(upbeat music)
- [Carlo] Welcome to the Flybubble Paragliding channel.
- [Nancy] We are free flight experts
and equipment specialists
helping you get the best flying experience.
The advanced IOTA DLS, we flew today at the Devil's Dyke.
So first thing I noticed is
that the launching of the IOTA DLS is easy.
It came up very nicely and...
- When you say easy, what do you mean?
- It responded well to the inputs.
It came up very nicely.
I had good feedback so I could feel what was going on.
The brake travel, well, I noticed that everything
just felt quite precise straight away.
I think I could feel with the risers
and the sort of the brake lengths, straight away,
feeling like, maybe a little on the slightly longer side,
but in that nice, comfortable position.
So when you're flying, you don't feel like your hands
are kind of having to be up here.
- It wasn't like gun in the back, hands in the air.
- No (laughs).
- And it wasn't gorilla hands down here either.
- No.
- It was right in between.
- Just right.
Just here, that nice sort of sweet spot.
Not super light but just sort of light,
but with actually, preciseness.
- You mean the brake pressure?
- The brake pressure.
- Yeah, I found it also was light to moderate.
A bit more on the light side.
- And then, but the precision of it.
My launch was into rising air straight away,
which was quite nice.
And so, as I glided out,
I was just generally in sort of lifting air.
And then when I got to a safer point
to be able to do sort of, the first sort of 360,
it turned well and progressively,
but in a nice positive way.
- And you feel like you've got
kind of a sharpness and precision.
- Yes.
- That's what I felt like it's kind of,
you can feel quite precisely
how much brake input you're putting in.
- Yeah.
- Hasn't got sort of,
even though it's light, it's not soft and mushy,
it's quite precise feeling.
- Yes. - If that helps.
- Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
Yeah, precise...
- By the way, I'm flying the size 25,
I've been flying and Nancy...
Which size are you flying? - 23.
- 23.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
And we're both flying them loaded
at about three quarters of the way up their weight range.
- Yeah.
Yeah, a good place of the weight.
And we're both on our Lightness 3s today as well.
So a good Advance combo.
(both laughing)
The thermaling, uh, yeah,
managed to get in quite a few good turns
to really get that sort of feeling of the wing.
- Oh, I used their speed system.
And uh, very, very light.
Actually surprisingly light.
One of the lightest speed systems I've felt in a while.
It's even, arguably,
about the lightest speed system I've felt.
That was my first impressions.
So the speed system on the IOTA DLS, as I said, was, yeah
very light and felt very effective.
The glider kept very solid.
- Yes.
- All the way through, right through the speed travel.
And, actually the two flights I've had
have both been a bit windy, gusty,
not very smooth conditions.
The glider felt very taut and solid
right across the whole sail.
That's something that
I felt was very noticeable about it.
It didn't feel kind of planky.
Still, I was getting good feeling from it.
Yeah, the feedback feels like it's moderate
to slightly out on the higher side.
Not dampened and not very high feedback.
- Certainly not twitchy and it's, yeah,
certainly not planky.
Definitely not, it's not the two extremes.
They, it seems to be
just in that nice sweet spot of giving you the, yeah,
good feedback, feeling like you've got the wing.
You know, especially in, you know, like you say,
the slightly snotty conditions that we were having as well,
it felt like it was...
- Felt very comfortable.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, felt very comfortable, but not dampened.
- Yeah.
Responding well, it's precise.
The glider started to go up very nicely and yeah,
felt very confident with it straight away, really.
It didn't feel hugely demanding.
Actually, the last few wings I've been flying
recently have been more sort of like a mid B,
and then a super high A.
So actually getting back onto a high B
could have been a bit more demanding,
a bit more sort of, "Oh, okay, I need
to pay attention," but it didn't feel like that.
It felt like I had...
"Yeah, I've got this.
The wing feels, you know, responsive.
It's talking to me, but not in a chatty kind of "Whoa,
everything's going on, too much information.""
- Despite the air being a bit...
- Yeah, despite the air being a bit crappy.
I think it was cutting through that air quite nicely.
- That's exactly the same I felt on it,
that when the pitch felt like it's quite stable in pitch,
but not in a kind of sort of planky, not-moving way.
You could feel what was happening.
But it was cutting through the gusts and the thermals.
- The usual very high quality advanced rises.
You've got maillons, you've got magnets for the break handles
and the usual speed to fly
on the back of the risers as well.
So all just the nice attention to detail that you get.
- Compared to its predecessor, the IOTA 2...
- Which we flew a lot.
- Yes, we did fly a lot, see our review on IOTA 2,
and flights in Columbia, and other things like that.
So my feeling is that IOTA DLS is just tricky to describe,
but I'd say it just feels a little softer,
little smoother
I still, by the way, the IOTA 2
I still think is a fantastic glider.
But my feeling is the IOTA DLS,
this is just from these quick first impressions,
that the pilot demands are slightly lower,
and it feels slightly more comfortable in turbulence.
But it feels to me, still, related.
It's like the difference between the Sigma 10
and the Sigma 11.
And to me, the IOTA DLS feels
quite related to the Sigma 11.
No surprise.
We need to fly them more again to check that,
but you can feel they feel related.
And it's a similar kind of feeling.
A very sort of precise feeling.
Nice handling, and good feedback,
but comfortable for the class.
Quite relaxing in some ways.
- Yes.
Yeah.
Going to go and have lunch now, Nancy's getting hungry.
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- Bye.
(uplifting music)