Review of the 2017 Gin explorer S (75-95kg) enB paraglider:
c cook
Review of the 2017 Gin explorer S (75-95kg) enB paraglider:
All my thanks ‘Paolo Bellezze’ from ‘Sky camp Scotland’ shop and BHPA training school for the demo wing.
I said I would post a review so here it is…
If you want to contact Paolo for a demo of the Gin Explorer (highly recommended) or anything else then contact him on:
https://www.facebook.com/SkyCamp.Scotland/
Tests based on a limited number of flights and in limited autumn conditions:
- 6 going 18 knots later with thermic cycles and relatively choppy cross wind conditions. +350ft atf, +4.8 m/s, -4.5m/s. 3 top landings, 45 mins
- 0-5 knots. Light thermals with relatively sharp edges. +800ft atf/+3300ft asl. 20mins
- 0-6 knots. Light thermic cycles, 45 mins of flying, top landings, ground handling
- 6-12 knots. Light thermic cycles, 2 hours of flying, top landings and ground handling
- 5-10 knots cross wind conditions. Some light thermals. 15 mins scratchy flying conditions. 30 mins ground handling/kiting.
- 8 going 20 knots. Some light wave, quite smooth. 20 mins
Glider and flying weight:
2017 Gin explorer S (75-95kg) enB paraglider with standard risers (not lightweight risers) = 3.9kg total weight
All up flying weight of 92-93kg with hike and fly setup; Supair radical 3 open harness and no reserve.
Sizes available:
- XXS = 55-75kg, 3.2kg weight with light risers (200g less than with standard risers)
- XS = 65-85kg, 3.4kg weight with light risers
- S = 75-95kg recommended (certified B up to 100kg), 3.7kg weight with light risers
- M = 85-105kg recommended (certified B up to 110kg), 3.9kg weight with light risers
- L = 95-115kg recommended (certified B up to 120kg), 4.1kg weight with light risers
- RRP = £3400
Visual inspection:
A very elegant looking glider with a relatively high aspect ratio of 6.1 (red and white colour scheme)
Simple clean leading edge and line attachment points
Trailing edge forms channels where brake lines close together. This gives a symmetrical formation of these channels on the trailing edge during turns and ground handling. Not sure if this is anything more than a manufacturing design and if it provides anything but a pretty visual impact.
Relatively clean line layout with a moderate to low (for an enB) of 10 lines per side.
All lines are substantial in diameter and unsheathed apart from lower stabilio (light red colour) and lower brake lines (yellow).
- A nice to have - It would be good have the stabilio in a much brighter colour (bright orange?) as some of the unsheathed lines had a red hue to them. As such, easily finding the stabilio line was not easy.
Coming off a 2 liner and being very much a minimalist, I found the risers a little bit clumsy/busy – split A’s, Split B’s, floating stabilio.
- However, the main inner A riser is very well made and clearly marked with a large red band which means easy location and grip.
- A bonus of the inner split A is that it allows the explorer to be launched very easily on the inner A only. This brings the middle of the glider up before the tips for reliable launching. (I normally launch using only the inner A lines on higher aspect and 2-liner wings)
Inflation:
Easy to stretch the wing out using A’s and brakes even when it is lying over itself. Partly due to light weight of material and also simple handling.
The explorer is slightly prone to the tips wrapping or having small tip cravats on the ground due to the moderate aspect ratio but a non-issue as very easy to sort out (as above) and loading the glider seems to aid their release.
No issues with line tangles - Note that I always leave the glider connected to the harness.
Light winds less than 5knots - Leading edge lifts with only the slightest of wind and only slight A-riser pressure required. The explorer can actually be launched using only bodyweight via the hips and shoulders which is testament to the lightness of the explorer and how easy it launches.
Moderate winds to 12 knots – again very little needed to launch.
Stronger winds towards 18 knots – the explorer like other lightweight gliders does move/bounce about and needs brake or riser input to keep it on the ground and relatively quiet. It does launch cleanly with little overshoot in stronger winds nevertheless.
The explorer comes up moderately quickly but only has a very slight amount of overshoot. It requires a touch of (relatively long) brake and to step underneath in stronger winds to prevent this very slight overshoot on launch. This is easily done especially as the glider weight is light and does not have a lot of momentum. Has little to no tendency to lift the pilot off the ground.
A very nice feature is the fact that the explorer is very light and can be easy and effectively steered on the way up by the A risers during launch to ensure a straight launch even in light winds or cross winds.
Ground handling:
Easy, almost toy like, very enjoyable and played quite a bit with it on the ground due to this.
The brake pressure after the first 10cm of travel is linear but the initial 10cm are very light with somewhat minimal brake input effect.
