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Update on my new Sabre 3 150 canopy form Performance Designs I received it July 9, 2020 and have made 72 jumps with it from 25th July - 15th Aug ....... I'm very happy with it. I previously was jumping a Sabre 2 150 and before that a Sabre 150... I weigh 170 lbs. The first 6 jumps were at Meadow Peak Skydiving the weekend before the 53rd Lost Prairie boogie to install the canopy and work out the flight and landings before the boogie as I like to jump a lot at the boogie Chris Walker the rigger took care of attaching it to my new rig (Vector V3 V310) and adjusting (Shorten) the brake lines after my test jumps.... The elevation at the airport is 3,400 ft and landings have been my biggest problem here. More than a few Homer Simpson landings for me here. One of the biggest selling points to me was the powerful flare for landing after that all the other improvements were gravy. The openings were smooth, on heading and no end cell closure after opening. Wow wow wow a big improvement from my previous Sabre canopies. With the brake lines set and a few jumps under my belt I was ready for Skydive Lost Prairie Boogie the next weekend. I made 63 jumps during the boogie and improved my stand up landings at the Prairie from an abysmal less than 50% to 90% .... I was stoked as the year before I ended my jumping before Boogie end due to a Homer Simpson landing and bruising my bad knee .... grr. So landings were my biggest criteria to fix. Thank you Sabre 3 Canopy performance during flight seemed to be in par with what I had experienced with my Sabre 2, but I only have 63 jumps on my Sabre 2 to compare it with. The flair at landing is powerful so I had to use it wisely and ease into but once you figure it out ... OMG its awesome. I had so much fun at the Prairie again this year. So many friends and so many jumps!!! Missed a lot of folks who could not make it this year and hope to see them next year. I then followed up by making 3 jumps the next Saturday at Mid America Sport Parachute Club in Taylorville, Ill with some Rapid Decent Skydiving Alumni. Thank You Performance Designs for an awesome canopy. Curtis J. Langwell D-25292 USPA: 148615

I've been jumping a JFX2 119 for about 1 year now. Previously I'd done about 1,200 jumps on a Xaos21 120, prior to that about 1,400 jumps on a Velocity 111. My wing loading is about 2.1 The openings are very smooth, positive and almost always on heading. If it does go off heading, it's usually just after coming out of the D-bag and is easily managed. Once open, it's quite responsive and lots of fun to fly. It has a great glide angle and a bit of rear risers has gotten me back from some very deep spots. I've also been impressed with its ability to cut through turbulence. The landings are great with a predictable recovery arc, irrespective of whether doing toggle or riser turn final approaches. You have to lean heavily to do harness turns, but that's to be expected of a canopy like this. The flares have plenty of power and I can get excellent, semi-swoop landings in most conditions. Very stable and predictable to land in gusty winds too. My only gripe is that the lower brake lines supplied were waaayyy too long and had to be shortened by about 30cm. In summary, a predictable, well behaved canopy for an experienced pilot who wants a more power and spice than a Crossfire but doesn't need the aggravation of a swoop canopy.

I'm currently flying a PD 260 at a wing loading of 0.9. I love it. Although I'm a relatively new skydiver, I find that it flies nicely, it's easy to pack and my parachute atleast is in fantastic condition. I have had optimal flare timing and consistently soft openings.

What a great canopy! My experience has been amazing with the Sabre 3 line, I've jumped them almost exclusively from 230-135 sqft with some demos and rental days on s-fires, safires, and sabre 2s. I'm loaded at 1.35 and I feel like this is where the wing starts to wake up, it doesn't have any of the muddy feeling inputs the larger sizes had, the harness feeling starts to develop and you can really get it moving in a dive! The Opening: I would say it opens reasonably well, it typically opens pretty quick, 600ft. is probably average. Sometimes, I get crazy off heading openings, I've had the usual 90° off heading with the occasional wild 360°, I don't know if they are body position induced, packing, or a variety of things working together but the wing is controllable so quickly you can just make the appropriate input while checking your surroundings and it will do whatever you tell it. It's also not out of the ordinary to have to manipulate the rears to get the slider all the way down. The Performance: In just one word, Versatile! The rears have gotten me back safe and sound from some spots that I KNEW I wasn't making it back from. It's extremely predictable which is confidence inspiring. The brakes have a ton of range and slow flight performance is impressive, it can hang in deep brakes forever without sacrificing controllability or risking a stall. When inducing speed with the fronts it builds speed quickly and can be forced to keep diving if you need a little more before the fronts get too heavy. The rears have a lot of power and made it easy for me to make my first of many rear riser landings! When you transition to toggles there is immense stopping power, you can always get a nice tip toe landing even in no wind conditions. The Conclusion: I love this thing! I think it has been and continues to be a wonderful platform to learn basic up to high performance skills and maneuvers. I look forward to progressing further and seeing what else this wing has to offer at the next step!

