Paraglider weight ranges and safety.

If you buy a DHV2 glider, it stays a DHV 2, whether you higher up on the weight range or right at the bottom of the weight range, which glider did you have in mind? See my posting 'which serial class paraglider?'

Good luck

I'm looking for a new DHV2 glider and I'm wondering what peoples feelings are about takeoff weights and weight ranges. Are gliders safer when takeoff weight is at the upper end of the weight range?

I used to fly biggies, and always felt like i was wafting around and had piddling tucks at the tips very often, and could never make much in the way of penetration, i now fly a medium sigma 3, right at the limit or maybe even a tad over, the wing is very stable, fast though when it goes, boy is it fast, i had a bad tuck last year and it was hair raising, though it was on a thermic day on an acknowledged 'rough' site. I think it's more to do with the wing re tuckability, but i don't seem to suffer wrt sink rate, i'm often at the top of the stack and i'm no super duper pilot, take offs can be a pain, but then i don't get blown all over the shop anymore when ground handling. Personally, I am far happier being heavy on a wing than light on one.

my advice, do a good SIV and fly a wing you are capable of flying at mid weight range, unless you can deal with something else.

Hmm... Interesting. I also fly a medium sigma-3, though being a fairly light bloke, I'm down at the bottom of the weight range, and I normally fly with a few kilos of water ballast. When I've flown with the ballast, I've been at about 85 or 86 kilos ... nicely in the middle of the range, and I've never really had any problems with tucks at that weight... the wing feels solid, and there's plenty of feel, so you should feel trouble coming, provided you keep some pressure on the brakes.

I've also flown it un-ballasted, and I'm then right at the bottom of the weight range. It certainly makes a big difference... the wing feels a lot more wafty, and having flown it in rough air like that, it would tuck fairly easily.. having said that, when I'm light on the wing, the tucks seem to be a lot more gentle, and (so far) the wing hasn't gone violently.

I reckon the heavier you are on the wing, the less likely it is to tuck, but the more violent it will be when it does go.

I'd put it down to the great handling of the wing... it's really nimble! I found at first that it had a slight tendency to dive into turns if one is clumsy, but provided you initiate the turn well, then it's lovely, and in the turn, it's really precise: you get lots of control over turn rate and bank angle, and it doesn't (unlike some wings) show a massive tendency to pull out of the turn after 180 degrees.

A lot of wings seem to have a 'hard point' when reverse launching, where you've got the wing 2/3 of the way up, and it's then reluctant to do the final 1/3'rd... I like the sigma-3 in that it doesn't have this characteristic... you just apply an even pressure all the way up.

I'm happy in the middle of the weight range... I agree that being light isn't so nice.

aha a fellow sigma 3 fan, it's by far the best wing I've ever flown, the ground handling is superb, when i say it can be pain it's a pain by its' standards, i had a harley cyclone that regularly dislocated my knackered shoulder :-/

I too have found the wing very nimble, I don't experience the diving into turns, but i'm not a heavy handed pilot, far from it, though i did chuck one around a lot in turkey after my SIV with jocky, and it was so good i went and bought one.

I've saw the advance beginners canopy last year (epsilon 2?) and that seemed to fly very well too, I've talked to a few omega pilots and I can't see the point of flying one for the minimal performance gain.

I'm interested to know if you've done an SIV on the beast...?

I'm test flying a sigma 4 soon hopefully I'll post a review...

I flew the odd harley whilst learning: I hated the things. Yep it's a lovely wing. We like

It only dives into the turn if you have no outside brake on, or if you make a sudden decision (collision avoidance?) and don't apply the brake smoothly. As it is, one quickly gets used to applying slightly more outside brake upon turn initiation, and I don't notice it any more.... The only time it caused me any problems was very early on in my flying career.

Ahha... how does it behave when you really give it grief?

Yep. I feel the Sigma 3 is quite a lot better, speed and glide wise than the Epsilon 2, but since I've never flown the Epsilon or Omega, I can't really comment.

Not yet....

That would be most interesting, since you're likely to table able to spot the similarities and differences well. Have you thought about test flying the new Sigma-4?