ParAAvis Toy: like Tango, but different

Interesting. On the one hand, it is a typical ParAAvis, well-known to Russian pilots of the early 2020s. On the other hand, it's good to remember that our figure replaces the legendary old man Tango, who has been on the market for 20 years. Progress, of course, is huge. Toy's risers don't look expensive-rich, but they have everything that modern quality risers should have. And even a little more. Narrow ribbon, softlinks, thick soft brake handles. The only reason I don't give you ten points is the lack of "expensive-richness," but that's a story about other brands.

Well, they did, they did! It seems that Toy is a simple, "beginner" wing, but he has a very "mature" wing structure. It has a thin but strong and durable braided dyneema in the lower tiers. Thin, unbraided dyneema in the upper tiers. Twenty years ago, in the Tango era, this was the slinging that the meanest competischen flaunted. The slings are not many, partly because of the modest number of sections, and partly because the third row branches under the dome along the chord. A quasi quadruple row! No, no, don't swear. No one is demanding the exorbitant flying performance of a simple training wing. But a smoother distribution of loads along the chord certainly wouldn't hurt such an airframe. Another interesting thing is that the entire Toev's "ear" is hanging on one single B-row strap. The decision, which is typical for today's sport two-strings. On the one hand, this means that there is no "anti-tie" sling at Toye de facto: trying to pull the outer B-row sling, the whole "ear" will go down. On the other hand, is an EN A labeled wing really that necessary? All in all, simple at first glance, but impressive if you get the hang of it.

It would seem that what could be so special about the design of a school wing? And meanwhile in the previous 20 years ParAvis made at least three attempts to improve the Tango, and it worked only the third time.

The geometry of Toy does not resemble Tango at all. Nothing in common! Gone in the past is the flat, plank-like centerplane, and the radically bent downward "ears" have gone there without transparency. The shape in the plan is also quite different. A kind of neutral-smooth ellipse, which does not give any preconceptions about the wing's character. There are not many sections in Toyu, only 36. But, as with the sling, there is no need to rush to conclusions. The trailing edge of the Toei flaunts extra ribs, and the wing's "forehead" is smoothed out surprisingly well. The unstitched spans are small, with only two sections each, and yet we can see quite a few ties in the wing, which distribute the loads more smoothly and evenly inside the wing. The inner seams of the intakes, especially critical in terms of streamlining, are especially smooth - ParAvis know-how, tested on the Joy 3 and recognized as successful. Toy's nose is supported by short, almost toy-like lines, but they perform the function of maintaining the shape of the intakes quite convincingly and even form some modest hint of a shark-nose. You remember, of course, that it was ParAvis who pioneered the shark-knose-like technology long before it became mainstream, don't you? ;)

The fabric is greasy to the touch Dokdo with water-resistant impregnation. Inexpensive, but not cheap. Good choice for a training wing fabric! And at last, the back edge, equipped with the riffling, is the decision, normal for sports technique, but a little bit unexpected for obviously educational "doughboy". And this riffing is realized rather interesting - on rings, made of some very slippery plastic, like fluoroplastic. It doesn't rub the webbing and doesn't rub itself. Can not complain about the quality of cutting and sewing. Honestly deserved nine!

It does exactly what you'd expect from a training wing, and at the same time it has its own twist that makes it different from other training wings. It climbs smoothly and leisurely, but it is not prone to underdrawal and locks firmly overhead. The trick is in the elasticity with which Toy "eats up" irregularities in the air in the ascent. Getting ahead of myself, I'll note that Toy behaves the same way in flight. Nine out of ten, just because of some barely noticeable, quite forgivable for a training wing, "thoughtfulness" during ascent. No, the Toy is definitely not in danger of being underpowered; it just doesn't "fire" like more dynamic, more "mature" wings. An experienced pilot will have to spend a little longer on the wing with the front rows or the body, but for a beginner, it's just fine.

Simple, reliable, understandable. As should be the case when the wing is designed for pilots who have never handled a wing in their life. What's nice is that, unlike the Tango, the Toi has a perfectly normal, not inflated balancing speed, which makes it easier to start in all conditions.

Perhaps the strongest side of our subject. And the most unusual. Actually, it's a paradoxical task to make a frank training doublet that should forgive a novice pilot all his possible and impossible mistakes. But ParAvis solved this paradox rather dashingly. In some ways, Toy reminded me of my favorite Niviuki. Brake input is almost non-existent in the beginning, but it increases quite quickly and non-linearly as you lower your hands. And Toei's brake strokes are pretty big! As a result, a scared and reverent pilot would hardly be able to make Toy to make really sharp and amplitude maneuvers, a more advanced pilot would be surprised to know how to work very amplitudinally with his hands... and a skilled pilot could squeeze out from Toi both a wingover and a really sharp spiral in a couple of turns. That said, the notorious "rubberiness" already mentioned above does not go anywhere: Toye reacts quite elastically to everything that happens around, softly changing loads on brakes and suspension, speeds, rolls and pitches. In a thermal spiral, Toi stands surprisingly well and tightly, confidently holding the intensity and radius of the spiral set by the pilot. If you want and know how, it is not difficult to make Toi rotate very compactly and with a very small (by the standards of the EN A class) decrease. In weak evening thermals Toi was confidently keeping in the streams near to the well laden tandem - quite a decent result!

