Yesterday I ordered my SP140 - the complete kit. Now I’m looking to buy an Ozone Roadster 3.
I have contacted a dealer, who is an accomplished PPG pilot and very knowledgeable. He recommends the 24m.
I’m at 115 kg all up. Looking at the size chart from the Ozone website, I thought it was an easy call and that I should go with the 26m, which has a weight range of 80 to 140 kg. At 115kg, I’d be 5kg above the middle of the range.
But the dealer, whose opinion I greatly respect, recommends the 24m, which has a weight range of 65 to 120kg. This would put me very close to the top of the range. The dealer said “These gliders handle best and carry energy at this loading.” I’m sure this is true, but my thought was that even with a slightly higher susceptibility to collapses, the gentler reaction to the collapses on the more lightly loaded 26m would overall make me safer.
My experience is all free flight. The idea of landing with 80lbs on my back seems a little intimidating. The dealer did say that landings would be slower on the larger wing. This seems to me to be another reason to go with the 26m.
Knowledgeable pilots, I would greatly appreciate your opinions – Thank you!!
I am SPECULATING, in hopes that someone will correct my error. (If I actually get it right, please say that explicitly too, for the benefit of people trying to figure it out next year.)
As best I can figure, a smaller wing with higher loading offers “better performance”, meaning that it is more fun, and responds more quickly. It makes relatively difficult flights easy enough that you can do them, if you’re careful.
The tradeoff is that when things go wrong, that also happens more quickly, so you have less of a safety margin.
People who love driving for its own sake often appreciate a sports car (as opposed to a family sedan), and this is a hobby you’re probably doing for fun instead of just as a tool to get somewhere. On the other hand, sports cars have higher insurance rates, and that isn’t entirely about who chooses to drive one or how much they cost to repair.
Wingmakers do have an incentive to push you towards slower and safer, because of liability, and more likelihood of buying an upgrade later. But I also suspect you’re more worried about safety (particularly in cases that probably won’t happen) than either a typical customer or even your instructor, and you personally may be happier with a larger wing.
(And yes, by “you”, I also mean “me”, which is why I really want someone to correct me if my understanding of the tradeoff is wrong.)
I have the Roadster 24m.
Weight: 155lbs
SP 140: 87lbs
Reserve: 5lbs
Redbull: 250g
Total: ~112kg all up.
I might have done the 22m if I were to buy again, however I can get 50+ minutes on battery with the 24m, probably less with the 22m. in gaining more experience (haven’t tied in the 2D steering yet) I think 22m would be more fun. 24 I still have to work lots to get wing overs.
Wing is safe and easy to fly. brakes come long, I haven’t retied them shorter yet either.
This would be my take:
26M - TOO BIG
24M - Good mix for size and max flight time on SP140
22M - If you have more experience flying and want to do more turnie thingies.
I flew a Supair birdie 24M (freeflight) and it feels way more nimble than my 24M roadster.
In the early days the side bars had not been invented yet (high hang points only). There were no split “A” risers (not invented either). Speed-bars (what was that?). Reflex wing with TST handles (the name was not in our dictionary and came about decades later once the first models were designed). There were no gliders specifically designed for Paramotoring. We all were using PG beginner wings Afnor certified for Paragliding. The motors were general purpose two stroke farming water pumps. The wing materials were heavy (my wing in the video had a Mylar coated top and weighed about 17lbs and would correspond to a 27 or 28m2 today) I weigh a buck and half (150lbs).
To say that we all were by today’s standards, not flying fast wings because they were bigger than what we used to free-fly today. Basically if you wanted to PG and PPG you had to buy two gliders. The larger size to compensate for the engine weight. We were snails in the skies but we were flying just the same and the excitement level was as high as it is today. We already knew that to takeoff easily, land softly have less reactive wings, experiencing softer wing collapses/reopenings while dropping slower out of the skies, giving us a higher chance to come out of a wing profile deformation, larger wings were an asset. We all were Paralider pilots at heart. PPG was just an odd thing to consider at the time and always out of frustration for not being able to access mountain sites. There were no PPG schools anywhere in the US.
Flying small surface gliders is a relatively new thing in the PPG history book and so is the use of the side bars (Swan neck bars, whatever one wants to call them) which brings less stable flight caracteristics than high connection points. Maybe not as fun by some pilots standards today but definitely not as reactive with less torque effect felt which is a plus for entry level pilots.
We all became eventually used to flying with low riser connections and that was fine.
If you want to fly in Easy Does It mode as new PPG pilot coming from the free-flying world, a larger size wing could perhaps do the trick better for you.
In the video you will see my high riser attachment points with the DK “beat” Japanese motor model which was the lightest at the time.
BTW., landing free-flying or with an 85lbs SP140 egg-beater on your back should not make a difference. Regardless of the all up weight, you can make repeatable zero to one step easy landings. It boils down to the technique you use. Landing like a butterfly with hot feet as the say goes😄
Anyone can practice that regardless of air density altitude. With a smaller glider you will be gliding down with a faster ground speed, experience more ground effect and will require precise maneuvering upwind if any, to nail your touchdown with no more than a step and a half to stop. It is all about repeating takeoffs and landings over and over and over again. The ten thousand hours rule!
Back in time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2gjlLv53fs
Today:
1 / 20m2 full reflex. Look at the landings approaches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMJT9z-p6E
2 / 26m2 EN-A size medium Paraglider my PG students free-fly ridge soaring - I normally fly a size small for free-fying, but can thermal up if needed while PPG with a larger slower glider https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuWsgiNnC0w
I hope that helped.
I have the same weight and own a Spyder 3 26m. Same type of wing as Roadster except lighter fabric.
As a beginner I still find it somewhat fast during landings at nil wind. I dont think you can go wrong with either.
Best video I found on how to calculate the correct size:
Manual says to trim in for landing. I land with neutral trims for more speed for better flare authority. maybe your first few landings but you’d quickly get use to it.
Thank you all for your help! I’m going to go ahead and order the 24m, as the dealer recommended. I should note that the dealer is Tucker Gott, who has just acquired an SP140. I’m sure he’ll post some very informative videos!
