Back to Wing Articles / Articles sur les Ailes.
Flight impressions and Owner's notes by Jérôme
Daoust.
Revised 2002/9/12.
Flight Impressions
Medium (50% into the weight range)
Thanks to Tim Nelson for supplying this test wing.
· Friday, 2002/1/25 at Marshall.
· Model flown (M) had a 85 to 105 kg weight range. My total flying weight was 95 kg (perfect).
· Very light wind, best thermal climb rates of about 2-3 m/s, over 2 hours airtime.
· Magnetic brake snaps (I don't like, since toggles can be shaken loose).
· Typical line diameters and material.
· Interesting special pulley on A risers to make Big Ears maneuver (didn't try).
· Single A risers (not split).
· Easy inflation in very light wind (less than 3 km/h) on flat terrain.
· On sloped launch with light wind, full brake amplitude is needed to hold back the wing. Typical for wings of this class.
· One would need to take wraps.
· No hard point during rise of the wing.
· Turn initiation responds to less brake amplitude (more agile) than Nova/Carbon. Wing does not tend to accelerate into turns.
· Little pitch dampening for this class of wing.
· Good energy retention felt after exiting a sharp 90 turn.
· Easy to adjust bank angle during thermalling with inner brake alone (I like that).
· 90% activation of the speed system (2 cm remaining to achieve pulley contact) seem to produce less change in L/D than typical wings of this class, but performance measurement is required to verify this sensation.
· Even with the chest strap fully tightened, the wing provides much roll feedback, similar to the Airwave/Sport.
· Flying through unstable air, the following is an average for measured air speed : Trim of 37 km/h, Max of 48 km/h (with 2cm pulley distance remaining).
· Noticeable vibration through risers at trim speed.
· Easy launches.
· Agile.
· Carrying bag is too small (see 2002/3/21 report).
· See Best Wing.
2002/2/16
· After flying the Airwave/Sport and Apco/Presta (and others), I purchased the same wing I had earlier tested (no apparent abuse).
2002/2/20, Torrey Pines.
· My goal for the day was to adjust the accelerator. With the Sup'Air/EvoTop I had to use a trick (picture) to shorten the length of the lines near the quick connector, otherwise pulley contact could not be achieved before the first harness pulley interfered. After 6 short flights and full speedbar testing, the ideal setting was established.
· More pictures (thanks to Dave and Scott) :
Wing label. Note that the wing's area (24.5 m2) is the projected area.
Kiting in laminar 8 km/h wind.
Launching : Lift-off, gaining altitude.
Fly-by's : First.
2002/2/23, Torrey Pines.
· Slowing the wing more that the speed for minimum sink did not reveal a rapid increase in sink rate (as was the case with my former Nova/Carbon). Brake toggles at the waist, the sink rate was still low. I would expect for stall to happen abruptly on this wing. So this is not a wing that can easily be "mushed down" into a landing.
2002/3/2
· Construction details :
Leading edge construction detail. Line attachments are external (easy line replacements).
Stitching detail on top surface. The only external stitching is at the meeting of the 2 colors patterns. Cell junction (shown vertically) relies on internal stitching.
2002/3/5+9, Marshall.
· I have flown 7.5 hours on these 2 days, in thermal conditions (many 5 m/s climbs), with altitude gains of 600-900 m (2000-3000').
· I got 2 asymmetric collapses (30-40%) at the edge of thermals. They came out by themselves as I kept centering.
· I had 1 frontal (only the LE crumpled) as I was going at trim speed through lift+sink to head back in front of launch from a previous good climb. Recovery was uneventful.
· On 2002/3/5, I removed a knot in a center A line (reducing line length by 4 cm). For how long had it been there ?
· On 2002/3/9, I did a few transitions that lasted 5+ minutes, and was pleased with the glide at half speed bar. There were 3 other pilots in the pack doing Marshall→Billboard→Pine→Marshall (Pine is a separate mountain outside of picture to the left) but none were flying one of the latest DHV 1-2 wings.
· I got my carrying bag today. I will not be using it, because it is just too tight to fit my wing + Sup'Air EvoTop harness with 20 cm protection. And I could not fit the helmet in the bag, which was already tight without it. I will try getting a tandem bag in exchange, otherwise it will decorate a closet in my house. Mr. manufacturer, are you listening ? Please copy the Nova bags, and just use better fabric so the inside enduction does not start flaking off after a year.
· Status. I have gathered about 20 hours under the wing. Today, I flew 3 hours with some rough air in the morning (no collapse, but had to be active a few times), 3700' (1130 m) gain in the afternoon, and used the speedbar against a strong headwind.
From this point on, only unusual things will get reported. I don’t want to manage a 2nd logbook.
2002/6/9, Marshall.
· I received the tandem bag (200L Rucksack XXL) I ordered. The original bag was too small to fit the wing + Sup'Air EvoTop harness with 20 cm Bump’Air. The size is good (not even too big). I wish it had another large external pocket with a zipper and have an edge of the hood sewn to the bag, instead of fixed with 4 adjustable cinch straps. To reduce storage bulk (when stuffing the rucksack into the harness back pouch) I cut off the 4 side compression straps (not good to keep the wing pressurized anyway) and both side mesh pockets (useless when only an elastic keeps the contents secure). Pilots who do a lot of hiking (not me) may want to skip this surgical procedure.
· Some observations about the wing's L/D...
1. I did a tip-to-tip glide with Matthew Carter's Simba (well loaded Medium), both at trim speed. We noticed no difference in speed or glide over a 1 km distance (approx). Hard to believe given the good glide reputation of the Simba. But Matt’s Simba has probably lived half its life.
2. Second hand observation : The Oasis had a definite glide advantage over Ozone/Octane, and looses little in glide up to a 1/3 speed bar.
· Status. I have gathered about 45 hours under the wing, and have no unusual flight behavior to report.
1. Asymmetric collapse recovery. The most significant event is when I exited a thermal with a sharp vertical shear at hour 40, which put me in weightlessness mode (somewhat normal where/when I fly). The wing chose to produce a 60% collapse, and with proper input (appropriate braking of the open side), rapidly resumed normal flight without significant heading change. No pumping of collapse side was needed (rapid re-inflation on its own). Conclusion : Good behavior of the wing under all the collapses I had so far, but years of flying DHV 3 wings trained me to provide proper brake input and I don’t know how this wing would react when no input is provided (DHV testers make a job out of that).
2. Collapse resistance. Difficult to establish statistics, but I place my collapse rate under this wing, in the lower half of what the pilots flying near me will experience. Asymmetric collapses are typically small (25-30%), and frontals are typically preventable and limited to a softening of the leading edge. Another way of seeing this : If we were 4 pilots (typical scatter of DHV rating) flying in increasingly rough air, I would be the 3rd to get scared.
2002/7/7, Rendez-Vous Peak
(Teton Village).
· When pushing a spiral dive far enough, the wing locks-in (does not come out by itself), you have to apply opposite brake.
2002/9/12
· Interpretation of article in September 2002 issue Vol Libre :
Best Lift/Drag is good (while not best of DHV 1-2 class). Good sink rate.
Easy launches, nice turning/thermalling, stable in turbulence. Locks into spiral dives.
· See Best Wing.
· I decided that 1.5 years of flying DHV 1-2 wings (Carbon then Oasis) is enough, I miss the high-performance too much, so I'm getting a high-end DHV 2 wing. Probably a Keara. With the years gone by, that should put me back up to better than the Omega 4 I had. The DHV 1-2 wings were a fun experience though, and I learned a few lessons in the process. If interested in the purchasing the Oasis M : more info (if this link is broken, the wing has been sold).
