Know How
Parakite Review by Beni Kälin June 2025
2025 is the year of the parakites. After most brands watched Flare launch the Moustache and thinking that’s crazy and a niche, they now have realised that it’s the future for soaring and won’t disappear anymore, so i think most of them are working on a parakite or are selling them already. I personally like that and I hope some other brands will bring some real innovation as well. Flare has now made a parakite for soaring, one for speedflying and one for paramotoring, where they even integrated wingtip steering into the kiteriser-control. Some pilots asked for a review, so here we go. I wasn’t able to fly them all yet and also not all the sizes. There can be big differences from one size to another, especially when they have different specs like aspect ratio and cell count. But also how used a parakite is, can make a huge difference, parakites tend to go out of trim very quickly. Here is why:
Why Parakites Go Out of Trim Quickly
- Most of them can fly on the A-lines only. So when flying hands up all your weight is basically on the A-Lines, B and Cs are slack. They only have some tension when you are flying slow. Lines that have too little tension tend to shrink quicker. Paragliders normally have more tension on Bs and Cs as well.
- Because parakites are used on the beach, it makes sense using the strongest fibres, that’s dyneema. They are known to shrink more than Kevlar lines.
- Kiterisers use a dyneema cord which runs through 2 pulleys normally. That line can shrink up to 10% … Normally lines shrink 1% max…That’s the main reason why you lose some top speed and dive if you don’t retrim your parakite. Because this pulley-line shrinks a lot more than the brake line does, the stall gets worse as they get older. So you don’t get that hard point anymore before they stall, so no more warning. The ratio from the brake line (going to trailing edge) to the pulley-line is super important, you can feel 1cm change there easily.
- The A-risers can stretch when putting some G-forces on. If you buy a new Moustache and make a deep spiral, your A-riser will be 1cm longer afterwards:-) If you don’t spiral it takes a few flights before they stretch 1cm but they will. Flare has already calculated that in… On the Razorblade you can stretch the black riser webbing 1cm when pulling on it, it’s quite a flexible webbing.
So when you compare one parakite with another, it can make a huge difference when one is older because it’s out of trim. That difference can be huge and felt by every pilot! So make sure to retrim them a lot. If you can afford it, it might be worth doing this every 50 hrs.
Safety Advice
Good Parakites are very collapse stable even at full speed. But if the Cs are slightly too short or the Bs slightly too long that stability can be gone! Also when brake lines are only 2cm too short your wing can be collapsy and dangerous. Normally they don’t become unstable when they get older, only the stallpoint gets softer. But if you start to work on the trim yourself it’s easy to make them unstable! If you do anyway, here are some tips:
- When you fly fully hands up, the Cs always need to be more slack than the Bs. If that’s not the case, stop flying that wing!
- For the length of the brake line; Too short and your parakite is unstable and collapses easy when flying around the best glide position. Too long and you don’t get that hard point before they stall, but at least they are not collapsy. A good check might be to push your wing in front of you when kiting it on the ground and then pull the toggles when it’s in front. If it collapses brakes are likely too short. Probably that doesn’t work for all parakites, but it might give you an idea…If the brakes are too short, the parakite can feel unstable even with the best active flying pilot!
- Another thing to watch out for are the C lines. The brakes should probably not be pulled while the C lines still have slack, then the brakes lines might be too short.
What Makes a Good Parakite?
Here is what makes a good parakite in my opinion. I think for most pilots it’s important that the wing is well balanced. It shouldn’t be optimised in one parameter and all others are sacrificed. Same thing for a good XC glider. It’s about finding the right compromise that works for most pilots and most conditions well. Here is what I personally like on a parakite;
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- Collapse stability in turbulence Coastal soaring can be very turbulent, especially when flying close to the water! You will fly accelerated a lot close to the ground. Any collapse is one too much and hurts when close to the ground. There is a psychological hurdle that prevents many pilots pushing the speedbar when flying close to the ground. We all know the consequences of using the speedbar. With kite risers going hands up does the same to your wing but without having this hurdle of pushing that bar. So pilots just do it without thinking twice. That’s why kiterisers only belong on wings that are very collapse stable at full bar in my opinion.
