Hi,
I’d be interested to know what sort of flight times people are getting with the 3.7KWh battery.
Also as a new 85Kg pilot what wing would you suggest to get the best flight time with the sp140?
Many thanks,
Bill
I’m getting approx 40-45 min. I have tried a couple different wings and will be trying more soon. I have used the motor to get to mountains for ridge soaring. did some 2 1/2 hour flights that way. but have also flown my freeride2 14m and the battery was totally dead at 25min. I have only had mine a month but I am really enjoying it so far. It doesn’t replace my gas units but It has its place. as for what wing you should have to get good flight times that depends on your skill level. but you would want to be loaded slightly less than you would want to be on a normal unit. You will be traveling slower but stay up longer. At some point I am going to test this to the extreme and see how it does on a couple of my different tandem wings.
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Zach recommended the Kona in a previous post:
I’ve only had 8 flights on the SP140 so far (only a few more on an ICE unit – Still a rookie pilot).
I’m ~190lbs/86kg without the unit and flying a 23m Mac Para Charger wing that is a few years old. I’m still testing how long I can actually stay up, but so far my longest was 35 minutes – But that was at the ragged edge and the battery was around 5% on light throttle coming into the LZ. Realistically, that should have been a 25-30 minute flight to at least have a small amount of reserve. Most of my other flights have been around the ~25-30 minute mark, looking to begin landing at the LZ when the battery under cruising hits 80v. This has been my experience with both a v1 4kw battery and a new v2 3.7kw battery.
While I haven’t flown all the way to BMS cutoff, my last flight ended with a very harsh landing when attempting a last-minute go-around; battery was similarly low and didn’t have hardly any thrust available. Thankfully I was only a little banged up, but the frame, prop, and controller took a beating.
Hope to be back up in the air this weekend. I have a 26m Mojo Power wing (also a few years old) that I haven’t flown yet – I am hopeful that it’ll extend my flight times to closer to 40 minutes of light throttle flying with a little reserve remaining.
I weigh 195lbs and fly a 28m paraglider wing (Skywalk Tequila 5). I get 40-45 minute flights in calm conditions (no other sources of lift) at 4,200 above sea level.
I just ordered a 24m Ozone Sirocco. It’s a fast and small wing so I don’t expect to get anywhere near the same flight time but it’s supposed to be a more efficient wing so I might get the same flight distance. However, I plan to get a gas motor to use with that wing because I want speed, distance, and flight time.
Is it OK to fly that lightly loaded on a 28m wing? I thought 26m was about the limit for our weight range. Or is it something to do with your Skywalk being a paraglider wing?
I would be very interested in how long I could stay up with a 28m if I’m getting ~30 minutes with a 23m.
These 23m, 26m and 28m wings you’re talking about, are they also pg wings or just ppg reflex wings? What are the weight limits for the 23, 26 and 28m?
I fly my 2,8kw battery with my 26m (75-100kg for pg/125kg ppg) wing for 30min at my 70kg plus 35kg the eppg and about 6kg wing and clothes.
I hear people heavier than me that fly 20m wings with ppgs…
well, you can’t have the same level of energy consumption in an Cessna and an F18, it seems that you either aim for speed or for longevity. I will go for longevity, slower/safer take offs and landings every time…why the rush?
In fact the next smaller size than mine wing, the 24m wing of same producer, has the limits like 55-80kg pg, 110kg ppg, that’s for girls…because it’s too smal for me at 70kg body weight and men under that weight…not many nowdays are they?
It’s a mistery to mee how can they stay between the weight limits of these wings.
The Skywalk wing I fly is actually a 29m wing (I said the wrong size earlier). The upper end of the weight range on that wing for PG is 253lbs. My all up weight with motor and reserve is over 280lbs. So I am not light on that wing but for PPG that’s about where you would want to be. My wing isn’t rated for motoring but the wings that are rated for both PG and PPG have a higher range for PPG. Note: my wing is a good stable and efficient wing and works great with a motor. The fact that it was never certified for motoring doesn’t mean it wouldn’t pass a motor certification if they paid to have it certified. That company just doesn’t deal much with motor wings.
