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16 years ago
I bought a sol supersonic.
I am flying for 13 years but never used an acro wing.
I have a great handling ability.
I flew 8-10 times with my new wing and everything is fine. I am very comfortable.
I even had a front tuck and recovered from it with no problems and I managed a satisfying canopy control. to sum up everything was good.
HOWEVER
I wonder if any one wants to give me advise about anything (about my new devil)
you know... maybe you will want to worn me about something. In the end this is a very new canoppy for me and I dont know the flight characteristics of an acro wing.
I thought you can want to say things like
do this...
do that...
acro wings are... bla bla bla
I dont want to learn some tricky points after breaking my bones.
thanks A LOT
hakan
Latest Comments
When I was looking for a more acro-oriented wing some time ago, I was also tempted to look for hardcore / high-end acro-gliders like the Apco Twister, U-Turn G-force etcetera.. But I was able to control my ambition a little bit and decided to buy myself an entry-level acro-glider like the U-Turn FreeForce22 I fly now. Because of too many other obligations I'm a relatively low airtime pilot so I have to realize that although my level is allright, I don't have the possibillity to fly lots of hours each year. I'm so happy I decided to buy this wing instead of a more hardcore wing to be honest. I fly the wing about 10kgs above the max weight which increases agility a little bit more.
Of course there are also things I don't like that much about my wing:
- inputs are still quite heavy (which can be anoying sometimes)
- relatively long brake-inputs
But:
- lovely agility
- possible to thermal reasonably, however sink rate is MUCH more than non-acro gliders, possibly also due to my over-the-top weight under the glider
- the wing (not me - I'm still training) can do virtually every manoeuver, except infinity probably, but at the moment that's beyond my league anyway ; )
...and for me most important when training acro:
- the wing is still controlable in messy situations !!
I found out I'm still not even close to the real limitations of what my current wing can do in performance. I concluded for myself that it would not have made me happy to fly a more hardcore wing at this moment, where I would worry too much if I can really control the wing in every situation, like I can do it now with my FreeForce. By taking this intermediate step first and buying an entry-level acro-wing, it is much easier for me to build up my skills and exploring how far this wing can bring me with a lot of fun.
Maybe it is 'uncool' to not showing the dare-devil-I-can-do-everything-kind-of-attitude, but I don't care about that ; ) ...I'm still alive and very happy : )
Have F U N !!
I totally agree with Arjan
At the beginning my plan was so. However I found myself in a very attractive situation like finding my love (SOL supersonic) at a very good cost. So I just couldnt resist.
Now it is a little bit hard to fly with sonic but I was lucky that I can really control it.
starting with an entery level like a freestyle canophy would be much much more safier and controlable.
thanks for your contribution Arjan :)
I have been forgotten an important point and you didnt :)
have good flights
I am new in acro but very very old in flying. I have a great handling ability but know nothing in acro.
What I can do is helico and wing overs (with a ltf 2 glider I can easly grow them until a loop) thats all. but since my handling is good I had no problem with sonic. I easly get used to fly with it. I met a guy who is using the same glider. He is good at acro he can do lots of maneuvers but he dont have better handling than me. I can do landing and stall and wing overs better than him. Why I am telling these things ? because It will help you to figure out my piloting and help you to understand my answer. I think my comments will be useless if you dont know my piloting.
so let me answer your q.
I dont know the size but I remember the pilot limit. it is <95 and I weigh around 75
take of is good not too tricky to handle. handling is very hard but after getting used to it the tottal ability of both you and the wing increases very high. when flying with an acro wing I advise forget all the things learned about safety. you have to be very carefull and think twice before take off. I had an accident 2 mounths ago.
I decide to take off when I start handling with my wing. so at that day I did same and got my sonic. started handling. I saw that I can handle easlly. so as usual I said to myself since I can handle the wind at the ground I can handle it in the air. But unfortunately I couldnt. The reason was simple total ability of us (wing and the pilot) increased so baddly that I can handle in a wind that can couse bad collapses. I forgot to understand this. I had 3 collapses in the air. one was too close to the ground and I dont have enough speed to handle it. I was just trying to start a dive before landing. So I was speeding down (just about entering to a deep stall) and gad a 50 percent collapse. hit the ground. I was lucky. :)
I didnt had any problems with the take off. but I can say that it gets very hard with a zero wind. it really makes you run. you never feel the usual presure that you feals with an usual wing. it feals like entering a collapse when you take off. it is very light very low pressure. I think it is about the undersize of the wing area. it is really very speedy both an the ground and in the air. when you handle I advice at least halfen all the things you do halfen the brake distances, halfen the weight shifts, and halfen the response time. it is very small and you have to reackt small. if you did that way it dont took very long time to get used to it. but be very carefull. it is tottally different.
