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EN-A Paramotor Wing


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  • 1 month later...

OK, here are my thoughts on the ITV Boxer L:

Tested with Fly Products Power Gold 115 and Trike Flash.

Elevation: 200' ASL, grass airstrip

Weather Conditions:

Flights 1 and 2: Mostly cloudy, light crossing winds on the

ground, stronger winds aloft with turbulence.

Flights 3 and 4: Mostly cloudy, light winds on the ground and

aloft, little to no turbulence.

Construction and Preflight:

Very lightweight materials with good quality construction all

around. Risers are very thin and lines tend to tangle more easily

after removing from stuff sack. Glider seems fairly water

repellent but is affected by damp grass. I had to take extra time

to clear all my lines after laying out the glider. Other than

that preflight is very straightforward. Finding the center of the

glider was confusing as there is no central dot but instead the

ITV logo so I used that as my reference.

I liked the dual hook in points and found them very useful for

using backup caribiners as the two hangpoints are very close and a

caribiner failure would not have much affect with the backups

hooked in to the free flight hang point. Brakes seemed a little

short with not very much slack available for extending, even with

the motor hang points but they were usable thoughout the entire

trim range.

Launching:

Launching was good although I had trouble with getting even

inflations 3 out of 4 times. Even so, it was fairly easy to

center the glider with some gentle adjustments on the brakes while

rolling with the trike. Take off was very smooth with good lift

and nice climbout. If I had more time with this glider I am sure

I would find the inflation characteristics to be excellent.

Flying:

Once airborne the handling is sublime. A gentle pull on the

brakes initiates a nice authoritative turn with little diving

tendency. A harder pull produces a diving turn which is

incredibly fun and very effective. I can actually feel the blood

rushing from my head when pulling hard on the brake! There is

less torque tendency than on my Arcus but I still found it

necessary to offset with the trimmers for straight flight when

climbing.

In turbulence this glider feels very solid and dampens the bumps

very well. It communicates the turbulence with feedback to the

pilot without moving around so much to make it unsettling (like my

Arcus).

With trimmers half out there is a noticeable increase in speed

without a significant degredation in efficiency. The brakes are

still fairly easy as well with effective turning ability. With

trims all the way up this glider was quite fast while not

requiring a lot of extra power and the brakes were not too heavy -

suprisingly! Still very good turn authority although my hand

position was a little high for my liking so I would prefer to have

longer brakes. With the trimmers out this is a great XC glider!

I measured about 28 - 29 mph average airspeed with my GPS over the

course of several measurements upwind and downwind. With trimmers

full in (or slow) I measure about 23 - 24 mph airspeed. Really

super for an EN-A wing!

Landing and Conclusion:

Landing was great too with nice efficiency on glide. This glider

was so efficient that when I did a power off landing I overshot my

target by quite a bit! I guess I'm not used to that yet!

All in all this is an excellent glider either for carving it up

around the patch or for going XC to a faraway destination. It's

hard to believe that it is EN-A (beginner) certified even with the

trimmers out!

I recommend this glider to anyone who is looking for a good

performing solid intermediate wing that they can throw around or

simply wants something that is very stable and is comforting while

still offering a lot of excitement.

-Jeff T.

Bedford, MA USA

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