Mads,

Just a quick note about the Trango XC. We met last year at the Salt Lake US Nationals. I was helping meet Director Mark Gaskill as Safety Coordinator.

I recently took delivery on an XC via Eagle PG and Brad G. It is my first D wing. On delivery there were some talk about problems and instability in the PG community and I approached the XC (L with 120k all up)with quite a bit of caution.Poor conditions in SLC sent me to Torrey Pines for two days of trials against a M GTO.

After many hours in the air and hundreds of landings and TOs I was feeling quite pleased with the wing under coastal conditions. I did very well against the GTO and with allowances for pilotage, harnesses and sizing it was equal or better in my opinion.

Next stop was the Dumps, another coastal site near San Francisco,in a bit more challenging conditions again it handling the additional turbulence well.

Chelan, Washington assisting with the US NATS and PWC was my last stop. Flying almost every day, usual late after I had assisted the comp pilots off the hill, in the most turbulent conditions.

Again much talk but not in 3 weeks and maybe 50 hours has the XC been anything but the best wing I have flown.

Certainly dynamic and active but no more then I expected in this class.

Turbulence and lift exceeding 1600 ft/min were the norm. Major entry and exit surges were handled easily. Minor tips collapses and a few asymmetricals were dealt with easily and effectively.

And the speed....WOW! I have never had that power of acceleration at my foot. In a sit harness trim up was 24mph and full bar about 35mph. That is phenomenal! In a POD cruise went up to 29mph and I did not get a good measurement yet on full bar but expect it to exceed 40mph.

A casual flight with Brad G on his new IP4 showed comparable speed but bested me on L/D by a bit.

I have been surprised at not seeing more of the XCs doing well in the comps and only today have I seen the third one that I know of in the US.

My other choice was the GTO and even after Song Gin bought me a fine dinner in Chelan I am still well pleased with the XC.

As my own pilotage skills improve in the next few years perhaps I can demonstrate the potential of the XC to others and i am more then happy to offer my support for now.

Thanks for a great wing.

Zak Hargraves

Finally, after quite a long wait due to the unfavorable weather I tested the Trango XC SM today - I was 94kg all up, spring conditions with punchy thermals up to 4m/s.

 

Take off - easy, no tendency to shoot forward but requires more attention than the Trango 3 ( my current wing)

 

Performance - Awesome, I was really impressed with the glide and speed into wind; surely this will be one of the EN D wings with more performance this season ; trim speed is high and with half bar the glide is superb, almost no deterioration at all; you can feel the wing accelerating fast with a lot of headwind penetration. The speed bar is light (at least compared to the really heavy speedbar of the Trango3), and confortable to use. The wing with 3/4 of bar is solid and stable - did not push the bar all the way down as conditions were a bit rough at times..

 

Handling - Very, very good, if you are used to the UP handling this will not be a surprise! The wing can turn very flat and quick, the brake pressure is progressive and direct, as hard as the Trango3 I would say (which I personally liked a lot).

 

Stability- I felt immdeialtely at home under it, felt very solid - it gave me confidence in spite of being more dynamic and more demanding in terms of active piloting than the T3. It requires attention as it is a true top end EN D; I had a 35% asymmetric which re-opened very fast with very little turn. Sure if you get a big whack I suspect that it will be more demanding than the T3 (which is a very docile and manageable 2-3).

The feedback the wing gives is very good but not overwhelming.

 

Landing- lots of speed and energy to burn off if you land with light o nil wind

 

Overall a very good glider,well done again UP, I liked it very much...I have not ordered it yet as I would like to demo the GTO as well, but surely it is a strong candidate to be my next performance glider.

 

Well yes the Trango XC is a weapon, as it is super fast with a fantastic glide ratio. I hooked in at roughly 99kg, so about 8kgs under the top limit; easy reverse launch and fantastic forward launch!

First thoughts were it is a little slower to react to turn with a lot of brake pressure, the brake preasure felt the same being light in the wing as well as being heavy and handled the same which I liked very much!

This wing is made for thermalling and this is where is really starts to come to life! it climbs in very light lift, it is smooth as silk, turns very flat you hardly even need the outside break it the climb. It is like a thermal seeking missile! On approach to a thermal it will turn towards the core automaticly and eat it up! Speed is great, you can cover so much area with little effort and height loss. The wing is rock solid, trimmers up and full bar it cuts through the air beautifully and stable no tendency to collapse in some mild turbulance. All in all I will rate it an awesome ten out of ten.

Hi all,

had much fun flying the Trango XC last weekend in [The Trofeo Monte Grappa in] Bassano. I flew the wing by accident because i did not have a comp wing for that comp (except my old WRC 24) and Stefan had a second Trango XC at home because he received his one on thursday.

Compared to the newest protos the glide is just a little bit worse in calm air, in turbulent air the difference is even smaller. In Task 1 I was flying the whole task exept the last 10km (tactical mistake) with the leading gaggle. The 20-30m I lost on the glide passages I caught up in the thermals easily, nearly every thermal I entered the lowest, I exited highest, not because the Trango XC is climbing faster, in big thermals it has a comparable climbrate to the protos, but the handling is much better and I did not have to care about collapses.

In Task 2 I decided to start later because of weak thermals on the first 10km. First i thought I will be hard to catch up with the leading gaggle but I was faster on speedbar than the protos below the cloudbase. I had just one front collapse (I avoided with the brakes) when leaving a 4m/s thermal on 2/3 speedbar. I would not say the glide, the climb or the stability of the glider is better than other EN Ds, it is the package and the performance in turbulent air.

In fact I would prefer to fly this wing more often in competitions, makes much more fun and of course safer when thermals have to be entered close to the ground.

Thomas