closure, and the slider gets stuck about 1/4 way up the lines on most jumps. Ive tried different packing techniques and even had it packed several times by someone I consider to be a highly proficient packer. The results were generally the same. Granted, pumping the rear risers fixes all these things rather quickly. Ive even tried giving no input at all to see if they would correct themselves. They did. But should you have to deal with it in the first place? It seems this is the rule rather then the exception with the Sabre 2.

Overall, I would recommend this canopy. Its very user-friendly and forgiving in flight and while the opening are a bit quirky, they are nonetheless predictable and too benign to be much of a concern.

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(Review ID:2139)

13 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

Sabre 2 210

Rated by: Flee on 2009-02-13 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Nice soft on heading openings
Cons: None so far

I'm looking at getting a Sabre 2 and I went to Eloy today and rented one for the day to see how she fly's. First, I must confess, I went into this fully expecting (based on other reviews here) everything from hard openings, closed end cells, 1000ft plus snivels, off heading openings, canopy spin on opening ect. Well, after 6 jumps in mostly wind calm conditions I didn't experience one single negative event.

The Sabre 2 210 puts me at a 1:1.02 wingload. I'm a very conservative jumper and typically when I'm interested in a new canopy I like to up the footage to about 1:1 and work it down to my ideal range of 1.25-1.3. This puts my ideal size in the Sabre 2 to the 170. My flying style gives me everything I need at this range. However, I was having such a good time with the 210 I decided that I'll just stick with it for the day. I had such a good time with it that I didn't see the need to rush it. For frame of reference I'm coming out of the Spectre 170.

So to wrap this up, I didn't have any of the negative events I mentioned above. This canopy does have an incredible flare. It is very forgiving. I didn't do anything special on the pack. I just PRO packed. I didn't roll anything. I didn't shove the nose in at all. I was very meticulous in my first pack as I was on the lookout for all the crazy openings I've been reading about but after the first 2 no drama openings I did start getting sloppy (gotta make those lifts).

Sabre 2 = Great Canopy!

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(Review ID:2082)

67 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

Sabre2 - The canopy for everyone!

Rated by: Blink on 2008-10-17 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Everything!
Cons: Price?

I've been flying my Sabre2 135 (WL: ~1.25-1.3) for about 125 jumps and absolutely love it, but wanted to wait until I had a good understanding of how it flew before posting a review.

Although I'm sure what I'm about to say has probably already been said in several different posts or gear reviews, I'd thought I'd post it anyway, maybe it'll help someone decide on what gear to demo/buy.

On with the review already!

I did a lot of research before purchasing this canopy. The specifications I was looking for in a canopy were as follows (in no particular order):
-Decent openings
-Light front riser pressure
-Medium recovery arc
-Good glide ratio
-Tapered/Semi-elliptical

Openings:
My opening are aways soft, and acceptably on heading.

Its very rare to have end cell closure, maybe 1 in 15 jumps, but it's no big deal, just pump the rear risers and they're open.

The only thing that I find a pain, is that my slider likes to say up about two inches from the slinks, and because I've got 24" risers, it's just enough to be out of my reach, but like the end cell closure, a little bit of rears and it drops down. A price I have to pay for using long risers.

I have only had line twists once, and the canopy flew very stable and straight (hence my desire for a tapered planform).

Flying:
Toggles are very responsive, as I'm sure you know it's not hard to put your self in line twists with a hard toggle turn.

Nice light/medium front riser pressure, I can hold this in a dive for a 540 no problem, and when you crank on them, it really starts to dive!

Light rear riser pressure, no problem getting back from a long spot using the rears.

The canopy is set up perfect right now (factory settings), with the combination of the length of risers, length of brake line, and arm length, I have to hold my toggles as far down as I can to get it to stall. The onset of the stall is very predictable, you can feel it start to rock back just before it folds up. If you do stall it, no big deal, recover just like any other canopy.

Landing:
It's not airlocked, but it's a very stable canopy in turbulence, unlike the Sabre1 which had the accordion effect as soon as some wind hit it.

Very powerful flare, there is no need to run out a landing with this canopy, even with a high speed approach. Just when you think you've killed off all your speed and you're ready to touch down, just keep pushing and you can pop yourself right up.

I just started HP landing with this canopy about 100 jumps ago, and can say it is a great learning tool. I am only doing 90's right now, but I can already appreciate it's recovery arc. It's long enough to let you get a nice dive, while lining up with the gates, yet short enough to be forgiving for those rare times you turn a bit too low.

Closing statements:
After doing only 125 jumps on this canopy, I can say without a doubt that my next canopy, will be a Sabre2, hopefully I'll be able to find one used at a decent price, because the only beef I have with the canopy is the damn price! They hold their value extremely well, which is one sense is annoying, because I can't pick one up for cheap, but on the other hand it'll be nice when the time comes to sell mine.

I would recommend this canopy to anyone looking for any of the characteristics I was looking for (at a reasonable wingloading of course). This canopy can be flown conservatively at lighter wingloadings, and can really rip it up the more you load it.

