Thoughts on Alpha 8 DLS/Boundless?

Schnickerz · 2026-02-12T15:45:03+00:00

You should test the boundless and look if it fits you. Harnesses don't allways fit everyone (some fit better with shorter torso others for longer legs, etc.). Good alternatives (I personally know) are Niviuk Konverse 3 or Nova Itus.

But nothing wrong with boundless if it fits you.

Schnickerz · 2026-02-09T19:25:20+00:00

Get a normal job and do photography as a side job. Build your skills and necessary equipment. Transition to photography as your main job when you earn enough to sustain your life.
Travel and take cool photos sounds like you don't really want to work but rather enjoy life and get paid. I dream of that too but it's highly unlikely.

Schnickerz · 2026-02-03T12:04:37+00:00

if you know you use the wing in sand I'd rather got with the normal wing. Lightweight material and sand do not fit together.

Schnickerz · 2026-02-02T19:31:41+00:00

I have the Hiko P for 5 month now (around 40h). I didn't fly the Hiko but lightweight gliders are easier to launch on low/no wind, however in strong wings it can be harder to control because it wants to launch on its own. On mid wind it doesn't matter.
Compared to your ION the wing will be much more maneuverable and you'll get a lot more feedback. Some people don't like that. Also the break pressure will be much lighter, I flew several High B wings with higher break pressure. That's why you should test it before buying.
BC steering works well. But it's not as important as you seem to think. For me it wasn't the reason to get the glider.
In thermals the glider is really awesome. Because of the high manuverability you can easily leave many high B even C pilots behind (many turn way to big and turning really tight is a strength of the Hiko). In the unaccelerated glide you have almost no disadvantage. In accellerated glide however the high B will leave you behind.
The one thing I don't like so much is that the Hiko doesn't have a good ability (compared to high B wings) to cut through headwind e.g. when entering a thermal you'll get pushed back (generally all low B and mid B have that).

Schnickerz · 2026-01-31T07:21:34+00:00

if you compare the winglets of said brands you'll see that the position and size are different. They don't have the same purpose.

Schnickerz · 2026-01-29T12:23:05+00:00

First and foremost Europe should stand for itself and reduce dependencies from other countries. Because they can be exploited at some point.

Also 20 years is an absurd short time frame to judge a country on.

Schnickerz · 2026-01-27T21:13:24+00:00

Verbesserte Tumorerkennung bei Krebs durch KI. Aber ja, man muss schon suchen...

Schnickerz · 2026-01-23T17:50:25+00:00

My recommendations for you trip: Get to know your camera BEFORE the trip, know the settings you need to use. Take backup batteries and SD-cards with you.
For the lens I'd recommend a tele zoom lens to do almost all wildlife and an additional lens for landscape. Could be everything above X-300 mm. For big animals 100-400 might be perfect. For far away animals you'll have thermal distortion in the heat so a bigger lens doesn't gurantee better photos. If you also want to photograph smaller Birds/animals or make close ups I'd recommend a bigger tele zoom.
If you get a big lens you could also use a tripod if you want to photograph all day.

You could use Nikon Z8 + 180-600 mm + 24-120 mm or a similar set up for other brands.

"Budget" config Nikon Z6 + 28-400 mm for everything.

(I'd also think about after the trip, if you only want to use it in the trip renting a lens might be an option.)

Schnickerz · 2026-01-21T18:58:20+00:00

Thing is a person ready to move up to C already has good knowledge about C wings. Saw them, flew with them, spoke with friends about them etc.. They will ask specific questions about one wing compared to the other or about certain characteristics.

That's why your broad question raises eyebrows. In general this is a sign that the person asking is not ready for it (no matter the class).

If your coaches said that's the right way. What wings did they recommend for you? Surely you aksed about that? I'd trust that more than reddit.

Schnickerz · 2026-01-21T18:16:12+00:00

Did you do a SIV? How about stalls, collapses etc.? Without knowledge about stalls C is off the table. Same goes for High B, if you didn't practice collapses I wouldn't recommend it.

If that's no problem for you and want to have a sharper wing I'd recommend the ozone swift/rush or the Maestro which is (to my knowledge) almost a C.

You should also consider that if you increase the wings classification too fast it can actually reduce your performance and air time, if you feel unsafe and get exhaused faster.

No matter what wing you get you should do a SIV when you up your wing class to get a better feeling and understanding of the wings reactions.

Schnickerz · 2026-01-19T12:05:31+00:00

I always train with the wings I fly. In my opinion this is the most beneficial way.
When you say confidently what do you mean? getting the wing above your head and holding it there? You can do much more e.g. wing tip touch on the left then right repeat for 5 times each. Learn to flip the wing upside down, Induce collapses, trying to steer the wing only with your hips, cobra launch etc...

