The SWING ASTRAL 2 - bigger, better, faster?

The Astral 1 was an 'intermediate class' bestseller, with good allround performance and a lively feel. What's new in the year 2000? Is the Astral2 any better? And how far is the gap between it and the serial class racers?

CONSTRUCTION :
Construction is almost identical to the Swing Cirrus2, with U-ribs spanning 3 cells, simple stitching, adequate reinforcing, and Carrington fabric on the upper surface. A nice speedbar system comes with the glider, and engages a 19cm shortening of the A's.

LAUNCH : A slow, even pullup - easy forwards or reverse. Sits directly overhead. Very steady, and stabilises nicely, can be brought back from extreme angles (wingtip on the ground) with the brakes alone, like the Firebird Matrix. There is a hardpoint at 80degrees. I found the ground-handling very simple.

HANDLING : The Astral2 is a battle-cruiser - it gave me the same secure feeling as the Apco Allegra, with high passive stability. Feedback from the wing is dampened, and is less than the Octane and Matrix. The brakes have been rigged in a similar manner to the Arcus, with fail-safe connectors to the stabilisers for big brake inputs. Thus when you're too heavy-handed, the pressure is huge. If you're expecting an active wing, you might be disappointed with the heavy, controlled feel - the Astral2 is a 'de-tuned' Astral1, but has more performance.

The turns were moderated and flat, and the climbs were very efficient, certainly improved from the Astral 1. Another improvement is the highly-limited pitch-and-roll motion of the wing, which will be reassuring for low-airtime pilots. Weight-shift has little effect, but is necessary for tighter turns.

GLIDE : Good, comparable to the Octane, Proton and Ventus. Very close to the Cirrus 2 and Oxygen, even at full speed.

SPEED : Solid throughout the speed-range, though full speed bar is as far as the wing can go - in smooth air the nose holds its shape, in mild turbulence I lost the wingtip, followed immediately by the opposite tip. They can be pumped out while still on full bar, and the rest of the wing remains solid. Back off a little, or fly actively and you'll be fine, whizzing along at 50km/h.

SECURITY : The Astral2 is really the 'xc pilot's Arcus' - you can forget about the wing and concentrate on flying.

It turns very mildly towards collapses, and reinflates spontaneously, with a clean slap (not the unnerving bang! that the Astral 1 had). Spiral recovery is easy, heavy brake input is needed to spin, spins recover quickly (through entering a spiral) if the initiating brake is released.

B-line stalls require a lot of strength. Weight-shift turns on big-ears are slow, with little roll. Really big collapses (more than 60%) became manageable with little height loss. Big collapses on speedbar will turn you into a spiral, but as soon as you back off the bar, you pendulum out and the glider reinflates on its own.

SUMMARY : The Astral2 is well-suited to the novice or conservative xc pilot.

The passive stability is high, the recovery from collapse mellow and spontaneous, and there are no hidden quirks in the aerofoil.

The performance is pleasing. Top marks to Swing for the ability to absorb turbulence, good climb-rate in thermals, and easy ground-handling. Negatives are the high brake pressure, and ... er, that's all! The Astral 2 has a smooth, rounded nature that shows a lot of work has gone into refining the wing to make it accessible to a very large market.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS : Swing Paragliders - www.swing.de
South African Distributor - Peter Wallenda - 083 300 1755

* Note : Apply the correction factor to scale the results to a standardised condition of 1000m altitude, 1013.2 hPa Qnh pressure, and 15 deg.C. air.