This is the ultimate bicellular elliptic canopy. I tried Semi/fully elliptic canopies before (Crossfire 2, Stiletto, Sabre 2) and this X-Fire is quite the bomb compared to the previous ones. It has na absolutely incredible harness response. I really feel connected to the canopy and the fact it has no stabilizers provides a nice over steer. It's the very first canopy I feel I have full control on. It's a Schuemann Planform designed canopy meaning the leading edge is super elliptic while trailing edge is quite flat. I see it as a bicellular Leia. Rears are super powerful. Fronts are quite hard but nothing unmanageable. Toggle turns (yes I tried those) are super slow but those breaks have like an infinite resource while landing. Openings are very nice but not too slow. Almost always on heading and predictable. You can feel Icarus put some effort on this part! I jumped a stiletto for 400 jumps before the X-Fire so I might be biased . I think I might stick with an X-fire (I own a 102 for now) if I want more in a few hundred jumps instead of going to the cross braced realm.

Underloaded at .09 I’d been seeking my first canopy. I’d flown - Sabre 2 / Sabre 1 / Skylark Magellan. Till I realised for me the most important aspect was the openings which at one piont I came close to a knockout on a Magellan. I loved the Sabre 1 front riser response and ease, hated weak flare and impact on opening - muscle pain the next days wasn’t doing me any good. Even with the bigger slider. Wasn’t so impressed with Sabre 2 Mmm. Is that it? The Pilot didn’t think it would excite me, but I was very surprised indeed. It felt clean not so rough on the edges, the most consistent softest openings I’d had. A huge difference to anything I’d flown. Toggle response so light and doing a sharp pull I was facing the ground, without feeling the pressure of g’s BONUS BONUS! Landing Flare was powerful - 2 stage flare excellent being able to glide her out longer than Sabre WHAT!?!?! PILOT I LOVE it...

As an older jumper, I was looking for a conservative, soft opening canopy with a flat glide to maximize landing options at our home dz surrounded by woods and housing developments. Demoed a Pilot 210 at 1.1:1 WL for 15 jumps with temps in the low 90's, mostly no wind. The Pilot flew exactly as advertised: significantly lighter on the controls (30-40%) and more responsive to control inputs, flatter glide and more powerful flare than my Sabre 1 210 with dual steering lines. Flying in deep brakes on the edge of a stall for a minute or so on several jumps, the canopy remained docile until I forced the stall break. Recovery was quick and easily controllable. Landing approach speeds seemed higher, possibly due to higher than normal density altitude for our location. The landing flare sweet spot is definitely lower in the stroke than my Sabre 1, as described by other reviewers. Flowering the slider, then exposing the slider nose an extra 1-2", yielded soft but positive openings. After additional input from several Pilot owners with 3,000 to 12,500 jumps (the latter owns two Pilots), I ordered a new 210 from Aerodyne in standard ZeroP with 725 Spectra lines. It arrived two weeks earlier than promised. Quality control was excellent. Dyes are extremely bright, and should enhance in-air visibility and collision avoidance. Despite being brand new, the canopy folded into my Javelin D-bag first try. To date, Aerodyne's ZeroP fabric has definitely allowed controllable new canopy pack jobs. My new Pilot flies and lands sweet. Thank you for an excellent parachute, Aerodyne. (And, thanks to all who posted here and in the forums.)

I have run it in the tunnel for free flying, then unzipped to flatly in the tunnel with the lightweights. Have jumped with 70KG students with myself weighing in at 107kgs

I was supper excited about this altimeter as it had everything I wanted. Unfortunately, my experience with it has been horrible. I've had this for over 1 yr now the NMU is still not working (PC and MAC), and poor battery life. The costumer service is very poor. I have called and sent them numerous e-mails with no responses. Would not suggest this Altimeter or company to anybody. Will not buy from them again.

