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Pal introduces: The Wing Load Research

            



The Wing Load Research is my upcoming investigation to find out the real limits of the Thriller 2k11 from U-Turn which is claimed to be the best acro glider on the market.

I am going to test out the different sizes one by one while flying them on extremely high and low wing loadings, between 3,6 kg/m2 and 7,6 kg/m2 !!! For competitions and shows I normally fly the 17m2 Thriller at a wing loading of around 5.4 kg/m2 with 94 kg take-off weight. U-Turn's chief-designer, Ernst Strobl says with this take-off weight it should be possible to perform Infinity Tumbling even with 26m2, but regarding his theory it might not be the case at all with the 12m2 version, so let's see what happens! Beside that the wing-loading with 12.5m2 will reach way into the "red danger zone" by Strobl's calculation (see file "Table of area loading").
The main goal is of course to perform -almost- all existing maneuvers on the smallest and biggest available sizes of the Thriller. For the safe execution of the project this week I am heading to the Garda Lake in Italy to be able to do the experimentations high over water. Videos to come later on, stay tuned!

The Wing Load Research - Intro

Wing Load Research - an upcoming investigation to find out the real limits of nowadays best acro glider, the Thriller from U-Turn.
I'm going to test out the different sizes one by on while flying them on extremely high and low wing loadings, between 3,6 and 7,6 kg/m2 !!!
The main goal is of course...performing Infinity Tumbling with all the sizes! :-)

Playing at the coast - Canoa Quebrada, Brazil

Soaring fun with a high performance U-Turn 2-liner.

Pal Takats puts a hardcore glider under hardcore testing

Test flight with one of U-Turn's 2 liner competition prototypes (project still in progress).
Big frontal and asymmetric collapses, cravatte, stall, spin....
Due to the rigid parts inside the canopy, the collapsing and opening behaviour is very different compared to the classical wings. We had to change a few things after this experience :-)

Esfera - new acro trick by Pal Takats

On the 25nd of October 2010 in Ölüdeniz, Pal Takats managed to perform a new maneuver called "Esfera" - the connection between SAT and SAT (the 2nd one turning to opposite direction!). The transition goes through a straight up Infinity Tumbling and afterwards "Anti-Rythmic" technique is used to work the angle back down.
The name "Esfera" is a spanish word that means: "sphere", "globe", "ball".

ESFERA - new acro trick is born!

Just about 6 years have passed since Raul Rodriguez's greatest discovery the Infinity Tumbling. An unbelievable maneuver that nobody expected to be possible.
At the same time together with this invention a new dream was also born: if it is possible to build up a horizontally rotating SAT into a straight-up vertical movement (Rythmic-SAT to Infinity) it could also be possible to come back down into a SAT again to the other side!

But how?! How to do this "Anti-Rythmic" and work down the angle from Infinity without loosing massive amount of energy in an already extremely sensible movement, just working tight on its limits?!

Tandem Acro - first commercial Infinity Tumbling with Pal Takats

The world's first ever commercial Infinity Tumbling tandem flight.
Ölüdeniz, Türkey, October 2010.

1st Parabatix Sky Race

In September 2010 an old dream of the paramotor world came true! A completely new style of competition that brakes out from the rigid format of the old-school paramotor competitions. After years of trying to convince the FAI to mix up the boring tasks with such challenging games, Pascal Campbell-Jones finally decided to organize this event himself and Parabatix was born.

The first test-event was held in the beginning of September in South-France, close to Montauban where 14 of the world's best ppg competition pilots got together (including multiplae world and national champions).

AcroAustria - World Cup in acro paradise

After 8 years of competing and being a professional pilot, Alexander "Xandi" Meschuh - seeing the dying down competition scene last year - decided to organize an event at his lovely home site, the Gerlitzen. From his own experiences Xandi knew very well what the pilots need to be happy, satisfied and to be able to enjoy a competition:
a nice location with good infrastructure, a place for the people to stay and to be all together and last but not least, food (this is supposed to be the minimum but unfortunately even this is missing at many events).

World's first ever Tandem Infinity Tumbling - THE STORY

The idea of performing the Infinity Tumbling with a passenger has probably flashed through the mind of all the acro pilots who already mastered this ultimate figure. Just like me and Gábor who started to dream about this a few years ago...
It was obvious that there is a big safety issue and that the right material will take extreme importance to succeed. Our glider that time, the Morpheus was a true Infinity machine but even way too aggressive and violent, did not seemed to be the ideal wing for that. After a brainstorming session together with U-Turn's designer Ernst Strobl back at the end of 2007, the plans of the Thriller was borned. The first prototype already proved that as we expected this canopy with it's softer, easier handling and still great dynamics might be the right toy for this project.

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