My New Glider; APCO LIBRA
By Hannes Wagner
It’s always a scintillating, pleasant feeling when getting a new car, motorbike or a …paraglider! Remember that feeling when you get into your brand new car? The smell, the squeaky cleanliness, the soft ride… In the old days my father left the plastic wrapping on the seats for weeks. I once witnessed a guy collecting his brand new super bike from a motorcycle dealer. He was an experienced biker but when he got on the bike he was trembling so much with excitement that he had to climb off and smoke a cigarette first!
Mostly the purchasing of such items goes hand in hand with much planning and researching. In my case this phase took several months, partly because of my personality, I can brood for months
By Hannes Wagner
It’s always a scintillating, pleasant feeling when getting a new car, motorbike or a …paraglider! Remember that feeling when you get into your brand new car? The smell, the squeaky cleanliness, the soft ride… In the old days my father left the plastic wrapping on the seats for weeks. I once witnessed a guy collecting his brand new super bike from a motorcycle dealer. He was an experienced biker but when he got on the bike he was trembling so much with excitement that he had to climb off and smoke a cigarette first!
Mostly the purchasing of such items goes hand in hand with much planning and researching. In my case this phase took several months, partly because of my personality, I can brood for months
over important stuff like that ( once I’ve made up my mind very few things will stop me from doing what I’ve decided), coupled with my financial ability.
What’s to decide with buying a new glider? Being involved as a newly fledged instructor with Paragliding Adventures, who is an official APCO dealer, brand is sort of decided already. It would not go off well with my school principal Mr Carlos Rafael and it would certainly not be a good business principle if I would go to a different brand. However, it’s still my money, and I must fly the glider happily,
What’s to decide with buying a new glider? Being involved as a newly fledged instructor with Paragliding Adventures, who is an official APCO dealer, brand is sort of decided already. It would not go off well with my school principal Mr Carlos Rafael and it would certainly not be a good business principle if I would go to a different brand. However, it’s still my money, and I must fly the glider happily,
so my mindset was that I would buy the best glider for MY needs and financial ability, whether it’s an APCO or not.
There is a vast array of brilliant gliders out there. In fact, just like in the motor and motorcycle industry, you would really struggle to find a bad glider amongst the well known brands. They are all damn good these days.
Why APCO? To be honest if it was five years ago it probably would have been another brand. Ok, APCO always churned out very good training gliders but somehow with the upper range gliders South African pilots seemed always to have some apprehension towards APCO.
There always seems to be a somewhat negative perception about the brand, I think mostly because of people or persons, not the factory. We know APCO’s always had been on the heavier side but the glider would last you for years and most of their gliders are safe.
Weight wise things have changed the last few years. APCO managed to design lighter gliders that would still last you years. Gliders like the Salza and the Lambada started that trend. Then APCO
There is a vast array of brilliant gliders out there. In fact, just like in the motor and motorcycle industry, you would really struggle to find a bad glider amongst the well known brands. They are all damn good these days.
Why APCO? To be honest if it was five years ago it probably would have been another brand. Ok, APCO always churned out very good training gliders but somehow with the upper range gliders South African pilots seemed always to have some apprehension towards APCO.
There always seems to be a somewhat negative perception about the brand, I think mostly because of people or persons, not the factory. We know APCO’s always had been on the heavier side but the glider would last you for years and most of their gliders are safe.
Weight wise things have changed the last few years. APCO managed to design lighter gliders that would still last you years. Gliders like the Salza and the Lambada started that trend. Then APCO
designed a world class PPG glider, the THRUST. When Hendrik, my co instructor bought one I flew it without a motor and did a 20km XC on it! It would pull up in light wind without the A-Risers by just running backwards…
I’ve done all my tandem training on the APCO PLAY 42. A bit heavy but a rock solid glider!
APCO then started to combine all the knowledge from the Salza, Lambada, the Thrust and brought out the lovely DHV 1.2 glider, the VISTA. I flew Wim’s and Hercule’s Vistas and fell in love with it.
I’ve done all my tandem training on the APCO PLAY 42. A bit heavy but a rock solid glider!
APCO then started to combine all the knowledge from the Salza, Lambada, the Thrust and brought out the lovely DHV 1.2 glider, the VISTA. I flew Wim’s and Hercule’s Vistas and fell in love with it.
They are awesome gliders. Gone are the days of heavy APCO gliders. The Vista is super light but yet it will last you many, many years.
