So off to my local site for an afternoon boat about. My first impressions was it wasn't unpredictable or maybe as nimble on the launch as I'm use to but there was certainly no tendency to want to overshoot making it a very simple wing to get up and go.
In the air it was certainly nimble and after effortlessly gaining height on the dynamic ridge lift it was time to see what it was like in the air. Spin point is easy enough to find but you had to go deep to get to it . This gave me the confidence that my customers are unlikely to encounter it by accident. The leading edge feels very solid but I did let it front tuck once to see how it reacted and recovered. It was reassuringly predictable giving plenty of warning and was fast to recovery though being over the weight here may have changed the feel so won't say any more. In wingovers it was easy to get smooth high amplitude wingovers without feeling you were on the edge. A real pleasure and very hard not to spend the whole flight doing just that.
I was now joined by three other pilots - so an opportunity to compare. though knowing i was overweight on the wing I wasn't expecting to sit on the top of the stack. How wrong was I the Aspen 4 drifted effortlessly to the top without any particular effort, with my reward being more wingovers and asymmetric spirals. It was becoming addictive. Condition did shut down for a time and it wasn't long before we were at ridge height or below and slowly the others were forced to bottom land while the aspen 4 was able to maximises and opportunities for lift - I held out for a further 20 mins after the last had conceded before conditions resumed normal service again and it wasn't long before I was toping out and my previous altitude gains. - Time to fly home. The speed bar is smooth and progressive with only a noticeable drop in glide after 3/4bar. This should be a very good mile muncher for the xc pilot and although it hasn't quite got the range on the xc3 is pretty close. Edit. While managing Team GB at the recent European Championships I would often hear reports from the team in disbelief that the Aspen 4 pilot was often in the mix and was not being dropped by the gaggle that easily. My conclusion is the Aspen 4 is very much a player in the new generation EN -C and a real pleasure to be on board with.