- Speed and Dive hands up – ideally it goes forward first and then starts diving (reducing glide ratio) when going more hands up. If i fly in nasty conditions, i want to stay as close to the ground as possible sometimes, so i don’t want to be picked up by gusts, specially when kiting with skis. If the parakite doesn’t dive enough you can’t stay down. I want to have a big glide angle range from best glide to max dive. If hand’s up feels like just pushing a speedbar, I might as well stay on a paraglider.
- Slow Speed; For toplandings, for low wind soaring and for no wind take offs and landings the slow speed is important. The wing should be able to handle a lot of tension on the brake line. Pulling down the trailing edge adds camber, reduces the speed a lot and makes lift. The more brake tension a parakite can handle before it stalls, the better i think. You might not need that slow speed every day, but there will be moments when you are glad you can slow down your wing and make lift even at low speed. I think in the mountains with tailwind take offs this is very important.
- When it converts speed into lift really well. I also want some lift reserve when flying slow. Aspect ratio helps for converting speed into lift, but there are other factors involved as well.
- Agile and responsive. If you need big inputs on the toggles to steer, you also make lift each time. It reduces fun. Ideally it’s responsive to toggles and weightshift inputs. Especially the response to weight shift is still missing a bit for me on all parkites i have flown. I’m still waiting for that parakite with the response of the Little Cloud mini Goose, i loved that wing.
- Easy Ground handling. In 40+ km/h winds you want a forgiving wing, you will see why…Shooting, collapsing and getting cravats in strong winds can become dangerous quickly on certain spots. If your wing is well inflated and fully open you can kite easily in strong winds, but when trying to stall out a cravat or making some mistakes you will get dragged away quickly. A good parakite should inflate slow enough that it doesn’t plug you.
- Ergonomic brake geometry; If you wanna enjoy longer soaring sessions, you don’t want too much pressure on the handles and the position of the minimum sink shouldn’t be too low. The angle of your forearms while flying has a huge impact on how exhausting it is to hold on.
- Precise; A parakite should deliver good precision also around the best glide position and make lift progressively. The lower you pull, the less it should sink.
Not so important to me is the performance, the absolute glide ratio. Of course it’s nice to have a good glide, but if the terrain is too flat it won’t be fun soaring anyways. I would rather prefer a better dive over a better glide ratio. Of course in low winds the glide ratio helps to stay up, but flying a 26m parakite is normally not as fun as a 15. Neither important to me is the weight. A wing to soar on the coast in strong wind should be durable, not light and fragile.
Review Reminder
Again; That’s my personal impression I gained flying those wings. Most of them I didn’t get to fly a ton and neither in all sizes…one might get a different experience. But what probably matters the most if you like a parakite or not, is what you are used to fly. I think there is no best wing. But there are wings that suit some pilots and don’t suit other pilots. Some pilots just want the fastest. Some want the most responsive, some want the most performant, some want the most stable. Some like a lot of feedback, some like it more dampened. Same thing on paragliders…i find many pilots that have flown a lot on one brand only, don’t like any other wing unless they put a lot of hours on it and learn to trust and handle it. Pilots that have flown many different wings and brands in their career, normally get used to a new wing much quicker. I hope this little review helps some pilots to better choose the right parakite for themself.
Dudek Touch 18
It inflates noticeably faster than a Moustache and rises up quicker. That’s probably why it overshoots more as well. It’s easy to stop the overshooting unless you get plugged in strong winds….if it does overshoot it can float back like a parakite but it can also collapse on you like a paraglider. That happens each time when it overshoots too far. That was quite surprising to me. You can do the classic „parakite-trick“ and pull down the A-Lines when standing on the ground and have the wing shoot way in front of you and watch it floating back. But when it goes too far forward it collapses every time. Don’t ask me why. Dudek Paramotor wings are known to be very collapse stable, I hope that’s also the case for the Touch, I don’t have enough experience to judge this. I personally trust a wing more that doesn’t wanna collapse on the ground. The touch has very very nice handling, you feel well connected with it and quickly at home. It’s the most gokart Feeling i had so far. It’s agile and reactive without rolling too much and being nervous. It has surprisingly good response to weight shift and toggles. The Stallpoint is hard and predictable, slow speed is also very good. It handles quite some brake tension before it stalls. One of the easiest parakites to fly, you get used to it very quickly and will have a smile when flying it. The one I flew didn’t dive as much as a Moustache and was also quite a bit slower. But it had trim knots on the B lines…no idea why, but that clearly slowed it down. Risers felt also quite short so it was easy to reach all the way up. I would prefer going a few centimeters higher with my hands and getting that missing extra speed.
