UKPPG Aviation Specialists
Your No1 Choice For Paramotoring & Microlight Aviation
Marlin - The Dudek Training Wing
You are learning to fly. You are a part of an organised group, but it still takes up a lot of your time because there is much waiting for proper weather conditions. With too much wind you can't control your paraglider, pulling you up and around. The instructor has to call a break since it's no good neither for you nor the canopy.
If only the winds were lighter... but there is nothing you can do about that. Or is it? What if you could find a much smaller wing, behaving much as a standard one, yet safe to launch in these conditions? And not causing such a stress when draggled through pools and mud nearby?We have such a wing for you and your instructor. It's called MARLIN - a dedicated training wing.
Marlin is a small training wing dedicated exclusively for ground handling exercises.
You can't fly this wing, much less doing any aerobatics.
Due to its small area Marlin stays remarkably calm in thermal gusts, so you don't need any
special assistance while training launches in strong conditions. You can safely go exercising
even at a 12 m/s wind, so the effectivity of training the launches is increased up to 30%,
depending on local weather conditions.The Marlin behaves much as a standard free-flying paraglider. The aerofoil used gives the
wing a slight reflex behaviour, so it has no tendency to overshoot while launching in strong
winds. The risers and rigging is identical to "real" paragliders in order to grow correct habits.
Still the Marlin requires from the students proper concentration and right inputs, so the
trainees will almost instantly be able to cope with bigger paragliders.
Marlin in Training
"The wind today was 16+ kmh, a bit strong for the ReAction. Got the Marlin out the bag
and it fly's great a absolute must for all training schools and for pilots frustrated by those
windy non flying days. Being so small it attracted a lot of interest from the other club members.
So after a full day of flying and demonstrating the Marlin I have three club members that want
to do their full training to PPG pilot.
Marlin gets my thumbs up and I think all schools should be using them, even from the safety
aspect of the new student."
Clive Bunce
(An opinion by Kamil Antkowiak, owner of one of the biggest Polish paragliding schools)The Marlin training wings are used in our school for over two years. Due to its low surface area
Marlin has an exceptional stability in strong thermal gusts, so ground handling can be done
single-handed even in squally weather. You can teach it safely up to 12 m/s winds, practically
increasing the effectiveness of training launch techniques by at least 50%
(I can't remember that I ever had to call off Marlin classes because of the wind).
The Marlin's behaviour does not differ much from standard paragliders, with similar steering
range. All in all - a Great Solution for an active intructor.
Kamil Antkowiak
COLOURS AVAILABLE:
In the case of the Marlin you have a choice for the upper surface colour of either:
Red, Yellow, Orange or Blue.
The under surface is White.
(The colour schemes are similar to these of Nemo, but without grayish-black design in the middle.)
