Ozone Rapido 3 Review

Our opinion Ozone R3

The Rapido 3 is a small but noticeable upgrade from the R3. The main difference is the wing tensioning, it’s a little more firm then the Rapidos, but less firm the Rapido 1. The wing is not as „soft“ and doesn’t move that much in itself; Less pumping or breathing across the span (however you wanna call it). This little more tension makes the wing react quicker to any inputs;

• It’s more reactive to toggle inputs
• It’s more reactive when flying on rears
• It’s more reactive to inputs on the bridge
• It’s slightly more reactive to weight shift inputs

They also changed some other things:

• Unsheathed kevlar lines (you can choose unsheathed or sheathed)
• No raff-system on the brakes, normally attached brake lines.
• More cuts in the cell walls and other weight savings, make it noticeably lighter

We think the R3 is overall the best and safest high performance speedflying wing out there and it has the biggest glide angle range; from steep to best glide. It is also still very collapse stable when flying in turbulence with trims open, more then it’s competitor’s. And if it does collapse, it’s seems to reopen super quick, without wanting to turn much. But also the R3 will turn and dive a lot and fast if you should ever get a really big asymmetric collapse, like 75% for example. This is theoretically possible, but we haven’t seen it yet.

Keep in mind; like most wings the most likely to collapse it is when flying trims open with 10cm brake. If it get’s rough, better fly with rears or bridge or close the trimmers when it gets bad.

The Roll

It’s important to know the Rapido is roll-instabel; This means it starts to roll by itself and increases the swings every-time until it does a fullturn with you. It doesn’t calm itself like most wings do. This sounds very scary and can be very dangerous, but once you are used to it, you don’t feel this anymore. That roll-instability is probably why Ozone sells it as a very advanced wing. For pilots used to this roll, the Rapido is an easy and safe wing that can be used for beginners. If you are an experienced paraglider pilot or you are used to fly rolly miniwings, you should have not problem with it’s roll. However if you are beginner pilot or skydiver, you should learn on a wing with less roll, for example on a Dragonfly or a Mirage RS + or RS 2.

Also important to know: The more you open the trimmers (the faster you fly) the less roll all wings have. So consider opening them half for your first flights on a Rapido, specially when your on skis where launching is no issue.

Brake travel

In general the Rapido is trimmed far from it’s stallpoint. If you are pulling on the bridge, you can pull about 6-15 cm negative before it stalls (6 on the 6m and 15 on the 15m….). The 13 and 15 have a low stallpoint, even with trimmers closed. You need to pull the brakes knots below the biners to stall it. Size 11 already has a rather short travel with trims closed, especially on the ground when you don’t have full lift yet. (while running or kiting). The 9 already is a quite sensitive to stalls with trims closed, the 8 is very sensitiv and the 6 is suuuper sensitiv. On the 6 you have max 15-20cm before it stalls with trims closed. Be very careful with those smaller sizes, there have been many accidents with unwanted stalls, also with small Mirages, Flames and other wings, including some fatalities.

Best Glide

As we said the R3 is trimmed far from the stallpoint, so in order to really fly best glide, you need to pull down on the bridge a few cm. As a rule of thumb expect to find best glide at 2/3 of the travel you can pull on the bridge before it stalls: So on a 15 this would be at -10cm. (This means the Maillon Rapid from the C-Risers should be 10cm lower then the A-one) Be carefully when doing this, you are very close to the stallpoint! If the wing stalls, it starts to vibrate and then starts to sink more before the wing would rock back.

Rapido 3 for speedriding

It’s a speedflying wing, but since it’s the lightest Rapido ever it’s also the best one for speedriding. Even when your lines get a little slack it doesn’t collapse immediately. Since it has a lot of aspect ratio it does make a lot of lift, so it’s not ideal to ride without taking off, but you can really learn to ride it. It’s THE speedflying wing that works best for riding at the moment.

