The “Kaisertrophy”
As a part event of the German and Austrian paragliding league, the Kaisertrophy saw plenty of high-class participants (64 total, 29 flying serial class, 35 CCC) – providing a good opportunity for us to compare the PHANTOM with the latest wings. On Saturday, the race committee set a real beautiful 73 kilometres task around Ellmau, starting at the “Hohe Salve” and then heading towards the famous ski resort Kitzbühel. After passing the turnpoint there, the pilots proceeded a bit longer south, almost reaching Wildkogel, before the task directed them north to the “Wilder Kaiser”. (You can find the task in detail here). Unfortunately, the weather was not flyable on Sunday and the second task was cancelled.

Let’s start this day defensively…
From the beginning it was clear that the key to today’s success was to fly high in order to prevent an early bomb-out. After launching, Ferdi tried to gain as much altitude as he could before heading towards the first turn point Kitzbühel. From there on, a light northeast wind pushed the pilots in direction of the second turn point further south. It was highly important to focus only on the strongest thermals and not to miss one of them in order to stay with the leading gaggle. For a long time, Ferdi managed to keep pace of all the high class wings and leaded the serial class until Stefan Gruber caught up.
In the final approach after over 70 km, a small advantage in top speed enabled Stefan to reach the goal a mere 30 seconds ahead of Ferdi.

Overall, Ferdi arrived less than two minutes later than winner Christoph Eder on his CCC wing, ranking 2nd in serial class and 15th overall. What an outstanding performance for a LOW LEVEL B-GLIDER! Find the results here.

Did we promise too much?
The miracle wing? The new secret weapon? Granted, but it was a little surprise for the other pilots to see Ferdi preparing his PHANTOM for the race. For him it was the first ever comp on an EN B-wing. How would it be? As a test pilot, he had a rough idea of the potential of this 99 cell-paraglider from all the comparison flights they had done. He knew it performs well – yet, there is always certain uncertainty left. Also for us at NOVA it was some kind of the “Moment of Truth”: Did we promise too much?
Now we know: We did not! The PHANTOM keeps its promise.
During the flight, Ferdi quickly forgot that he wasn’t flying his competition wing and kept on racing with the leading gaggle – either thermalling or on full bar! Concerning the L/D, Ferdi couldn’t feel major differences between the PHANTOM and all the high-aspect ratio 2-liners. Choosing a good line helped him to compensate the slight gilding advantages of his competitors and to stay in the leading gaggle! Of course, Ferdi is a world-class but even he is not able to considerably improve his wing’s L/D on glide.
While thermaling, the low aspect ratio of the PHANTOM showed all its advantages! Precise and tight circling helped Ferdi to groove his climb rate effectively. Due to the high collapse resistance in rough conditions, Ferdi could was always flying full but when not circling. In the strong thermals of the Wilder Kaiser, the others had to fly more cautiously and didn’t dare to exploit the full speed range of their 2-liners. Ferdi still felt safe – fully enjoying his flight and the flat polar of the PHANTOM.

What about certification, manufacturing, deliveries, demo wings?
The feedback on PHANTOM is overwhelming and we have received more than a hundred orders already. Size M and L are certified and are going into production at the moment. The smaller sizes are in the process of prototyping and testing.

The first “Ls” are expected in the next weeks. Just talk your flying school.

You may find this story in German and many others also at Ferdi's homepage here!