After my Kestrel, I had a brief flirt with an old-ish XIX (DHV2), which was so slow in the turns that I spun it over the sea at Gerickes…Then Carlos’s Area Shape (DHV2), on which I had numerous awesome flights until I got stuck in the bowl at Agnes Mine. Clive Mantel, the Winch Park Guru, told me; “No Mate, you’ll never going get out of that bowl and situation with your old machinery”. He gave me his Airwave Magic 3. (DHV2.3) “Watch the speed bar”. He warned me. This glider was a busy little bugger and soon the speed bar almost bit me at Barberton with a massive frontal collapse! Irrespective of that, I fell in love with this glider and enjoyed it tremendously. This glider gave me the confidence to explore little bits of acro and soon my wingovers, 360 asymetrics and deep spirals were the order of the day…
Unfortunately my relationship with the Magic came to a halt at Vaalkop, when it dumped me with a top landing, mainly due to my own fault but it was later determined that porosity was also a possible cause. I replaced the Magic with another one. But the “magic” was gone…Now I was scared of the glider and did not trust it anymore. I was too heavy for it too. In October 09 we had an unfortunate incident at Dunnottar and that put a further mental block on me. Also I had changed to a new lightweight harness which I instantly disliked. The harness was to compensate for me flying a medium, whilst I should actually be on a large.
So my flying took a dive…
I realized I will have to get a new glider, one on which I will feel safer but still a good performer. Some fellow pilots down graded from comp wings to DHV 2’s and were telling me how awesome they fly. I almost made up my mind about the Vista DHV1.2 but I was afraid it would bore me after a while.
Then, one night I stumbled upon a report written by Bob Drury, editor of Cross Country magazine. The guy raved about a new APCO DHV2 glider called a LIBRA…I scrolled through his report and then went on to the pictures. I scrolled further…and there it was…a bright orange glider, APCO calls it “Tangerine”. It reminded me about the lovely bright orange dresses worn by a beautiful Indian girl I dated some time ago. It looked like a orange Lamborghini Gallardo with black mag wheels on… It’s like walking in the passage and seeing a lady walk in front of you and somehow you know that woman is going to be your wife someday…
I had to get it! “But you must test fly it first.” Says Gary my pal. Problem. There is not one in the country! A bit worrying and I read Bob’s review again. He talks about how nice the glider feels
After my Kestrel, I had a brief flirt with an old-ish XIX (DHV2), which was so slow in the turns that I spun it over the sea at Gerickes…Then Carlos’s Area Shape (DHV2), on which I had numerous awesome flights until I got stuck in the bowl at Agnes Mine. Clive Mantel, the Winch Park Guru, told me; “No Mate, you’ll never going get out of that bowl and situation with your old machinery”. He gave me his Airwave Magic 3. (DHV2.3) “Watch the speed bar”. He warned me. This glider was a busy little bugger and soon the speed bar almost bit me at Barberton with a massive frontal collapse! Irrespective of that, I fell in love with this glider and enjoyed it tremendously. This glider gave me the confidence to explore little bits of acro and soon my wingovers, 360 asymetrics and deep spirals were the order of the day…
Unfortunately my relationship with the Magic came to a halt at Vaalkop, when it dumped me with a top landing, mainly due to my own fault but it was later determined that porosity was also a possible cause. I replaced the Magic with another one. But the “magic” was gone…Now I was scared of the glider and did not trust it anymore. I was too heavy for it too. In October 09 we had an unfortunate incident at Dunnottar and that put a further mental block on me. Also I had changed to a new lightweight harness which I instantly disliked. The harness was to compensate for me flying a medium, whilst I should actually be on a large.
So my flying took a dive…
I realized I will have to get a new glider, one on which I will feel safer but still a good performer. Some fellow pilots down graded from comp wings to DHV 2’s and were telling me how awesome they fly. I almost made up my mind about the Vista DHV1.2 but I was afraid it would bore me after a while.
Then, one night I stumbled upon a report written by Bob Drury, editor of Cross Country magazine. The guy raved about a new APCO DHV2 glider called a LIBRA…I scrolled through his report and then went on to the pictures. I scrolled further…and there it was…a bright orange glider, APCO calls it “Tangerine”. It reminded me about the lovely bright orange dresses worn by a beautiful Indian girl I dated some time ago. It looked like a orange Lamborghini Gallardo with black mag wheels on… It’s like walking in the passage and seeing a lady walk in front of you and somehow you know that woman is going to be your wife someday…
I had to get it! “But you must test fly it first.” Says Gary my pal. Problem. There is not one in the country! A bit worrying and I read Bob’s review again. He talks about how nice the glider feels
compared to the older Lambada, which I have flown. He talks about aspect ratios of 6.09, minimum sink 0.9. Then there is talk about the clever new “Bullet Risers”, a new thinner drag reducing, but strong riser systems. A lot of the other specs he wrote about I didn’t even understand.
