Level Wings Speedforce

Our Opinion – Level Wings Speedforce Review

Level Wings have designed a pure speedflying wing with an outstanding glide performance, named the Flame. The Speedforce is basically a bigger version of the Flame. That means it glides much more than other speedflying tandem wings and it has more pop. This pop allows you to make nice barrel rolls with your passenger. It doesn’t dive as much as a Mirage or Spitfire Twin. That means it also tends to fly up after a hook turn, so one needs to take care on landings. It can give you a hard landing when hooking it in too hard because it doesn’t want to keep swooping along the ground. Takeoffs are also a little more tricky. The Speedforce needs a strong impulse to inflate and rise up. Once it’s above your head, it makes much more lift than a Mirage or Spitfire Twin. This allows you to foot launch in no wind conditions, if you have a passenger that runs, even with the 20 meter Speedforce. It’s surprisingly stable in turbulent conditions, but it does lets you feel them well. Sometimes it bites forward a bit and needs to be stopped. The trim range is very small for such a big wing, it doesn’t accelerate much. We don’t like using the integrated spreaders, since passenger and pilot sit very close to each other and its hard to get seated for the passenger. We recommend using stiff spreader-bars for flying with it.

The 20 meter Speedforce is a fast weapon, your passengers will be blown away from the flight. But it also needs a passenger that runs. On no wind landings on the 20 meter the speed is too high to land on foot, it’ s safer to sit down and slide. The 27 meter Speedforce is much more gentle and feels more like a small tandem paraglider, unless you load it a lot. Takeoffs and landings with this are much easier and slower. But it’s missing this speedflying character.

Both wings can be used as well for strong-wind coastal soaring, if used on a steep enough coast. Their glide is obviously not comparable to paragliders. I estimate the 20 meter to have a glide ratio of around 6.5 (with 140kg TOW) and the 27 to have around 7.5. They get marketed to fly alone as well, but thats not much fun unless you’re a very heavy pilot.

Advantages

• Amazing glide
• Great “go-cart” feeling (high roll)
• Very reactive to brake inputs
• Surprisingly stable in turbulences with open trimmers.
• Enough lift to foot launch with no wind

Good to know

• Trimmers have little influence on speed
• The brake handles are not ideal for tandem flying, since it’s very hard to get back into them after letting them go.
• What it offers in glide, it’s missing in dive. It levels out quickly from a hook turn and doesn’t stick to the ground while swooping.
• Better to use spreaders with a stiff spreader-bar than the integrated spreaders.

Tech specs and marketing text

https://www.levelwings.com/speedforce

Summary

It’s very different from other tandem speeflying wings, because those other wings are mostly speedriding wings. The Speedforce is a flying wing, which works as well on skis, since riding with a passenger doesn’t really work anyway. Great concept, the first and only one of it’s kind so far. It offers new possibilities, thats why are selling it.