Our opinion – Review

Old Mirage:

The Mirage RS and RS+ was the benchmark for many years in speedflying. There was no other wing, that flies as fast and steep, while having this max glide and still being so easy to handle. The roll is moderate, the brake travels long and the stallpoint very progressiv and hard, even on the smaller sizes. The Mirage is even easy to ride on skis. The Mirage RS and RS+ also is known as a very stable and safe wing. We haven’t heard of accidents related to collapses. Compared to the Ozone Rapidos the Swing wings are measured smaller. If you put them on top, you would need about a 12.5m to match a 11m Rapidos. Thats one of the reasons why a Mirage RS and RS+ are flying faster than the „same size“ Rapidos. Another reason is the Rapidos has a thinker profile and more ballooning, which results in an even thicker profile. A thicker profile gives you more stability and lower stallspeed, but also a slightly reduced topspeed. The critics of the Mirage RS and RS+ is that it doesn’t roll enough for many pilots and controlling the wing on the C’s doesn’t work well, in fact in starts to vibrate, what worries many pilots and just doesn’t feel good.

New Mirage RS2:

The sizes are the same, so still measured smaller then „same“ Rapidos sizes. The new Mirage has a diffrent leading edge, with diffrent openings. It has less bollooning and a diffrent profile. It also has completly diffrent risers. The fabric and the line material stayed the same.

How does it fly?

The reduced ballooning and the new profile result in a decrease of drag. The wing is more efficient. Thats why it’s max glide is slighty improved and also the max speed it generates in a turn is slightly higher. The reduced ballooning also makes a wing more responsive to any input; toggle, risers and weight-shift, which you can clearly feel on the new mirage. So it is more responsive than the old mirage. Specially flying on the C’s is a big improvement, very responsive to inputs and no more vibrations. What we don’t like as much is the integrated bridge system, which idea is great. But it doesn’t work linear, all of the sudden the pull gets very hard and your not sure if thats the stallpoint or if you can pull past it.

The brakes also pull more on the inside than on the old Mirage, which creates more lift when pulling. Together with a the more efficient profile this gives the RS2 slightly more pop. You can convert speed better into lift, great for barrels close to the terrain.

The roll is increased a little bit, but it still rolls less then a Rapidos. This is great for beginners, expert normally like more roll. However the roll depends a lot on your wingload. The more you load wings, the more roll you get. This slightly higher roll rate and quicker reaction to inputs make it much nicer and easier to fly barrel rolls with the RS2. When doing your first barrels, make them in clear airspace! It seems you also need to support the outside a little, to not get a wingtip flutter or collapses with trims open.

The new profile seems to pitch more. On take off the RS2 shoots up like a bullet. Specially when you’r holding the A-Lines or when trims are open. So we recommend beginners to hold all risers (instead of A’s only) and experts to not hold any risers. And for all pilots we advice you to start pulling the brakes to avoid overshooting before the wing has reached 90°. For experienced pilots this shooting is no issue at all, for speedriding beginners this can be very demanding.

Swooping

The RS2 picks up noticeably more speed in a hook-turn and keeps the speed for longer. More speed also creates more lift once this vertical speed is transformed in horizontal speed. It’s simple physics. So the RS2 tends to level up (not stick to the ground while swooping). So if you hook it really hard, you need to swoop a slight turn to stick to the ground. If you want to swoop straight we recommend you following technique; Only hook i gently, maybe a 180 or max 270 and level out on the C’s earlier then usual. Don’t wait for this last moment to level out. Pull 1s earlier and then you can release it earlier as well and not generate too much lift. It’s for sure still the fastest wing we have flewn.

Riding

It’s a very light canopy and it stays up there nicely even when riding slowly. As long as you keep the lines tensioned riding works great. If the lines get slack, it’s not as forgiving as the previous version, which often just floated weightless in the air without collapsing. The RS2 tends to collapse quicker when lines get slack and if it collapses it makes bigger and deeper collapses, which are hard to catch. So for speedriding beginners riding got more difficult.

Stability in turbulences

When flying in turbulent air, the wing is giving more feedback. So it feels a bit more scarry flying in turbulences. We are sure the RS2 is stable enough to fly in normal conditions trims open. When it get’s really bumpy, we expect it to be a little less stable then the old mirage. Hard to say really, time will tell.

Riser

The RS2 has slim risers. They are very trendy on paragliders. Slim risers naturally twist and tangle up more. So more risk to grab something wrong. They are not only slimmer, they also have a split A and this extra bridge. So the risers have become a lot more complicated. Take enough time to check before you take off. What is improved is the trimmer system. Very easy to close again in flight. Piloting with the C’s works great, but if you wanna fly with the bridge, it’s not as nice as before. There are 2 bridges; The upper one with grey band and the lower one above the trimmer. Both of them lack this linear pull until the pressure gets harder and harder before the stallpoint. Halfway trough the pull the pressure changes a lot and it feels wrong to pull further. If you wanna fly at max glide and trim it negativ, it’s hard to find the right position.

What we love on the new Mirage RS2:

• More reactive
• More speed
• More pop
• Snappier rolls
• More glide
• Longer swoops
• Better rear riser steering
• Trimmers easier to close in flight

Good to know

• Risers are more complicated and fiddly
• Level up when swooping hard
• It shoots a lot on take off
• It feels more scarry to fly in turbulences
• When lines get slack while riding it collapses quicker

Price

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