ljwobker

This is nowhere near the cheapest reserve, but it's the best I've flown. Don't expect a velocity like flare, but for a reserve it flies better than anything else on the market that I've jumped. A significant improvement on the original PD reserve (which wasn't all that bad to begin with...) and much better than my Tempo. I'd say it flies slightly better than a Smart at the same wingloading, and certainly packs smaller. My view is that you pretty much can never ever have a reserve that's too BIG, so highly recommend getting this one.

Background: I demoed one of these over the last two weekends, put about 20 jumps total on it. I'm about 235lbs out the door, jumped a Sabre2 170, which translates to about 1.4 wing loading. I've got ~250 jumps, mostly on Hornet and Triathlon 190s.
Packing: The Sabre2 170 packs smaller than my Hornet 190 by probably 10-15%, but the more slippery fabric takes some getting used to. I did a basic PRO-pack, didn't roll the nose and put about 5-6 folds in the tail.
Openings: not nearly the snivel that I get from my Hornet, but never fast enough to hurt, either. Mine consistiently opened in a right-hand turn, but I'm assuming this is a packing problem that I haven't worked out yet.
Flight: Toggle turns were very comfortable, responsive but not fast enough to get you into big trouble. Front riser pressure was more than I expected, but I don't do low riser turns so that's not really a concern. Rear risers felt more mushy than I expected, but I'd still land this canopy on the rears if I ever lose (another) steering line in flight. The straight stalls were very deep on the demo brake settings, I'd have them shortened if I bought one. The straight stalls were fairly quick, but nothing that really scared me. The turning stall was another story, I got four or five twists and collapsed about three cells -- glad I was really high when this happened -- not a maneuver I'd try on a regular basis.
Landings: SO nice. I'm one of those boring straight-in guys, and on a no-wind day I had no problems at all getting enough lift to fly very soft, almost stand-up landings. Any headwind at all and you could just put your feet down. On most of my landings there was a fair bit of control range even after touchdown, so no real risk of a low stall here. (See my comment about shortening brake lines).

Overall: I loved it. I was looking for a 2nd canopy to replace my Hornet that offered somewhat better performance without the risk/hassle of a true elliptical, and yet was still fun to fly and easy to pack and land. This one fits that bill perfectly.