Data for fission induced by pi meson beams from 80 to 500 MeV are pres
ented for nuclei from Fe through Pu as measured by solid state track d
etectors. The general trends for binary fission with pi(+) are reprodu
ced fairly well by a calculation in the 'high excitation' limit with s
tandard level density and fission barrier parameters, but pi(-) data a
re underpredicted. A universal dependence of the binary fission probab
ilities with the fissility (Z +/- 1)(2)/A is found to be valid for bot
h pion beam charges for all beam energies below the delta resonance. P
robabilities for observing three fragments with pi(+) are not reproduc
ed by a ternary fission application of the model found to work for bin
ary fission.