Flex Wings vs Rigid Wings
Flex Wings vs Rigid Wings, what are the differences? This article attempts to explain what these two terms refer to and what are the anecdotal and factual differences (based on opinions and hearsay) between the gliders.
In General
- Flex wings control their roll via deformation of the sail through weigh-shift, a Rigid Wing achieves the same through Ailerons.
- Rigids are easier to carry in two halves (but you wouldn't want to fly them in this configuration!).
- Rigids and Flex Wings both take off from a hill a lot better than a paraglider.
- Rigid wings are heavier than Flex Wings.
- Rigid Wings are more fragile to transport due to the amount of carbon fibre used in their construction (you wouldn't carry a Rigid wing on an aircraft).
Rigging
- Rigids are harder to rig in strong winds.
- The rigging time of a rigid wing is normally much longer than that of a flex wing.
Aerotow
- Rigid is an order of magnitude better. Really it is just at least 10 times easier. Watch out when you switch back to a flex wing though!
Flying
- Rigids are lighter in roll, quicker to react to pilot input but slower in actual roll rate.
- Rigids have much longer wings and get knocked about a lot less than a flex wing. It is also far more stable in roll.
- Sink Rate:The rigid is loads better in this respect. Can't really over do how much better. Of course it only really shows when the lift is light and the rigids can go up but flexies down. Flexies are not helped by needing VG off when scratching close to hill for example.
- Strong lift of course you can't see much difference.
- Glide: Rigids are quite a lot better. Maybe only 3-4 points between VR and top Flex with VG full on, in smooth air etc. The flex can feel like it is gliding quite well for a bit but bumps etc tend to favour the rigid. They feel more pronounced too as the rigid does not lift dump so much. The flex gives a far softer ride in terms of pitch.
Landing
- On balance perhaps not much to separate them. The flex has advantages but you need to really be on top of it all the time as things can get away from you quickly.
- The rigid will fly straight without needing to do anything allowing one to concentrate on airspeed and pitch. Rigids also have flaps which makes degrading glide with high speed flight a useful possibility.
- Flares are a bit different so allow a bit of time to adjust between the two wings.
- The rigids are great for XC practise. When down to 1000 ft AGL you are almost down on a flex and one wrong turn puts you down. On a rigid you can often hang around for 10 mins or so longer which makes staying up so much easier.
- Well worth flying both. However talk of them being the same is a bit pointless. Will the flex pilots agree to have rigids flying and scoring the same? No way! That tells you everything you need to know about claims of the same performance.
