Deimos Paragliding Flight School - paragliding specialists in Vancouver BC Canada

Not everyone has the desire or ability to take part in masters’ competitions. A lot of pilots just enjoy flying cross-country or soaring in familiar places without feeling the restraints of a hang glider for beginners. This problem is easily solved with the help of an intermediate glider. Such gliders combine rather high performance with simple piloting and maintaining. They are more comfortable in the air than competitive gliders and easier to land.

Aeros team is glad to present Discus, which is our first really intermediate glider.

Aeros has been working on an intermediate design for about 3 years, but had not made it the priority that was warranted. The first prototype of the current design was flying in the spring of 2002 and U.S. Aeros received the first prototype during the summer for testing. After receiving this glider, U.S. Aeros’ VP, Sunny Venesky worked with the designers at the Aeros factory to fine tune the glider to get it ready for the market – keeping in mind the criteria needed to make this glider a ‘big hit’. That criteria being:
# very stable on tow (without a fin)

# very stable in roll – mindlessly predictable handling
# very easy to land
# vg operation that actually does something

The result is a glider that we’re extremely proud of. The Discus is a very stable glider with respectable performance, and the easiest to land glider that Aeros has ever produced!
Discus’ design is unusual for Aeros wings. It’s our first glider with curved tips. That was a successful debut: a balanced compromise between stability and controllability makes the glider affordable for pilots who have just learned soaring and pleasant for experienced masters. The wing is comfortable to fly and easy to land, it has wide speed range. Moreover, it is very stable on tow.
The variable geometry mechanism allows to control sail tension in the air, optimizing the glider’s configuration according to flight condition.

Features include: curved tips, wire braced washout tube – allowing for reduction in reflex bridles, Aeros’ impeccable sail work, standard with Finsterwalder aerofoil hardware and speedbar, is available in an optional 2.4 m (7 ft.) breakdown length.

Our research on this prototype has us expecting many advanced pilots to sell their topless wings and
go back to a glider that is fun, easy to fly and land as well as very respectable in performance.

You can believe us when we tell you that this glider may outshine the leading competitors at this market.

The glider is available in two modifications: A and B.
- Discus A breakdown length is 4 meters;
- Discus B breakdown length is 2.4 meters.

A Discus M version is also offered. This modification has a different keel tube design that allows to use this hang glider with motorized harnesses Mosquito, Doodlebug and the like.

A Discus 15T wing will be a wonderful choice for a nanolight single-seater trike. This wing utilizes reinforced frame, trike attachment bracket and the control bar shifted backwards.

From the flying season 2006 a Discus version with aluminum airfoil speedbar and basetubes with reduced aerodynamical resistance is available. You can either order the modified Discus, or purchase an option (a speedbar, basetubes, lower wires and a keel tube) to upgrade the glider yourself.

After lots of work and exhaustive test flights Aeros have released the Combat L 2006. There was no reason to change radically the design of Combat L, so all efforts have been made towards comfort and handling. 2006 glider has retained all features of its predecessor - World Champion's 2005 glider. The new features are:
- new sail cloth brings further weight reduction without compromise strength and durability.
- due to less weight and therefore less inertia the glider is better coordinated in turns which enhance better climb rate;
- the modified pulley system that is easier to use than ever;
- reinforced carbon fiber speed bar.
It also features optional aluminum airfoiled speed bar.
The best keeps getting better.
Test it now at your nearest dealer!
A glider of flawless design
The Combat L was designed at the end of 2003. From the very first test flights we could see that the glider flies noticeably better than anything else we’ve been flown before. It seamed quite promising and we were eager to test it out in a competition against others best worlds gliders.
The competition season was already over and there was no other way to find out how the new glider going than to go to Australia to take part in Australian competitions. So I did.

There were three usual competitions in Australia: Australian Nationals, Pre-Worlds (both in Hay) and Bogong Cup. Unfortunately I got sick and missed the Nationals. But there were still two comps to go.
The glider was perfect. I did few adjustments and find out that it has wide range of possibilities: it glides same as the others best gliders around and climbs about the same, maybe slightly better. But there were still some possibilities left. I was quite happy to become second at the Pre-Worlds, remembering that it is a bad omen to win a Pre-Worlds.
Next was a Bogong Cup. The weather was perfect and we had some nice flights. I have won it and came back home knowing that Combat L was test flown in various, sometimes close to extreme conditions, there was no question left about its performance and safety. There were some ideas how to make it even better. So there were some changes made and glider went into serial production.
So what differs the Combat L from it’s predecessor - Combat 2? The letter L in its name answer s the question – it is significantly lighter than Combat 2. Depending on glider size and option it is 1.5 – 2 kilograms lighter. But there is not only a weight reduction. Basically it is a new glider with a wide variety of options. The sail design basically has not changed much. The main difference is leading edges. They are made of 7075 alloy and have been completely different designed. Having about the same stiffness they are significantly lighter. Standard glider includes all fancy staff including airfoiled control frame. Optionals are: carbon fiber battens, additional aluminum round bacebar, aluminum airfoiled speed bar, competition wires, additional carbon fiber inserts, light weight glider bag and light weight pads. We found out that changing the battens stiffness change not only handling and climb, but performance as well. It took as a wile to optimize diameter and diameter distribution of carbon fiber battens.

Now you can order a glider sail choosing one of the two available down surface design variants and one of the two available options of the upper surface materials: PX10T or Grille Polyester 180G, according to your preferences.
With the Combat L we’ve got design which have improved both handling and performance. Because of the less inertia of entire glider and outer part of the wing particularly the coordination of the Combat L is significantly better than Combat 2 giving a possibility to make a tighter turn with a same bank angle which makes climb more efficient, allowing to circle closer to the core of a thermal. It is possible to use more VG on when thermaling which also improves a climb rate. The Combat L glides slightly better than Combat 2.
Same as all Aeros gliders it has light but positive bar pressure throughout all speed range, gliding fast is easy and not tiring. Unfortunately we did not have clear comparisons done with Combat L against Combat 2 to tell the difference in glide but certainly it is there.
There were few things done towards safety. The glider has stronger crossbar, the pull-back wire is changed from 2.5 mm to 3 mm diameter. Actually the pull-back wire has been changed already on Combat 2 model. Carbon fiber speedbar has become stronger, too. There are many minor changes made to make Combat L safest and easiest glider to fly.
The glider seams very successful.

Oleg Bondarchuk

In a very short time Combat L started to dominate almost at all major international competitions.
Just a few interesting remarks. At the 2004 European Championship 45 pilots out of 121 (which is 37 % of all competitors) were flying Aeros gliders. At Podbresova Cup there were 105 pilots from 10 countries and 44 of them flu Aeros gliders. At Worlds there were 26 Aeros gliders out of 101. The reason for been so popular for Aeros gliders is its affordable quality and performance.