FreeX, based in southern Germany is headed by Christoph Kirsch, originally
a designer with Edel. The gliders, which are produced in Hungary, have been
available in Britain for nearly two years and are now a more common sight
on the hill. The Spear has been designed to fill the gap between the
Frantic Plus intermediate and the Spark high performance glider.
Construction
The wing is made of a new Carrington fabric developed specifically for
paragliding. It does feel very different to the touch than the more usual
ripstop material and is best described as smooth-and-silky rather than the
crisp-and-crinkly of traditional ripstop (the inside cross walls and
diagonals are still made of ripstop). The cloth appears to shed dirt and
water easily and could be a great asset when you come to sell the glider
second-hand, but on the negative side it has a tendency to slide down steep
grassy slopes in light wind launch situations.
Few other manufacturers use the expensive but performance-enhancing
diagonal cross-cell panel construction technique for
intermediate/performance gliders; most are reserving it for competition
wings. The semi-circular cell openings are fully open to within four cells
of the tips, which have the characteristic 'swept earlobe' look common to
all the FreeX range. Also common to the rest of the FreeX range - the
gliders are predominantly one colour with a band of a second colour all
down the trailing edge. In fact it's hard to tell between the different
wings in the range, with only the subtleties of shape to distinguish them.
The suspension lines start at the riser with fewer but thicker (2.1mm)
lines and branch twice before reaching the sail. Because of the diagonal
ribs the lines are only attached at every other cell. This kind of setup
(similar to that of Nova's Xyon) seems to make for easy gathering-up and
untangling. The risers are A, B and 'Back', with the back lines splitting
higher up to C and D attachments on the sail. The brakes run through a
pulley on a 7cm long tape from the back riser. The brake handles are too
small for my large hands and bulky gloves, but this is the case with almost
all gliders and I exchanged them for my own custom-made ones.
The risers are 52cm long. As with all FreeX gliders, a ring at the front
riser attaches to an 'overdrive' (supplied). It sounds fancy, but it's
simply a pair of pulleys enclosed in a lycra sheath with a fixed carbine
snap-link to go onto the riser and loop into the main harness attachment.
The effect of this is to make it very quick to take the glider on and off
the harness, but for me that isn't important - I would be happier to see a
maillon rather than a snap-link which could catch during extreme
manoeuvres. The overdrive is 'easy' to push for the first 8cm; then the
pulleys touch and a further 7cm can be achieved, although without the 3:1
pulley ratio. The package is completed by a manual, stuff sack, velcro
packing band, rucksack bag, repair material, baseball cap and goodies. The
manual has been translated into English, but although all the facts are
there, the phraseology leaves a lot to be desired. At one point the author
says downwind when he means into wind! The bag is of an unusual shape and
it takes a while to find the knack of packing it, but once the secret is
found it is comfortable for long carries.
In flight
Chris Ellison: I flew the Medium glider at 98kg all up (the certificated
range is 80 to 110kg). I was given the glider (at Manchester airport!) to
fly on an SIV course in Turkey and subsequently for about four hours
airtime in Cumbria on light thermic and soaring days. I used my APCO
Jetstream harness.
In manoeuvres the glider behaved every bit like an intermediate; in regular
flight, the first impression is one of speed. The brakes are light and of
fairly constant pressure throughout their travel, which is reasonably long.
The glider seems to sit slightly more forward of the pilot than the norm,
but this is a feature of faster gliders. Its sink rate seems best when
flown relatively fast, and this feels unusual when you're used to slowing
right down on light days. Zipping around quickly when scratching very low
takes a bit of getting used to, but once happy with the controls it makes
the flying very exhilarating.
The glider's response to weight shift and brake movement is very fast,
partly by design and partly because of its faster airspeed. It feels more
like a competition wing but with the safety of a performance glider - more
'twitchy-responsive' than 'twitchy-collapsing'. To a pilot who is building
experience, this manoeuvrability will allow him or her to outclimb and
outfly pilots on other wings of similar glide and sink rate, providing they
fly the glider optimally.