The 24m Ozone Sirocco has an upper end weight of 286lbs. It’s a higher aspect ratio wing and was designed for speed and efficiency. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t slow it down for landing with a good flare as you transition the speed into lift.
The next step down on the Ozone line is the Spyder which for my same weight would require a 26m wing to be in the recommended weight range. It’s a lower aspect ratio wing.
As you can see, you can’t make a blanket statement about square meters vs wing loading because every wing is different. Btw… my son Braedin flies a 14m Ozone Freeride. That’s less than half the square meters of what I fly now!
The 14m Ozone Freeride 2 has a max weight of 120kg. That wing is designed to be small, fast, and dynamic.
Cross country flying can get boring if you fly too slow. It takes me forever to fly across the city on my large wing. Imagine taking a road trip in a car going 24mph. Add a steady head wind of 10mph and now your ground speed is only 14mph. You can explore more and see more on a faster wing. I decided on the 24m Sirocco because I feel like it’s a good middle ground between speed and stability.
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Thanks! Makes sense about exploring more with extra speed.
My wing is an EN-A pg wing, certified also for ppg but it rocks left and right almost all the time and nobody not even the manufacturer can explain why. I spend much time in flight looking at it just to pull the correct brake to stop the oscillation, ten seconds later it starts again. After each flight, my left cnc arm nut on the SP140 V1 frame, although a self locking nylon ring one, is loose enough to have some lateral move in the arm, just from the oscillations. I’ll have to locktite it too.
So you’re better with your not ppg certified 29m wing than with a certified one that acts like mine, which tells me that, in some cases, these certifications are as useful as it is a colledge diploma for a McDonald’s worker.
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Most A wings don’t have oscillation issues. Most B wings don’t either. Which wing do you have? Where do you typically set the trimmers set? How many hours is on the wing?
If a PG wing is out of trim it will be pitched back more which can cause oscillating (the lines shrink over time but the extra load on the front lines make them not shrink as much). Too much brake can cause it too. On a PPG wing with trimmers all the way in it would do the same thing if it’s out of trim. However, on a PPG wing you can just let the trimmers out a little to make it not so pitched back.
I have the Nova Prion 5 for three years. No trimmers.
Many small pg flights, maybe about 30-40hrs total.
Never forced it in anny way.
Didn’t send it to retrim either, the manual says is optional and should fly ok without it.
It comes above head like in day one, stays up easely on moderate wind.
Doesn’t oscilate during free flight except one time, during a normal dynamic patrol at a hill, it wouldn’t stop oscilating, did that for minutes and because I was new I just let it oscilate untill I pulled both brakes gently and it stopped. So one time it did it without the motor.
(I’m 87kg all up weight, limits are 75-100 so 50% load)
Does oscilate with ppg (I’m 110kg, limit is 125kg) so no overload.
I keep the brake toogles near the upper limit, 5-10cm bellow the pulley to have good speed.
I’m very gentle with the throttle.
Maybe you saw the video, I had to cut out two low passes with the most oscillations just not to look that weird. Maybe you spot something. Thank you!
Basically you have a PG wing with a motor certification. The extended weight up to 125 is because you want to be heavier loaded with a motor. Under power the wing lags back a bit and makes it oscillate more than in free flight which is why you want to be over the PG range which you are. Out of trim would change the angle of attach even more and would have the same effect on oscillation.
Did you buy the wing new? Did it oscillate when it was new? It might be worth looking into getting it trimmed. Or test fly a few wings and find a new wing that you like. There are a lot of good A and B wings out there.
The lines shrink/stretch the most in the first 15-20 hours of life. The manual for your wing recommends trimming it after 15-20 hours. After that you are good for a while because it won’t continue to change so rapidly.
If you had motor risers I would recommend letting out the trims a little to see if the oscillations go away. Do you have a speed bar? You could experiment with adding a touch of bar to see if that calms down the oscillation.
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Thanks! I buyed the wing new from Nova. Flown it two years free flight, did oscilate once, I was trying to gain altitude at the hill after taking off, maybe I keept it to balloned with the brakes to increase lift, I don’t know. When I went to ppg it oscilated from first flight, but it wasn’t new anymore.
It doesn’t have trims but the speed bar ideea is great, didn’t thought of that. I’ll try applying some speed bar. If that changes things, I’ll send it to trim.
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