Have We Been LIED TO?!? - Winglets

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:16 Objective Tests
4:57 Subjective Tests
6:46 Concluding Thoughts

[MarkHuneycutt]

Duck tape for science! Just like NASA's Apollo 13

[TheFaab]

One of the reasons airplanes have started using winglets is the reduction in wingtip vortices. This greatly reduces drag, and they achieve higher efficiency/glide ratio. It would be really cool to see how paraglider winglets influence glide ratio. They are not directly mounted on the tips, so maybe the effect is less.

[paramotorhead]

Having recently moved from a Viper3 to a ViperXC I fully appreciate the winglets.

[AaronMullFilms]

Can we all take a moment to appreciate your skills in video? I understand what it takes to make high quality stuff, and man you continue to elevate your level of production and I don't want it to go unnoticed. Cheers

[MKHNitro]

For years Russell Ogden ridiculed Advance for having gimmick winglets in their wings, only to now adopt them on Ozone wings

[davidhendrie]

Yes, we were flying Advance wings, Sigma and Omega with winglets at Extreme Paragliding, Scotland back in the late 90s. I didn't get the chance to fly one, but the guys who did swore by their stability. I flew the Edel Energy, a level 3/C wing back then. I gave it up mid 2000s as the weather got increasingly windy and opportunities to fly became rarer. Got back into sailing instead!

[GolfFoxtrot]

ADVANCE paragliders have used them for years and I never noticed the stablising effect on them. The Hadron 3 tracks very straight, is very roll stable and that doesn't have them. The underlying tuning will the reason. I had the Viper 3 had a really really bad oscillation and needed constant input to stop it getting too divergent. Great video with the dual comparison.

[AveryFlies]

I haven't taped them down, but I felt the same on the Apco F5 with the center fin- which is basically just a lift 2ez canopy. The fin helps slow oscillations faster and also keeps the glider flatter in turns with the increased vertical surface area being rolled sideways and becoming horizontal.

[iainferguson]

Ozone have put winglets on gliders like the Photon to help reduce speed in deep spirals. This does work as gliders like the Photon is difficult to get down when encountering cloud suck. Spirals are normally the way to go. Big ears and speed bar is much less effective. Spirals on the Photon are easily.

[sigvelundesoldal]

Advance have winglets on their paraglider wings for performance gains, opposed to Ozone who uses it for stability. Whether Advance actually gain anything from using them is unknown, but they for sure get some brand recognition. My guess is that it doesn't make a big difference when the winglets are small and close to the wingtips like on Advance wings. I have talked to some pilots flying the Ozone photon and they feel that the winglets make the wing slower to turn and definitely increases the drag of the wing. My guess is that when Ozone designs a wing they only put on the winglets if it necessary to either get the wing in a certain classification, or to make it more stable for beginners.

[rondoodledix]

This is excellent! How would you know unless you do what what did, tape them! I used to think they looked dorky, but now I fly a Photon for the last month, and now I definitely swear by the winglets for the way they fly. Spiral in particular is so smooth, exit is so smooth and controlled, no pitch issues. On bar, it doesn't roll oscillate like a Zeno would, totally solid. On the other hand, Photon is higher arc than Zeno, and that definitely creates more roll stability as well. This stability absolutely adds up little by little to a more efficient flight in the long run. They make the glider delightfully manueverable as well. The winglets are excellent, and I'm sure we'll see new designs of them. Darren here. This is Dad's computer.

[DavidNCPPG-]

Thank you so much for another great video. Really like the winglets test, great information. Definitely going to check out your glider reviews page, sure they are very informative. Take care, be safe.

[todd.foster]

Great video! What a practical way to test and see if they really work or not. Love it!
I was flying the Mojo when I started training and ended with the Moxie. With that little of experience, I can tell you that the Moxie definitely would not oscillate like the Mojo did. I was having a hard time with that on my final approach to landings with some bumpy air. The Moxie cleared that up. I did notice that turns are harder with the Moxie. There's always give and take.

[DarioushAryan]

Awesome… Good storytelling, love the different camera angles, the image processing... everything is perfect! Hope to see more and more. bravoo

[adam-newbloom]

Thanks for this test, I demo'd a Viper XC and "thought" it seemed to have less roll and more straightline stability but like you said sometimes you can just feel it because you believe it. Great test!

[flyingdanwithasedan]

Epic dude!!! Amazing to clearly see the big difference! The winglets are cool for cross country or beginners! Nice break down video

[Hyperious_in_the_air]

so I've flown the Viper XC after flying my Speedster 3 (non-winglet ozone XC wing) for 2 years, and what I noticed is that there's a "snapover" point in deep turns that I don't really like with winglet wings. It's like you pull and pull for a turn, and it hesitates for a few seconds before actually hooking.

The other issue I felt is that when swinging through the gate in a wingover, the winglet wings will want to swing through into a massive straight-on surge, rather than naturally rolling over into the next wingover like it should be doing.

Honestly with how I fly I'm not that worried about oscillation since I fly about 3/4 of weight range. I find that the oscillation issue only really happens to people flying at or above the weight range max.

[NickJensen]

It would be awesome to get a video where you see how manufacturers test and develop these wings! Sort of a factory tour or something.

[jcwilcox]

High value evaluation! Solidified my first wing will definitely have winglets, thank you for your efforts.

[turkeyphant]

I've been flying the xc for over a year now and it's absolutely rock solid in thermic midday conditions.