Pulse

Name: Pulse
Brand: performance designs
Rating: 4.6 (19 reviews)

July 7, 2016

I got the canopy last year and put about 90 jumps on it. I can say its a perfect beginning canopy - easy to pack, opens well no matter how poorly packed, flare is super easy to time.

Great canopy to learn to fly on.

September 22, 2014

After numerous discussions, I decided to go with a Pulse 210 at a wing loading of 1.1, after flying either Solo 230's, 210's or ZP Exe's in the same range. These were all rental's and I found myself happy under them all, unless it was a light/no-wind day then the flare would be non-existent.

My first opening with my new container was interesting to say the least - nice and gentle and then a sharp left turn. A gentle pull of the right rear riser straightened it out and I made sure a toggle hadn't come out. All I can think is that my body position on opening hadn't been great and I'd put myself into a nice hard harness turn. Checked a few flares and all seemed great nice forward speed and slow glide path. On landing, I flared like I was under one of the student/rental canopies - mistake. Flare was strong and the speed was certainly converting to lift. Held the flare for a nice easy stand up landing.

On my next few jumps the openings were all great and 100% on heading without a hassle. Snivel was in the 600ft range and better than the Solo. Nice, gentle and on heading. I got put out on a long spot and spent quite some worried about ever seeing the DZ, let alone making it back. Flew back in brakes and made it with plenty of room to spare.

My landings are still far from perfect on this canopy; but that's the pilot and not the canopy. I find myself either flaring to high, or just not hard enough. These were all in null wind conditions, and all but one was a stand up (one sliding in on my butt). I’m confident I’ll work out my glitches and find that ‘sweet spot’ soon enough.

I am also amazed at how small this packs compared to a full ZP 210. It looks simply tiny in comparison. I’d certainly recommend this to anyone who is a reasonably new jumper and looking for a docile but fun canopy (assuming the right wing loading). With this canopy, I also have the option to downsize to something like a Sabre2 170 and still keep the same container. I’m in no rush to downsize (I’m old and wise) and I can see myself flying this canopy for many years to come.

NATiON · August 30, 2013

After 130 Jumps on this canopy, I feel i can give you a pretty solid review.

Ill keep this short and sweet.
-The canopy Packs better than any canopy out there Period.
-Openings are Soft and on heading. Probably the nicest openings of any canopy I have flown. 600-700 ft snivel on average.
-Toggle input is nice and soft and the canopy turns about the same as the sabre 2. but with a far better glide. long spots are not a problem.
- front risers are pretty stiff. Rear stalls are fun. give it a try. this canopy has great recovery.
- FLARE.. Well.. there really isnt any.. sorry but its true.. Im loading it 1:1.1 and if there is a flare in this canopy I cant seem to find it. If you dont mind skidding in your landings then dont worry about it. Keep your speed up and you can run out the landings if you want.
PD changed the brakes on the bigger Pulse canopies because of bad flare.. I think they should address this issue on all of them..
If you wrap the toggles and bring it to the edge of stall you can feel the same flare as a sabre2. I dont like risking a stall so i dont do this.

The bottom line is that this canopy is awesome - PD Please fix the Brakes, and this canopy will dominate. Im still considering a new Pulse 150.

Cheers,
James

Anachronist · August 11, 2013

Demo'd a Pulse 210 at a 1.2/1.3 WL and put about 10 jumps on it. Freakin awesome! Deployment was comfortable and "prompt;" very stable and usually on heading. Toggle and riser input is very responsive and the flare is fantastic. The recovery arc is very very short. As soon as you stop giving input it wants to level out and does so quickly. To me (non-swooper) I like that. Was very easy to judge the glide which is quite flat and landings are very comfortable. Many of my jumps were on a wingsuit and I found the deployments to be very stable. The pack size is nice and small and it is easier and faster to pack I thought as well. 5 stars all day long.

HUPRA · January 18, 2013

After doing around 50 jumps on a Pulse 150, W/L 1.3. I can say that it is a great little canopy.

Its openings were, in my opinion, somewhere between a Sabre 1 and a Sabre 2, and always on heading. Its controls seemed shorter than that of a Sabre, I found its flair to be slightly less powerful as well, although sill easy to land.

Its glide on full drive was a lot flatter than a Sabre 1 or 2, and slightly more so than a Pilot.

One of the best things about this canopy for me was its small volume and ease of packing, the 150 packed down to the size of a 135 Sabre.

Because of this, I would recommend this canopy to someone who is looking for a second, perhaps larger, canopy for day to day jumps that they can use in the same container as their sub-100 ft x-braced swooping machine.

