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angryelf

packing a PD Sabre1...

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Have a friend who gets rocked by her Sabre every time she opens-she is on a well used 150 sq ft with an exit wt of about 145lbs. have tried various nose roll and line stow techniques to slow the opening-as well as burying the slider as deeply in the canopy as possible-any suggestions on how to extend her openings beyond 200 ft from throwout to filled canopy?
"Sometimes you eat the bar,
and well-sometimes the bar eats you..."

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have tried various nose roll and line stow techniques to slow the opening-as well as burying the slider as deeply <<<<<

Have you tried pulling the front quarter of the slider out in frount of the nose and cuffing it? A rigger can sew a pocket on the slider to aid in slowing down. Do you have a copy of PD owner manual where it shows how to pack the sabre?
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Someone dies, someone says how stupid, someone says it was avoidable, someone says how to avoid it, someone calls them an idiot, someone proposes rule chan

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no idea-probably very many-the canopy has been used a lot. some surface fuzz from slider travel is visible but they appear relativly solid. the whole rig was just inspected and repacked by a rigger two weeks ago and he judged them to be usable.
"Sometimes you eat the bar,
and well-sometimes the bar eats you..."

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I know how to solve this problem. Your canopy, much like raccoons, needs to hibernate. Start by removing the canopy from the risers, and remove the bridle from the apex. Optain a large plastic bag; a trash bag will do. Loosely stuff the canopy into the bag. Next close the bag and put the bag in a large metal or plastic container; a trash can will suffice. Next put the large container in a sunny place, like the curb of your house, and leave it there for at least a week. If it's not there when you open the container then somebody stole it. If it's there then light it on fire.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

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I agree with asking PD about it. Call Robin Miller or send the canopy to her there. When I was going to sell an older canopy I sent it to her and in the end the slider was 108.5 square inches TOO small for the sabre 170 which would explain why I thought my neck and back were breaking upon opening. I, in my limited experience, recommend to stop jumping that canopy immediately until you have an answer by somebody that matters more than I do.
Matt

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Have a friend who gets rocked by her Sabre every time she opens-she is on a well used 150 sq ft with an exit wt of about 145lbs. have tried various nose roll and line stow techniques to slow the opening-as well as burying the slider as deeply in the canopy as possible-any suggestions on how to extend her openings beyond 200 ft from throwout to filled canopy?



get a bigger slider .... one off a sabre 170 will do the job ...
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--+ There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.. --+

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Some Sabres just do that and you have to live with it or get a new canopy. We have a Sabre that we have tried every known technique to slow down openings and it still kicks peoples ass.

--------------------------------------------------
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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...yeah get rid of it and buy a modern canopy.



For some people buying a "modern" canopy is not an option. An original Sabre is a good choice for those who can't afford a newer design used zp canopy but don't want to buy a much older design F111 canopy.

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If people shop around and resist the urge to impulse-buy there are many deals are out there to be had.

Spending a couple extra hundred bucks on a canopy that won't ruin a day of jumping due to sore muscles or worse is a much more logical alternative than jumping some bargain-basement canopy with a sketchy reputation.

When your life is on the line it is mind-boggling to me that people constantly try to cut corners on cost at every turn. Many people who skydive are "pathologically poor" and will wait until closing loops are falling apart to replace them ($1), try to sqeeze that last jump out of those line stows ($0.0002), jump canopies that are horribly out of trim (~$250), use pilot chutes/bridles that are way beyond their service-life ($150), etc.

The main canopy is something that is used on _every_ jump and should be something you can trust and not cause you to wince as you release your PC into the airstream in hopes that it won't open like a hand-grenade.
NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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The main canopy is something that is used on _every_ jump and should be something you can trust and not cause you to wince as you release your PC into the airstream in hopes that it won't open like a hand-grenade.



I have 200 Sabre 1 jumps and I've never been slammed by it. Granted they wont be pillow soft like a Safire2 but I'm quite happy with its openings without having to do any special packing voodoo. I think you've been too caught up in the hype.
Do you want to have an ideagasm?

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There's nothing wrong with a Sabre that people don't know about now. Some and I say SOME of them open hard. A pocket added to the slider fixes that and it's a cheap fix.

After jumping several Sabres, only one tended to open hard so I sewed a pocket on the slider and the problem went away.

Larger sliders do the trick as well. Sliders nowadays are usually quite a bit bigger than was put on Sabres originally.

They fly well, surf damn good, and can sink them in to a back yard pretty easily too.

I just don't see anything wrong with spending 5 or 600 bucks for a perfectly good canopy.

Hope that helps
My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

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The very fact that there is a thread about every month or so by some new skydiver that is getting slammed by a Sabre is a good indication that more experienced jumpers aren't making them adequately aware of the problem. I know how to fix them, you know how to fix them, but Billy-Bob-100-jump-wonder won't even know that he's getting the crap kicked out of him since it's likely one of the few canopies he has ever jumped.

Given a choice between jumping a Sabre 1 or nothing, I'd choose nothing until I fixed it, replaced it, or in the unfortunate case of many of these "slammer" canopies, pass it off to the next new jumper that doens't know any better. *sigh*
NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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The main canopy is something that is used on _every_ jump and should be something you can trust and not cause you to wince as you release your PC into the airstream in hopes that it won't open like a hand-grenade.



Any canopy can open hard. I've been whacked twice by Spectres (two different ones). I know others who have as well. Does that make the Spectre a bad canopy? Not according to it's reputation.

I've also been whacked by a Sabre 150 and a Safire 149. I repeat, any canopy can open hard.

Some people just don't have a couple hundred extra bucks to spend on a main. Why should they stay on the ground until they can save up for something "newer" when by adding a pocket slider and paying attention to packing they can get a zp canopy that will serve them well? The original Sabre flies well, lands easy and can be an excellent platform for a wanna be swooper to learn on.

Don't be a gear snob. Just because something is an older design does not make it unsafe. If the original Sabre is such a horrible main, wouldn't all those people who put hundreds and thousands of jumps on them be saying the same thing you are?

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The fact that any canopy can _occasionally_ open hard is not the issue here. The issue here is that there is a reoccurring theme on this board regarding Sabres opening _consistently_ hard and some people are obviously too hard-headed to accept it or pass it off as "hype" or "fear-mongering".

Maybe someone who is an infrequent jumper can tolerate a higher than average rate of hard openings, but personally that is unacceptable to me. If being a "gear-snob" means I spent the time to learn about the majority of containers, mains, reserves, and AADs on the market (actually jumped them too) and made an informed decision based on said research, I guess that's me.
NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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