I would have given it 10 stars, but DZ.com only allows 5. ;)

Thanks for reading my review. I hope it's helped someone. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at lanew(at)rogers(dot)com.

Cheers

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(Review ID:2078)

2 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

my opinion

Rated by: customguy79 on 2008-10-06 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: soft openings, lots of flare
Cons: end cell closure (pull rear risers to fix)

This is my first main off of student status and have only used 2 other mains to date. After reading all the reviews about the sabre2 I was hesitant to purchase one but found a steal on one so I did. In no way am I dissapointed now that the biggest complaint is a simple fix. The openings are nice and soft and if you just roll the tail they will be a little quicker but just as soft. But on every opening I have end cell closures partially due to the light wingloading (.90) but with a light constant pull of the rear risers they fill right up and your off for the rest of your skydive. turns are moderate but if you load up it will spin you for sure and toss you into the harness for some real fun. I generally land in little or no wind so I get more than usual glide on the landing but it has plenty of flare to make the landings either short or ride them for a short distance if you want to. Overall enjoyable main but next step down I will be trying a safire 2.

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(Review ID:2035)

18 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

Sabre 2

Rated by: mmacro on 2008-08-03 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Responsive, great landings, overall great main
Cons: Not the best for new jumpers

I jumped my "new" used Sabre 2 today. As reported in many other posts, I jumped 3 times and had end-cell closures on all 3. The second jump really got my attention when the closures caused the rig to go into a very high rate spin. But knowing the cause and the remedy it was not difficult to get them open.
Once open, the Sabre 2 was extremely responsive to both toggle and body position input. It dove and turned when I wanted it to and returned to straight flight right away.
The landings were surprising... It really pops up mid-flare. It will catch you by surprise if your used to jumping student/rental rigs or older F111 mains.
This is a great main if you know what to expect and how to deal with it. But under uneducated or uninformed hands it could easily get away from a jumper.

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(Review ID:1998)

2 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

Not For Me

Rated by: wildfan75 on 2008-06-20 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Responsive Flare
Cons: Slow openings, Glide Path

I demo'd a Sabre2 150 for several skydives and had them put my Silhouette back in my container. Openings are waaaay toooo slow for me. An ideal opening for me doesn't take 1000+ feet and end in closed end cells. The reason I was demo'ing was because I wanted more flare out of a canopy than I was getting with my Silhouette. The flare was great with the Sabre2. Also, I'm not looking to get into swooping or HP landings, and love the glide path of the Silhouette. The Sabre2's steeper glide path was not my cup of tea. Overall, I think the Sabre2 is overrated. If you love the Silhouette, the Sabre2 is not the canopy for you IMO.

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(Review ID:1993)

13 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

120-135

Rated by: scootstevens on 2008-06-11 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: soft openings, range of flight, trash packs, bottom-end-flare, diving front riser turns, moderate recovery arc
Cons: .

I own two Sabre2 canopies and love them both. They are the 135 and 120 @ 1.3/1.45 respectively. The 135 was a great canopy to learn all of the fundamentals of higher-performance flight with. It is very tame, flies smooth and goes where you want it to but you can fly it really aggressively if you want to. After one hundred and fifty jumps on the 135, I was looking for more speed and dive for swooping so I got the 120, and I have to say I'm lovin' it! I'm glad I stayed with the Sabre2 because I am very aware and current with the Sabre2's flight characteristics and it was a beautiful transition to the 120. For the record, I have trash packed the shit out of the 135 for sunset loads and I've never chopped it away, granted I do have the occasional off heading opening, but IMO that's part of the game.

If you want a canopy that is safe to develop your skills on, with an increased margin for error compared to a fully elliptical wing, the Sabre2 is for you. In the 1.3 - 1.5 range I have flown it has provided me with an incredible range of flight, and the ability to really step it up hard when you are ready to start swooping. Be aware that the Sabre2 will dive pretty damn hard with a front riser swoop, most definitely enough to break yourself, bad. Be safe, stay on the ball, have fun.

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(Review ID:1989)

12 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

Can't say enough about the Sabre 2

Rated by: mushimtkd on 2008-06-08 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Sabre2 in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Huge performance envelope, fantastic flare
Cons: None

I have completed over 100 jumps on my Sabre 2 170, wing loaded at 1.3:1. It is my first canopy, so I have nothing to compare to other than a lot of jumps on rented transition gear - Pilot 210, Sabre 190 and Triathalon 190. I absolutely love this canopy! I don't know what the recovery arc is like because I'm not swooping yet, but I will tell you this; I have tested the flight characteristics of this baby quite extensively in all kinds of wind conditions. It can get you back from a long spot, glides extremely well on landing with minimal toggle pressure, and turns are very snappy with front, rear risers and toggles.
After more than 100 jumps on it, I have NEVER had end cell closure, NEVER had line twists, and, most importantly NEVER had anything but a beautiful, soft opening. Once in a while it opens slightly off heading if I have done a sloppy pack job. Bet for those who say the Sabre 2 has hard openings, check the line trim charts on the PD website. Talk to your rigger about getting new lines. Just don't blame the canopy. It has treated my like a king, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the novice/intermediate range.

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