Some words about efficiency of rear rows. It's amazing, but Toy can do it. Certainly, this humble toiler of training fronts has no breeches and bosses - nevertheless, the back rows are quite effective on the gas pedal and allow steering confidently, and even to keep Toy from superfluous movements forward and back... although, however, he is not very eager to do them anyway. Toy's back rows are very light. I don't know if that's a plus or a minus — it's a matter of taste!

This is where the notorious "rubberiness" shows itself in all its glory. And it is difficult to say whether it is good or not. On the one hand, Toy confidently and convincingly "eats up" almost any irregularities in the air, which, of course, is very appropriate and correct for a frankly training wing. On the other hand, damping is almost always at odds with informativeness. But a school airfoil doesn't need much informativeness. Toy's informativeness is basically a character of load changes on brakes and risers and airspeed changes. It's not much, but enough to start gradually, comfortably and without excessive emotions to get accustomed to air. Such jeep with very long travel, very soft, "rubber" suspension. It is quite enough for training!

Have you forgotten that we are talking about a wing that not only bears the EN A label, but is clearly and unambiguously designed for training from scratch? If you remember, I'm glad you did. Toy has a Glide! And not even as small as one might have feared. Of course, it's not a beast-machine for aggressive upwind flights at full throttle, but it's more than possible to fly upwind on Toy. In the early 2000's the AFNOR Performance and DHV 2 had comparable glide, now that's a decent level for a training wing. It is comparable to small commercial tandems, and certainly much better than the legendary Tango, the direct heir (but not a descendant!) of which Toy is exactly.

What do you mean? It's EN A! Although... No, of course, the Toy has some dynamics. It can be gradually rocked in pitch, acting as a training "dolphin". You can even send it into a not-too-depth wingovers. But you can do both if you ask for it and if you know how to do it. If you do not know how to do it, most probably, you will not succeed. Toy will simply "eat up" pilot's movements, especially if he doesn't do them in time, he doesn't feel timings necessary for vigorous maneuvers. Some swoop is possible only in full calm, and it can be called a swoop only with some stretch. On the other hand, does a simple training wing need a swoop and a complex landing in general?

Great! Even by the standards of the training technique. No, there is no excessive resistance to folding, it is not difficult to provoke Toy to "asymmetry" in the half-wing. But Toi's transition to normal flight is very simple - smooth, gradual, not too abrupt, but not too slow either. Heading deviation is 30 degrees, roll and pitch do not influence anything at all, at least not at less than 50% of pitch. The 55-60% crawl makes Toye lazy in roll and pitch within 15 to 20 degrees, that's all. Loved it — as far as liking asymmetric folding at all ;)

It is much more difficult to provoke the Toy to a full "frontal" than to "asymmetry," and this is not because of the long lines (they are quite short in the Toy), but because of the large internal volume of the wing. When you try to break the leading edge completely, the air comes out of the Toy extremely reluctantly, stubbornly knocking the leading edge back into the flight position. Sounds like the behavior of wings with flaps — but no such thing has been found in the Toy's design. In the end I failed to achieve 100% leading edge collapse, the outer sections of the "ears" remained open, which made the "fronts" look more like "butterflies". It opened without too much sharpness, its roll amplitude was about 15 degrees, loosing height about 5 meters. Perfect!

But this is not so rosy for Toy. Perhaps due to the modest elongation, a significant part of the span, almost half of the wing, is involved in the underrun. Load drop to the inner turn arm is not too pronounced, which could create unnecessary risks for inexperienced pilots. Fortunately, it was saved by the enormous brake travel and quite a big load on the brakes near the underrun. Let me note, though, that I've repeatedly come across "overshots" and even "tseshkas", which we couldn't make to have a full backlash. In general, there is room for growth for ParAvis, although in general it is not critical.

I did it in the worst possible way - with the brakes released, when the wing is far behind the pilot. Tango, Toy's predecessor, flew under the pilot in such cases with 100% probability. Of course, Toy pitched well - more than 90 degrees - but it was very, very far before the pilot hits the wing. Further rocking did not last long, the wing calmed down very quickly. The loss of altitude was about 50 meters. For such a crudely and improperly performed mode, excellent.