Right, there are lots of methods to pack up a wing, this is the one that I use all the
time. I like super-light, super-simple. So although concertina bags are very useful,
especially for competition gliders, gliders with lots of reinforcing, I'll show you a
method you can use if you don't want to use a concertina bag, or if you haven't got it
with you ... you can just do a simple fold this way.
You get the centre of your wing, lay it out nicely. Clip your brakes on. I leave a metre
of line off the trailing edge. Keeping the lines on top of the glider, I just do a little
fold here on the trailing edge, just doing a bit of a concertina fold on the trailing
edge, bringing it in to the centre. The same on this side, folding it over, kind of three
or four cells at a time. Right, so that's just a rough fold, and that
just gets the tail of the glider neatened up, you fold it over and get a bit of air
out of it, work it slightly towards the leading edge, and then bring your harness forward
and just put it on top of the glider. You can do this with a strap but I've gone
even lighter and got rid of the strap. So coming around to the front here, if I pull
a little bit, the harness is pinning the back edge so I can get a nice bit of pressure there,
and I can do my nice leading edge concertinas just getting the nose cones together. The
same on the other side, you can get two at a time, and pull them in. Because I've got
that little bit of weight on the glider, it helps me get them lined up nice and tight.
Right, so there we go, part of the glider done, let me push some of the air out of it.
Step over. I'm using my feet now to give me this nice section at the front of the glider,
so all the nose cones are still nicely folded in the front, I'm going to pull it forward,
and bend it around like that. Using my feet I can pinch that again to tidy this up slightly
just by folding the glider in there, and if you keep your hand there you can pull it forward
and get yourself another fold. That means now in the centre here, I've still got my
nose cones all lined up and I'm keeping my hand against them so they don't move. Now
I bring my other foot in, on this side, and I can lift it up slightly off the ground ready
for the bag. OK, try and keep the bag lined up with the
nose cones so when you push the air out you are keeping that nice fold. I'm just moving
my legs up the glider, and I step out. You're going to have one little piece left here and
its just the tail, which I fold over the top, push the air out, tip the harness back and
fold this tail section down on the outside of the bag. That's not critical, it's the
leading edge that's critical. Right. Now because I put the bag on in the
right direction it's safe to sit on the glider, squash the air out, and this nice little Advance
Compressbag allows me to get the packed shape much tidier. So there we go, my nose is concertina-ed
in there, all nicely packed away, ready to go in the bag. Cheers.