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Safer wings


matt_k

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I can think of one Steve. THERMALLING. Even then it sounds like the Fusion and the Nucleon have caught up to be as good as the hill flying wings. Not flown beside those yet but allways out climb my mates on the Revos. Same speed too with trimmers and an extra 20 kilo overload. Horses for courses though

Dave

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Touche

Hope I can get down to see you this year so you can show me how it's done mate. :D

Cheers

Steve

I can think of one Steve. THERMALLING. Even then it sounds like the Fusion and the Nucleon have caught up to be as good as the hill flying wings. Not flown beside those yet but allways out climb my mates on the Revos. Same speed too with trimmers and an extra 20 kilo overload. Horses for courses though

Dave

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The Pap is only the 1250 cage,(im only 5.5) i tried it out today not flying but just fitting and its surprising how much more thrust it has as they are supposed to be close thrust to the mxl it felt alot more.

Im glad i did the mxl first, it gave me confidence and helped my technique.

Looking forward to the nice weather!

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I remember my early days when I swapped and tried 3 different paragliders. Edel Sabre, Firebird Matrix and a FreeX Moon. All so so with paramotor, very slow just floating about which was fine at the time. But when I got my first reflex wing, wow it really opened the whole concept up, forward speed going places and being able to explore my surroundings. Now on the Fusion I feel I have the best of both A to B speed and trims on slow and explore. Reflex is a good thing.

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Your Synthesis, Revolution, ReAction, Nucleon, Plasma, Action GT are all reflex wings all the way to the stopper. Past 0 down to -5 only very small amount of reflex but its there.

Paramania Fusion is the only wing to claim full Paragliding capability and next to no reflex at full trims all the way IN.

At Zero setting your wing has full reflex capability, below '0' in the negative numbers your wing has reduced reflex, reduced speed and reduced sink, above '0' your wing has more speed, with more reflex.

A non reflex paraglider wing when entering a thermal will at first pitch back due to it being pitch negative (as a paraglider pilot you would control this with brake pressure) Under power this would be exaggerated as you are already pushing out in front with thrust.

A reflex wing will do the opposite, it will pitch forward as it is pitch positive. The reflex section of the wing does its best to maintain a constant pitch angle so you don't touch the brakes. If you are already pushing along under power pitch positive is preferable.

Pitch is the forward and back movement of the wing above your head.

All the extra speed created by using this reflex ability means the wing itself has more internal pressure, thus further reducing the chances of a collapse. Constant pitch angle + higher internal pressure = Very very rarely hear of a collapse from a good reflex wing in normal use.

The synthesis and Paramania Revolution are definitely the safest wings currently available for powered flight.

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Sorry to disagree Vince but this is an area where most reflex pilots fail to understand some vital facts with the design of their wings. The Fusion, Revolution and Action GT do not have reflex wing sections at any trim setting below maillons level (this includes the take off setting). Consequently in these parts of the trim range the wing section is pitch unstable. Do not think that sounds scary because it is not, it just means that the wing is not trying to restore itself overhead, it should be done by flying actively just like a regular PG. The reason for this is an attempt to give a small performance improvement for gliding purposes. Dudek reflex designs do have reflex at all trim settings so unless the situation is so rough that you feel the need to take manual control then the positive stability in pitch at all times should be left to do its job without pilot interference.

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I have always understood that they remain to have a small amount of reflex all the way down, not enough to be any use in REFLEX terms but by design it is always present in some form, except on the most recent reflex (the fusion)

I understood Take off trim has a small amount of pitch positive (reflex) which is what makes it climb so nicely.

Humm I guess its all in the wording. I could agree that they do not have full reflex capability below the neutral mark and quickly reducing all the time down towards the -5 or what ever number you have. I would say it remains pitch positive for most of the way down until near the end. Interesting and something that needs clarifying. I have seen this question on the forums before somewhere 'how much reflex is present on closed trims'

Not to confuse the new guys. Pitch negative and no reflex is not dangerous it is just like flying a normal paraglider, with the reflex ability as being a bonus.

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I'm very keen to point out that the term pitch unstable is not a cause of concern as it is a feature on nigh on every PG wing flying today. Most conventional aircraft wing sections are pitch unstable (more commonly referred to as negative pitch stability) but this is countered by use of a tailplane. A PG counters it by either the weight getting so far laterally displaced that it restores the pitch attitude of the wing (non-active flying) or the pilot using the brakes to fly the wing back to its overhead position (active flying).

Just to give some reference to back up my statement take a look at page 30 of the Revolution manual. Read the text under the orange/yellow coloured airfoil sections from left to right and you can see the explanation that at a neutral trim setting (maillons level and important to realise that this is higher than the take off setting) the "introduction of Reflex effect".

This is further backed up by the comment on Page 11 for first flights...

We recommend that, to give yourself the chance to get used to it, your first flights should be made on the fixed range of trim settings, where,

the Revolution will feel more familiar, like a conventional wing. With this trim try flying with a small amount of brake - at the point where they

just begin to feel heavier. In practice, this point will be encountered at about the one-quarter-brake position.

This is describing that the wing should be flown with a small amount of brake pressure which allows the pilot to raise the hands to accelerate the wing if it tries to hang back as well as being able to brake out a surge forwards.

Also on Page 16 concerning climb out...

Once off the ground and flying safely, continue into wind using the brakes to achieve the desired climb rate.

This is indicative of technique for a wing not exhibiting reflex for stability at these trim settings.

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