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The
Paragliding Europeans, held in Morzine (France) in July 2006,
were a testing field for many new prototypes that the paraglider
designers are working on and from which they will develop
some of the fastest machines for the next World Championship
in Manilla (Australia), on February 2007. Winning is not always
the goal of these protos, they also serve as the working laboratory
where the designers mix secret formulas to obtain the ideal
race paraglider, the fastest ever, the star of the
Worlds. And success hardly ever comes at first try.
During the Europeans, more than once we caught a pilot/designer looking closely
at a rival's wing, touching the leading edge and studying the finishes. They
all were paying special attention to the other designers's gliders, and although
each of them seems to have a unique way, they all share the belief that paragliding
design is an endless work. It's impossible to know where it will lead us!
It is difficult to make these professional paraglider developers speak about
their own recipes or to unveil their secrets. They are sometimes more interested
in hearing what one of their colleagues said about a subject than telling what
they have in their usually brilliant minds. Anyway, here are some of the bits
and pieces they gave us after the Euros.
Thanks to Bruce Goldsmith from Airwave, Frantisek Pavloysek from Axispara, Gibus
from Aircross, Thomas Ripplinger from Advance, Gin Seok from Gin Gliders, Peter
Rezek from Mac Para and Torsten Siegel from UP. |
Published:
August 16th, 2006
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Peter Rezek,
Mac Para
"If the pilot
is satisfied with the glider, he flies better!"
For Mac Para, performance cannot be separated from pilot’s
confidence in the air so the big challenge for paragliding
design is the right balance between stability and speed,
glide and climb performance. But what’s 'right'?
“We have to try to improve weak spots according
to the wishes of our competitors” says designer
Peter Rezek, for whom the work and feedback from test pilots
is crucial for the formula. Mac Para has a solid team
of high level pilots that are often seen on the news
pages of the specialized press thanks to podiums and
records –at
the Euros, Petra Krausova kept the title of female champion
while Thomas Brauner was 3rd on the podium with protos
of the 5th generation of Magus. These
protos, evolved from the Magus 4, have higher aspect ratio
(from 4,2 to 4,7), less lines (-60 m), changes on the
wingtips, and different places of attachment points. “From
June 2005 till June 2006 our team pilots had tested 8
different prototypes in very different conditions and
in competitions: Caribbean Challenge, X-Ceára...
All of our team pilots have different flying styles and
it is a huge advantage to share experiences and information
with me as designer” explains Peter.
Their latest comp glider is a “winner‘s machine”
for him, with an aspect ratio of 7 and a different airfoil
“to reach all needs: very good climbing performance,
good stability, extraordinary gliding and maximum speed”.
At Mac Para can feel happy with the results of their gliders
in the last Europeans, but Peter says he could not really
observe the rest of the field to make comparisons.
“Anyway, if you would design the best glider
for gliding then it could have some weak points for thermalling
or stability, and the opposite. It will always be the pilot
who is flying the competition wing and taking decisions.
If he is satisfied with the glider he flies better, if
not he is looking somewhere else or he gives you information
about improvements. That is why our team pilots have my
respect and we invest a lot of money into competitions”, concludes Peter.
www.macpara.com
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Gin
Seok,
Gin Gliders
“Development
is a never ending work”
Although the Boomerang 4 was not in the podium in these Europeans,
Gin was happy to see so many different ideas materialized
in very dissimilar gliders there. “I’m
here to compare gliders and there are many concepts. You
need to compare with others” he says, and mentions
Axispara gliders as the ones that most impressed him: “They
fly very well”.
www.gingliders.com
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“I
am amazed at how the paragliders performance is growing.
Before, you needed to climb a lot to do a long glide,
but now you don’t need to be so high because the
glide is so good” says Gin.
When
we ask about the new proto he was flying in the comp
(Gin was in the “FAI Team” as an invited
non-European pilot) he eludes the answer but admits that
at Gin Gliders are working on a new proto for the next
Worlds.
“We are looking for performance with accessible
speed, 55k/h with an excellent glide. Robert Graham and I
work on different ways. We have pilots flying different protos
and we get the feedback from them to continue working. Developing
is never ending... The new protos are very fast and have
many things that are different from a Boom 4…” says Gin,
but doesn’t mention those differences, only “the wingtips” which
are visibly of a different shape, more round.
We’ll have to wait for Manilla to see the secrets that Gin doesn’t
want to mention here! |
 The
Europeans were very interesting for comparisons and to
see what’s being done in the design field. Bruce
admits that he and his colleagues are always looking
at each others’ work and that he has even tried
a comp glider from another manufacturer –which
he didn’t like much...