Flow Mullet
That is already 2-3 years old now and was the first parakite released after the Moustache. It has Split-A lines like 2-liners have. That should give it extra stability i guess but it also reduces the topspeed and the dive. The first version with the standard risers were quite a bit less fast and steep then the Moustaches, with the pro risers it keeps up better, since you give it much more „speedbartravel“. The pro risers don’t have the lower pulley, so you increase the force to hold on and you change the amount of brake line that gets pulled before the wing stalls. It’s great for deepstall landings, but bad to slow then wing down. You also get little to no warning before it stalls with this pulley-ratio. For flying in strong winds not a big deal, but when it’s weak it can be exhausting and toplandings more difficult. The Mullet has a strong reflex airfoil which makes it collapse stable. It also comes with Shark nose and mini ribs. Also the black perlon rods are well tensioned and give it a clean good looking leading edge, which should in theory allow it to fly quite slow. But in reality the slow speed isn’t that great, i assume that’s because of the airfoil that has so much reflex, which is also a good thing. I think all the flow parakites are fairly collapse stable.
Flow Mullet X
The Mullet X offers that missing Dive the Mullet didn’t have. It’s crazy fast and steep, I assume comparable to a Flare Line. ( I never compared…) But it’s lacking performance for soaring and the point of minimum sink is quite low, so it gets quite physical for soaring. You need to fly it a size bigger, it needs more wind to stay up. But the top end is good because it goes so fast. Strong wind is no problem for it. It also has an airfoil with lots of reflex. Because it inflates rather quickly, you better do a cobra lunch with it. The X can plug you and throw you on your back, you feel like a beginner again … .As soon as the brake lines get tension, the top sail builds a big hump in the back, which kills the performance immediately. So instead of getting less sink you get more. It makes it very imprecise flying around the best glide. This wing wants to be flown in strong winds with hands higher and not around best glide. I heard they sell a new line set now that should get rid of that problem. I would only recommend the X for steeper coasts or stronger winds. On smaller dunes I would rather get something with more glide.
Flow Albatroxx
I only flew the 16 twice, no other size. Again flow is using an airfoil with lots of reflex which keeps it stable despite the aspect ratio. However it doesn’t feel safe when you fly in turbulence….this glider gives a lot of feedback. You feel every little bump, like a road bicycle with very hard tyres and no suspension. One has to get used to this and learn to trust the wing, I can imagine this will put many pilots off. I felt safe on it, because I trust in the reflex and I flew in calm conditions. So far the wings that were solid on the ground were also solid in the air for me. And the Flows have all been very solid when doing the „parakite-trick“ on the ground. I really liked flying that Albatroxx, it was very responsive to weight shift and toggles and had a nice roll. It definitely offers some go kart feeling. And it’s fast. Really fast. It also gets noticeably harder before it stalls, it handles surprisingly a lot of brake before it stalls for such a high aspect ratio. When it starts to stall, the tipps come first. I heard pilots had some asymmetric collapse on this one … .but it felt quite solid for me, i would like to fly that one more in turbulent air. It has a lot of aspect ratio, so if you put beginners on it that don’t have enough experience for the swing, the speed and the inertia it wouldn’t surprise me if you get it to collapse because you unload the lines and then hit turbulence. I would also like to compare its glide with some other ones and see how much performance that high aspect ratio brings. I heard from 2 pilots that they liked the 16 but not the 19, sadly I didn’t fly a 19 yet.
