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Friday, April 12, 2013

SKYWALK Chili 3 S





SKYWALK Chili 3 S

I never flew a Chili before. My last testing on a SKYWALK was with a Cayenne 4,and now the Chili 3 S arrived . I added some ballast to reach 99 all up on the S (80-100) .



Launching:

I didn’t find any particular behavior rather than easy to launch it in nil wind or in high wind .I have tried to kite it in high winds on a soaring slope by pulling the rear C risers. It works fine knowing that the C attachment point is far away from the brakes attachments. They do break a bit the profile but still manageable.



In The air:

Like the C4 was having long brake travel, the Chili3 has even a longer one!

In homogenous conditions with calm thermals the Chili 3 can be steered with the first 30 cm of length and the wing can be called as agile!

In turbulent conditions and when entering turbulent strong cores, the Chili 3 have a pronounced roll movement and the first 30 cm of travel won’t do any help for controlling the glider. In those turbulent conditions I found that to stop the surges or to replace the Chili 3 above my head, 60 cm of brake travel are needed sometimes! That’s fine as long as the pilot is acquainted with long brake travel.

I think the profile has lots of energy and the placement of the C attachment is far from the leading edge, putting the brakes at a ‘long,forgiving,linear but huge brake travel, that I am not used to yet!



Climb rate:

At 99 all up on a Chili 3 I was finding myself in a  ‘SKYGOD shape’ as I was able to out climb any mosquito! Yes I can confirm largely that the Chili 3 has an outstanding climb rate putting it on the very top of the B category!

Giving the Chili 3 to a gifted friend @ 100 all up that has only 3 years of experience, was a big mistake as he out climbed me on a M3@ 98 all up!... And that was a hard fact!!

So the Sky god thing didn’t happen to me only….



Glide:

The glide at trim speed in calm air showed a same glide angle as the M3 with a slightly less speed at trim. The glide in head wind glides and difficult conditions could favor slightly the M3 if the headwind surpasses 20km/h and in some surges. Less than that, they are almost identical! (Did several 6 km glides in moving conditions and the glider tips were sealed sometimes ;-)   )



The speed system is relatively light and it can be easily used in most conditions.

Big ears are efficient and can have nice descent rates (-4 m/s) when coupled also with the accelerator. They didn’t seem to flap and open by themselves or sometimes a little dab on the brakes.



Conclusion:

With the Chili 3 SKYWALK has created a top B glider in the category.

But it’s a relatively talkative EN-B, if I was to compare it with the others, and it shows its strong character only in turbulent strong cores! It needs a good ‘B’ pilots to fly it happily.

I wished the brake travel were 50% shorter! As I believe that such excellent performances coupled with that energy needs some more direct brake travel to place it immediately with a short travel.



No excuses for any B pilot flying the CHILI 3 for bombing out! Unless all the flying creature are asleep ;-)