Light flying - 11KG

 By Jamie Glendinning

 Like Paul I’ve been thinking about getting lightweight kit for quite a while. I think a 5km walk out in the dales during the bpcup last year helped focus my mind. I was knackered in part because I’m unfit and the 22kg of kit didn’t help.
At that point I was flying with a Gin Genie 3 harness and a UP Kantega wing. I’d highly recommend both to people as I am very happy with the way they help me fly.

The only problem was the massive amount they weigh. I know that other people carry more kit – that’s up to you – I would rather not.

Phase 1.

At the end of 2006 I saw John Terry’s new altirando harness and liked the idea behind it. I also read a review on northern paragliders website where John Sylvester flew with one in the Himalayas and found it up to the task.
I then bought one. It’s slightly larger than the one that John has. Supair have also increased the size of the bag. This meant that I could get my Large Kantega, Front reserve and instruments into the bag. I could not get my helmet in to the bag though. This wasn’t a major issue – more of an inconvenience.
Flying with the harness and front mounted reserve/cockpit was a bit strange to start with but I found everything settled down. I’m still not keen on the supair cockpit / reserve container. If only the loft did something like their standard flight deck but with a reserve pod I’d be happy.
The Altirando harness feels grand in the air. It’s not as comfortable as the genie 3 but for the flights I’ve had it’s been pretty close. I’ve only really flown 3 harnesses – an evo xc, the genie3 and this one. It’s not surprising that this feels very similar to the evo xc but that may just be me.

altirando in bag mode

altirando in harness mode

light weight connectors

Phase2

Spending more money!
I’ve been following various threads on the pgforum website on light weight kit. After a very good year at work I decided that a new wing would compliment the new harness. My original plan was to wait till august but I hadn’t bought any toys for a while (apart from the harness… and cockpit and… ok. Never mind!)
I was keen on two wings – the Gradient DeLite and the Mac Velvia. Both are pretty light and have had good reviews. The Mac glider was the newer wing and being based on the Eden 3 sounded pretty nice.
The Delite is based on the gradient Golden – which again means it should be a good glider but the Golden has just been replaced by the Golden 2 – and I hadn’t heard anything about a replacement for the Delite.
So I went for the MAC.
When it arrived it didn’t seem so small but the bag is defiantly a size smaller than my UP one.
The risers are also particularly freaky (see pic) and can be a bit tricky to sort out.
The wing itself has 52 cells and looks pretty normal. The material is slightly lighter and overall there is a 2kg saving compared to the kantega! That’s a lot!
It shows when launching – the wing comes up very easily. In light conditions it’s very easy to groundhandle. It almost makes me look good at ground handling.

Lightweight risers

mac velvia

mac velvia

BUT.

In stronger conditions It’s a bit more of a handful. The Wing still wants to fly and is very keen to aunch. It’s just that I’m not always sure I want to.
The risers don’t help in this situation as they are so skinny it can be hard to grip them.
I don’t think this is a major issue – it’s just such  different wing to my old one – I need to get my head round it.

Overall

My kit now weighs in at about 11kg. I have still to sort out all the details about where the airmap and radio go but I’m very happy with the kit.
I have a couple of concerns on the durability of the equipment but that is something I’m going to keep an eye on.
Can’t wait till it’s flyable and I can test things f urther. And hopefully walk further with my nice light, small kit.