New LZ – Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

Demo of the MacPara Colorado 2, This wing is 27m which is 6 meters smaller than my current Colo (1st gen)27.

My first impression was how light this wing is. Partly due to the six less meters of fabric also the sailcloth seems lighter. The un-sheathed lines have been replaced with sheathed and the cascades have been simplified. Accordingly the risers are simpler and the webbing they are made from is a lighter spec. They still sport 2-d steering and two finger wing tip toggles but lack the bungees on the WTS to increase resistance.

It’s the same basic design style but without the expensive refinements that made the Colorado special. Sky-tec has been replaced with rip stop. Complex risers have been replaced with simpler ones that limit the pilots ability to tweak the steering configuration. High tech wind cheating un-sheathed lines are now thick Kevlar. The brake magnets were acceptable but weaker than the mod. 1, at least they are still on both sides of the toggle, which is stiffer that the previous wing.. The price was still a hefty $4600 but that can attributed to inflation and profit seeking because this wing is clearly less expensive to produce.

The wing came up a little crooked but responded to input and stabilized quickly. I chose not to use A-assists which was probably a mistake because I released a bit early. Fortunately the wing didn’t fall back.

Initial climb out was excellent but there was a noticeable pull to the left that had to be adjusted using trimmers. Cruise RPM WAS 3100. I was at the top of the placard for this wing and it showed with increased speed and stiff brakes.

The flare authority was poor but that could also be attributed to the pilot and unfortunately there was only one flight so no comparisons are possible.

The tip steering was fine but I wasn’t impressed with the 2-d steering. Again, more flights would have been helpful.

The temperature at launch was 40* F with nil wind. I would have liked to gone up to 2000+ ft but the cold air was keeping me low. No hard yanking and banking today.

Overall, it’s a nice wing that would be a lot of fun with a lighter rig but it’s not the wing for me.

It was a long drive but it was worth the time and money to know for sure that the Colorado 2 was not for me. It’s going to make a lot more sense to have new line sets on the APCO. and Colorado that add this wing to the inventory for considerably more money.

This could be the start of something wonderful. I met with Paul Czarnecki at 8am at Lake Suzi Airpark. It’s a very nice airstrip that has 3000ft of beautifully groomed weeds. When I arrived the fog was too thick to launch so I watched Paul teach “carb tech” for 30 minutes. The weed were a little bit “grabby and I’ll have to be more attentive when launching there. The first attempt was aborted because the port side lines got caught causing the wing to come up very crooked. The second try was much better.

Yesterday I reduced the pitch by 1.5 degrees which brought the RPM up to 3900. The difference was significant, there was very little thrust at idle which made the problem of the prop thrust grabbing the wing go away but it also took much longer to get up to speed for take off. The machine seemed to be smoother and I used a lot more of the power band in flight. Today I think I’m going to add just a tiny amount of pitch to see if I can find a happy medium.

Paul took up his student’s wife for a quickly and then the student. We didn’t fly in close proximity but I did maneuver so that they could see where I was. Toward the end of the flight it started to get bumpy and a couple of times I was pulled dramatically to the side. On the surface the air was 90 degrees left of at the runway.

After landing Paul suggested that my A assists were too tight causing the leading edge to tuck a bit during inflation. I’m thinking that it isn’t the A’s it’s me putting too much pressure on them at the start of the launch.

I took a second flight with the lines tighter towards the center of the glider and it was a little better. That flight was cut to a quick circle because it was very active air.

Landing was a little harder , probably because the thrust is lower and my glide slope was steeper. I was a little surprised buy the harder landing and my inability to really pull down on the brakes. I’m going to have to work on my strength and remember to add a bit more throttle next time.