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(wind whoosing)
- [Carlo] Welcome to the Flybubble Paragliding Channel.
- [Nancy] We are free flight experts
and equipment specialists helping you
get the best flying experience.
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(wind whoosing)
We've just come back from a trip to France
where we were invited to go and see Supair.
- The weather was really nice.
(Woo)
- So we got to fly.
- Indeed we did.
- In Le Grand-Bornand.
We were testing the Supair BIRDY.
- The BIRDY.
And so that's their A-Rated wing.
- Take off is at 2000 metres
which is about six and a half thousand feet.
How was the launch?
Well, so with these light wind-
or mill wind almost
and crossed,
I was a little
nervous,
but actually the glider-
- Me too, I have to admit.
- behaved beautifully
the launch actually was
well, I didn't need to worry essentially.
The glider popped up
very nicely,
progressively,
was ready to go,
wanted to fly, but yes
headed out and sniffed out a thermal
and well just promptly fumbled up and got super high.
So we'd taken off at 2000
and probably gained another 500,000.
- Well, meanwhile, I was kind of
I wasn't ready.
I'd been filming Nancy launching
and faffing about as I do.
But I was really impressed the glider inflated
so easily
and it just inflated really
right across the glider.
Nice and even.
Came up, I could feel positive pressure
in the wing
so I could feel it was all good.
And then a few steps
and it was off.
So it was yeah, really impressive.
And the conditions were really great for testing the
the BIRDY
and cause we had good thermals,
some quite nice thermals and a bit more turbulence
and a bit of up and down.
So it was really good.
We had a nice fly and a good test on that power.
How did you find the BIRDY?
- Testing the speed bar and putting
in big ears
and probably a few little sort
of wobble unders or you know.
(laughter)
Yeah, I mean it's got lovely energy,
you know and it's definitely
as a high, high A, you felt
I felt like I had the reassurance, which is nice.
Especially when I was flying somewhere new
like that and in the mountains, it's always nice.
So that was yeah,
gave you the confidence and,
but the wing
you could feel it had energy and wanted to fly
and the certainly the thermalling
getting into the turns
it wanted to get into the turns nicely
get a little bit of a, that the bank.
It wasn't too,
I was obviously cranking it in,
but it was yeah.
Nice, progressive turns.
So how would you say the brake pressure was?
- Moderate? Yeah, I'd say moderate.
I's not heavy.
- No.
- And but maybe even slightly on the lighter side
but moderate.
So moderate break pressure and a nice
positive feel.
Got a bit more energy than your average A glider does.
- Yeah.
- Is it a high A or is it a hot A?
Is it, is it really an A glider?
Or is this kind of a, a kind of low mid-B glider
that's got an A stamp on it?
What did you think?
Did you feel like this is a glider
that really does have A safety,
or is this kind of really a bit of a cheat?
- No, actually I, I would say that it was really great
for somebody who
is a new pilot,
so the fresh outta school
and they're wanting that reassurance of having
an A-rated wing.
But they're not going to feel bored.
They're not gonna get bored with it.
It's got the feeling of a low B glider.
It's not as easy for the pilot.
I think the, the way that it, the way that it launches,
- Yeah.
- The way that you can feel it in the air
with its light to moderate sort of break pressure
and everything the, the glider responds well.
So I think you can
you can feel what's going on with the glider.
It's, it's giving you that communication,
energy, bit more feedback.
Fun as well.
- Something that's not a basic school glider
but it's got a bit more performance,
but still feels quite
you know, reassuring and more dampened.
The speed acceleration felt
better than your average A glider.
Just a bit more than that,
but maybe not as much as
a sort of the, the mid B
sort of gliders, it's quite similar
to the Low B category of wings.
- Yeah.
- Did you do big ears on it?
- I did big ears
and yeah, they popped in nicely and also
popped out on their own as well.
So without any input required, so-
- Yeah they weren't too physical to push it,
to pull in and a slight delay in them
and they just came out on their own.
So yeah, the risers are
relatively skinny for an A glider.
They're more like you would see on a,
a low to mid B glider.
So they're
they're definitely made to be a little bit more
sleek in performance orientated,
but still easy to handle.
The one thing that's surprised us
about the BIRDY is that it comes
as standard with soft links.
- Yes.
- So rather than maillons
for where the lines connect,
it's still made out of relatively durable materials.
But they've tried to then make,
make other things like the right, the lighter
skinnier risers, soft links and other details
to make them more on the lighter side.
It's not a super lightweight either
but it's relatively compact.
- Yeah.
- I had the opportunity to give the glider a bit more
of a test than I generally do
back in the UK.
Although I do do some manoeuvres and stuff.
So I actually got to do pretty much full SIV on the
on the BIRDY, which is great.
- Yeah. Fantastic opportunity.
- Yes. Stalls, spins, collapses,
spiralled dives,
things like that.
So I tested out all those different aspects
not in an EN
or LTF
official testing way.
More like in a normal flying kind of way.
I did a few stalls.
And um,
the first one to clear kind of clear the air
I actually did purposefully kind of a bit
of an aggressive,
old style, messy stall
where I just kind of stuffed the brakes
and let the glider horseshoe back behind me.
And I was very impressed how the gliders stabilised.
And then just by easing my brakes back up
I could get the glider quite easily
into a nice stable backflow position
which I was really impressed with.
That was my first stall with it.
And first time I'd done a stall on the glider
for a little while.
And it was really well behaved
and then
last bit of breakup and it just nodded off.
Just did a little nod.
And then the spins,
I only did really more search for spin.
And at the point of that, very well behaved.
The recovery was a non-event.
To me that I really felt like
ah, I'm seeing this glider is an A glider.
This is where I think the low B gliders
are a little bit hotter.
Certainly some of them in their reactions
and then collapses as well.
The gliders definitely felt like
this is a proper A glider.
How it behaved in the collapses.
I pulled full frontals
and asymmetrics
and did a few of those.
And all of them were just a non-event.
So that was
yeah very impressive.
Spiral dive as well.
I didn't do a fully locked out spiral dive.
I didn't think, but I did did that and it, again
the glider just, put hands up and the glider climbed out
and recovered and felt like an A glider to me.
So yeah.
Very impressive.
Well, we hope that you've enjoyed this little
mini review of the Supair BIRDY.
Um,
I hope you've enjoyed that.
- Yes.
- Had had fun.
(jumbled speech)
We're now gonna do a nice sort of vocal training bit here.
Ready? So ready after me.
(nonsense babble)
Come on Nancy, get it out.
(laughter)
Get it out, come on.
(nonsense babble)
- Right, yeah.
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