Nova Bantam

Nova Bantam – Our Opinion

There is no other Miniwing or Speedwing on the market, that makes lift as fast and precise as the Bantam when pulling the backrisers. This makes it a great Speedwing to fly really close to the ground. It also converts speed into lift really well, much more then a regular speedfliyng wing. It also has a huge speedrange, you can slow it down a lot for easy landings and make it go really fast and surprising steep when using the speedbar. Keep in mind: It’s a hike and fly paraglider. It’s not a bulletproof speedwing you can fly accelerated through turbulences or thermals. It’s amazing to fly proxy, but only if the air is completely still. If you get a collapse, it will likely turn into to ground with you when flying proxy and not snap open like a regular speedwing with a monokonvex airfoil.

What’s also unique on the Bantam is the short lines. It’s got the shortest lines we have seen on Miniwings relative to it’s aspect ratio. This gives you the feeling of flying a speedwing, but with the glide ratio of a paraglider. When loaded with 75kg we estimate sizes 14 has around glideratio 8, 12 7.5 and 10 still a 7.

The Bantam is very pitchstable, what makes it the easiest wing on take off we have seen. It won’t overshoot, nor does it hang back. The stallpoint is low, even on 10m. The flare is great and you can slow it down a lot on landings, better then all other Miniwings we have flown. How much the Bantam rolls depends a lot on the harness used. The closer the carabiner distance is, the more roll you get. The wider they are, the more stable it gets. This can vary unbelievable! The Bantam can be from a boring wing with no roll to a very rolly one that no long goes straight without rolling by itself…

By the way; it packs up super small, as small as many single skin!

We find the Bantam the easiest miniwing we have ever flown in calm air. In turbulent air, it’s important to fly it active or at least have a good amount of brake. Collapses are pretty relaxed on a bantam compared to other miniwings, but it seems some Bantams seem to be less collapse stable. We think it depends a lot on the correct trim and line lengths. So make sure to give it in for a retrim. If your C-lines get a little short, you get a wrinkle between A and B, what makes it more collapsy.

What we like about the Bantam:

• Very pitchstable on takeoff
• Best Gokart feeling ever
• Generates lift using the backrisers instantly
• Huge speedrange
• Low stallpoints for such a small wing
• Amazing glideratio
• Very very low packing volume
• Amazing in converting speed into lift
• Very few lines, all color coded
• Light but not fiddly risers
• Really easy to fly barrel rolls with some extra speed from a turn

Good to know

• The short lines make you feel the turbulences a lot. It’s not collapsy at all (in fact it’s very stable), but it feels more turbulent on it then with a normal paraglider.
• The D10 fabric has a silicon coating, what makes it veary slippery. So you might need those golfpins that come with it in steeper take offs.
• Size 12 has a 16cm speedbar travel instead of 10, like the 10m and the 14m. Thats not safe and brings it very close to collapsing. Only use 10cm speedbar travel on the 12 Bantam.
• It’s not a bulletproof speedwing. Don’t fly proxy with it on sunny snowfree slopes!

Technische Daten

https://www.nova.eu/de/gleitschirme/bantam/

Summary: It feels like speedwing but it has a bigger glide range and much more glide ratio in total. If you go speedflying, take this one in your backpack as well, just in case…