I have friends doing acro. I asked if they used one. and tried to get their impression. they told me that it is really cool. (cool sonic :))
but it is eating the height. many acro wings dont lose that much height when doing the same maneuvers. (this is just what they told)
regarding that there is nothing bad to say about the sonic. I got 6 collapses with it in 3-4 mounths. you have to be carefull about it. it really easly have a collapse. and it happens in a sudden. one big (50 %) happened when I was flying no breake (I wasnt using the speed bar) I didnt had even 1 degree turn. I just breake hard (half the hard compared with my old wing) like chest it didnt turned any. and one pump was okay to reopen. I wait a bit to recover itself but it didnt. I cant say it was hard to open. it easly reopens. one ordinarry pump is ok. but very very hard to control. when I breaked like 50 % it started to dive back a bit so I released the breake 10 cm but it started to dive forward so I breake a little bit more like 3-5 cm. Thats it onlly 1-2 cm differs. Do lots of handling with a really strong wind. and one important thing to say do lots of stalls like 100 (pal takats said it to me) unfortunatelly I fleight 2 times over the water. at one I did wingovers spirals and assymetric spiral at the other I did stall one time. it is very good.
another thing to say is you will have problems regarding the speed. however you will be vary happy with the speed when doing dynamic maneuvers like wingovers. you dont need any breake to overcoming a collapse because you will forget wingover collapses. you wont get any collapse doing a wingover. If you can do high wingovers with a ltf 2 glider you can loop easly. just do the same. lots of weight shift and little breake. dont even look to the glider if it will have a collapse. it dont lose its presure. perfect feeling.
I didnt used other acro gliders but as I heard from other pilots sonic is good.
by the way I am telling about supper sonic. mine is supper sonic.
you will need a good handling and care. You must know what are you using. it is really different from other wings.
I hope I dont bother you. have nice flights
and I am posting this to the just acro web site incase somebody need it or you may want to re see ;)
let me know if you got acro wing.
Thanks.
It's strange why I couldn't find untill now, these datas evan in the sites you indicated to me. It sounds like the site was updated few days ago.
http://www.solparagliders.com.br/midias/download/info-supersonic.pdf
http://www.solparagliders.com.br/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=vi...
Here are some technicals of the glider.
Hi Hakan,
I'm interest to buy a Supersonic as you did and I need to know a few things. First I cannot find some technical data of this glider, maybe you can help me. Tell me please,about the size of your wing, your take-off weight and your first feeling about the load. This will be my first acro wing and I don't want to make a mistake with the size. Thank you.
Thanks AKIRA :)
Hi Hakan,
If I see my friend again, I ll ask him for tricks with the glider.
Fly safe.
Than it must be my awkwardness. But good to hear that It is not impossible. My question is about the statement. As you said I told lots of things. so I wonder if I have any wrong impression about the wing.
The things that I said are all my thoughts about the wing so I wanted to chech if I have missed any point.
Thanks for your reply :)
Well I don't know what kind of answer you really expect. You don't ask too many questions but put very strong statements. BTW a friend of mine is also flying a sonic and he can thermal very well ...
Hi Pal
I wrote the same topic to the paraglidingforum.com before trying this site but didnt got even one reply so I want to mention that I am really happy to make this conversation. thanks alot. I had some impressions and want to share with you in order to understand if I am right or wrong this is one of my reply to the paragliding forum.
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I send a message to the just acro forum and PalTakats gave some advice. (thanks alot pal) I had one front and one assymetric collapse allready. everythign went fine. no turns (even an angle) fast recovery. hard to control the glider but not impossible. I am getting used to it. perfect flying. this is the glider. I recomend the other pilots who thinks to buy an acro wing that if they are really have perfect handling with an advanced glider you can get an acro wing. However you still will have lots of problems and will be hard to get used to it so you can first try a less hard core one. like ones that can be used both for acro and thermal flying. by the way no way of turning termals with this guy. It is eating the altitute. you need really very strong termals. and your flights shortens alot. so forget to fly with it. you can just acro. These are my thoughts shaped in a period of 2 weeks flight with my new wing.
important note: This glider is really dangerous. it is not important how you handle the glider or if you can control the glider or not, it is still dangerous. as long as I understood you will need at least 3 or 4 times more distance from the hill compared with the other wings for your safety.
good flights
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does these thoughts fit the reality (they will shape my flights so they are really important)
:)
Thanks a lot for your help
Hi Hakan!
Okay, that sounds already good. Just take care, an acro glider will be really much more violent and dynamic than what you are used to now, so take it easy and go step by step.
Anyway, regarding your main question, I don't think there is nothing to worry about the sonic, just what I already mentioned above :-)
So good luck practicing and avoid swimming in seewater!
Pál
AND Fortunatelly I am in turkey so I plan to go to oludeniz and practice alot :)
I can do (with not SOL supersonic)
sat
helico
loop (from wing overs)
huge wingovers
ground spiral
asymetric spiral
I didnt started tumbling or asymetric sat yet. I am trying to masterise my helicos
I didnt tried tail slide. I know it doesnt sposed to be but I started with helico since I didnt know the rule.
but I was doing these maneuvers with my DHV 2 pro design titan (medium size) I weigh around 75 kg (in the middle range of the gliders pilot weight.)
:)
Hi Hakan!
My advise:
Go over water and do some Full Stall's - if you never did that before, forget about flying / trying any maneuvers with an acro glider!!! You might get surprised...
If it is going well, do MORE Full Stall's, find the stable point and keep in in tail slide under controll.
If you're done and you feel like your controlling the glider well, do another 100 (!) Full Stalls!
I'm not joking...
It is hard to give any further advise without knowing your level. Why did you buy this glider? Which maneuvers are you able to perform?
Have fun,
Pál