8.42 / 10

Swing Helios RS

An ambitious EN B glider from young and ambitious brand

2020-07-07
OverviewSpecsConclusion
8.33 / 10

Construction


8 / 10

Risers


9 / 10

Lines


8.5 / 10

Canopy





9 / 10

Build quality

8 / 10

Surface smoothness


9 / 10

Takeoff and groundhandling


9 / 10

Groundhandling


9 / 10

Takeoff



6.67 / 10

Flight


8.5 / 10

Comfort and feedback



10 / 10

Comfort

7 / 10

Feedback

6.5 / 10

Soaring and sink rate



7 / 10

Sink rate in straight flight

6 / 10

Sink rate in spiral

7.33 / 10

Turn ability



7 / 10

Brakes efficiency

8 / 10

Weight shift efficiency

7 / 10

Rear risers control

7.5 / 10

Dynamics and energy retention



7 / 10

Dynamics

8 / 10

Energy retention

6 / 10

Glide


6.5 / 10

Accelerated flight



6 / 10

Speed gain

7 / 10

Speed system effort

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.


9.67 / 10

Dangerous flight regimes


10 / 10

Asymmetric collapse


10 / 10

Frontal collapse


9 / 10

Spin out of thermal spiral



Thanks

Copyright

  • Foto: I. Tarasova, A.Tarasov

Model

Year2019
BrandSwing
HomologationEN C
Positioninglow EN C

Conditions

Flight sitesChegem, Yutsa (North Caucasus)
Harness
Total flight weight100 kg
Recommended TOW, kg95-120

Technical data

Flat area, sq. m.24,9
Flat A.R.6,1
Flat span, m12,3
Projected area, sq. m.21,6
Projected A.R.4,6
Projected span, m10
Cells, total60
Lines schemeA2A'1B3B'2C2
Takeoff weight, kg85-105
Glider weight, kg4,1
SizeM

Materials and components

Upper surface, leading edgeToraySTA 15 27 g/m2
Upper surface except leading edgeToraySTA 15 27 g/m2
Bottom surfacePorcherSkytex 27
Ribs, supportedPorcherSkytex
Ribs, unsupportedPorcherSkytex
Diagonal ribsPorcherSkytex
Lines, upper cascadesEDELRID8000U
Lines, middle cascadesEDELRID8000U
Lines, main (lower) cascadesEDELRID8000U
Risers, webbingGuth&Wolth GMBH12mm
OverviewSpecsConclusion