Here are my (non-flying) thoughts on the new Icaro2000 Alto
The glider is straightforward and easy to rig. Icaro2000 do a few things differently to other brands so it is well worth reading the manual a few times before rigging.
Pullback is very easy to do and the keel attachment for the pullback is simple and easy to use. For some reason most people pinch a finger in the tang the first time they try and rig one… I have no idea why as there is no need to have your fingers anywhere near the gap between the tang and keel… Simply pull-back on the webbing and drop the tang onto the stud. The pullback webbing is attached to a length of bungee. I have heard people say they think this bungee is way under-spec’d for the job. But it is NOT there to be pulled on. Its function is to bring the webbing back while you spread the wings. If you have spread the wings far enough, the pullback webbing will be sticking out at the trailing edge of the keel-pocket just enough to grab so you never need to pull on the bungee.
Like the single surface Piuma, the luff lines do not detach from the kingpost. You can pull the cap off the kingpost if this really bothers you but once you get used to packing it away with the lines pulling the sail up, it really isn’t an issue. And this feature means the rigging is simplified (how many times have you struggled to clip the luff lines to the top of the kingpost in strong wind?!) leaving only the aft kingpost cable to keel connection to be secured.
The tip wands are super easy to install (AND remove which is in some ways more important!). Icaro recommends a different tip wand technique to Wills. And each brand’s procedure works better on their own gliders (the IC2 wands seems a bit more pliable but not slippery like the Wills ones).
The nose wire end ring (that clips into the hook on the front of the keel) has a cord on it that is an emergency backup for the cross-tube pullback (this means that with the nose wires connected, even if you disconnect the pullback strap from the keel, the crosstube remains held in position and the glider wont fold up). In theory this is a clever idea but it does mean that this chord then has to exit the zipper on the lower sail along the keel line. To me this is just a bit ugly and unsatisfying…
The nose wire attachment to the keel-plate uses IC2’s system of having a locking plate that is pulled back by pulling down on a webbing loop on the nose plate allowing you to clip the nose wires in and then when you let go of the webbing the plate springs back out again preventing the nose wire ring from coming out of the hook. Another beautifully engineered solution from Icaro2000.
On the subject of the nose wires, all IC2 gliders are supplied with a little length of red yarn secured to one nose wire with a bit of heatshrink tube (for wind direction indication on launch). Other brands you have to add one yourself so this is a nice touch.
The Alto’s sail comes with ‘speed batten’ pockets in the trailing edge. These are short pockets sewn into the sail (3 each side) that allow a chordwise carbon fibre lollipop stick to be inserted. They do not HAVE to be fitted (at full bar back on our demo without these sticks fitted there is ZERO flutter in the sail) but in theory they will extend the life of the sail especially for those who like to fly fast a lot (which the Alto does really well!). This is of course in addition to IC2’s outer trailing edge tension cord as is also fitted to some of their other gliders.
The sprogs simply rotate into position and then the zip closes out their pocket and holds them in position. Slightly disappointing compared to Wills is that the Alto only has the one zipper pull. This means you cannot leave a gap in the middle of a zipped-up sprog for a camera mount like you can on the Wills. Minor niggle I know. The spanwise batten in the upper sail that the sprog rests against does not need to be moved or removed to roll the sail and just stays in position at all times.
The VG chord routes very easily into the cleat on rigging and the VG is incredibly light to pull on. IC2 use a sheathed poly cord for the VG. The jam cleat is different to that used by either Moyes or Wills but seems to be very reliable to use and with no moving parts should outlive the rest of the glider.
The optional wing tips are much smaller than Wills Wing’s ones. Wills’ ones are made of carbon sheet and Lexan laminated and they are therefore very stiff and flat. The IC2 ones have a MUCH smaller area and are made of sailcloth so are much more flexible and tend to not sit perfectly flat. Who knows if one brand’s tips are more effective than the other for any of these reasons… The IC2 tips win for me for two reasons. For one, they are far easier to fit. Wills’ tips are quite fiddly to engage at the front and then they have so much Velcro it is very hard to get the tip all lined up before one or other part of the Velcro grabs and locks the tip in the wrong position! The IC2 ones are nowhere near as fiddly. I would probably not bother fitting the Wills ones every time I fly because of the faff of transporting and fitting them. But these IC2 ones are so easy that I see no reason why I wouldn’t always fly with them on. The second win for me is the lesser Velcro itself. There is so much Velcro on the sail (the hook half at that) on the Wills that if you do fly without the tips on, the Velcro collects everything it sees (as Velcro is want to do!). So you are forever picking debris out of it. The Alto uses a fraction of this area of Velcro and they also use the modern hard type that doesn’t collect the way the classic loops do. So this gives a much cleaner tip without the extra tips fitted.