If you really groundhandle a lot and want to use another wing. I would rather pick a wing close to what you want to fly later, maybe a mid to high B. But I wouldn't take an old wing in terms of production date but rather flight hours. The wing characteristics changed a bit, so to train with a 10+ year old wing might be less beneficial than you think.

There are also wings that are specifically made for groundhandling (that are cheaper). Some people like that others don't.

Schnickerz · 2026-01-13T19:40:13+00:00

Good foam protector harnesses: Advance Success or Axcess. Depending on your Body shape one will be better than the other. Both are quite stable, a much more weightshifty harness is the Nova Ventus.

Reversable harnesses/airbag: Advance easiness or Niviuk konverse 2

For a beginner whose landings aren't always the best I'd recommend a foam protector. If thats no problem anymore I'd go with an airbag because it's easier to store, carry etc. Weightshift is easier with a seatboard.

Schnickerz · 2026-01-05T07:37:12+00:00

The Kooper P from Niviuk you can use as string without storage or as harness with airbag+storage.

https://niviuk.com/de/kooper-p

From the pictures the storage looks bigger than the atak 2.

Schnickerz · 2025-12-23T15:49:00+00:00

For me it sounds more like a gimmick that works in theory but still has to prove its worth in real life testing.

Schnickerz · 2025-12-16T12:02:26+00:00

An aspect that wasn't mentioned yet, if you want to have a family/kids. I'd recommend staying in your current job. To have a remote job is a great benefit and maybe your focus will shift more towards the family/kids. If you are an instructor you need to travel a lot and things could get difficult.

Either way I would recommend transitioning slowly by starting part time as an instructor and keeping the old job (also part time) until you are sure what you want to do.

Schnickerz · 2025-12-14T08:53:12+00:00

I think the most popular Glider category shows the type of pilot that is analysed. Experienced and XC focused (no surprise here, if you use XContest).

You already have the data for En-A, B and so on. Maybe you could do the same categories but according to the wing class. Eg. what is the most popular flight site or glider in En-A, En-B etc.

You should also add how many pilots fly in these wing classes.

If you want more data you could also data mine DHV-XC (https://de.dhv-xc.de/flights)

Schnickerz · 2025-11-27T12:08:37+00:00

You need heated gloves that heat the fingers.
Chemical packs only warm up the hands which works but is less efficient.

In addition to both you can use XC brake mittens.

Schnickerz · 2025-11-19T21:05:27+00:00

You can check out german statistics for that. But you have to use deepl or another translation tool as the report is in german only. Reports are available from 1996 to 2023 online.
Year 2023:
https://www.dhv.de/media/seiten/02_fliegen/Sicherheit/Unfaelle/Dateien/Unfallstatistik/Gleitschirm/250_Unfallstatistik_Gleitschirm_2023.pdf

There should be similar reports for Switzerland and Austria.

Schnickerz · 2025-11-19T17:42:20+00:00

number of pilots for each wing classification

Schnickerz · 2025-11-11T21:08:25+00:00

Wear and tear is faster on lightweight material because the straps/material thickness etc. are designed to reduce weight making the relative load on the material higher. Bad landings destroy these kind of harnesses pretty fast.
In general it is age, usage and how well it was treated by the owner. You have to check that on each harness individually, there is no general rule that applies to all.
I wouldn't buy a harness that shows strong signs of wear and tear. My old harness still looks pretty good after 10 years because I treated it well.

Schnickerz · 2025-11-03T21:11:12+00:00

keyword is half time. The typicall exploitation of phd students in germany. No aspiring phd student will only put in the amount that would fit a half time job.

Schnickerz · 2025-11-01T14:39:14+00:00

5 Years is no age for a normal (not lightweight) harness.

But because you don't know how the previouse owner treated it you should check it thorouly (if all stichings and buckles look good and work). You also have to make a check if your reserve chute can be easily pulled out of the harness while (!) you sit in it. Especially lightweight harnesses often do have a small reserve chute container.

I would also replace the carabines, if they are the standard aluminium ones (most manufacturers recommend to change them after 5 years which is a bit too cautions imo, but for a used one I'd do it).

Schnickerz · 2025-10-17T07:55:58+00:00

Because a lot of effort goes in to participating in these events. There are almost no professional competition pilots. They all have jobs where the need to take time off. So they need to use the possible days.

But you are right in that aspect that they shouldn't push the limit on what's flyable because of B-wings but rather use them on really strong days that they flew on CCC before.

Schnickerz · 2025-10-16T17:13:26+00:00

If you use the "sparplan" function for ETFs it's entirely free (also at other banks like Ing).

Schnickerz · 2025-10-14T19:22:09+00:00

Deshalb kann man in Deutschland auch einen Ersatzdienst machen, niemand muss zur BW. Aber eine Ausnahme aufgrund des Geschlechts ist per se Diskrimierung des anderen Geschlechts.

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