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A
medium (29.5 sq m flat, 85-105 kg) Swing Arcus was my second wing, purchased for soaring and motoring.
Handling was better than the Santana as was the glide. It was slower than
the Santana and noticeably easier to launch. I put about 50 hours on this
wing, about 30 of which was motoring. Mine was the first Arcus and
Swing is up to the Arcus 5 at this writing so there could be dramatic differences
now.
Handling (6): I was light on the glider so it wasn't
very crisp but improved on the
Santana.
Inflation (7): Pretty easy. It was large for me,
even though I was in the weight range, and so required a heaving tug but it
responded appropriately. Smaller wings are always easier to get overhead
than larger ones. Try foot launching a tandem glider alone (at 145 pounds)
if you ever doubt that!
Efficiency (8): It's great for soaring
in weak conditions or for reducing fuel burn.
Speed (1): This was among the slowest
wings I've flown for being at the high end of the maker's weight range
which still left me lightly loaded in terms of pounds per square meter.
Being made for soaring, its slow speed was good for thermalling while
having decent speed while accelerated. It also meant I was almost always
the slowest among my flying buddies without being on speedbar. There were
no trimmers although motor risers were available that were shorter and had
trimmers. They took it out of certification so I never bought them.
Construction (5): Built soundly as far
as I could tell. After a year or so I had it inspected and it passed with
no issues. The inspection was prompted by a parachutal stall accident that
took me by surprise.
Certification & Safety (6): It's a
DHV 1-2 wing intended for beginners (PPG1) or higher. Handling seemed
benign in my experience although I'd recommend you fly it heavy to reduce
the likelihood of parachutal stall. It's slightly more prone to parachutal
stalls than other wings but mostly because it's slow and large.
I had two parachutal stall events with an
Arcus and 2 other pilots I know have had parachutal stalls with it (all
under power). One of mine was while free flying and it recovered from a
cascading collapse when I stood up in the harness. Another happened while
under power—I hit the ground from that one. I was climbing, barely,
through about 70
feet in mid-afternoon conditions. I hit turbulence while holding light brake pressure (about 2) and the wing basically stopped flying.
It remained fully inflated as I descended, nearly vertically to the ground
under full power. This was before I had ingrained in my head to go
"hands up, power off smoothly" in an unknown situation. Make
sure you
see and rehearse what's contained in Risk
& Reward!
Overall: I sold this one because
it was just too slow. Even though I'm not into speed I didn't like
having to be on speedbar all the time to keep up with my flying buddies.
It's great for soaring and overall flying if you don't mind the speed
issue.
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