From Spectre to...?

[osonder 0]

Hello..! I started to skydive in 2008. As a student I jumped PD Navigator 240. Since then I have jumped a Spectre 210, with 1,1 in load. Now I have 260 jumps and thinking about changing canopy. Why? Well... I dreaming of a little bit faster canopy, with more power in the flare.

I have talked with some people and this is what I have been told:

Pilot: Nice opening. Almost equal Spectre
Storm: Quicker, more flare power

For the moment I thinking about trying out both of them, but what is your opinion?

[monkycndo 0]

These are two very different canopies. Both have nice openings.

Pilot is a 9 cell with very flat glide. It has a good flare, but the power is deeeep in the toggle stroke. If you don't finish your flare or have shorter arms, landings take a bit more practice to get right.

Storm is a 7 cell that is trimmed pretty steep. Opens faster than a Pilot, but not harder. Has a nice flare and a bit of swoopiness to it compared to the Spectre.

Just depends on what you want out of a canopy.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[JohnnyMarko 1]

Silhouette

[3331 108]

Check out the 9 cell Firebolt from www.Jumpshack.com.

It’s designed for soft openings and easy landings and you can downsize until you’re dangerous.

I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

[Bufobufo 0]

I'd recommend Performance Designs - Sabre2 though a firebolt is also a great option if you can find one.

Sabre2
Loved this canopy! At 1,2WL it had a very powerful flare, bit more dive then same size spectre, good range on toggles and it was possible to fly it really slow before it started to flutter just before stalling. I never had any problems getting back from long spots and I enjoyed jumping it for almost 500 jumps before downsizing.

I felt the sabre2 was more rigid then the firebolt, especially when playing around with hard front risers, where the firebolt tended to buckle on me but the sabre2 just kept on flying with more and more power in the wing and tension in the lines.

The firebolt has better openings and and it packs small since like the elektra it's a hybrid with bottom f111 and top 0p.

I remember openings on the sabre2 were bit off heading, and not as predictable and sometimes closed end cells compared to the spectre or firebolt, but for me that wasn't a big issue, I kinda like my canopies a bit feisty ;)



Sabre2 video from PD
http://youtu.be/VKxMN8C3TtE
http://www.performancedesigns.com/sabre2.asp

[TheDoctor2608 0]

I can highly recommend getting a safire 2: i've jumped a 169, 149 and own a 139 now, great canopy overall, nice very soft openings, great performance from beginner to experienced, just a canopy you really can't say anything bad about. I would try some different nice cell canopies just to see if you like them more than 7 cell.

[scottd818 0]

+1 on the safire 2. i have a 179 and have nothing bad to say about it. Opens great, flies great, has a fairly flat glide, and the flare is awesome. u cant go wrong.
i used to have a pilot and i love the safire much more the flare on the pilot left alot to be desired. i would hands down recommend the safire of the pilot any day!

[hillson 0]

A bunch of folks from your neck of the woods (and Iceland) had a large number of problems with a batch of Pilots within the last year or so (I understand they are fairly popular in Norway for a vareity of reasons). Slider grommets were absolutely shredding the suspension / steering lines (way more than normal wear - particularly for the number of jumps on the linesets) and leaving a bunch of pinholes in the canopy skin. Perhaps bad QC on the grommets...who knows. Took an enormous amount of asspain to get the problem corrected last I heard. Happened both in Norway and in FL. I *think* some of the folks are back at Voss, if you get up that way - though it looks to be a bit of a hike per googlemaps. Hopefully the incident was an isolated thing.

I had a Storm 150 (jumped all sizes 210-150 Storms) for a while that I liked for what it was...enjoyed it more than a Spectre but it wasn't *that* much different, certainly not "sit up and take notice" different. Shorter openings (more *PD positive* feeling), much better flare. A bit steeper trim. Turned and dove like the low-aspect ratio 7-cell boat that it was - not fast. *Excellent* flight characteristics in a variety of slow-flight configurations - probably the canopy's best feature in my opinion. Very easy to land.

Demo anything you can get your hands on. I, too, liked the Safire 2. Flies similar to a Sabre 2 but with better openings. Opens somewhat similar (nicer imho) to a Pilot but with much better flare in *my* experience. All three glide a hell of a lot better than Spectre / Storm.

[roostnureye 2]

have you considered a pulse?

Flock University FWC / ZFlock
B.A.S.E. 1580
Aussie BASE 121

[osonder 0]

Hello all my friends...!!

Today I ordered a PD Storm. Hopefully I will bee happy with my choise.

[Jumpingeezer 4]

I too went from a Spectre to a Storm .

I wasn't disappointed.

[osonder 0]

Nice..!!!