TerminalGravity · December 10, 2012

Demo'd a Pulse 210 a few weeks ago, and decided to buy one. The openings are great. About half the snivel of my Spectre and Sabre2 but opens very soft. Very flat glide but can burn off altitude if you need to with a deep toggle turn. Quick recovery. Outstanding in deep brakes, and flying rears you can stay up there forever. The demo had the landing upgrade, the one I bought (used) does not and I can't tell the difference, at least not at my 1.21 WL. Landing is great, plenty of flare power. And best of all, I have a 210 that fits perfectly in a 170 d-bag. Awesome canopy for getting more nylon in a smaller rig.

EOCS · May 19, 2012

So far i have 40 jumps on my pulse 170. got it right from factory, not used. as most i was suprised how easy it was to pack. openings are on heading most of the time with the occasional 180, prob due to my packing. When i was loooking to buy this i read it had a weak flare. this is not true however it does have a delayed flare. when you pull sharply down it might take an extra split secont before the lift kicks in. so if you tie it like a say for example sabre then it will flare just a little later then you would be used to. Also takes some getting used to knowing where it wants to land as it flys alot farther with the sassme altitude then the sabre i was used to before it. Highly recommend to anyone starting out i think its somehting i can fly with for quite a while. Also the front risers are a little heavier then sabre but not so much more that they cant be pulled and used.

Olmed · April 21, 2012

Jump history:
- 29 jumps on a Navigator 260,
- 12 jumps on a Silhouette 230 and
- 60 jumps on a new Pulse 210 (in a new Vector 3)

First opening is the best I ever had. Smooth, quick and on-heading.

Immediately you feel how very smooth, responsive and reliable it feels when you pull toggles. It seems to do what you ask of it from the very first jump. Also in quite unstable air.

Takes a few jumps to get the flare but landings feel precise and lands well also on no wind days.

Could not stall it when holding full toggles for more than 10 seconds.

Never before had off heading on openings but now 90% of them are. Had 1 twin which was very undramatic.

Thank you Performance Designs!

fireflyer1988 · December 9, 2011

At first, I wasn't even considering the Pulse until I flew a demo canopy, and I realized how much fun this canopy was, from opening to landing.

The first thing I noticed about the Pulse was the ease of packing.
Transitioning from a PD 230, it packed a lot like my old canopy, very easy, and it didn't want to re-inflate on you like a typical ZP canopy would.

The Pulse has a relatively short snivel, but it doesn't slam open (as long as you pack it right). All openings were consistantly on-heading.

Another thing I particularly noticed about this canopy is that it doesn't stall easily. I had to take 3 wraps on the steering lines before I got it to stall. This has never been a problem with landing, though, since it does have a nice strong landing flare, and only in strong winds do you have to worry about stalling on landing.

Another thing I noticed is that the Pulse is very responsive to both harness and rear-riser imput, to the extent where I would have been quite comfortable landing on rears if I had to after the first jump with it.

Another great feature is the canopy's very flat glide. A couple times I've gotten out on a long spot, and I made it back to the airport with altitude to spare.

With this canopy, landings have been very fun. I've made straight-in, by-the-book "student" landings, as well as swift, sporty landings even without the ground-rush factor of pulling a front riser.

All in all, this canopy is a great canopy for any experience level when loaded correctly. I now have a Pulse canopy of my own. I have already recommended it to one friend, and I would recommend this canopy to anyone I know.

A1CSpooky · July 1, 2011

I have put approximately 30 jumps on my pulse and It is everything that was advertised. I did not find it to lose flare power on the back end. The short snivel gets you under a flyable canopy in no time with out slamming you. Having only flown a Sabre 2 before this I would say it is comparable.

Albatroz101 · March 26, 2011

I have a brand new Pulse 170. Love everything about this canopy! Flies amazing and it is ideal for those jumpers who are advancing in a safe manner. It is fast enough, that you won't be bored and not so fast to the suicidal point. Great landings. I had to order custom colours. The colour scheme available for the Pulse is not great (Sorry PD). Your designers need to come up with better plant options. The bottom being only white leaves a lot to be desired (PD please change this). In my case it worked because white was part of the colour scheme I chose. It looks great in the air. Otherwise fabulous canopy!!

stratosphelix · October 13, 2010

First impressions on Pulse 150:
Extremely positive.

Only 26 jumps on it but here it goes anyway. First, here's my canopies background:
300 Jumps in large school canopies
25 Jumps on PF Electra 210
350 Jumps on PD Spectre 190
25 Jumps on PD Spectre 150

I've about 80kg.

Pulse Openings: On heading feel, direct yet soft. Just simple and effective. With this canopy I got to troubleshoot what I believe to be an personal packing bad habit I was developing: Initial phases of deployment seemed real nice but, on final stage of inflation and descending slider, sometimes the canopy gained some tension and turned. Found out to be common behaviour on different canopies... so, "seek the human factor" :)

Then I realized I was getting sloppy on oversized lines stowing and lack of tightness on bag rubber bands.