Dunerider Scraper 20
I was really looking forward to fly a Scraper, i know Bryan well, he was also in the Flare team before. So I was very curious to try one, it looks like the boys are having fun on those wings in Holland. The Scraper 20 has aspect ratio 7, which is like an EN-D wing. That’s a lot of aspect ratio! I love soaring on high aspect CCC gliders, so I was stoked to see that development finding its way into parakites as well. The Scraper has the smallest inlets from all parakites, it reminds me of the Triple Seven wings. Those small inlets really slow the inflation down, the Scraper takes time to fill up. I prefer that over shooting in strong wind. However it’s often not beneficial when you want to launch in no winds, I heard the Scraper is tricky to forward launch in no wind. The Scraper felt very stable on the ground, specially when doing the „parakite-trick“. You can tell it has a lot of reflex, it doesn’t wanna collapse it always floats back nicely. Even when pulling the brakes while it’s in front it was very forgiving to my surprise. It made a lot of lift, you can feel it’s aspect ratio. But when going hands up it still accelerates nicely and dives as well. Somehow i expected it to dive more and fly faster, but i think for a 20 it’s great anyway. I didn’t have the chance to compare with another one as a reference. It was fun to fly, reactive enough and fast. The flipside of a lot of aspect ratio is the lines become longer, so less go kart feeling, everything gets more delayed. It doesn’t feel very agile and when flying hands up it refuses to turn much with weight shift only, similar to the first Moustache But using the toggles it is reactive enough and fun to fly. It also has an integrated tipsteering which makes brake shifting slightly more efficient, but never as efficient as it is on a paramotor wing. In the air i felt safe under it, i had zero worries doing big swings and let the wing shoot way in front of me, again i trust in the reflex. I think there is no easier wing with aspect ratio 7 for soaring out there at the moment. I think many pilots will enjoy soaring with more aspect ratio parakites in the future. They are a lot easier to fly then for example a EN-D wing in the Alps…you can’t compare this! However i have the feeling that the performance compared to a EN-D paraglider is not comparable, but that’s totally fine, it’s built for a very different purpose. On a parakite you want to trade in some performance for stability, if not we can also simply put kite risers on existing paragliders…Anyway I’m keen to try the smaller sizes Scraper. It would be interesting to compare the Scraper with an Albatroxx, that’s the only 2 high aspect ratio parakites out there, at least for the moment…
Dunerider Scraper 12
I don’t think there is another wing on the market with 12m and aspect ratio 6.2…so I was very curious to try this one. (Yes the Flow Albatroxx in 13 has even 6.8…!) I didn’t get to soar it, only a few sled rides down from Mürren. The Scrapers are not made to fly in no wind. You really need to know how to launch them. With some wind you can reverse launch, but forward launch is close to impossible for normal pilots. The 12 needs speed to take off, mostly because it doesn’t warn you much before it stalls, so you can’t have your hands too low, otherwise it will stall. I felt safe under it while flying, also in slight turbulence. When you go hands up it goes fast and dives well. In turns it picks up a lot of speed and with the long lines you get some G-forces too…awesome! What surprised me the most is how easy and snappy barrel rolls are. You can do them even with weight shift only. It’s so much more responsive to weight shift than the 20 is. But also using toggles you can do barrel rolls easily. I would have thought with such long lines barrel rolls would suck, but no, they are fun! On landings you can do long swoops, it comes with a lot of speed and keeps the speed well. Even after some fast full turns with tons of speed it doesn’t want to level up much when swooping, that’s quite surprising and nice! On landing you need to run fast, because it doesn’t use much tension on the brake line to stall it.
When you stall it while flying, it only starts flying again properly when you release more than you think is needed. It tends to stay partially stalled and do something between deepstall and normal flying. No problem to exit, just release toggles more and it flies normally again. But it’s maybe good know…
When comparing with the Moustache 2 13 with the same take off weight, we found both wings fly very similar angles. Best glide is almost the same (the Scraper flies only slightly better) and going hands up they fly the same speed and angle. So the same dive. (Moustache 2 with the A-Lines set in front for max speed). I think the Scraper 12 can be a fun wing for soaring, I personally like high aspect ratio for soaring as well. But if you want one for soaring and speedflying, you won’t get happy with the Scraper because of the launch.
