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When
I first flew the Action in 2001 I was amazed at its efficiency with
trimmers in. It seemed far more like a soaring glider than the earlier
Reflex model that I'd flown (and disliked). The GT is a refinement of the
Action. This glider was 26 m² flat and 24 m² projected. Retail price is
about $3900.
It was test flown using a Blackhawk 172 at an
inflight wieght of 235 lbs. My wing loading was 235 lbs / 24.0 m² = 9.78 lbs / m².
Handling (5): This had very good
handling for a reflex gliders of this size. It was smaller than a couple
other reflex gliders that I tested which may be why I liked the handling. However, I've
flown even smaller models (Action 25 and Revolution 22) which were
understandably more sporty. With the trimmers out, the Action GT it's a truck
using brakes. It's not intended that you use brakes in this configuration
anyway and you'll be thankful for that wingtip steering toggle and/or
weight shift.
Inflation (4): Pretty good for a
reflex glider. It tends to fall back more than regular wings and maybe
just a hair more than other reflex gliders. But it was still easy to do a
reverse launch with a 6 mph wind. Get it moving before letting off those
A's!
Efficiency (4): It's efficient at slow
trim, even a bit more than most beginner gliders. But with the
trimmers out the fuel burn goes up a lot. Efficiency per mile is good, per
time it's bad. Kind of like driving around at high speed. If your point is
just to be driving, go 20 mph. If it's to get somewhere, go 70 mph.
I could easily do a power-off foot drag for
15 feet while bleeding off speed.
Speed (9): Trim speed (hands up, no
speedbar) averaged 22.7 mph, trimmers out=28.4 mph, speedbar full=31.3.
I'm more appropriately sized on this sized glider than the Speed Demon on
which I was too light.
Construction (7): The wing seems very
well built, almost overbuilt. Thicker lines are one of the most obvious
differences.
Certification & Safety (3): This
has no certification to my knowledge and so it would not be appropriate
for new pilots. Although all reflex gliders are resistant to collapse,
especially induced collapse, it can still happen and the pilot should know
what to expect. If a gust of air blows one side down, it won't matter how
much reflex it has, that side will deflate.
Overall: The wing meets its
mission handily and is built to last. If you wanna go fast and don't mind
the high retail cost, this seems to be a good choice.
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About Reflex Gliders
There are some basic differences between reflex
and "regular" paragliders that revolve around their shape as shown
above. Mostly it's due to the fact that the A's and B's are extremely loaded in
reflex mode (trimmers fast) and so pulling down one A riser does very little.
The center of pressure is farther forward and they are difficult to collapse. In
fact, one reason why they had difficulty certifying the wings is that the test
pilots couldn't collapse them in certain configurations. Other issues came up
during testing, too, although I don't know what they were.
One telling experience I had was while kiting.
Being skeptical about the stability claims I took one out to kite on a brisk
spring morning with the factory test pilot present. Kiting with the trims in was
fairly standard and the glider indeed had little tendency to overfly me, less
than a regular wing. Then he had me leave the brakes alone. The glider would
come forward and go beyond where I thought it would have tucked (frontal) but it
didn't. It just stayed there. Bizarre. Same with the trims out, it was
incredibly resistant to collapsing. Kiting was quite easy using just the tip
steering lines.
A darker side emerged when I went to kite with
the trimmers out using brakes. The wing collapsed almost immediately and was
very difficult to kite. I was told it wasn't designed to be used that way: with
trimmers out and on speedbar it's extremely stable but NOT with the brakes being
pulled.
Apparently the Reaction wing (one of numerous
reflex-type gliders) warns against using speedbar with trimmers set slow just
because of this behavior.
These wings serve their mission well but command
respect and understanding.
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