has contributed 22 reviews

(Review ID:2107)

9 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

Katana 120

Rated by: bzreel01 on 2008-12-12 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Katana in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Great openings and wonderful control
Cons: A little slow on the opening but I just pull a little higher with this rig!

32 year old Male 135 lbs
485 jumps
45 on Katana 120
3 years in the sport

I really enjoy this canopy it is a great step up from a sabre 135. I feel it is not to advanced for my skill level. The openings are great and on heading but they are a little slow for me... like 1200 feet to open i'd rather be open in under 900 feet. Thats just me tho.I am learning to do high preformance landings and so far I have not been in the corner with my Katana 120...If you feel you are ready for a step up I feel this is a great choice.

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(Review ID:2089)

3 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

Last step before the Velo

Rated by: meinert on 2008-10-30 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Katana in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Light riser pressure, nice dive and recovery made for swoop
Cons: Inconsistent openings

Had my Katana for a couple of hundreds jumps...was coming from a Sabre2-120, which i loved, but it was very hard to hit the "sweet-spot" coming out of my 270 because of its natural recovery-arc. Furthermore the riser pressure of the Sabre is pretty hard doing 270-turns.
Jumped a Katana 120 for a while getting used to the canopy - which is completely different from the Sabre: Much lighter riser pressure, more responsive on harness (doing all of my turn on harness now), easy to keep in a dive when getting out of a turn to high an still getting the gate. Now I jump a KA107 and I am still in love...

Only con is the openings....they are soft..thats for sure....but often off heading (everything between 0 to 360 degrees - if 360 degrees of heading opening actually can be called of heading :-)

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(Review ID:1960)

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

Katana 83

Rated by: tonka on 2008-03-26 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Katana in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Dives like crazy, fast, and light front riser pressure.
Cons: Rear riser pressure is a little tough and long spots can be a problem.

Usually jump a Competition Cobalt 85.

Demoed a Katana 97 and 83.
83 opened and flew much better.
Basically it flies better at 1.9-2.0+
Put 25 jumps on each canopy.
Review is based on the Katana 83.

Packing-
Trash pack. Shake it out-No flaking.
Shuffle nose in a little bit.
Pull slider Out

Opening-
Sweet smooth on heading.
Not too fast but not slow.
Never wanted to spin up or jerk me around.
Easy to steer during snivel using harness unput.
Smooth opening for such an agressive canopy.

Flight-
Very steep trim. Canopy wants to be on the ground.
Long spots are a little trouble because it still sinks in brakes or on rears.
Cant hang out and wait for others to land- Falls out of the sky too fast.
Very stable and fun to fly.
Fairly hard to stall using toggles.
Hard to stall on rear risers.
Not super fast responsive but thats good. Makes for smooth flying.
Any more responsive would be too much on such an agressive canopy.

Landing-
Very light front riser pressure and moderate rear riser pressure.
Harder to plane out using rears that my Competition Cobalt.
Keeps speed and a dive very well.
Swooping into the wind is no problem-
Cuts right through the wind.
On the 83 loaded at 2.0+ started 360 turn at 800-1000ft. Dives like crazy.
Come out of turn at 200+ feet and put pressure on rears right away.
Planes out very nicely on rears using this technique.
If you are late on the rears use toggles because it will not plane out right away on rear risers.
Can hold double fronts to keep in a dive if needed.
Not a forgiving canopy.
Has good flare.
Not quite as much flare as my Cobalt and Competition Cobalt.
At higher speeds and correct dive altitudes there is much more flare.
Lower speed- Decent flare. (Enough to have a nice stand up but you can feel the need for more)
Low turn=Not much stopping power. Dont do it because you will not pull it out of the dive even if you are deep on the toggles.
270 turn worked best for me. @600+ft
Whether doing a slow carve or a fast dive swoops are great. Fast dive and then hard on rears makes for super fast swoop. Carve makes for a long smooth and fast swoop.

Had to do an aviodance braked approach and landing. Landed much better than expected. Almost half brakes until full flare and it still landed me softly.

Canopy can be jerky if the transition from rears to toggles is not smooth.
Just fly it smoothly.
Jerky Motions(Rears and toggles)=Loss of speed and shoter swoop.
Not much or really any running out landings.
Flies until its almost stopped.

Overall-
Awesome canopy.
Swoop machine.
If you like to open low then the spot better be good because you will be on the ground shortly.
Most agressive canopy I have flown.
Approaching the dive and long recovery of the Velocity.
Great canopy to try with 750+ jumps and good canopy control and progression.

Not a good idea if you are not current or dont have the swoops mastered on something else.
Competition Cobalt is a good transition canopy to the Katana.

Main negative aspect is that it doesnt fly as well at slow speeds as my Competition Cobalt.
The Cobalt will continue to fly going slow and keep gliding at that slow speed.
(End of a swoop)
Once the Katana starts to die out it will lose the speed and the swoop is over. Still flies well at that slow speed but comes to a stop sooner.

Swoops were longer in distance but seemed shorter in time than my Cobalt.
Meaning it is much faster and covers ground in a swoop very fast.

Great product from the best in the biz. A+ Canopy

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(Review ID:1915)

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Omg Great

Rated by: rlstkev on 2007-12-26 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Katana in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Very sweet canopy to fly
Cons: None

This canopy has all you need, greet openings, dives very well but careful, likes to stay in the dive more than a stiletto. pd has once again put out another great canopy. I have put 50 jumps on my 97 and all I can say is WOW , this canopy is one of the best PD has made. I start my 270 approx. 825 ft and this thing dives very well comes out alittle on the slow side but all in all it leaves me 2-6 ft off the ground in a swoop and is very fast has great shutdown power riser inputs on the front are light as are the rears this canopy reacts very well to all inputs .this is to me a all around GREAT canopy for the advanced canopy pilot it will do everything you need it to do

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(Review ID:1886)

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Great all around canopy

Rated by: skydivekid on 2007-10-24 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Katana in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Dive, riser pressure, responsiveness, flair...the list goes on
Cons: Twitchy openings sometimes spins up on me

I picked up a Katana 135 demo from PD. loaded at about 1.5, Flies great and is extremely responsive to riser and toggle input. The landings are great, the katana has a long dive, sweet swoop and powerful flair to shut it down. Most of my approaches are 270 hook turns, but the katana also lands great with a straight in approach (landing out). It is pretty good at making it back from a long spot.
The only problem I have had is the openings can be twitchy and sometime it starts to spin and dive.
Overall a great canopy for most disciplines (camera, freefly, coach, etc)

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