Looking at the CCC's.
Author: Ivan Anissimov
It is cold winter, rain, short days, not much flying, so I might get some readers.
Disclaimer: all above and below could be wrong in part or in whole or it could be just a figment of my imagination, so don’t trust anyone!
Now, TWO LINERS…
I will leave definition to experts, but concentrate on 2, 8 and 10. It might be worth to mention good old 10 and 11 as well, just to get some historic perspective.
It is all started around 2009-10 with BHPP taking out everything possible in comps. Result was R10, twitchy, but first of its kind. About 80% of the field in big comps were flown on the same model. Perfect! Finally, levelled playing field!
Soon enough in 2011 IP6 and Boom appeared, but were outdated from the start by R11. Which was banned in 3 month altogether with every other two liners by most of the nations… Sad days of paragliding.
Now, 4 years later, we are kind of recovering from that, with a lot of red tapes and idiocracy still affecting our flying and safety. For those who are interested, have a dig at Luk Armant’s explanation of certification difficulties they have to overcome. In short: they should make glider more prone to collapses to pass certification. Ridiculous…
Anyway, coming back to today. We got few gliders, as I mentioned at the start, 2, 8 and 10, which is two liners with extra four lines hanging behind normal B lines and not carrying anything apart from drag until we got big collapses. According to the experts, they would make a difference then, but I suspect they are there just to produce numbers necessary for certification tests. I am happy to disregard them as hand brake on my car.
Apart from these extra C lines these gliders have another feature: speed limiter. To be exact, I should say that they don’t have the same speed system travel distance. From R10 days speed system travel got shorter and shorter… And that is one of the most important factors to understand, as it has very specific effect on whole flying, especially in comps.
I will try again, the other way I see it. Traditionally every polar of any glider had a dip at the end of it. So if you push far enough, you will go down, fast.
What happens if you chop this bit of polar off? Your glider would get stuck in second gear then, right? That exactly what happens with nowadays two liners. Well, may be not exactly, but I hope you got my point of view. So, “up to rings” on R10 become “full bar no trims” on R11 and then “full bar, but still in second gear” on everything now. In other words: if I am on full bar on Enzo 2, it is flying as good as half bar on R10 (could be 58.7%).
As a result of chopping speed bar (and ballsJ) off, new gliders don’t have dip at the end of their polar. And they go flat out flat! And you have to have a very good reason not to push full bar all the time, as it is really only half bar, remember? Well, that is what I am repeating to myself all the time…
With all this in mind, the days of tactical flying is long gone. If you are not pushing full bar from start to finish on normal good day with thermal strength over 2 m/sec, you got no chance! Zero, nil, zilch, etc…
For some (my self included) it makes life much easier: no more guess work about when, how much and for how long to push it. Just stick it in second, try to relax and wait for thermal, ground or collapse to hit you. Others prefer to believe that they still have a chance by go slow and got disappointed most of the time…
Again: IT IS ONLY SECOND GEAR!!! It is all we got now, after castration…
Next question: about glider models. Well, to be honest, after the World in Columbia it is not really a question. Boom 10 equal Enzo 2 with Ice Peaks starts showing in the second half of the scoring sheets. That is the last half, not the first one. Looks pretty convincing to me. Any pilot planning to win that kind of comps with that kind of handicapped glider must be way better than all existing pilots or just delusional.
Don’t get me wrong, IP is very, very good glider for the most of the pilots. Its handling is way better than others, but it would not win big comps. It is very good to start from; actually, it is only one to start from… And I am really hoping that manufactures will come up with something as nice as IP, with performance better than Enzo 2 or Boom 10. They have to, they don’t have much choice!
And the last question for now, as it is getting to long and late: what the difference?
Quite a few come to mind. Dangerous? Yes and no. Is the collapse resistance dangerous? Not really, but we can make it dangerous if we will start acting as we going to live forever! Pilot without practice in collapse recovery become pilot in danger. If you don’t have collapses, it could be no good too! Get high, find turbulence, push full bar and start practicing! And second reserve can become a brilliant idea! Read Adrian Thomas comments on Worlds, very good!
Are they better?
Sure is!
Should they be in separate class?
Sure they should! Hang gliders are!
Could “normal” glider win comp?
Only if others would stuff up their days as much as we did in Bright. No disrespect to Juno, he was brilliant and showed us how much room for improvement we have!
Should you buy one?
NO NO NO! First of all, I will loose my legal unfair advantage then!
On serious note, you should work towards it for years, not just buy and see what happens. You might as well buy helicopter and try to fly it and see what happens with the same result. If you thinking about it, find someone you trust and ask. Then ask me.
And finally, TRIMMING!
Ups…
What trimming?
No, no, no trimming!
Until the next post at least!
Author: Ivan Anissimov