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tb182

pd pulse

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Vectran lines. Nice, actually - they were easy to stow and felt...solid.

I may try the Storm too in the next few weeks but it'll have to be pretty impressive to get my mind/wallet off the Pulse. The packing ease and generally forgiving feel of the Pulse coupled with it's ability to turn quickly has me rather tempted.

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and i suppose Vectran stretches even less...



They all stretch less than Dacron. ;)

Manufacturers use Vectran and HMA because it doesn't shrink like Spectra does. Most Spectra line sets don't 'wear out', they go out of trim so badly that canopy performance starts to degrade to an unacceptable level, and the lines need replacing.

I talked to PD about the choice of lines on the Pulse, and it's only offered in Vectran, nothing else. The reason behind that is the shape of the airfoil is critical (they had a fancy name for that airfoil shape, but I can't remember it) to the performance of the canopy, so they're using a line type that won't change the trim over the life of the lines.

If you're against no stretch lines completely, maybe demo the Storm, it's available with Dacron lines... as is most of PD's line up. I had them put Dacron lines on a Sabre 2 I had, and that canopy opened like butter. :D

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

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Yup, no stretch I guess. It does seem that the Pulse is a fine opener though, no nose rolling or stuffing required - in fact it opens great with a flake, quarter and bring the tail around then dump it on the ground.

I don't think it's a deal breaker at all given the forgiving nature of the planform but hey - it's ultimately your decision whether you'd rather buy a canopy which opens without needing elastic lines, or you prefer the insurance against being spanked. I'll try the Storm too but I think PD made some good decisions with the Pulse.

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Yup, I did indeed jump the Pulse 135 last weekend a few times, and I'll try to get a few more in this weekend.

My exit weight is about 220 with gear so I'm loading it at 1.62. I normally jump a 120 Stiletto. I have about 7000 jumps on Stilettos and about 2000 on Sabres, so I'll try to compare to both of those.

First, openings. I did my usual three stage evaluation. Normal freefall speed opening (no track), pull from full on track, and subterminal opening. All three openings were positive without being hard, and remained with 10 degrees of heading without the Stiletto's tendency to hunt in a direction depending on weight shift in the harness. Once open, it flew straight and level. Slumping in the harness didn't affect it in any discernible way, and aggressive weight shifts on opening didn't cause it to dive or spin in the way that they would a highly loaded elliptical. Essentially, the openings are money on this thing.

In flight, it has a nice crisp response to control inputs. At my loadings, it rolled into turns very nicely, and it was fairly easy to get the trailing edge parallel to the horizon in a developed toggle turn. Rollouts were fast and on heading without the Stiletto's tendency to oversteer. Deep brake flying was very stable and the canopy was hard to stall. In stalls, it didn't want to break left or right, and recovery, both dynamic and steady were exactly like you'd expect. The stall is a little faster to get to than with a Sabre 2, and this may be due to it's hybrid nature.

Front riser turns are crisp and predictable, and the canopy recovers nicely from front riser dives. Unlike the Velocity, it doesn't want to stay in a developed dive without pilot input. Ed is clearly a poove, as the pressure was quite normal.:P

Landings were a major departure from both the Sabre 2 and the Stiletto. I tried a straight in, 90 degree and 270 degree approach in nil winds on it and in no case could I get it to pop up. Once you start the flare, the canopy planes out and just glides forever. This takes a little getting used to if you're used to the pop up landings of other canopies. After three jumps, I had it pretty much dialed in, and I certainly could get used to it. I think this landing characteristic will be a great selling point for this canopy. It somehow managed to combine the fun of a serious swooping canopy with extreme forgiveness in the landing flare. Control input that would have seen me climbing up 10 feet on the Stiletto only resulted in a nice flat glide on the Pulse.

The packing couldn't be easier. I did the first jump on this canopy and it packed down like I'd been jumping it for years. The new Optimum fabric retains no memory and is very low bulk. The 135 went in the bag with no fuss at all, and packed down smaller than my Stiletto 120. It made me wish they made a tandem Pulse.

All the jumps were made in 0-10 mph winds, field elevation 43 feet MSL, 74 degrees F.

Compared to the 120 Storm that I jumped not too long ago, at my loadings, the Storm is a higher performance canopy with entirely different flight characteristics. I don't think it makes sense to compare the Pulse to the Storm. They are both great canopies, but I think they come at the market from different design philosophies.

I'd say that the Pulse is the best non-elliptical 9 cell I've ever flown, and it gives many ellipticals a close run too.

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Yup, no stretch I guess. It does seem that the Pulse is a fine opener though, no nose rolling or stuffing required



I played with rolling the nose on my demo, and found that it's fairly predictable, allowing me to make it open faster or slower by varying what I did to the nose. I don't stuff the nose on anything, I don't want it back there by the brake lines. :P

In the end I settled on a 'split and flip' treatment on the nose, just like Scott Miller recommends on the PD packing video. It's probably not even necessary, it's just how I learned to pack and what I'm comfortable with. It's working for me, so far I love the openings on the Pulse.