Little Cloud Mouette
I flew the 16 and the 22 Moutte on different days. LC is taking a completely different approach than all the other brands I have the feeling. Not only do they try to use as little reflex as possible, but also have a 1 to 9 reduction ratio on the risers. The Moustache has 1 to 6, most others also have that, apart from the Line that has 1 to 5 and the Pro Risers for the Mullet and the Level Wings Fuze has 1 to 4. The higher the reduction, the longer the brake travel gets and the slower you can fly before it stalls. And you get more warning as well before it stalls with a higher reduction ratio. We choose a 1 to 5 ratio on the Line because the brake travel would have become too long (yes even longer) because the Line has such a huge speedrange. The 1 to 9 ratio only works well on the LCs because their „speedbartravel“ is not very big, in other words they don’t go very fast nor steep. On the ground you also can’t do the „parakite-trick“ with the Mouette, it collapses rather quickly when overshooting. And it also collapses when pulling only on the A lines. Also when you are doing wingovers without supporting the outside it feels not stable. For me personally that’s not very confident inspiring and I don’t think that’s the future of parakites putting almost no reflex into it. Any other parakite with reflex has an almost straight topsail, no curve in the back of the topsail like the Mouette, very easy visible. LC makes very pitch stable wings and most of them have amazing gentle reactions to collapses, better than many other wings from big brands. They seem to invest a lot of time into safety and collapse recovery. But I personally think when it comes to flying close to the ground, stability is key and not collapse recovery. Anyway some pilots love the feel of the Mouette and it also starts soaring in less wind than other parakites, likely because it has more camber in the airfoil. The launch is also typical for LC with a slow inflation so it doesn’t shoot and plug you. Interesting is also the closed cells they started using again. It seems they disappeared for 15 years and are back now. I can imagine one day we might go back to completely closed cell parakites for soaring, just like the foil- kites are. The closed cell system keeps the air locked in the wing, so the airfoil holds its shape better, it can’t deflate in turbulence. That gives it extra collapse stability. But they can still collapse and then it sucks, I can tell you from personal experience!
Flare Moustache 1
After all the wings I have flown, the Moustache still offers one of the most complete packages I think. It’s easy and forgiving to launch, it’s fast, it dives, it’s stable and it can handle some brake before it stalls. It can even go much faster and steeper than the risers allow it and it’s still stable.
On launch It’s easy to inflate, it doesn’t shoot and when it does it does float back. The only thing that beginners struggle sometimes is that it does collapse on the ground when the wing is in front of you and then you pull the toggles. That pull triggers the collapse then. But that’s only really a problem for beginners. I think the Moustache 1 is missing a sharknose, the slow speed is ok, but not great, a well done Sharknose helps a lot with the slow speed. It would be nice if it was a little more stall resistant like the Line for example. Especially when it goes out of trim it tends to stall very quickly without much notice. It’s also very sensitive to rain. As soon as it’s wet, it stalls much quicker. Launching it from wet grass can make a difference already. I personally would prefer it more agile on the bigger sizes.
Flare Moustache 2
I might be a little biased on this one…but I do think it offers the most complete package of parakites out there at the moment. A Razorblade is faster, an Albatroxx and Dunerider have more glide, one might be more agile…but overall I think the Moustache2 offers the most complete package. Its inflation is still slow and easy, it glides well, it goes fast and dives a lot, the wingtip steering offers great agility and a new sensation while soaring. At low speed, where the old Moustache stalled, the new one will generate lift and pop you up another meter if you want. That is a really nice feature that comes in handy when not everything goes as planned … .I needed it a few times already! I think being able to slow it down more and generate lift down there really adds some safety to a parakite! It also allows you to make more lift on no wind take offs, you have to run less to get airborne when your hands are at the right spot and you won’t stall it by accident.
When flying straight the new one is slightly faster and steeper, but when you make some steep turns, it picks up a lot more speed then the old one. And it keeps the speed longer as well, so you can make even longer swoops and Flare forever:-)
The Moustache 2 is also more reactive to weight shift and toggles inputs, even without the wingtip steering activated. With the wingtip steering on the shortest setting, it becomes very agile. Especially on the 13 you wanna be gentle when pulling your first barrel rolls, otherwise you end up making 2…I personally would prefer it even more agile in the bigger sizes, but sadly an 18 will never feel like a 13…you can’t cheat physics.