“This comp was very interesting. Donini was flying very fast… In
the British team we analyzed all our flights every day and I once asked Donini
to see his track. He had flown 5k/h faster than our fastest pilot!” tells
Bruce. The Magic FR2 with technology of 3 rows of lines, an aspect ratio of
7,2 and improvements in the inner structure is the latest comp glider in Airwave’s
range, but Bruce believes that it can (and will) be improved. “My glider
is very stable at speeds… and I love to have very good top speed, but
I’m
too scared to use it!” he says but claims that he is able to take at least
200 pictures in every flight. He’s not scared to release the brakes!
Bruce is working on another proto that’s “totally a different
way. That’s the interesting thing about designing paragliders”.
The Worlds will be both an opportunity and a final test for his ideas
materialized in a new race model, and Bruce concludes mysteriously: “I
have new radical ideas for the worlds!”.
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Bruce
Goldsmith,
Airwave
”I have new radical ideas for
the Worlds!”
With
one of the longest careers as a paragliding designer
in the world, Bruce is also a regular competitor who
uses his own flying experience on the design desk. During
the Europeans, he and test pilot Peter Brinkeby (DK)
were trying new protos but Bruce was not fully satisfied
with their performance: “It was not higher
than the FR2’s”, their current competition
glider. For him, as for all designers, creating paragliders
is a never ending task and there are many ideas to try
all the time.
www.airwave-gliders.com |
Gibus,
Aircross
“Safety
is important in a glider -or nobody would fly it!”
Gibus resembles the topic of a mad genius while he speaks passionately
about his gliders and work. His race model Ultima 3 surprised the world
of competition in 2003 with its high aspect ratio and very slim shape
that reminds you of a knife. Three years later, the U3 is still flying
and doing well in comps with only slight changes from the first prototype.
Gibus is now working on a replacement.
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One
of his latest protos (Ultima 4?) has only 2 risers but he
was not happy with the safety part and it was also necessary
to lower the chord to increase the aspect ratio for better
performance and stability –and still a lot of work
to do. “The project is still there” says
Gibus, but they are working on other protos as well that
will probably be more competitive in a short term. Stephan
Audierne, Gibus’ right hand, helps us get the facts: “We
have two competition protos and 2 lines of work. In the first
one we increased the aspect ratio to 9 points. On the other
we used a new profile that has more speed, and the same structure;
and it is a very easy to fly glider. We are still working
on both ways and then we’ll know what’s best.
We have to go step by step”.
The very thin Ultima 3 is now being flown by comp pilots in more and more
international events and it is said to be quite safe despite its aspect
ratio of 7,8. At Aircross are happy to see better and better results by
their pilots (“not very known, but improving in every championship”).
About the 9 a.r. proto, Gibus says that they increased the loading to 5
kg/m2 to get more speed, but are still working on the security in flight. “If
you have a glider with such a high aspect ratio it has to be safe for the
pilot too, or nobody would fly it!”
Aircross are working on a new “top-end” DHV 1-2 glider as well,
aiming at top performance in the class with the same U3 and Trialp (their
DHV2-3 model) image. Production will be moved to Gin’s factory in
Korea soon. |
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Manufacturer of the current world champion glider, Advance
are quite satisfied with their present competition gliders
that are only flown by an exclusive team of test pilots
and not sold to the public. During the Europeans, former
champ Chrigel Maurer was flying the 2005 proto but at Advance
are working on new features and are confident about the
progresses they’ll make before Manilla 2007.
Designer
Thomas Ripplinger explains:
“At the 2006 Europeans, Chrigel was flying his World Championship glider
from 2005, and even his glider from the European Championship in 2004 was in
the field (flown by Michael Witschi). Both gliders were still competitive in
the 2006 Europeans (Chrigel 2nd, Michael 4th) which shows that the high arc,
high aspect ratio concept is a promising technology both for competition and
serial class high performance gliders”.
Advance also had two new prototypes
flown by Andy Aebi and Helmut Eichholzer, “evolutionary developments” from
Chrigel’s 2004 and 2005 gliders, which according to Thomas have slightly
more performance especially at high speed, “without penalizing the
safety of the glider. The main design parameters, like curvature and aspect ratio,
are the same as on Chrigel's older gliders. That the performance level of the
new gliders is slightly higher than of the old ones, can be seen at the fact
that they are as good as the old ones, although they are clearly smaller (25m2
vs. 30m2)”.
