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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Triple Seven Queen M

Triple Seven Queen M

Finally the Queen arrived. Directly for the box to the take off…I saw the size 85-104 . Being a bit far form the ideal weight, I ballasted up to 102 !

Conditions of the day were …amazing !!! Thermals lifted us to +1000m above take off , and long glides were made…

Takeoff : I didn’t find any particular thing to say ! The glider has a very quick and nice take off behavior !

In the air : Having flown the carrera M, and S size with the Delta M and SM size plus also 90% of C glider, ☺ I could describe the Queen very precisely !

Handling is …a dream. Oups…
Ok…Lets explain. The Queen doesn’t dive in turns .The handling versus the Delta M size is on the side of the Queen.
As it could be described as : Linear, crisp, precise and easy to induce the turns. That’s with homogenous thermals.
In some nasty sudden and swift cores, it needs some little more time to get it in the right turn.
Strangely, and i wasn’t expecting it…I found that the Queen is more comfortable to fly in most conditions than a Carrera M, S, or a Delta SM… Saying that, i felt that the Queen stays always above the pilots head with some impressive passive safety for this class of gliders.

I thought that it would have some sharper reactions, but it is a tamer glider to fly than many C’s i have tested.

Doing some long glides with a Carrera M loaded at 99 all up, and taking into account that the Carrera M have a very small or slight better into wind glide than a Delta 2, I found at first that the trim speed of Queen at 102 is less by some insignificant amount…May be - 0.15 km/h,only showed on long glides.
But surprisingly and after those long into wind glides…The queen has the upper hand with also that slight edge over the Carrera M !
Other pilots would find them all alike..But long glides will show that very small edge !

Climb rate :
Loaded at 102 on the M size Queen, i found that it has a very slight, or small delay to cut through the strong thermal in head wind, with the glider being very docile to handle!
But i would have preferred a more leading edge attack !

The Queen also doesn’t like to be loaded at 102 in weak conditions. I found after a the 3rd hour that i should dump the ballast a bit.
Getting rid of ±3.5 kg, the Queen showed some excellent climb in 0.3 m/s …and helped me some crazy low saves in order to get back home !

Flying the Queen at 99 all up, the handling becomes even smoother, and the ability to core the weak thermals did in fact put a smile on my face as it reminded me of my old Airwave Xmx comp glider. The feeling is like a glider that doesn’t loose anything in one narrow thermal with always a positive vario with no loss in climbing efficiency.

Gliding at first and second bar showed some excellent performances that puts the Queen on top of the C category for now or should i say ‘easily’ on par with the best C gliders out there !

The top speed on the M size Queen loaded at 102 i have here has ±3 km/h faster than a Delta 2 SM and ±4 km/h more than a Carrera M size loaded at 99.

Wing overs are nice and are also a fast descent method !
Big ears are easy and relatively stable ,they open with a slight brake touch.

Conclusion : Easy to manage, comfortable, coupled with amazing performances. Triple seven has indeed a winner in the C category.It is a shame that i didn’t get one before !
On this glider, no one will have an excuse on long XC’s for messing up if ‘carefully loaded’ ! 



This video below is from yesterday's flight.
It is a long one but the pilot can see the gliders in the air.

Today i have flown the Queen at 99 all up and flew also with my friend on a longer flight with his Carrera at 99 also. If the climb rate is not the strongest point of the Queen, we are more sure today that the Queen has the 'BEST' glide into wind at first bar (48-50 km/h) of the speed travel in the C category !
And this my fellow pilots is a real fact Smile
Cheers,