One thing you will notice as well with the new moustache is that you feel the air more. It absorbs less, it gives you more feedback. I guess some like that and some might not. And the wingtips are not as stable anymore, the tips can collapse every now and then when soaring in bumpy conditions. The middle is as solid, but the tips are softer.
We decided to leave 2 attachment points on the new Moustache for the A-Lines. They come attached in the back as standart. If you want to trade in some collapse stability for speed and dive, you can ask your Pro Partner to set them to the front for you. It makes a noticeable difference and it’s still stable enough for normal conditions I think. On the front setting the dive is also less delayed when you go hands up. You can also adjust the wingtip steering and have it shorter or longer. For soaring I prefer it short, I like it when the wing tip brake line starts getting tension at the Left/Right mark on the risers. Be careful, that wingtip brake line is very far out and exposed, it’s easy to get caught while flying close.
Flare Prop
The Prop has been developed specifically for Paramotoring. It has a lighter fabric then a Moustache, it has much bigger cell openings to inflate faster and it has quite a lot of tension on the rods. It has many common features with the Moustache 2, but it was developed totally separately. The Prop can fly very slow, it can handle a lot of brake tension without stalling. The goal was to reduce take off and landing speed as much as possible. On launch you still need to run more than with a classic wing, but at landing you can slow it down amazingly well, about like a normal glider I guess. You can use the Prop for soaring, but it inflates very fast and shoots a lot in strong wind. You better do a cobra launch with it and I would recommend setting both brake lines on the longest setting. (tip steering and normal brake line) The Prop goes really fast, i haven’t compared it to the Moustache 2 yet, but it might be a little faster even.
U-Turn Razorblade
I only got to fly the 18 and the 15, but I didn’t really get to soar them. For sure they are superfast when going hands up and dive a lot. They also felt a bit more agile than a Moustache, at least when it comes to weight shift. And they are not rollinstable. So when you fly straight a bestglide, they do go straight without starting to do wingovers by themself like the Moustache and the Mullets do. The Razorblade has a very heavy and durable fabric. In no wind it needs a firm pull to come up. Then it wants to shoot and you have to catch it. When doing this, it’s super easy to stall it, the two wings I have flown both could not handle much brake line tension. The 15 could only handle 5 cm brake line pull (real brake line at trailing edge) before it stalled abruptly. The 18 was better but also not great. You can’t slow them down … .So toplandings can be tricky and in no wind landings will be fast. While soaring in light wind I could imagine that one might spin them accidentally. It clearly has reflex and the wing in itself is quite tensioned and stiff, very different then a Moustache for example. I think that makes it a bit more reactive to weight shift and toggle inputs. When doing steep turns the razorblade generates a lot of speed and makes some very long swoops. I think it’s a rather advanced wing that won’t suit everybody but can bring a big smile to the right pilots. By the way U-Turn, Level Wings, Flow and Dunerider all come from the same Factory, Aquadynamics in Sri Lanka. Phi and some others are also made there. Little Cloud and Vril Wings are made on the other side of the airport in Sky Sport Lanka factory.
Level Wings Fuze
I only got to try the Fuze 15 and 17.5 at home, so no soaring yet. The Fuze is the only parakite that doesn’t have the bottom pulley, so the ratio is 1 to 4 instead of 1 to 6. That obviously reduces the brake travel, so you need smaller inputs to turn or fly active and the stallpoint is also higher up. Because the brake line always goes directly to the trailing edge, you end up pulling less brake line before the wings stalls. That’s also noticeable on the Fuze, it gets noticeably harder before it stalls, but it still stalls easier then for example the Moustache 1. It is also missing a real sharknose, that would clearly help it. But topspeed of the Fuze is good, it’s fast and dives well. But what pilots will like the most is the roll and agility. It is rollstable and when you clip in the toggles to relax your arms it goes perfectly straight (at the least the 17.5) But once you start rolling or doing wingovers, you need very little input to keep going or to throw a barrel roll. That’s a lot of fun. You can do one after the other on the 15 with ease, they are even quite snappy when you come with enough energy. The wing feels smaller than it is when it comes to doing wingovers and barrel rolls. Even with weight shift only they work well on the 15 when you have the energy. I think that agility is the Fuze strongest point.
