Who's Flone a Hornet???

[Squeak 17]

I have been offered a new Hornet 150, any one fly them, or have flone them and can tell me how they fly, good points, bad points etc..
Thanks

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[skymama 37]

Do a search, there have been a lot of comments on the forums about Hornets. Overall, I believe they get a very good review from everyone. I had a Hornet 190 as my first canopy, and I was quite pleased with it. It is a great starter canopy. A lot of people compare it to a Sabre 2. In my opinion, it's not quite as sweet (I now have a Sabre 2), but it gets the job done very well.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[Squeak 17]

thanks Andrea, I have read the reviews but they all seem GLOWING, I'm a bit of a skeptic when everyone has nothing but high praise for something.
To me it smacks of bias, but that's probably just my paranoia

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[skymama 37]

Haha, Squeak, don't be such a skeptic! We wouldn't steer you wrong. If all you read is glowing reviews, then go get yourself that Hornet and see what we're talking about!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[riggerrob 643]

I have done a few jumps on Hornets and really liked them.
We lend Hornet 190s to our PFF grads.
Hornets are easy to pack, soft openings, light toggle pressures and turf surf without me trying too hard. Overall, Hornets are well-behaved, mid-range canopies.
About the only thing they don't do gracefully is fly in deep brakes, but then few heavily-loaded modern canopies do.
I have also done a few jumps on Safire Mark Is and liked them a hair more, but it is difficult to justify paying that much more for a canopy.
Sorry I have not jumped a Sabre 2.

[ChileRelleno 0]

I have a Hornet 210 which I load 1.26, if you've read all the "Glowing" reports then you've read some of mine.
What can I say? The PISA Hornet and Heatwaves are well designed, well made and fly very nicely not to mention that they are in most cases "Alot" cheaper than comparable canopies from other manufactures...

Demo one... Buy one... You'll like it... Period

Biased? Heck ya! I've borrowed, demo'd and rented all sorts of other canopies, I really liked this one. It does what its supposed to do and does it well and I saved hundreds of $$$$'s.

Another plus, I've talked on the phone to "live" people and gotten prompt response to Email and was taken care of properly, I think thats called good customer service... I like that too.

ChileRelleno-Rodriguez Bro#414
Hellfish#511,MuffBro#3532,AnvilBro#9, D24868

[ChileRelleno 0]

I'm loaded at 1.26 and my Hornet behaves well in deep brakes. I can sink my canopy into the peas in a more traditional accuracy approach just as well as shooting sport accuracy.

ChileRelleno-Rodriguez Bro#414
Hellfish#511,MuffBro#3532,AnvilBro#9, D24868

[franck102 0]

I love my new Hornet 150 - I load it at about 1.15 and the reviews you read are right - soft opening, nice little surfs. When new I found it much harder to pack than a used Sabre with 700 jumps... but I'm getting better -)
The only small pb I've had so far is end cell closures on opening. My 2-3 outer cells are always folded under on opening, they open quickly by themselves if I stay symmetrical but a couple times one side poped open before the other and the canopy did a 45-90 degree diving turn. This isn't much of a pb once you get used to it and are careful loading the harness evenly until the leading edge is fully open.

Franck

[PhreeZone 20]

The hornet jumps I've had always were nice firm openings. I would have said they were soft before I tried a bunch of other canopies. After 15 other canopies I'll say there are a lot softer opening canopies out there. And in reguards to it flying liek a Sabre2, it flies like a Sabre2 like any 9 cell semi-elliptical would. They are very different and the Sabre2 is a much bettr proformer when flown hard and aggressive IMHO.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Kirils 1]

Price is a big plus. Hornets pack easy. Openings are consistant. Strong flare on landing. Quality of construction is excellent. One of the best "it does it all" chutes.

"Slow down! You are too young
to be moving that fast!"