Comparing the R3 with the new Mirage 2 RS (M2)

The Mirage 2 RS has a different airfoil (profile) then the Rapido 3. The M2 has the faster airfoil, but with trims open it doesn’t seem to go quit as steep as the Rapido 3. So far the Mirages always had more dive, now it’s the opposite. It’s not a huge difference, but noticeable. The Mirage also doesn’t stick to ground anymore while swooping, it levels up, you have to carve it to keep it down. This is annoying. The M2 has a slightly biconvex airfoil (similar to the Fluid2), what gives it more speed and glide, but is a little less collapse stable. It’s still much more stable then a Fluid2 and stable enough for normal conditions. If you get an asymmetric collapse, it can turn away quickly from it’s heading.  If you are close to the terrain….very bad. There was a close call with a 9.5 here in Switzerland. So close the trimmers when it gets very bumpy. We haven’t heard from the Rapido 3 doing this.

When doing barrel rolls with the M2 you need to support the outside by pulling the outside brake. If you don’t you will get collapses with trims out. The Rapido doesn’t do this.

The Mirage is more roll stable then the Rapido 3, yet it still reacts very quick to any inputs. The M2 also has shorter lines, especially in sizes 13 and 15 there is a big difference. Many pilots like the M2 for it’s precise and quick handling.

The M2 has a different brake line setup then the R3. The M2 pulls more brake in the middle of the wing, thus making more lift and more drag. This makes the M2 slightly easier to takeoff and land when foot-launching then the R3.

On take off the M2 shoots up even faster than the R3. Take off speed is higher as well. On landing, you can slow down the M2 as good as the R3. The R3 has more roll than the M2, which most pilots like, once they are used to the high roll. Barrel rolls are now as fast and snappy on the M2 then on the R3, but you have to support the M2 well on the outside brake, if not it likes to collapse there with trims open. Flying in turbulences most pilots will feel safer on the R3 then on the M2. The M2 lets you feel the turbulences a lot. We think the M2 has lost some stability. Chances you get a collapse on it are sure higher than on a R3 or a Mirage 2+. The M2 is stable enough for flying in normal still fun speedflying conditions, but when it get’s wild, you must close those trimmers and put brakes on. The R3 is for sure more forgiving there. Also barrel rolls without supporting the outside is no problem for the R3.

Speedriding works great with the R3, even for beginners. You can ski over bumps without active piloting and let the lines go slack. Only when lines go really slack, it reacts with a collapse. Most of the times those collapses recover from themself and the R3 is still going on straight without a pilot input. Very forgiving behavior, same with trims open. On the M2 it’s a massiv difference with trims closed and open. With trims closed, it’s still a little forgiving when lines go slack. With trims open, it will make huge surprising collapses and turn into the snow behind your back. Just try ground-handling it with trims open and you will see what we mean with this. So the Mirage still works well for speedflying beginners, but for speedriding it’s much more tricky than the old version or the R3.

Both, the R3 and the M2 have too long risers for many pilots. The C’s are too high up with trims open for many pilots. Leaning back to reduce drag while flying asstograss on the rears won’t work. Specially smaller pilots find this annoying.

Construction and built quality

The M2 uses a lighter fabric then the R3, it comes up with the slightest breeze. The wing is noticeably lighter then the R3. This is probably what make it also more likely to get damaged. We have seen many M2 with a damage, but hardly any R3. They are built really strong. Even clipping trees doesn’t always hurt them. Since the R3 uses Kevlar lines, it never gets out of trim. It doesn’t need a retrimm ever. The M2 for sure gets slower over time and will be easier to stall. You should let them retrimm at some point.

We also really like the Ozone risers, we haven’t seen worn out ozone risers yet that needed to be replaced. But for sure some of the older swing ones. From the M2 we haven’t seen any worn out neither.

Sheated or unsheated lines?

If you are using the R3 on skis, for sure get the sheathed lines! We have to swap many lines on the unsheathed ones due to ski edges…

Tech details and marketing texts

https://www.flyozone.com/speed/de/products/gliders/rapido-3