My apologies in advance if I am reviving an old thread, but someone might find this useful.
I've been in the sport officially for 6 months, after about 2 years of thorough research to decide if I wanted to commit. I trained at a reputable and high quality school in Indiana. (Midwest PPG, can't say enough about how valuable that was, and how great they are). I wanted to get a lot of ground handling in before school, and picked up a used Large (28 or 29 meter) 3 year-old Dominator for $1500 US. I spent over 25 hours kiting it before my school started. I spent my time at the school on an Ozone Mojo XL and a BGD Magic, both docile beginner-class wings. I bought an Ozone Roadstet 3 and Parajet Maverick after the leaving training, but Ozone had a lengthy wait time due to COVID-19 (9 weeks so far), leaving me with a cool motor, and my "practice" wing.
Needless to say, a few days after getting my motor and frame, I was clipping into the dominator to fly. I am only 35 flights in, so consider that when reading this - but it feels every bit as stable and forgiving as the beginner wings I flew during training. Steep banks or turns require considerable break pull, and it returns overhead after coming out of a turn without needing any input from me. Getting it into an oscillation requires intentional effort. Essentially, it flies like a slightly larger Mojo.
One considerable change for me, coming off the other 2 wings, is that I need to launch it with trims 75% out. If the trims are in, the sides of the wing come up promptly, as the center stays down, and I blow every launch. Trims mostly out fixes that. Dell Says in one of his videos to launch with trims full out, but I haven't found that necessary and it seems excessive. As soon as I'm off the ground, I pull trims in immediately, otherwise my climb rate suffers drastically, and I've already had a few near misses with [trees, telephone poles, a fence] on my first few launches. If I pull enough break to climb without the trims in, I feel like I'm flirting with a stall 5 meters off the ground. 3/4 out seems perfect for me. It seems to land just fine trims in or out.
My impression at this point is that it is not sporty, or fast, but I have full confidence that it is safe. I can only guess that performance and speed records must be set by thoroughly loading a small wing, because with 150 kg on a 28 m wing, I'm not breaking any speed records. But when the air gets punchy and I'm 200 m up, I put my hands up, throttle down and don't have any worries.
I would buy this wing again as a beginner wing. But probably not for $4k.
Dominator?
in General paramotor discussion
Posted
My apologies in advance if I am reviving an old thread, but someone might find this useful.
I've been in the sport officially for 6 months, after about 2 years of thorough research to decide if I wanted to commit. I trained at a reputable and high quality school in Indiana. (Midwest PPG, can't say enough about how valuable that was, and how great they are). I wanted to get a lot of ground handling in before school, and picked up a used Large (28 or 29 meter) 3 year-old Dominator for $1500 US. I spent over 25 hours kiting it before my school started. I spent my time at the school on an Ozone Mojo XL and a BGD Magic, both docile beginner-class wings. I bought an Ozone Roadstet 3 and Parajet Maverick after the leaving training, but Ozone had a lengthy wait time due to COVID-19 (9 weeks so far), leaving me with a cool motor, and my "practice" wing.
Needless to say, a few days after getting my motor and frame, I was clipping into the dominator to fly. I am only 35 flights in, so consider that when reading this - but it feels every bit as stable and forgiving as the beginner wings I flew during training. Steep banks or turns require considerable break pull, and it returns overhead after coming out of a turn without needing any input from me. Getting it into an oscillation requires intentional effort. Essentially, it flies like a slightly larger Mojo.
One considerable change for me, coming off the other 2 wings, is that I need to launch it with trims 75% out. If the trims are in, the sides of the wing come up promptly, as the center stays down, and I blow every launch. Trims mostly out fixes that. Dell Says in one of his videos to launch with trims full out, but I haven't found that necessary and it seems excessive. As soon as I'm off the ground, I pull trims in immediately, otherwise my climb rate suffers drastically, and I've already had a few near misses with [trees, telephone poles, a fence] on my first few launches. If I pull enough break to climb without the trims in, I feel like I'm flirting with a stall 5 meters off the ground. 3/4 out seems perfect for me. It seems to land just fine trims in or out.
My impression at this point is that it is not sporty, or fast, but I have full confidence that it is safe. I can only guess that performance and speed records must be set by thoroughly loading a small wing, because with 150 kg on a 28 m wing, I'm not breaking any speed records. But when the air gets punchy and I'm 200 m up, I put my hands up, throttle down and don't have any worries.
I would buy this wing again as a beginner wing. But probably not for $4k.