The stall point is long; At or below seat level when standing and the explorer can handle a wide range of brake input without spin or stall tendency.
On the ground there is no indication of the explorer wanting to front tuck even when in front of pilot and lightly loaded.
The tips can roll in slightly from time to time while standing and kiting in changeable winds but soft and non-dramatic.
Roll is very stable. When pushed deliberately sideways towards the ground it is easy to re-center.
Easy to walk about with and manoeuvre.
Remains well pressured even in moderate yaw, pitch and roll movements.
To kill the explorer takes a wrap of the brakes to stall due to long brake travel but no real difference from other enA/enB wings.
Takeoff:
In light winds (like many fast wings) once airborne the explorer does surge quite quickly up to its relative high trim speed. It is worth noting that you gain ground speed quickly but without significant lift until glider comes up to speed. Once the explorer reaches trim speed it does convert a little of the speed back to height.
In Flight and handling in the air:
The explorer feels quite highly pressurised and the whole glider is homogenous in movement as it moves as single entity most of the time. This seems to be efficient in both glide and turn. The homogenous feel is more akin to an efficient high aspect ratio enC glider.
First 10cm of brake is relatively soft and light with not a great deal feedback or effect on the turn.
The brakes after the first 10cm or so are direct, firm, linear and quite precise. Nowhere near as short or direct as a higher end enC or enD but very usable and well balanced.
A lot of feel comes through the risers but it seems balanced between providing riser and brake feedback. Similar to a high aspect enC. I personally would like a little bit more brake feedback but still very good.
The feedback is good, easy to feel what side and where the lift is but perhaps not quite as intuitive as a skywalk chili 4 enB.
I personally did not like the slight disconnect during the first 10cm of brake travel especially on high bank turns and wingovers but admittedly you do adjust to it quite quickly.
The handling of the explorer is very nice.
The explorer can be turned flat with some weight shift and flat turns are very efficient.
With a bit more brake, the explorer banks up easily and it can be placed into a tighter core very easily.
The explorer responds well to some weight shift and in fact may need a little to encourage the initiation of the turn. In comparison, the skywalk chili 4 has an almost instant turn response to the brakes. The chili4 feels a bit more dynamic with more brake feedback and a slightly more immediate turn response. I would say the chili feels a little more active whereas the explorer is subtler. It is largely down to flying style and preference.
The explorer is a fast glider at hands up:
- About 1-2 kph faster than an ozone lm5 enD loaded near the top of the 95kg weight range.
- About 1-2 kph faster than a niviuk peak2 enD in the mid to upper part of the 105kg max weight range.
- About 4kph faster than a 2011 airwave sport 5 comp enB loaded at 105kg on a 115kg max.
- About the same trim speed as a BGD base enB loaded at 115kg on 120kg max
- Given that the BGD base is 2 sizes larger than the explorer, the fact that the trim speed is similar but with the explorer having a slightly better glide is quite impressive - Moving to a larger wing size usually gives a significant improvement in glide over smaller wings…
The explorer does accelerate several kph between the 10cm brake position and hands up trim speed.
The sink rate increases by a noticeable amount when flying at trim speed vs 10cm of brake when the brakes gave a nice pressure, feedback and better sink rate.
I unconsciously and consciously flew in lift with the brakes at this 10cm point.
Gin have trimmed the explorer to have best glide at hands up hence the high trim speed and slightly increased sink rate at hands up. This is useful from the point of best glide simply by ‘hands up’ but I would prefer just to dab the bar to get this.
Sink rate:
- The sink rate for the explorer at 92kg on 95kg max seemed to be noticeably better than a BGD base enB loaded at 115kg on 120kg max. The BGD base is has moderate to good light lift performance so this indicates that the explorer has very good light lift performance although in my opinion maybe not the best in the enB class
- The sink rate for the explorer seemed to be similar to an ozone lm5 enD loaded at the top of the 95kg weight range which is noted for good sink performance.
- Similar to the niviuk peak 2 in the mid to upper part of the 105kg max weight range which is noted for good sink performance.
- The sink rate for the explorer is much better than the 2011 airwave sport comp enB loaded at 105kg on a 115kg max.
I would say the skywalk chili4 (loaded at 99kg on 105kg max) had better light lift sink performance.
The sink rate of the explorer in light lift is good (at 92kg on 95kg max) but if I were to fly in light conditions I would want to be at least 5kg below the maximum (75%).
In light to moderate thermals
The explorer climbs well and it converts energy well.
The explorer seemed similar or slightly better than an lm5 and peak 2 in light thermals. The explorer seemed to climb better than a BGD base. However, the conditions were very limited so this is only an initial indication…
Speedbar:
The speedbar travel is short with light to medium pressure and very smooth.