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

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>it's ultimately your decision whether you'd rather buy a canopy
>which opens without needing elastic lines, or you prefer the insurance
>against being spanked.

ANY canopy can slam open. Buying a certain canopy because you think it guarantees decent openings is pretty much always a mistake.

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Ed is clearly a poove, as the pressure was quite normal.:P



Fair enuff - I'm certainly not going to be winning any pullup competitions anytime soon!

I thought it was really good too, Gareth had already 'set' the line attachment points on that first jump so I didn't have to. I shall have to recruit his services to make the first jump on my new canopy so it's ready to go and I know it works!

This business with the lines though.... We all know there are some canopies which spank you more than others and which are more sensitive to packing technique. I reckon PD have made something here which opens about as well as you could hope for with NO fancy tricks being played to get it there.

Alright, I'm off to the canopy coloring program - it's friday...

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Put around ten jumps on a Pulse 170 demo canopy last weekend and ordered one yesterday.

The canopy packs, opens, and flies very much as advertized. Openings are positive, but usually not harsh, with very little hunting. Front risers are a bit heavy, but I rarely touch those. Toggle forces are a little higher than on my HeatWave 170, but not bad at all. Haven't had the chance to fly next to a similarly loaded canopy (1.4 PSF), but the glide angle seems pretty flat. Very controllable through the flare, from calm through about 12 MPH winds. Most of my jumps are as an AFF-I, so this is just what I've been looking for.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

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I don't know if this is the place to ask, but Moderators - can you put an entry for the Pulse in the Gear section of the site? That way reviews can also be posted there, all together in one spot, and easily found by everyone.
I'll be whatever I want to do!

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I put 17 jumps on it, didn't like it
Prefer characteristics of my Sabre2... I guess different beast for different pilots.
Packing was very easy and openings were nice though (except many line twists on my wingsuit jumps that got me puzzled)
and I realized that I really don't like a canopy that glides too much :D - again, different beast for different people.

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Bump !!! Its been several weeks of good weather...any more reviews out there ?,,,,,,,,,,



I flew a 150 loaded at about 0.9:1. My experience was consistent with the other reviews posted so far. Opened nicely, snappy turns for a 150 at that wingloading, flew well with toggles, rear risers, nice stable deep brake flight. VERY high front riser pressure (for reference most of my other recent jumps have been on a Pilot 132). I love the glide angle of it, comes in nice and shallow which is my preference (though as mentioned above it isn't everyone's preference). Was very easy to get a nice, soft, fairly accurate landing on the first jump on it.

Overall I'd say the flare and flight characteristics were quite similar to the Pilot. From previous conversations with PD reps I believe this was their intent.

I wouldn't buy one because of the front riser pressure, but I'd probably recommend it as a good beginner/intermediate canopy for someone who didn't want to use the fronts. I'm also interested in seeing how well the low bulk bottom skin fabric holds up over the life of the canopy. PD probably has some data on this - I'd imagine they tested it quite extensively.

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I wouldn't buy one because of the front riser pressure,


Are you really surprised about it? There are 2 factor for high front riser pressure: flat trim and low wing load.
I guess you had both.




I expected it to be high, I did not expect it to be THAT high. I was comparing it to a Pilot loaded at 1:1 which also has a quite flat trim, and was surprised at the difference. This is the first canopy I've ever jumped (including student canopies in the 230 range) where I've thought of pulling on the front risers as virtually impossible rather than just difficult. Which is a shame, because I did like everything else about the Pulse. Maybe this summer I'll jump a smaller one and see if it was just a wing loading issue.

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Hi all. Some more time has passed.
Seems like a lot of people is gathering info on this one. Any more feedbacks about PD Pulse out there?

Flight characteristics sound great.
Haven't found much information about the new low-bulk fabric long term resilience/durability in time and overall comparative speed of canopy.

Cheers!

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I got 12 jumps on a demo the last two weekends.

Packing is awesome. I could definitely notice the low pack volume and for a brand new canopy it was easy to pack.

Openings: They were nice and on heading. This canopy WANTS to opening on heading. They were on the lower end of my comfort for snivels (meaning that I do not like the snively openings of the Sabre2 class and the Pulse was within my comfort zone but on the snivel end of perfect).

Glide Path: Excellent. Got me back from some very long spots, and I liked the flat guide path when coming into land. It was not steep like the Sabre2's and Spectres, but flat like a Stiletto and Silhouette.

Turns: Very steep and very fun. Recovers well. Like a Silhouette on crack!

Flare: I wish it had just a little more "oomph" on the 2nd half of the flare. Doesn't have a "pop" factor, which is good on windy days, but a disadvantage on no wind days. The more I jumped it, the more I liked the landings.

Front Risers: The front riser pressure was too much. I was doing pull ups and couldn't get the fronts to come down at all.

I am eager to see how the Optimum material holds up over time.

Overall, I liked it, and the more I jumped it, the more I liked it. I think that it flies a size smaller, and is more agressive than a Silhouette and less agressive tha a Sabre2.

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To all those who keep asking for more opinions, I have to ask ... why not demo it yourself? Opinions are like assholes ... and yours is the only one that matters if you're thinking of buying one.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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