The Fuze is made out of rather heavy fabric, it has a lot of rods and feels rather heavy. It comes with some additional protection pads sewn over the leading edge rods on the last 10 rods or so at the wingtip. Very nice feature to protect your wing when doing stabi-touches in the sand. The risers are quite simple and clean, the missing pulley makes it sleeker than the standard parakite risers. The Lines are the same as on a Moustache, sheeted dyneema which is good for the beach i think. The Fuze has long and stiff rods at the bottom sail on the cells that have line attachments. I think those rods in combination with the reflex airfoil give the wing a high rigidity and also a high collapse resistance i think. The A-lines are quite far back, that is also a good thing for stability. To get maximum dive and a better stall the Fuze has the B and C lines as long. When you are flying at max speed, the Bs seem to be as slack as the C and they are quite slack. So You are no longer connected to the wing when completely hands up. On most other parakites, the Bs are still slightly tensioned, so you still get some feedback on the toggles. Having some tension on the Bs also adds some reflex to the wing. Maybe the Fuze has so much reflex that it doesn’t need the tension on the Bs. I felt safe on it, it made a stable impression to me, but I haven’t flown it enough in turbulence to really tell. The 1 to 4 ratio sure helps with active flying, you need to pull less far down to support the wing when you feel it going slack, hence you react faster.
When comparing with the Moustache 2 in the same size, we found the speed and dive is about the same. The 15 Moustache 2 was slightly faster than the Fuze 15, but the Fuze 17.5 was slightly faster then the Moustache 2 18 (both Moustaches with A-Lines on the fast setting). It looked like the Moustache 2 had a better glide than the Fuze in both sizes we compared. I assume that reduces the light wind performance a bit.
I think the Fuze is a really fun and safe wing. But the missing bottom pulley has its price and makes the wing clearly more demanding and more physic as well. I heard from a heavy pilot that he needed a break after flying it for 20min because it was to hard on his arms. I wouldn’t be surprised if Level Wings would come out with a 1 to 5 or 6 riser option at some point in the future.
Vril Wings Raptor
Also this one i didn’t get to fly yet. It seems to have rather long lines and a rather flat arc, especially in the middle. I think it also doesn’t have a sharknose. In case you never heard of Vril wings; https://vril-wings.com
Windtech Dune
I also never got to try this one. It’s a spanish brand in case you never heard about windtech: https://www.windtech.es
Infexion Kiterisers
Dutch kitesurfer Evan Kruger has a company making kitebars, lines and now also his universal kiterisers that can be mounted on any paraglider. You might have seen his videos flying Enzos and Icepeaks with these weird risers that have a metal bar…jup that’s him. I got myself 3 pairs of those, they work great and can be fitted on any wing if you know how to…it’s easy to get it wrong and end up with an unstable unsafe glider do… But to be fair, for low wind soaring nothing beats an Enzo or an Icepeak. All the parakites on the market can’t keep up with a CCC wing when it comes to low wind. Glider ratio reduces sink, which helps you to stay up. It’s simple physics. Even a Moustache 26 and a Scraper or Albatroxx can’t keep up with CCC gliders that are fully maxed out to performance. Very low wind parakites are still to be made…if there is a market? Time will tell.
If you think about flying a paraglider with kiterisers keep in mind: Hands up is full speedbar. If you mount them on a paraglider that is still fairly stable at fullbar, this works fine for nice coastal conditions. If you mount them on a wing that is known not to be stable at fullbar, then fly it close to the ground, maybe even without a protector…might not be the smartest thing to do. Definitely don’t go fly those home made parakites in thermals…or in the mountains. For those who know what they are doing, flying a Enzo or Icepeak on Evans kiterisers is the shit, you will love it. Evan has a chart on his website that shows some settings for some common wings that he has converted already. I found the EN-Ds to be quite a lot easier to fly than CCC wings, also with kiterisers. Maybe start with an EN-D and not with a CCC…
Ask us for an offer if you wanna get a parakite, we sell other brands as well, not only Flare.
One last tip; Keep the hands as close as possible to your body for max lift. When flaring with your arms out like Jessus your parakite will stall at a much higher speed… Same for the take off with your hands way in the back, not ideal…