The speedbar adds about 10kph to top speed whereas some other high end enBs add closer to 14kph.
Full bar maintains a good glide angle without any excessive sink whatsoever and seems very efficient. The full bar is solid, highly stable and feels 100% usable. I could see myself flying on full bar most places without concern which is great. No ambiguity in flight; Stand and go…
Big ears:
Soft and easy to pull in on split A’s.
Moderate in size with reasonable sink rate.
They add some instability to the glider in terms of glider movement but nothing untoward.
They come out only sporadically after quite a bit of time (not sure if this meets the enB certification) but I prefer when they stay in as it lets you concentrate on other things.
With some brake input the ears roll out slowly.
C-riser steering/correction:
Like most 3 liners, the explorer is not really designed for this so a bit of a mute point but nevertheless the C-riser steering on the explorer is somewhat awkward due to the floating stabilio connection between the C and B risers and also the very high connection between the C and B risers which means it is hard to turn using the C’s without being limited by the B’s and stabilio.
It does steer more easily albeit heavily on the bar which is where it is useful however.
Again, not the readily applicable. I just like being able to steer on the rear risers coming from a 2-liner….
Symmetric collapses:
- Front symmetrics at trim speed were slightly more dynamic than other enB gliders but nothing dramatic.
- Recoveries were fast and pretty spontaneous, perhaps only slightly delayed compared to other enB gliders.
Asymmetric collapses:
- 50% asymmetrics at trim speed were slightly more dynamic than other enB gliders but again nothing dramatic.
- With weight shift towards the collapsed side, the explorer did have some tendency to turn/autorotate.
- However, with some counter-steering the turn rate slows down with no real turn tendency and no issue of spin.
- The deflated tip tended to come out after a short delay. It shows itself as a higher end enB but nothing bothersome.
Wingovers:
- Energy can be built up very quickly with the explorer and in 3 turns you can be above the trailing edge during turns.
- The linear brakes give good feedback and easy timing feedback.
- The higher aspect does make itself known as you have to keep the tips gathered on the dives with some brake
- A very nice wing to play on but you may notice the higher aspect ratio if you are moving up from a fatter wing or a lower enB
Sprial dives:
- Needs a slight amount of weightshift and small amount of opposite pre-turn to get the spiral to drop in quickly but very smooth in the spiral and no tendency to lock in.
- The speed can be controlled in the spiral dive easily so a nice wing to spiral indeed.
- It does need you to steer out of the spiral smoothly to dissipate energy on exit as it does have a lot of energy and speed.
Pack size and weight:
The explorer is noticeably light and even more noticeably it packs very small at about 50% smaller than a standard wing and about 25% larger than an advance pi2-23 (2.9kg) which is tiny for a full size wing.
The reduction in pack size seems to be of equal benefit along with the weight reduction in moving to a lightweight wing.
Walking up the hills with a total pack weight of just over 8kg and small size (Supair radical 3, gin explorer, 2 jackets, helmet, down mitts, vario etc) was a stroll and a joy……
This wing is an agile XC wing and a great hike and fly wing. Does both of these superbly well and a solution to someone looking for a higher performance B and/or going lightweight.
Compression bag (extra to purchase):
As an aside, the Gin compression concertina bag (size 2.7m) is a revelation.
It concertinas really well and then when you zip it up to compress, it is extremely compact and relatively thin, narrow and tall which aids the rucksack distribution.
The 2.7m (smallest) size fits the explorer S (95kg) well and would fit a 105kg wing equally as well. If you have a smaller wing (Advance pi2) it would work fine but with just a bit more space.
I will be buying one of these bags.
Overall:
I really enjoyed flying the explorer and the light weight and small pack size is a revelation.
It has very good performance in the top of the enB class and encroaching into the enC class.
It is super easy to launch and a joy to ground handle.
The explorer is very good at indicating the position of lift. Perhaps no quite as good as the skywalk chili 4 enB or UP trango xc3 enC but very nice indeed. It thermals well especially with some weightshift and converts energy well. I would say it is in the top portion of wings for climbing especially in thermals but I would fly at least 5kg below the top end (75%) to give good light lift conditions.
The explorer is a lovely handling wing although occasionally needs a little bit of weightshift to initiate an immediate turn but nevertheless very responsive and fun.
Fast at trim speed especially the last 10cm to hands full up. However, it loses a noticeable amount of sink at trim vs flying with 10cm brake. As discussed, Gin has trimmed it for best glide at hands up.
Full bar is not hugely fast but more importantly it has good glide on full bar and full bar is highly usable and very comfortable.
My 5 cents based on flights in limited autumn conditions. Don’t shoot me if you disagree….
Cheers!
Cris Canata