Pros: I liked that I could keep the visor up until the jump door opened. The face shield never interfered with my prescription glasses, and I never worried too much about scratching the lense while in the aircraft. Cons: I did not care for the lack of peripheral vision & it was not very air tight on my face. I had to add some folded up paper towel in the chin cup padding to reduce the constant problem of air entering the helmet. I also added some closed cell foam self adhesive weatherstripping along the inside of the face shield to help control the drafty helmet. This may just be imagination, but I felt that the face-shield/chincup inhibited by ability to look back at the formation when doing RW. I was having trouble looking over my shoulder at the formation whenever I was turning 360's. I always felt that the large chin brace on the visor would hit my shoulders & I could not look behind me as far as I should be able to. I ended up selling my REvolve & bought a Cookie G3. I am much happier with the G3 peripheral vision & airtight fit. I made a few jumps with a Phantom X & I really like that helmet as well. Good Luck, I hope this review helps.

I bought it after reading the reviews here. I love this canopy, the only think what to be aware is, that you should have a minimum of 1,4 wingload; It doesn´t matter but, if you haven´t enought wingload at windy days it could be not so charmed like usually! I would by it again!

Dragon is a tapered 7-cell, designed to combine good characteristics from classic 7-cells and elliptical 9-cells in one canopy. My girlfriend bought Dragon 150 as her first canopy, downsizing from student 210 sq ft (she is 160 cm, 50 kg - 5'4'', 110 lbs). But before giving her the canopy, I made first 6-7 jumps, at wing load of 1,25 (I am 85 kg - 185 lbs). Canopy has very smooth, consistent openings, always on heading. It flies great, and I estimated that glide is equal or better then PD Spectre. Toggle inputs are light, but the canopy is quite responsive (also, more toggle input is required then on elliptical 9-cell). It is also stable in deep brakes, and rather difficult to stall. It is also very predictable canopy, no nasty surprises. I tried hook turns, and to my surprise, it was possible to make some very decent hooks, with long flare and enough lift at the end of the flare to climb a little, just enough to touch down softly (no running required). Front risers are a maybe bit harder then on my Radical 135. My girlfriend's transition to new canopy went smooth and without a single problem. She immediately fell in love with it, finding it agile and responsive, and enjoying very good glide, nice flare and great openings (just wanted to share her impressions, of a skydiver with only 50+ jumps). Later I had a chance to jump PD Storm 135, which is kind of high - end tapered 7-cell, and I think that Dragon is not so far behind (at proper wing loading, of course). It is great as all-round or transition canopy, and would be also very convenient for WS jumpers, due to consistent on-heading openings. I would always recommend Dragon to novice jumpers.

Ordered my first Tony Suit from tony himself. Delivery took much longer then he promised and the suit did not fit. After sending the suit back at my expense for a second round of alterations which took about a month I got the suit back with a better fit, but the hook knife pocket was never moved and was a knee level. I brought this problem directly to Tony and expressed my dissatisfaction with the extra expenses and down time of purchasing a new suit that he had actually measured, which still needed some alterations to have the hook knife pocket properly relocated. His response was to have my DZ rigger make the modifications because his company was to backed up to take care it. So... if you're not in a hurry for a jumpsuit, have some extra cash to throw away for shipping costs if the suit does not fit then you might want to consider a Tony Suit. If not then I would recommend a Bev Suit, who has always come through for me the first time around.

