mrbiceps

I recently brought a sabre 1 with 200 jumps on it. It opened hard for my liking so I had a bigger slider made up that measured 33 x 30 inches. Now the openings are very very nice. It was the best $150 I have ever spent. Now I can trash pack it in 5 minutes and it always opens very softly. The flare in it is great and it does some great surfs. Very responsive in the turns (170 loaded at 1.3). Man you can pull some crazy gs in a hard turn.

I brought the monarch zp canopy which is a 215 sqf 1993 model. It had done 80 jumps and the first time it opened it nearly killed me. It was extremely painfull and not fun at all. I had tried different packing methods like rolling the nose numerous ways. I had 4 different people pack it their own different way and do different things with the slider. Nothing worked. After reading about early model saber canopies doing a similar thing I decided to get a bigger slider made up. The original one was 610 x 710 mm. the new one measures 750 x 850 mm which was 47% bigger. The first time it opened I waited for the snatch to happen but it never did. It now opens great. I am only a beginner jumper so I havnt really experienced a modern canopy open so I cant really compare it to one. All I know is that I am no longer in a lot of pain after opening and now my skydives are 100% fun fun fun. The monarch flies and lands great. I love it.