Level Wings Flame

Our Opinion

Level Wings have designed a pure speedflying wing with an outstanding glide performance. Its glide is more similar to a miniwing than a regular speedwing, but it still has the speed, the handling, and almost the stability of a speedwing. We estimate it to have about 1.5 points more glide ratio than a Mirage RS or Rapidos in the same size. This allows you to fly lines that would normally be too flat. The Flame has an amazing pop; it does a great job of converting speed into lift, much more than a regular speedwing. We see it 90% for speedflying and only 10% for speedriding.

Advantages

• Amazing glide (1.5 points more L/D)
• Great „go-cart“ feeling (high roll and short lines, great for barrel rolls)
• Very reactive to toggle, back riser, and  weight-shift inputs.
• Surprisingly stable in turbulences with open trimmers.
• Best rear riser and bridge steering of all speedwings (very reactive with a lot of pop)

Good to know

• High stall point with trims closed. Be careful while taking off and landing with trims fully closed, specially with the small sizes.
• Difficult to control in strong wind. It likes to shoot, but stalls quickly when too much brake is used. Learn to ground-handle it!
• What it offers in better glide, it’s missing in dive. It levels out quickly from a hookturn and doesn’t stick to the ground while swooping. To keep it on the ground you must do a turn in your swoop, even when highly loaded.
• When speedriding, lines can’t go slack, otherwise it collapses quickly and nastily. (it’s made for speedflying…)
• It’s not as bulletproof as other speedwings in turbulence, but surprisingly stable for a wing with this performance. No other wings with this glide ratio are as stable with trims open. Collapses can be more nasty than with regular speedwings, meaning with asymmetric collapses it’s more likely to turn away.

Tech specs and marketing text

https://www.levelwings.com/flame

Summary

THE wing for when you are looking for a speedwing with more glide. The demanding launch, the high roll rate and the short brake travel make it not ideal for complete beginners, at least in smaller sizes. The Flame is a great speedwing to go hiking. It’s great glide offers many possibilities.