Apco Allegra!
The one-night-stand glider review

I had a virgin this weekend, all to myself. Tim phoned me up on the Friday afternoon, and said "I'm sending Allegra down on flight TS13322, she should be arriving in Cape Town tonight. She's new; she hasn't been out much, so please look after her." Oh, I'll look after her, alright, I thought. Dreams of wild, bucking rides under the sunny African sky filled my mind. I could take Allegra far from town, deep into the mountains, where no one would follow us, and I could be alone with her for that glorious first time. After all, she was a foreign girl, having come all the way from Israel. She deserved the best treatment.

The first thing I noticed about the APCO Allegra was the solid feel of the manufacturing. The backpack was sturdy, functional and very comfortable. The Allegra has a 4 riser set up, constructed from durable webbing - (1) 3 A lines, (2) 3 B lines + 1 stabiliser line, (3) 1 inner C/D line, (4) 2 outer C/D lines, (5) The brakes.

The glider fabric felt strong, and knowing that it has a three year warranty on it is reassuring. The wing looked well-crafted, with liberal use of reinforcing, and very neat V-ribs which ran half way into the wing. This helped to produce a really smooth leading edge, while minimising the weight towards the trailing edge. The colour scheme was particularly well designed, I thought, producing a lovely two-tone wing in the sky.

APCO Aviation has been manufacturing paragliding and hang-gliding equipment for many years. Based in Israel, their owner Anatoly Cohn has a history of delivering quality. Their current designer is ex-World Distance Champion Alex Louw, who works closely with test pilot Walter Neser. The Allegra is intended to replace the Futura, their previous Performance class wing, but with more stability, and performance. What was surprising was that the wing attained Standard Class rating, putting it alongside the Santana and Sierra, Apco's intermediate wings for pilots just beginning in paragliding. It is, however, not ideal as a first wing, being a little too reactive to the wrong input in extreme maneouvres. As a second wing, it is remarkably stable.

The pullup was well-measured, and easily controlled. And then I was airborne, running out into a sky of tumultuous adventure. Scratching in the light lift in front of take-off produced the first challenge. The Allegra does not like to turn 'light and tight' as some other Sports wings do (Freex Spear, Advance Sigma4). After a few minutes, I worked it out. Just use more brake. There is a lot of brake travel to play with. The wing stays very flat, even with moderate brake input, so I tightened up the turns, and rose through the scrappy lift into the real thermals above.

The brake pressure is high. Just coming onto quarter-brake from zero, you feel a thump in the brake-line, and the braked wing lifts slightly, as it reaches its optimum angle of attack. This makes turning flat in thermals easy, as you can just use one brake, jam it on, and the glider goes around in lazy circles. Trying to use the outside brake just seemed to waste time.

When you want the glider to turn really tight, in those pencil-cored thermals, you have to be quite aggressive with the wing, and it can be tiring after a while. Big brake input, and a large amount of weight-shift, will initiate a tight turn, which you have to lean into to continue, but you're not going to carve up the middle of the gaggle on this calm ship. The glider is designed to level out on its own, so there is always a tendancy to exit the turn or spiral. However, this leveling tendancy has definite benefits. When you get really thumped in violent thermal turbulence the wing levels out almost immediately, and in the case of a 50% collapse, swings back onto its original course during reinflation, which is a remarkable feature.

STABILITY
Reassuring. She does suffer asymmetric collapses in turbulence, but doesn't react violently.
Asymetric collapses recover well, on their own. The Allegra returns to original course, which is a very good tendancy.
Asymetric collapses on full speed bar are mild - the wing turns 90degrees then slows.
Big ears are a bit awkward to pull in (because there is no split-A riser). They reinflate by themselves.
Characteristics in B-line - very smooth entry and exit, stable in descent.

Stall point characteristics - Deep brake with very high pressure needed to approach stall.
Deep stall tendency - not noticeable at first, because I kept my hands up when recovering.
Spin tendency and recovery - takes a lot of brake to induce a spin from trim speed, though it is obviously easier when entering a thermal. If the spin is induced, it is fairly slow for the first revolution, and recovers quickly on releasing the stalled wing. But during SIV courses, the Allegra displayed some concerning characteristics for its class. When the wing is at a very high angle of attack (exit from a deep spiral, recovery from a deep stall, B-line, or spin) the brakes must be left alone during recovery. Do not try to catch the wing on the dive/surge forward, because this will cause the Allegra to drop back into another stall. On most wings I would expect to be able to 'dampen out the dive' - be warned, if the Allegra stalls, keep your hands up until she's regained full flying speed. This puts the Allegra in the DHV2 class, in my mind, requiring a pilot with good awareness of dynamic manouevres.

Between the thermals I had chance to squeeze on a bit of speed, and the glide, speed and stability with the speed-bar half extended felt reassuring. Against others, it holds one of the best glide angles in the sky, beating most of the DHV1/2 and DHV2 wings. Add to that the fact that the glider obtained a 'Standard Class' AFNOR rating, and you can rest assured the wing will fly you through the darkest sky if piloted intelligently.

All of a sudden, I had reached the 50km mark on my test flight, and was sinking towards the ground. I had been enjoying the ride so much, I hadn't really noticed the ground slipping by. A telling sign of stability was that I hadn't seen the wing at all in the last hour. There was no need to nervously check what the wing was doing. I could feel what the glider was doing (if anything), because of the immense tension in the wing, and the high brake pressure.

I sank down into the grass with Allegra, far away from where we began. She is a smooth, rounded wing with built-in safety, well designed, firmly constructed. Allegra would suit any pilot who shows reasonable ability and has about 100flights/40hours experience. It is a second glider, a secure step into the sports class, for aspirant cross-country pilots. Ideal for pilots who like to feel solid brake pressure in the turns, and don't like a glider to jump around too much.

INFORMATION ON AFNOR AND DHV :
Paragliders undergo rigorous aerodynamic testing, to ensure minimum safety requirements in handling and manufacture. There are two large testing authorities, the DHV or Gutesiegel Test of the German Hang-gliding Association, and the AFNOR Aerotest of the French. The DHV test separates gliders into five classes - DHV1 (great for first-timers and students), DHV1/2 (intermediate wings, safety and performance), DHV2 (the sports class, for regular xc pilots), DHV2/3 (advanced pilots speed-machines, and DHV3 (competition sky-god's wings). The AFNOR has only three classes - Standard (no surprises), Performance (broad sports class, must have prior paragliding experience to fly safely), and Competition (whoa!).

Be careful though, there are two different versions of the Allegra - an AFNOR Standard one, and a version which passed DHV1/2. These are two different gliders, and it is important to check which one you are considering. The AFNOR version is likely to have hotter behaviour, and be more comparable to a DHV2.

TEST CONDITIONS :
That's my opinion after flying for 5 hours at Porterville, Cape Town, South Africa, takeoff altitude 700m Above Sea Level, Maximum Altitude 1500m, Distance flown 50km in turbulent summer thermic conditions. No instrumented speed measurements were taken, the manufacturers test speeds have been quoted in this review.

TECHNICAL SPECS :
I flew the AFNOR Medium Allegra and weighed in at 97kg (all up flying weight).
Pilot weight (all up) 85-105 kg (everything, including glider)
Area projected 25.8m
Span projected 10.5m
Aspect ratio 4.3
Length of B-lines 7.19m
Stall speed 21km/h
Trim speed 35km/h
Top speed 46km/h
Line materials: dyneema for top lines, kevlar for rest.
Sail cloth Ripstop 46gr/m2 'zero porosity' nylon
Warranty 3 years / 250 hrs
Certification Standard Class (AFNOR/CEN)