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| GRADIENT GOLDEN 2 by Greg Hamerton. Greg has been flying since 1992 and has flown over 100 wings. He prefers responsive handling and agility but rates passive stability highly as he enjoys taking photographs and snoozing whilst gliding. You might also like to read: Other paraglider reviews on this website. |
 Light handling |
 Agile turns |
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| Introduction Gradient are now a major brand. In the past I've found Gradient handling to be a bit dull, but their straight-line performance has always been great. Construction Light-weight gear always impresses me. The wing is only 5kg, so with my Sup'air Altirando harness, Brauniger Sonic vario, GPS, helmet and reserve I'm coming in with a 10kg pack. Definitely the most glide-per-kilogram you can get in a production glider, short of buying a specialist bivouac wing. The upper lines are unsheathed dyneema which reduces weight and increases performance slightly. The dyneema lines I'm used to are fluffy inside and shrink with moisture and need to be stretched regularly. But these lines look very different - LIROS Dyneema is a woven thread and looks durable. Gradient's Ondrej Dupal commented that they are stronger than the traditional sheathed line. When lines are very thin (top cascade), stitching it becomes very difficult and prone to strength-robbing errors. These dyneema lines are finger-trapped, which retains all of the strength. Great idea, and since they are short lines in the upper cascade, variations in length won't affect the trim much anyway. Launching Because it's so light it's easy to launch in light winds. It has simple handling, although it will collapse if you let it overshoot slightly (which it wants to do). I like wings that want to fly, but I know that it requires good groundhandling skills to keep this kind of wing under control. |
 Table Mountain - just a step and you're flying |
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| In the air Roll and pitch dampening is adequate, agility is high - it is a pleasure to thermal, very responsive to your inputs. This is the Golden2's strong point and will make it popular with many pilots - those pilots who want to have an active hand on the controls. I had great fun doing acro on it. Flying it slow (for instance toplanding in a tight space) you have to be careful to avoid stalling, more so than some of the milder wings in this class, but similar to the Swing Mistral4. Performance The Gleitschirm Mag report (July 2007) gives it a glide of 8,6 which puts it alongside the Nova Mamboo in top position for its class, and the same as last year's DHV2 class winners. I can confirm that it has top performance. When I flew against a Swing Astral5 (DHV2) I was impressed that the glide was indistinguishable. On speedbar there was a loss of glide against the DHV2 wing and slightly less top speed. But testing the Golden2.28 against an Airwave Sport 3 L (DHV1-2) I found a noticeably better glide on the Golden2. Similar trim speed, 3km/h more top speed. At full speed the glide angles became similar between Sport3 and Golden2. Safety When I collapsed the wing 50% and stayed level in the seat, it would only turn and dive a little, and swing out before 90 degrees. However, if you allow your weight to shift into the collapse (as it tends to do), you get 360 degrees of diving spiral turn. If you lean away from the collapse you can turn it in the opposite direction easily. In other words, it has immense agility and will respond to your body position. This behaviour makes it a 'hot DHV1-2' in my books - it requires an alert pilot. It's not the kind of wing you can just bumble along on and be saved from your errors. Asymetrics on full speedbar were well-behaved if you keep your seat-board level. Practically I found the full speedbar position produced a weak aerofoil, prone to collapsing (outer half of wing) and reluctant to reinflate. In rough strong-wind conditions on a low turbulent ridge I repeatedly suffered collapses when on speedbar, even with big ears in (okay, I'll admit conditions were crap), and eventually just left the collapses folded in. What you're left with is responsive to your weightshift without diving off-line, so I could pilot it out of trouble reasonably well. If I was a DHV1-2 pilot, I know I would wish the wing had been trimmed less for performance and more for stability - it has little resistance to collapsing when accelerated. Big ears (and collapses if counter-steered) remain folded in and need a firm pump to reinflate, a sign that the tips are trimmed for speed and not toed-out for spanwise tension. The spin approach was mellow, no surprises, giving a decent spiralling turn first. Stall approach was early, I found it at just over 60cm travel from the point where the brake lines engage the trailing edge. This could catch the stronger pilots by surprise. The brake pressure did not increase noticeably and remained moderate throughout the range. For an active pilot the safety is good, it's easy to control this wing to do what you want. If you're clueless, it will probably scare you. Speed The 15cm speedbar travel is as far as the wing can go, roughly 50km/h. The glide definitely degrades at top speed and stability becomes questionable. Best to use 1/2 bar only, in bumpy air. Trim speed is nice and high - I kept up with most wings. Summary They've rewritten the company image with this wing - the Gradient Golden 2 has amazing agility and is great to thermal. In trying to outperform everyone on glide (and they have succeeded in that) Gradient have produced a wing which is so close to the DVH2 class that the appeal is limited for DHV1-2 pilots. The kind of pilot who is experienced enough to handle this Golden2 properly is an active pilot with 150+ flights (70hrs), or someone who could fly the DHV2 class Aspen2 but wants more agility. I feel this wing is a too hot for a low-airtimer or intermediate pilot; it needs careful piloting. It is very nice to fly, though.
Additional Comments I was given a Golden 2.26 proto to test first. Although performance was fantastic it had a nasty spiral dive recovery from some asymetric collapses and collapsed on full speedbar in smooth air. I found a similar behaviour on the Golden 2.28 proto. Gradient changed the design slightly after those protos. So I was particularly thorough when testing the certified version 2.24 because I had to be sure it didn't display this behaviour. It doesn't - provided you follow the DHV test protocol correctly and don't allow your weight to shift into the collapse. It is remarkably responsive to weight shift during collapses and can be weight-shifted in a turn away from the collapse too. The brake lines on the production version came from the factory set too short. They were marked off at a position which did not correspond with the specified line length, and I had to retie them to allow the trailing edge to have enough freedom to remain released when on full speedbar. I advise checking this. |
 Golden 2 has a great performance.  Fun for acro, easy to bank it up  Just what you want after work  Average trim speed |
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| Technical
specs : GRADIENT GOLDEN 2 24 Rating : DHV1-2 (2007)
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More information Try the Gradient website For a test flight in South African get hold of James Braid at Freeflight Para2000 for more detailed specs. Glide ratios : Jerome Daoust Gleitschirm Mag report  |
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