First flight on the R10.2

Drove to Wether Fell after dropping the camper van off for its MOT. Arrived about 11:30. It was windy - the top end of the launchable wind speed for a paraglider. Weary of the reputation of the gliders demanding launch characteristics I got it out of the bag for the first time, laid it out, checked the lines, connected up and clipped in for take off. The wind was very strong - watched Burkit Rudd lifted off his feet and launching backwards on his Gradient Proto! Mike Cavanah was also there with another R10.2 and he too was having problems before even clipping in when the wind took his glider and tied it into a nice bow tie for him!

Clip in, gentle pull on the centre A's, Glider coming up nicely then big asymmetric so I killed it. Tried again, another big asymmetric but this time I fought it and kept the wing up and cleared the collapse.

Straight out up and straight up! Flew around for a while soaring and taking some light thermals then used the performance to push forwards under a cloud and climb to base. Mike had finally launched and came to join me. I left the climb at base and flew away waiting for Mike to gain height then returned to join him. Were off....

Tried holding the B risers and active flying with them, with and without bar. Seems to work well but when a big surge forward came the instinct was to come off the bar (will have to work on that!)

We scratched and scraped out of the Dales over the moors, most climbs were poor but we were reluctant to leave them as we were not in orbit and tracking over remote moorland.

The glider was solid throughout.

Summary of my initial thoughts on the glider;

• The brake travel feels fairly light compared to my previous wing (Icepeak XP)



• The handling is superb, I'm surprised such a high aspect ratio wing can turn so nicely!



• The speed bar is super light



• the flex in the wing seems to be at the tips where the A lines cease being split onto separate tabs and the 'span tape' reduces from 2 strips to one as in the pic ->



• performance is good but no idea how good - the only glider I could compare against was Mikes R10.2!!

So, a grand day out with no drama (except the lousy launch characteristics)

see http://www.xcleague.com/xc/flights/2010720.html?vx=10 for the flight details.

Back to packing now!!!!!!!! ;-(