Toby Colombe had a really good run in Piedrahita in the British Championship's 2nd round at the end of June. Toby flew consistently at a very high standard to win the Sports and Serial Class on his Aspen3. He since has wrote an excellent Pilots review for the Aspen3 which he posted on PG forum. We have simply cut and pasted it.
Background:
I have about 400 hours on the Aspen1 and 100 or so on the Aspen2. I have also spent hundreds of hours on other wings including the Freestyle, Artic 1, Golden2 , Mantra 1 and 2, the XC2 and several other wings. I am also a keen tandem pilot and fly regularly. Over the last two weeks I have spent about 30 hours on the Aspen 3. Flying in both the French Alps and flat lands of Spain, I have munched up a total of over 600 kilometres and also had several soaring and “play“ flights.
Performance:
Claims about performance are so difficult to verify even by professional test pilots. Although I very strongly suspect that it outperforms its predecessors I haven’t been able to prove this –whistling lines or otherwise. I’ll let others guess its glide and speed.
More importantly here’s how it compares with other wings in some qualitative respects:
A brief comparison with the A1 and A2.
The Aspen 1 was without doubt an all time classic wing and will always be remembered as such. Its main plus points were its agility and light handling. It’s weak point in my opinion was its nervousness. A great wing to learn on with lots of feedback but just a little bit too nervous? I had the feeling I needed to reign it back a lot of the time – a bit like a horse that’s too keen. In contrast the Aspen 2 was less agile and although once again a superb glider it lacked a little of the original’s panache. More stable in both roll and pitch it needed “forcing” to bank-up into the smaller thermals. The increased stability over the A1 did however mean you could let it fly hands high (less reigning in required) and therefore it probably glided better through the rough stuff. As has now been proved with hours and hours of flying it was certainly not a dangerous glider as Jerome had claimed on this forum early on.
Before flying the A3 I had read this thread and also heard a few things on the grape-vine. I have put many concerns to rest and all in all I have to say that the A3 is an absolutely outstanding glider. Congratulations to Gradient: In my opinion you’ve got this wing spot on! In short it has every thing I like about both the A1 and A2 without any of the gripes.
Main handling features:
Lighter handling than the (already light!) A2. It’s so light, delicate and precise throughout the brake range. The brake pressure is still progressive but very light along the whole range of brake travel. Great on a long flight and top marks from me.
Less pitchy than the A1 means its easier to launch. You can let it fly. Nice and stable but with enough pitch to use. It’s certainly less roll stable and took me by surprise initially: lean in and turn. So responsive I almost wing-overed my first turn! In thermals just roll it in. I find that I have to come off the inside so it doesn’t wind in too tightly sometimes. That’s not really a negative but just shows how manoeuvrable this toy is. A real joy. I’d have to say its “easy”, but then its still an LTF2 wing and we haven’t talked about collapses yet!
Bar:
I have spent several hours barring this machine through the thermic air. If you’re looking to get your hands on one of these then behaviour on bar is probably a key quality. So how is it? In short: fantastic! The bar is like butter. Smooth easy and nice and light: It’s such a pleasure to use! Just squeeze and play the pitch. Even after extensive use my legs were hardly tired at all. (In contrast to the XC2 where after a couple of hours flying you’re knackered!) On full bar I found it to be very stable and the leading edge doesn’t quiver in the same way as the A1 used to. The wing does however wobble along its chord – the wing tips moving forward and aft like its breathing. Mildly disconcerting at first I soon got used to it and don’t really know if it’s a disadvantage or not. On full bar it seems to wobble most of the time. That movement has a name but I’ve forgotten it for now. I’ll call it the “accordion wobble”. Apparently it can be tamed out by tightening the C’s. Even in normal flight it seems to quiver just a little bit (like it’s not as solid along the tail edge) but according to wing designers I’ve spoken to this makes the tips more sensitive to the air and helps in finding thermals. It seemed to work… most of the time. (when it didn’t I’ll take the blame!)
Other stuff
Surely the ease of manoeuvrability of this wing has to make the A3 Freestyle a likely successor to the A2 Freestyle! Wing overs, SATs, loops, asymmetric spirals and all that agile stuff are so easy with this wing. Wow! If you’ve ever flown a wing too small for you, you’ll know it makes everything easier (though more agile!) on the ground and that little bit more dynamic in the air. That’s how it feels on the A3 – like I’m on a wing that’s a little too small for me: easy and dynamic. And yet the handling is super light. Strong wind launches are a breeze (no pun intended). In terms of pure feeling, I think Gradient have got this wing just right.
Collapses and recovery
I tend to go pretty easy through the rough stuff but did get one 60-70% asymmetric on full bar which took me by surprise and swung me round pretty quick. I caught it at 90degrees and it seemed to behave and recover smoothly and predictably. Recovery on normal speed asymmetrics and one full frontal seemed pretty standard.
The last two or three cells are a little soft and tuck in from time to time rather like the A2 and as seen on most high arc and high aspect wings (the A3 is neither of these). Nothing to worry about just an observation. They roll out by themselves. See EN reports for full still air recovery characteristics.
In real life air the A3 is not prone to collapses and although with any wing in this category an active flying style is essential I found it had nothing untoward or unexpected to say: I quickly felt very much at home. If you’re looking for a new “2” I’d definitely recommend you put this on your test flight list.
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Toby