Based on about 5-8 jumps on a Storm 170. Previous experience about 200 jumps on a Sabre 1 - 190 and about 5-8 on a Sabre 2- 170. I tried both the Sabre 2 and the Storm the same week. Conditions ranged from windy and turbulent to calm with no wind. My windloading was perfect as the storm cut through thermals and turbulence beautifully (the main reason I was downsizing). Turns were very crisp with no hesitation, perhaps not as forgiving for a student but it really followed my input. Flat turns were, well, flat. I didn't try a full brake turn, half brake turns were very quick! Front risers in general were tough to pull with lots of pressure in both level and turns. Not too difficult, just tough. Rear risers were sweet for slowing, flaring or turns. Full speed straight and level flight semmed faster than the Sabre 2 and much steeper. Partial brakes leveled out the canopy and really offered comparable (Sabre 2) glide distance. A long spot would have you in partial brakes a long time but brake pressure was not unreasonable and glide was much shallower. Slow flight somewhere around half brakes was not mushy but maintained good cell pressure and felt fully controlled. Openings were actually faster than I expected but without the shaking and sometimes whomping I get from the Sabre 1. Openings seemed to be on heading for both my packjobs and packs by the pros...No tendency for end-cell closure which I did see on the Sabre 2 (to be fair, it didn't affect the openings on the Sabre 2 anyways). What did affect openings was body position, any reasonable change in the harness as the canopy was inflating affected heading. I like this as you can actually steer the thing as it's opening. Unstowing the brakes/collapsing the slider! What a suprise, reaching up for the toggles/collapse cords has to be done at the same time otherwise I was able to turn the canopy easily just by shifting body position. My Sabre 1 has a single cord to collapse the slider so I reach up with one hand while steering with both toggles in the other. Bad habit! On the Storm I had to collapse the slider with two hands then unstow the brakes. There is so much extra brake line stowed that the canopy really picks up speed as you release the brakes. I'd hate to inadvertently release one brake early! Not bad, just different. Now for the amazing part. FLARE!!! I flared early, I flared late, I flared twice, I think I even forgot to flare until it was too late. I swear this canopy actually went upwards when I pulled my stoppin ropes! The steep approach took some getting used to but once you decide to brake, there is so much energy left in the canopy to flare, it does just that. Flare slowly from too high, it keeps flying. Flare hard from too low, it keeps flying. Flare too high, goof and let up, pull again lower, it keeps flying. Even on no wind landings and higher wingloading (for me) the Storm levels out beautifully during flare, holds for a second or two, and let me down gently (all but one time, but that was my fault, and the grass stains are coming out just fine thanks.) My overall impression is that the Sabre 2-170 is a sweet stable canopy. The Storm-170 is a sports car that even I can handle! Last year my instructors suggested that I downsize to the Sabre 2. I don't think they had tried the Storm when they made that recommendation.

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

I have been jumping my Safire 2 189 (loaded 1.16) for about 20 jumps now and really enjoy flying it. It opens smoothly and on heading. I pro-pack and find that if leave the nose out (not rolled or pushed back at all) it opens in about 400-600 feet. It has a good glide ratio and has saved me on several tracking dives with a long spot (rear risers helped as well). Landing this canopy is also a lot of fun. Once you level off there is still plenty of toggle left to handle unexpected problems or a poorly timed flare (you can also pop back up a few feet at the end of your flare). I really enjoy flying this canopy and plan on staying with it for a long time.

I put most of my jumps on an original sabre and got used to canopies that like to dive. I tried the Stilleto 135 but didn't really like how reluctant it was to really dive. So I was also looking into a Katana. I did some jumps on a Hurricane 135 and a 120 and decided it was the one for me. Some of these PD/Icarus/Precision canopies were over $2000 for a new canopy! My new custom Hurricane 120 cost me just over $1100. The zero porosity coating is different than other companies too. The Hurricane comes with a coating that is not slippery like other new zero P's. It was super easy to pack the first time I packed it. No slippage at all! I've since put 500 jumps on it and it is quite a ride. The toggle turns create quite a dive. You'll be able to see the horizon OVER your canopy when you spin it. It'll keep the speed up longer too. I'd say it has a medium to light amount of front riser pressure. You can really make it float too if you're out on a long spot. It offers you soo much control. The flare is really nice and powerful. You can flatten the canopy and pull out of a dive fast any time you want. My only con is that some canopies can be really forgiving with sloppy packing and body position. Not really this one. If you pack sloppy and don't keep nice body position for and through the open you can get whirly off headings and maybe a spanker (had 2 in 500 jumps on it). It's not too bad though. Just don't expect to be getting those promised nice on heading openings if you pack and pull like sh*t.

I got the opportunity to jump the Blade at the CSS Easter boogie. Beezy had several demos and I made jumps on a 98 and 108. My exit weight was approx 225lbs. The openings- long long snivel, great if you've got a camera. It does not wander or search for a heading. The toggles give quick turns. The risers have very light pressure and long diving turns are quite easy. The rears easily leveled the canopy, however I didn't feel I could stay on them as long as a x-braced canopy, but transition to the toggles keeps the swoop going. The material was very easy to pack, but it would be slightly bigger than comparable sizes due to "winglets" I only got to make about 10 jumps on the two sizes, but from those jumps, I would recommend that if you're in the market for a Crossfire2, Katana, etc... you should give this canopy a try.