Old Man Crawfish

[lazerq3 0]

I fly a Hornet 150 @ 1.2!!! and I love this canopy ..the opening have always been awsome, on heading and it flies great..and like was mentioned above you can either set it down tip toe or surf it in ( of coarse I'm still learning that part but its been very forgiving where things could of gotten worse!! A lot of poeple say great canopy for the price but I say a great canopy PERIOD.....I know people with 1200$ canopies and up that dont like them ...its not jsut the price that makes a canopy good its the quality and PISA has a great quality canopy !!! I'm not going to name drop but I was personally told by a manufacture..." I cant believe the prices of some canopies ... there is NO canopy that worth paying 1500 to 2000$ for ..its all about the mark up thats put on them" again this iss just a quote that was given to me...but wwe all know for a fact that mark ups are what makes the companies the $$$$$

jason

Freedom of speech includes volume

[franck102 0]

Quote

The hornet jumps I've had always were nice firm openings. I would have said they were soft before I tried a bunch of other canopies.

Sorry, I forgot to mention I asked PISA when I ordered to install a "larger slider" if they thought it made sense. The slider does look large (clearly larger that the Sabre's I jumped before) but I didn't check exactly which size it is. The opening are really soft, comparable to a spectre 190 I have jumped. Maybe the larger slider has something to do with the end cell closures?

Franck

• Quote

[fudd 0]

I didn't ask PISA to install the larger slider when I ordered my Hornet 170, but I guess it comes standard now (?).
Anyway, the slider looks HUGE compared to other canopies I've packed. Good thing its collapsable.
Haven't had the chance to jump mine yet, so I don't know how it flies. Didn't have the oppurtunity to demo one either (no local dealers). I just trusted the witness of other dz.com'ers and ordered myself one from www.icarus.co.za. Total price 790euro. Got someone who where in johannesburg to pick it up and bring it with them back to norway. Evaded norwegian tax and shipping costs that way.

A used Saber with 400 jumps would have cost med at least the same and I would probably have to change the lines on it shortly to.

There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[skydivejersey 0]

I have just ordered one of these - fantastic value. A comlete rig (teardrop / hornet 170 / tempo 170) assembled and posted from SA came in at under £2,000 and that was for a special order as I had mine made into a Union Jack. I don't know of any other manufactor that would have been so accomodating with bizarro requests, even though the design came in at an extra £200.

Can't wait to get it up!

[pop 0]

Quote

Do a search, there have been a lot of comments on the forums about Hornets. Overall, I believe they get a very good review from everyone. I had a Hornet 190 as my first canopy, and I was quite pleased with it. It is a great starter canopy. A lot of people compare it to a Sabre 2. In my opinion, it's not quite as sweet (I now have a Sabre 2), but it gets the job done very well.

i think its flight characteristics resemble a sabre, but the opening are sweet like on sabre 2

7 ounce wonders, music and dogs that are not into beer

[AggieDave 6]

Its flight characteristics is more in line with a Sabre2, except there are some differences. It is semi-elliptical (like the Sabre2), it turns just as fast, but it seems to dive harder with the front risers. The flair is a little different then a Sabre2, but still really sweet. Oh, the Hornet opens really nicely, too.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[StevieBoy 0]

Hey that sounds like a fantastic deal.

Did it come with a cypress????? you jump in France, how do they like the design of your main.

P.S. is the teardrop a good FF container????

.

it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.

[skreamer 1]

Be careful Stevieboy :

The Teardrop is made by PISA under license from Thomas Sports, but it does not have its TSO rating yet (the TSE Teardrop does). I know you cannot jump the PISA Teardrop in the UK. PISA have applied for the rating, but at present you cannot jump the PISA teardrop in the UK. I don't know about the states or elsewhere, but you might want to check first. There is a discussion about this on PISA's web-site (www.pisa.co.za). Check there.

I quote the following from the PISA forum :

Quote

The PISA manufactured Teardrop holds the ZA TSO C23(d) rating, whereas the TSE Teardrop holds an FAA TSO rating. Our Teardrops are manufactured to TSE plans and templates and the same processes are used, but because they are made in a different factory, we have to fully re-TSO the rig from our side for the FAA rating. This is a long and involved process which we are doing, and will hopefully be completed soon.

BTW I have about 290 jumps on a Hornet '150 loaded at 1.3:1 - I liked it but you have to take care with your packing. Sloppy packing resulted in the occassional spanking.

Will