- If the (beep) hits the fan,
then you want things in your favour.
So you tend to go for safe for a kit.
Even if you don't necessarily need to make use of it,
it's better to know that if things go badly wrong
and you get caught out horrible turbulence
or you have a big collapse,
that your equipment's gonna be the best possible
to look after you.
So why would you go for a seatboarded harness
like the SUCCESS 5,
rather than a seatboardless harness or a split leg harness,
say like the Advance PROGRESS 3,
or the Advance EASINESS 3 or other harnesses like that?
Well, that's an interesting question,
We'll hear different opinions on it.
But in brief,
I think the main reason you go for a seatboarded harness
is because you're prioritising safety, solidity,
You've got the protection of the seatboard underneath you.
Also, prioritising an element of control.
Due to the seatboard you've got,
you can press on it, you've got more leverage.
You can lean on the seatboard
to give a finer deal of control.
However, I do think that from my experience,
that the degree of control,
it varies a lot between seatboarded harnesses
and non-seatboarded harnesses.
So there isn't one rule to cover them all.
For example, I think there are some seatboarded harnesses
that are less weight shifty
and gives less feeling and feedback and control
than some seatboardless harnesses.
So that might surprise you,
but just from my experience of testing them,
that's definitely the case.
But you can say on average,
seatboarded harnesses tend to have,
especially if you're in more extreme situations
or doing more extreme manoeuvres, doing SIV,
doing a safety course where you're collapsing your glider
and falling out of the sky on purpose, or not,
(person screaming)
or flying in very active air,
then the advantage of the seatboard,
that sort of fine difference in control
starts to show itself a bit more.
If you're a pilot who enjoys throwing the glider around
and doing Vaga,
well you can do that with a seatboardless harness,
and even pod harnesses and hammock=style pod harnesses,
I find that you can do that,
but it's a little harder, it's not quite as easy,
and you need better control to do that.
But again, it varies quite a lot
between the different harnesses.
So if you're doing an SIV course
and you're learning new manoeuvres
and you're pushing your limits,
then I do think it's easier to do the SIV,
and put it another way,
less chance of ending up with twists
when you have a standard sit up
seatboarded harness like this.
So there's an advantage to that.
And a giveaway,
is that when you look at the very extreme end of things,
the acro,
so you don't see many, if any,
I don't know of any acro pilots
who'll do acro with a seatboardless harness.
They all go for a seatboarded harness
with a strong, quite hefty seatboard.
And then it's more about having that seatboard control
with weight shift,
and also the position is much more
of a sitting upright position.
Pal Takats, in his Master Acro series, for example
just repeatedly says,
never learn SIV or new acro manoeuvres with a pod harness.
Always do them with a seatboarded standard sit up harness.
And he always emphasises to be in a sat upright position
rather than a laid back position.
And standard open seatboarded harnesses like that
are kind of, favour that, more of that position as well.
So therefore they are,
from a point of view of safety and stability
in dealing with extreme situations and extreme turbulence,
then the seatboarded harness with that upright position,
I think, has got an edge in the terms of the safety factor
and in terms of control.
However, let's now talk about the negatives
of seatboarded harnesses.
So, well the obvious, most obvious negative
is that the seatboard adds bulk.
It makes the harness stiffer
and so you can't squish it down and fold it down as small.
So they tend to be a bit on the heavier side.
Having said that, some of them, they've got an airbag
or a very compressible inflatable protector.
They can still go down pretty small.
But one of the things is, I'll show you.
With a seatboarded harness,
when you walk around,
or running around quite a lot,
(harness whacking)
I'm exaggerating it a bit again,
but when you run around you have that,
and you definitely notice that it's like,
banging against the back of your leg.
If you have a seatboardless harness,
you don't have that.
It's definitely on the ground.
There's a comfort advantage
for seatboardless harnesses, I think.
We're not talking about the strap situation.
That's another ballgame, ha ha.
But yeah, so that's a definite advantage of it.
Another potentially negative thing about seatboards
is they're quite firm.
You know, you've got a seatboard there and you sit on it,
it's like when you sit on a wall or something like that.
At first it feels fine, but after a while,
you know, if the seat's too firm,
that can be quite uncomfortable.
But with the SUCCESS 5, I don't find that at all.
The only thing to do is to make sure
that you adjust correctly.
If you're trying to work out
which is the right and best equipment for you,
we offer the Flybubble MATCH service.
It's about getting the right match of pilot
and the equipment,
and getting them together.
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