SAFA Skysailor Magazine

13 November | December 2023 SKY SAILOR many commercial (and private) sellers who put profit before safety. Because of this, the Manilla SkySailors Club created minimum pilot skill requirements in order to fly a High B from the Mt Borah site at the familiar annual State of Origin Easter event. Whilst not perfectly distributed, the message at least started getting out there. If you want to safely fly a High B, you should have at least 80 to 100 hours flying in mixed conditions over at least two summer seasons. Folding lines for EN-C tests In early 2022, the EN certification tests approved the long awaited folding lines for certain tests on two-liner designs in the EN-C class. These have been in use for the EN-D test for many years, so it was just a matter of time for the protocol to be refined and become available for the EN-C test. The change gave designers an option to create EN-C certified two-liner gliders with all the performance advantages they can offer, but also some of the negative aspects. Left: Ozone Photon High C Opposite: Gin Bonanza High C Courtesy: Gin and Ozone Initially, this led to a trickle of new EN-C two-liner designs come onto the market in early 2022. These all had EN-D Achilles’ heels in their DNA, which many XC pilots found out about during the 2022 European summer in strong alpine conditions. Not only that, but the performance, both actual and overall, left many wondering why they stepped up since their friends on standard Cs were out-flying them daily on XCs. This 2023 summer in Europe, even more brands presented new EN-C two-liner gliders, but so far very little has been mentioned of the fact that they form a new class: High C. Here come the High C two-liners It’s as if in the rush to get them to market, the brands and flying media have forgotten to educate pilots on what type of pilot is suitable to fly a High C. This is reminiscent of the old High B introduction, and sadly, many hard learnt lessons have not been heeded or remembered. Two-liner risers (left) vs three-liner (right) Courtesy: Advance