My mind was made up. A couple of emails to Carlos, money transfers and an agonising wait for the December holiday and New Year to pass and on the 8th January I fetched a big parcel from the post office. That night I opened it in my flat. I stroked it, smelled it, read all the papers and checked out the stats on the DVD. It slept in front of my bed on the carpet.
My mind was made up. A couple of emails to Carlos, money transfers and an agonising wait for the December holiday and New Year to pass and on the 8th January I fetched a big parcel from the post office. That night I opened it in my flat. I stroked it, smelled it, read all the papers and checked out the stats on the DVD. It slept in front of my bed on the carpet.
A couple of weeks of bad rainy weather still persisted and then I took it to Vaaldam. Not great conditions but the winch from Bradley’s boat was high enough to throw it into a deep spiral, do full frontal and asymmetric collapses and find the point of stall without any upsets at all. The glider goes through all these manoeuvres in a soft and controlled way. The deep spiral feels kind of “soft” and controlled. I get the feeling one has to watch carefully though, it takes longer to get out of the spiral than the Magic.
I like the new leading edge system which has soft ribs. Possible damage to the ribs when folding is
I like the new leading edge system which has soft ribs. Possible damage to the ribs when folding is
now reduced. Those brake toggles are nice, wide and big making the wearing of gloves easier. I have an issue with tight, small brake toggles. The day I have to throw a reserve I don’t want my hand stuck in a toggle. The brake lines also have a clever swivel device preventing the brake lines from winding up and eventually making a compression twist. It’s the small things that make life so much easier. Although the glider feels quite light the material gives you the idea that it will last for years.
So, how does it fly? For now it‘s like that new car…nice smell, smooth, gentle… easy pull ups and launches and it seems to know where the thermals are…
The 31st January I flew it over Nigel from Dunnottar. February 7th I flew it over Springs’s suburbs from Dunnottar.
It’s not as fast as the Magic in a straight line. It might be because I was flying the Magic over the top of its weight range. Also, going back to my log book it seems all my best long distance flights were achieved on slower gliders. It thermals gently with very little brake input and it has given me back my confidence. I have gone back onto my heavier, more familiar harness.
I always compare paragliding with another extreme sport I did in the nineties, motorcycle racing. If you are uncomfortable with your equipment your performance will be negatively affected. Race on older slick tyres and your cornering ability will be lessoned because you will lack confidence. Get a new slick on special and your lap times improves with two seconds! Buying an expensive helmet, good leathers and back protector will give you an extra second on a racetrack, because your confidence level will be higher. Racing with a hang over is a big no-no as it is with paragliding.
Flying a safer glider has the same result, and no one will think you’re a whoosie because you have downgraded.
Somehow, I think a very long cross country flight might be on the cards for me and my orange APCO Libra.
And I think for now mine is the only one in the country…
Hannes Wagner
So, how does it fly? For now it‘s like that new car…nice smell, smooth, gentle… easy pull ups and launches and it seems to know where the thermals are…
The 31st January I flew it over Nigel from Dunnottar. February 7th I flew it over Springs’s suburbs from Dunnottar.
It’s not as fast as the Magic in a straight line. It might be because I was flying the Magic over the top of its weight range. Also, going back to my log book it seems all my best long distance flights were achieved on slower gliders. It thermals gently with very little brake input and it has given me back my confidence. I have gone back onto my heavier, more familiar harness.
I always compare paragliding with another extreme sport I did in the nineties, motorcycle racing. If you are uncomfortable with your equipment your performance will be negatively affected. Race on older slick tyres and your cornering ability will be lessoned because you will lack confidence. Get a new slick on special and your lap times improves with two seconds! Buying an expensive helmet, good leathers and back protector will give you an extra second on a racetrack, because your confidence level will be higher. Racing with a hang over is a big no-no as it is with paragliding.
Flying a safer glider has the same result, and no one will think you’re a whoosie because you have downgraded.
Somehow, I think a very long cross country flight might be on the cards for me and my orange APCO Libra.
And I think for now mine is the only one in the country…
Hannes Wagner
