Hacker Paraglider

[Laila Berri]

TheHacker RC Cloud 0.5 is a small, but fun RC Paraglider designed to be affordable and easy for anyone to use. It's a mostly complete package built in the box and as you'll see in the following review, it is a ton of fun to fly.

I love both full size and RC Paragliders so it is great to see another offering like this hit the market. I'm hoping others will join in and find out what these are all about. With that said, let's go ahead and open up the box and see what's inside.

The box is a tiny 6x6x5" cube and you wouldn't think it could hold the built paramotor frame and wing inside, but it does! When you pull it out, you'll find the paraglider wing folded up and in its storage bag, the paramotor frame pre-assembled and a small instruction booklet. "Fuzz Aldrin" the flying bear was sent to use in the review as well as the Hacker Paramixer unit, but they are not included in the kit. You can certainly add a pilot of your choice and you'll also need to provide a receiver and a 3S 800-2400mAH lipo battery for flight. The quality of the parts is very good. The wing material is the same stuff you'll see on full size manned paragliders and it has the same quality feel to it. The frame looks solid and well built too.

I'm not even sure I'd consider this "assembly," but getting the RC Cloud ready for flight is a simple task. The wing connects to the frame with 4 clips. You just need to make sure the lines are not twisted before connecting them. You can add your receiver inside the frame and either use the Para Mixer from Hacker for easy radio setup, or if you are experienced in programming you can use mixing in your radio to set up the control arms.

Using the paramixer is easy, but I chose to use mixing in my Jeti DS14 radio. Here's how I have it setup. The two channels that control the servos are set to maximum travel in the radio. The neutral position has the servo maxed out in the upwards direction and the control arms are pointing straight up. Pulling the elevator stick back, moves both arms equally all the way to maximum downward travel. Moving the elevator stick forward from neutral does nothing to the servos as they are already maxed out with the stick centered. Pushing the aileron stick right will ONLY move the right control arm down to full travel. Moving the aileron stick left will ONLY move the left control arm down to full travel. That's all there is to it. Load up your 3 cell battery and you are ready to go flying.

Take Offs with RC Paragliders can be a little tricky at first, but with the right technique it's a breeze. I start with making sure the wing is laid out on the ground without any parts folded over on itself. Give it a slight tug while moving forward and the wing will pop up and fly overhead. Just as the wing reaches the apex, release the frame and give it a little throttle. Don't go overboard on the power, it takes very little to fly level.

In the stock setup, the control is reduced for beginners so it makes for nice smooth cruising. Turns are slow and docile so make sure you have enough space for your first flights without any nearby obstacles to worry about. Depending on the wind, which we'll talk about later, the flight will be smooth and at a constant speed. You can't make it fly faster with control inputs, but you can slow it down slightly by applying brakes which you really should only use for landings or advanced acro. The motor is only there to control the altitude. If you want to go higher, give it more throttle. If you want to descend, give it less throttle. You can even turn the motor off and glide around which is great if you happen to live near a slope site.

Now if you want to do acro with the RC Cloud, or just want more control than the stock settings, you'll need to modify the steering/brake lines. These are the lines that are attached to the servo control arms. Try wrapping the line around the arm a couple of times and tape it in place. This shortens the length of the lines so now when you apply a control input the wing will respond much more aggressively than before. Make sure the lines are shortened equally and don't overdue it as shortening the lines too much will result in over controlling and too much trailing edge deflection on the wing to fly properly.

Once you've adjusted the lines, you can do some crazy acro like wing overs, helicopters, spins and more. It performs acro manuevers extremely well and there is enough power to loop it continuously! It is a total blast to fly acro with and you can still cruise nice and easy by applying small stick inputs. It's great having the ability to fly how you want.

Flight time will vary depending on the battery you use and how aggressive you fly. 10 minutes per flight should be average. Once your battery is low, it's time to come in and land. You could just let it glide into the ground, but I don't suggest doing that. When it hits the ground, the frame tends to roll and could twist up the lines. It's not a bad tangle or a knot, but you would need to untwist it before the next flight. I recommend a hand catch for landing. By applying brakes at the right time, you can flare and nearly stop all forward speed of the wing. Practice your timing and you can easily hand catch it every time. The motor should be off for safety and it's a good idea to activate the brake on the ESC to make sure the prop doesn't continue spinning when you kill the power.

People tend to think you can't fly these in the wind, but that's just not true. It works the same with gliders, the more wind there is, the more ballast you need. If the paraglider wing is barely moving forward or even flying backwards into the wind, you need to add more weight. You can do this with larger batteries, doubling the batteries, or adding weights. With enough weight added, the wing will penetrate into the wind and you can fly like normal. Keep in mind that with more weight, climbing power is reduced and your overall speed will be higher.

OK, this thing is a blast! There's a lot to like here. It's mostly ready to go out of the box, the size is easy to deal with, the handling is great and the price is just right. The stock settings on the brake lines are very mild and suitable for brand new RC paraglider pilots. Once you get the hang of flying one, you'll want to shorten the brake lines and get more aggressive. I love that it has LEDs built in and it looks amazing at night! The quality of the parts is top notch and the frame is very durable. It can carry a variety of battery sizes too. Most of all, it is super fun to fly and will likely be the most unique aircraft flying anywhere you take it. If you've ever thought about getting an RC Paraglider, but were put off by the cost of the larger models, this is the one for you. Even if you have a larger paraglider already, you will want this little guy in your hangar. It's just too much fun not to have one.

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Also in future, our hacker Para-RC team around Florian Dickert, himself a passionate paraglider / paramotor pilot and model pilot, will again present some novelties and great enhancements for the Para-RC range.

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