8.56 / 10

Swing Helios RS

An ambitious EN B glider from young and ambitious brand
📅 2020-07-07
OverviewSpecsConclusion

Construction

8.5 / 10

Risers

8 / 10

Lines

9 / 10

Canopy

8.5 / 10

Build quality

9 / 10

Surface smoothness

8 / 10

Takeoff and groundhandling

9 / 10

Groundhandling

9 / 10

Takeoff

9 / 10

Flight

7.06 / 10

Comfort and feedback

8.5 / 10

Comfort

10 / 10

Feedback

7 / 10

Soaring and sink rate

6.5 / 10

Sink rate in straight flight

7 / 10

Sink rate in spiral

6 / 10

Turn ability

7.33 / 10

Brakes efficiency

7 / 10

Weight shift efficiency

8 / 10

Rear risers control

7 / 10

Dynamics and energy retention

7.5 / 10

Dynamics

7 / 10

Energy retention

8 / 10

Glide

6 / 10

Accelerated flight

6.5 / 10

Speed gain

6 / 10

Speed system effort

7 / 10

Good... except the speed gain which appears to be slighlty less than expected for an advanced EN B. My wireless Pitot tube measured +5 km/h at 50% of speed system travel, +10 km/h with pulleys beginning to overlap. Okay, not a class-leading level. But there are also good news: Funky's speed system is very usable in any kind of conditions including the rough staff. At full speed, the glider remains user-friendly and well-dampened, and the glide doesn't degrade appreciably. It means that you can push the speed system to the limit in almost any kind of conditions. By the way, the speed system travel and effort are quite moderate, encouraging to use the speed system quite intensively.


Dangerous flight regimes

9.67 / 10

Asymmetric collapse

10 / 10

Frontal collapse

10 / 10

Spin out of thermal spiral

9 / 10

OverviewSpecsConclusion