In future designs, the Swiss manufacturer will continue optimizing
the high arc - high aspect ratio concept, in order to further increase
the performance both at trim and at high speed, without sacrifising
safety. “In our view it is absolutely essential to have
high performance gliders which can be flown at high speed, without
risking a crash after serious collapse” says Thomas.
Asked about conclusions from the comparison of their gliders with
other top-end protos, Ripplinger keeps his optimistic view: “The
2006 Europeans showed that even the 2004 and 2005 Advance competition
gliders are still competitive, which brings us in a comfortable situation
for the 2007 World Championship”.
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Thomas
Ripplinger,
Advance
"We
are in a comfortable situation for the Worlds"
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Torsten
Siegel, UP
“Performance is
nothing without a reasonable safety!”
While some designers carefully choose the words to describe their paragliders
in order to say as little as possible, at UP enjoy giving technical
details and talking about their latest developments, of which they
are very proud. The
new race machine Targa 3 is in full production and Jean
Marc Caron did a good job in the Euros with one of the
development protos...
www.up-paragliders.com
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But
he was unlucky to lose the 3rd place on the last task due
to a collapse that grounded him just before the goal line.
Still, designer Torsten Siegel –a keen competition
pilot himself- is enthusiastic about the 3rd generation
of the Targa series. The Targa 3 came out after several
tests, competitions and comparisons of 3 protos since the
beginning of the year. “In
Brazil (PWC) we recognized that we’re on the right
way –for glide and thermalling abilities- and we
finished the Targa 3 right before the Europeans” explains
Torsten. The new Targa has a higher aspect ratio and
more real area (projected area of the wing is similar)
and two different design software packages were used
to build it: a Parafoil simulation and design software
called ParaLabs and the LT Parafoil software for precise
cut of patterns and optimal sail tension. Co-designer
Stephan Stieglair says that the ParaLabs software allows
them to “realistically” calculate
both the aerodynamic characteristics of a new design
and to analyze performance data such as speed and glide: “It
even gives us a good indication of the stability!”
Torsten continues: “This makes UP probably the
only paraglider manufacturer anywhere to use two of the most
advanced business-specific software solutions on the market
today. Through this we’re able
to build solid AND safe wings, and the Targa 3 won’t be the last...
Since the last years we also show that the UP competition wings –at
the end the whole Targa-Series– are one of the safest gliders in
the competition scene. Easy to fly, reliable, very stable at high speed
and good to handle if a collapse happens. This is a point where we keep
an eye on it also in the future – performance is nothing without
a reasonable safety!” he says.
Comparisons with the rest of the field in the Euros convinced Torsten
that UP’s concept is “a great success” and
goes in the right direction. For him, the whole flying characteristics
of the Targa 3 show no weakness: “There are some other
wings which perform in some parts a little bit better but they have also
disadvantages which we don’t have. The Targa 3 is a wing which
each competition pilot should be able to handle and it gives you a lot
of confidence also in very turbulent conditions. And the development
of the Targa 3 goes on...”
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Frantisek
Pavloysek, Axispara
“It’s impossible
to be a designer and not fly”
Axispara is a young Czech company that has made
its way into the paragliding world backed by the
successes of their competition glider, Mercury,
in the PWC and other top events, flown by some
very good pilots. David Ohlidal is one of them:
test pilot at Axispara, last year finished 2nd
in the PWC ranking and this year took the 6th place
overall in the Europeans with one of the new protos.
Frantisek is the designer and also a well-known
competition pilot who’s been in the Czech National team many times
since 1987.
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He
agrees in that the design work is a daily, never ending
task. “I’m
working every day on new ideas, sometimes for the competition
glider but also for the beginner’s gliders. Here, David
and I were flying new protos. David is working on a top comp
glider for next season with more performance and also we’ll
develop a serial glider with almost the same performance.
His proto is a totally new glider, but there are still some
things to work on it – it never ends!” explains
Frantisek.
He adds that during the last season David was
flying a glider with an aspect ratio of 6,8 points when
all the comp gliders had 6,3, and this season all the top
gliders have aspect ratios of 6,8 - a sign that good ideas
are quickly reproduced.
The proto he was flying is more stable and it has few changes
compared to the normal Mercury. Frantisek says he is very
happy with the Mercury because it has good performance
and it’s very stable at speed.
“And
the pilots are happy with it. I know because I fly a lot and compete
with my gliders as part of the design work. It’s
impossible to be a designer and not fly!”
www.axispara.cz
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