I flew alongside two colleagues on a Xyon 24 and a Saber. Although the
comparison is not 100% scientific, it does show the relative performance of
the gliders. The Saber showed a very slightly better sink rate than the
other two, but the Spear's trim speed was marginally better than both the
Saber and the Xyon. However it's important to remember that relative
differences in performance are grossly outweighed by a pilot who is more at
ease with a glider or by a glider which is more reactive and manoeuvrable.
On a glide I measured a maximum speed of 36km/h and 52 km/h with full
accelerator on. The A-risers still had a lot of weight on them, indicating
that the front of the glider is still very 'strong'; 52 km/h should still
be good for a thermic and bumpy day. To get down, B-lining was a dream and
big ears was tidy.
To sum up: the glider benefits from very responsive handling and a good
fast glide, against the background of an intermediate's stability. Sail and
lines are clearly well-designed, with a lot of thought and good
workmanship. I would like to have seen bigger brake handles - and would
have to swap that line link for a maillon screw link!
Shaun Ainley: I flew the Medium Spear at around 90kg all-up with my Apco
Jetstream harness in my usual flying position - risers around 50cm apart
with the chest strap fully open and leg loops well slack.
Reverse launching is all you would expect from a DHV 2 rated glider, though
I wondered if the lines could become clipped into the speed system
attachment clips while turning round (this never happened but I turned the
clips away from the lines just in case). It comes up reassuring quickly and
is ready to fly. The Spear adopts a position slightly further forward than
my Nova Xyon and the leading edge is only just out of view. On the ground
the brakes are very responsive and you need to ground handle with care and
precision. I like this in a glider as it usually mirrors the glider in
flight; I must admit I was itching to take off on this stoat-on-speed of a
glider.
The first surprise after taking off is the speed. The glider is trimmed
moderately fast and compares favourably - but is not as fast as - with my
Xyon with competition lines. The speed range is very good and allows the
glider to be flown with lots of brake for close in scratching on
grass-covered British hills. The Spear behaves well when being flown slowly
and allows graceful and stylish slope landings while keeping the glider
flying. The handling is very similar to the Spark but with the edges
smoothed off. In the turn it is fantastic and can be flown on weight shift
alone during ridge soaring flight. Thermalling is very easy; the Spear
turns into the lift on contact and just wants to go round the right way
despite your opinion of where the thermal is. Brake pressures are moderate
to light and the travel is quite large compared to the Xyon. Feedback
through the brakes is noticeably damped compared to both the Spark and Xyon
but feedback through the risers and harness is good and informative.
The overall feeling in the air was one of 'energetic stability'. The
internal pressure feels is high and turbulence causes no problems. I didn't
get to fly in very strong or turbulent conditions, but all indications are
of a secure and predictable nature. Sink rate and glide are both excellent.
A pilot moving up to this glider would be well advised to make a few trial
landings to anticipate an unwelcome 'I just glided right into the wall'
arrival. This is a good top-of-the-stack glider and will no doubt infuriate
some competition pilots on those light-wind stable days when the club
pilots ridge soar annoyingly above you.
The speed system is just silky pleasure itself. I never looked inside the
lycra covers but I imagine they are packed with silicon grease and Swiss
precision engineering! The Spear has a good turn of speed and, in common
with many intermediate/sports gliders, only loses out on the last inch or
so of riser travel.
I only tried a few non-radical manoeuvres. The Spear big ears well but has
retained a little of the Spark's oscillating tendency. The tips are well
pressured but collapse precisely and come out easily with only a very light
pump. B-line stalls are both predictable and smooth. The glider hardly
pitches at all and recovers precisely with a reassuring surge. The leading
edge came well into view but never tucked. Spiral dives are fast. The
glider appears to go into 'dive mode' and accelerate very fast into the
spiral, but a small application of opposite brake combined with lots of
weight shift brings the glider out again. Again a good surge is
experienced. I experimented with not damping the surge at all and did not
experience a tuck.
Conclusion
Construction, turning and performance are absolutely off the scale, but a
just-sit-there pilot might find it demanding to fly. Thanks to the new
fabric, the secondhand value may well outperform most other gliders on the
market today. Is this the VW of paragliders? Only time will tell!
Vario up symbol: Speed, glide, responsiveness
Vario down symbol: Owner's manual translation