After correcting this, did not feel unwanted motion building above or unbalanced moves again, ever. Have experienced nice smooth transitions to flight mode. The main impression on openings was a solid feel. Very nice feel. No trouble here.

Pulse flight: The first thing I felt about this canopy, I have to say, was recognition the announced flying profile was present.
Flying this canopy is much more a forward than downward business. You can feel the different glide angle, other than Spectre 190, more horizontal, as expected. Already found that to be quite comfortable in case of long spots. Makes you smile up there.

When full brakes applied, the canopy flew quite some time before finally starting to stall. Predictable. Half breaks and recovering was accomplished with no overall sensation of unexpected behaviour.
Sharp reaction to toggle input. I found no trouble at all to loose altitude when needed. Have experienced light turbulence conditions a couple times on landing, canopy seemed to handle that well no sudden loss of heading, nor shape, just little increment on vertical speed. Front risers inputs...well yes... tension, but haven't really tried them yet or even use those that much.

Pulse Landings: Takes only a couple landings to get the point. Found it easy to land, really. The first landing had a little late breaking but not much of a problem to this gliding canopy. Must keep in mind this one will not hop, though. I believe the difficulty in landing precision is a myth. As for any other canopy, just takes some jumps to get familiar with the flight and then is just natural.

Pulse Packing: Out of nowhere, I'm a packing GOD now. That quote about woman´s lingerie keeps returning my mind while folding the low bulk fabric... :)

Great all around canopy.

Larhsw · May 12, 2010

Have just made my 50th jump on my new Pulse 150. Packs very small, opens great, flies very flat and predictable, but lands like an old F-111 7 cell... Has good top end flare, but very, very weak bottom end flare/slow speed flare, even in a a decent head wind. I think they should have made the entire canopy in ZP, even if it means packing bigger... Going back to my SA2.

EFS4LIFE · March 8, 2010

I demoed a Pulse 190 from PD and I love this canopy. Super soft openings that don't take 1200 feet to open. Easy breezy landings. This canopy has the ability to get you back to the DZ from a long spot. My only complaint is the color selection as the ribs and underside are all white and you can't have it any other way, for now. PD PLEASE change this! Oh yeah another bonus is it will pack up a size smaller!

fogobo · December 10, 2009

After several jumps on a demo Pulse 170, I got one. I am an older skydiver with 1800+ jumps so I wanted a canopy with openings that were consistent and on heading. The Pulse delivers with very low opening drama. The Pulse will get you back to the DZ on a bad spot. This was a priority for me. Landing out increases the chance of injury. There is no problem packing, and old guys like me that use larger canopies can still have something that packs up small. A nice feature is the fabric that is used. It feels like ladies underwear, which makes packing a whole new experience. The Pulse has plenty of drive and landings are Charmin soft.

mpchilling · October 28, 2009

Demoed a Pulse 190, it packed up smaller then my SA2-170 in my M4, I had to shorten the closing loop, I rolled the nose and had quick openings that were just a little firm. One sub-term, pitched after a one second delay and opened in 300ft, but soft, even trying to get it to open off heading resulted in just a slow stable turn. Toggle turns ok, easy to flat turn and stay under the canopy, FR pressure was firm but I did a few 180’s. Much flatter then my SA2-170 I kept overshooting the pea pit. It flared the best for me with a one stage flare, and it felt just a little weak, overall I liked the Pulse and I’m thinking of buying one because I can upsize and keep the same container. I have about 950 jumps 8 on the Pulse.

TheAtom · October 21, 2009

I demoed the pulse 190 and bought one the next week. I have to say that this is a great all around canopy. I have about 70 jumps on the 190. The openings are almost always exactly on heading, and it feels really good to fly. It has a flatter glide than some other canopies, and it can definitely swing you around with the proper riser or toggle commands.

If you do high performance swoop landings this may not be the best canopy.
If you want a canopy that opens without drama, is fun to fly and practically packs itself...then I recommend the Pulse!

Time for me to downsize...selling my 190 and picking up the 170!

k-dubjumps · August 31, 2009

I demoed a 170 and then later a 150. Openings are nice and soft (especially after jumping a Sabre1). Out of 28 openings, I only had one off heading and it wasn't my pack job. Its nice and zippy, but not too aggressive. Not once did I utter a four letter word while packing these brand spanking new canopies. The ease of packing alone makes me want to get one. I will likely purchase one once I am ready to downsize. Until then I will go with something I can get used.

August 26, 2009

I demoed a Pulse in April and ordered one not long after. I'm very happy with my purchase so far!

For a brand-new canopy, the hybrid design makes it very easy to pack. The glide is fantastic; I like how it loses very little altitude in a turn. Makes getting back from a long spot no problem at all!

This is a great canopy for a jumper who wants a canopy that's fun to fly without being too aggressive.

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