Apco Twister

What is the Apco Twister like to fly?

Latest Comments

eden's picture

Hi all,
After a lot of thinking and flying demo wings I decided to go with the Airwave Burn (20m2). Makes more sense for the UK as I need a wing I can gain height on as well as have fun with. So far I have only 6hrs on it but it has been perfect!

Dan

patrickp's picture

Hey,
Ive flown my Twister in strong thermic conditions and in strong soaring conditions. In rough gritty thermals the reactions are quite violent but the wing seems to hold together well, ive never had any sort of collapse on it and i think in strong stable thermals it will handle quite well. The high wing loading seems to help quite alot with the stability, i used a normal wing in India and some Acro boys were out there and they seemed alot more stable than the other pilots and me but you could see the speed was an issue trying to get in tight on thermals without losing altitude.

Ive flown the twister in 22-25mph winds now and it was really nice to fly, very easy to launch no problems at all, the only thing was turbulence with the increased wind speed was a bit more violent but not really a problem.

lupus78's picture

I did thermal my Twister a few times. I never had any collapse. For the first time it's difficult to thermal. The glider turns very agile, and you have to learn to turn flat. I was flying also on the lee side, and was no problem at all. But you can turn the glider upside downing in just a few turns, it's so dynamic. I think if one dosen't want to do acro, and only needs a glider for soring in strong wind, the IBEX is a better option. Anyway, I haven't flown with the IBEX, so it is only theory! :)

eden's picture

Guys how does the Apco twister deal with rough air? Im looking for a dynamic wing and have been considering the Twister for a while. The only problem with the UK is we don’t have big hill from which we can launch to do acro. If we want altitude we have to thermal to get it. Generally this means rough condition with the likely hood of rough air. How does the wing thermal? I also want the wing for flying in winds up to 25mph on the ridge, how appropriate would it be for this. I have had one flight on a twister in light winds on a ridge (Patrick’s friend let me try his). Loved the wing as it had the speed and agility of my 12m2 micro glider but had the glide of a paraglider. Im trying to gauge the stability of the wing, how would it deal with a 50% or even a 60% collapse? I understand it’s a wing that needs active flying at all times. I have had tucks on my 12m2 wing while soaring in very high winds and the tuck popped out instantly with only a little input to dampen the dive. I wonder if the Twister would react the same way? I have flown the Nova Ibex15 (DHV2-3) (18m2 flat) at it was a blast but very fragile looking, any ideas how they compare?

Cheers

Dan

skogaman's picture

Hello!
I´v got my twister since about 25 to 30 flights and i love it! by the way there was no weather/time here in austria to do more.
the question was what it´s like?:
- fast
- dynamic
- very high breaking preasure
- doesn´t tend to mess up with u if it ever colapses
- very forgiving... so it´s perfect for training
- all in all perfect save acro glider
@bastard:1st ask pal, u´l get a good price via just acro
2nd have u ever flown a nikita? i think it is harder to fly. u have to like it because as u can see, both gliders manage to do all manouvers... depending on the pilot!
3rd i got mine from a friend and i beleave he got it directly from apco.
if u want, and u are somwere around stubenbergsee or lienz between the 5th and the 15th feb, we can meet up and u can do some flights with mine.

patrickp's picture

Me and my friend here in Wales got ourselves Twisters just after Christmas and yesterday we finally got to fly them.
I love it already I only managed to do a couple of wingovers because as usual in Britain the weather wasnt helping, so i only had 3 very short flights.
As lupus wrote the high canopy pressure makes it feel safe and it handles so smoothly.
Hopefully i can fly it for longer tomorrow weather looks ok so far!

gleitmittel's picture

why don`t you call apco?
I`m quite sure they can tell you where to buy...
;-)
In Switzerland: http://www.flybeo.ch

bastard's picture

Is there anybody knowing a dealer for the Twister next to austria? Hans Trisl from Skytools is no longer representing Apco-Gliders in Germany.. I´m looking for a Twister to make some flights, i´m not sure whats the better glider for me, the Twister or maybe the Nikita from Icaro.

Thanx for your help, greets from Salzburg, Chris.

drsat's picture

I have my new Twister! I got it today!! I can hardly wait for making the helico with it..and certainly all of the manouvers..

OveT's picture

Thanx Pál! I'll do my best, only hoping the weather to get better so I can get some more flights!
Wish you the best for 2007! I'm very sure that you and Gabor will kick some ass this season! Fly hard and have fun guys! :-)

PalTakats's picture

Hi Ove!

I'm happy to hear that you got your Twister!

Have fun with it and train a lot for the comps! :-)

See ya!

OveT's picture

Hi Patrick! I got myself an Apco Twister. I will be competing in the norwegian acro cup and the norwegian championship and some world cup events with it for 2007. Got my Twister a month ago, but due to crappy weather I only have 5 flights on it so far so I have not tested all my maouvers on it yet. My impresions of the Twister is that it is a very good acroglider. It feels "easier" than my past acrowings (U-Turn G-Force 18 and Gradient Seven 18), but still very powerful and dynamic glider. This sounds to me to the perfect combination for a scusessfull acroglider:-) As I wrote I have not tested all my manouvers with it but so far I found it sweet for helicopters yet very good for high tumbles and also easy for rythmic SAT. The wingtips are very stable and firm in every situation so this is very good. As lupus78 wrote the Twister have a very short braketravel so MacTwist and other manouvers were you have to snapstall the glider is probarbly very easy. (I have not done MacTwist on the Twister yet).
So far I am very happy with the Twister and I can highly recomend it as it is an excellent acroglider. I love it and just can't wait for my next flight onboard the Twister:)

Fly safe
Ove Tillung

BTW: Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all pilots:)

patrickp's picture

thanks for the info,it is very helpful! its very hard to find out anything about this glider except what Apco has written themselves as its still so new.

lupus78's picture

First of all I must confirm, that I haven't flown any other "real" acro wing, so I can't compare. Up till now, I had the chance to test fly Pal's Twister a few times. I only wanted to taste the feeling of this glider, so I started with wingovers.
Wingovers are beautiful! I love them, it's so easy to make nice, big ones, inversions. No need for big break inputs, just correct timing and weightshift. I has sooo much canopy pressure, that I felt is more safe than on normal gliders. Assym Spiral is easy to, I also did Looping with it for the first time.
Then I tried SAT and Assym SAT. It's fast :) Of course the break travel is very short, so I had to look out, not to pull a coconout spin.
Finally I tried full stall. I was a bit afraid of it, but it went smooth! The deflation is very quick, but it's quite easy to find the stable full stall position.
So all in all I love the glider. Before I was thinking that a glider like this is too hot for me (i'm a beginner/intermediate acro pilot, with a DHV2 wing, which I kicked the hell out of it :) ), but now I think the the higher canopy pressure, and the speed makes it even safer for acro, than a normal glider... But, definetly not for beginners!

patrickp's picture

I was wondering what you guys thought of the Apco Twister I know they had some time to develop it so some aspects must be better than other Acro wings,
but also what is it like in normal flight?