IC2 have developed a new leading edge insert which is an option (no cost charge) in lieu of the traditional Mylar inserts (which are still available if you prefer). These new inserts are made of black foam. They serve the same function of keep the LE shape at speed but they are significantly lighter than Mylar. We have this on our demo Alto (and also had it on the demo Piuma we had last year) and really like it.
One minor niggle is the packing/bags. IC2 don’t seem to believe in padding and there are a couple of areas that really want some additional padding pieces to protect things in transport. The tip bags are a set size/shape with no closing feature. I can’t speak for Moyes but the Wills tip bags are made wider at the opening and then have a Velcro tab that allows you to cinch it up when on. This allows you to easily fit the tip bag and then secure it tight. The tip bags supplied with our Demo Alto have a taper to them but without the ability to have them loose to pull on you struggle to pull them on and then with no cinch-device you can’t secure them and they just want to slip off again. Packing our demo Alto away after its first outing the tip bags kept falling off and blowing away. Despite our best efforts those nice new wing-tips are now all muddy! On a positive note, IC2 ship the Alto as standard with a split batten bag. It has separate slots for each side’s battens, for the tip wands and for the little carbon rods for the extra wingtips. This is a huge improvement over the single sock that Wills ship as standard with the Sport 3.
The Alto has all the typical modern features you would expect – kick-down keel, flip batten tips (the latest, more robust ones), kingpost hang point (with backup stitched to main strap) etc.
As standard it comes with Finsterwalder rubber backed ‘Aerosafe’ uprights and a round speed bar. The IC2 speed bar is bent down in the middle so you are always the same height above it as you shift for roll with is kind of neat. As an option you can have a black anodised A-frame, keel and kingpost (the standard is silver anodised aluminium).
A further option is a competition frame which includes the MR carbon speed bar and deeper chord uprights. And then there is the option for a full carbon frame with carbon uprights. I don’t like the idea of carbon uprights though for a few safety reasons and I really can’t see a benefit from them…
As standard the upper and lower sail is Dacron with a laminated leading edge. As an option you can order with an ODL Technora upper sail and leading edge. This is a very expensive option and is of nil performance benefit on an intermediate but it does look AMAZING.
I hope to be able to give some in-flight feedback when I get some decent airtime on it (if I can ever get it away from people who want to have a go that is!).
Pullback is very easy to do and the keel attachment for the pullback is simple and easy to use. For some reason most people pinch a finger in the tang the first time they try and rig one… I have no idea why as there is no need to have your fingers anywhere near the gap between the tang and keel… Simply pull-back on the webbing and drop the tang onto the stud. The pullback webbing is attached to a length of bungee. I have heard people say they think this bungee is way under-spec’d for the job. But it is NOT there to be pulled on. Its function is to bring the webbing back while you spread the wings. If you have spread the wings far enough, the pullback webbing will be sticking out at the trailing edge of the keel-pocket just enough to grab so you never need to pull on the bungee.
Like the single surface Piuma, the luff lines do not detach from the kingpost. You can pull the cap off the kingpost if this really bothers you but once you get used to packing it away with the lines pulling the sail up, it really isn’t an issue. And this feature means the rigging is simplified (how many times have you struggled to clip the luff lines to the top of the kingpost in strong wind?!) leaving only the aft kingpost cable to keel connection to be secured.
The tip wands are super easy to install (AND remove which is in some ways more important!). Icaro recommends a different tip wand technique to Wills. And each brand’s procedure works better on their own gliders (the IC2 wands seems a bit more pliable but not slippery like the Wills ones).
The nose wire end ring (that clips into the hook on the front of the keel) has a cord on it that is an emergency backup for the cross-tube pullback (this means that with the nose wires connected, even if you disconnect the pullback strap from the keel, the crosstube remains held in position and the glider wont fold up). In theory this is a clever idea but it does mean that this chord then has to exit the zipper on the lower sail along the keel line. To me this is just a bit ugly and unsatisfying…
The nose wire attachment to the keel-plate uses IC2’s system of having a locking plate that is pulled back by pulling down on a webbing loop on the nose plate allowing you to clip the nose wires in and then when you let go of the webbing the plate springs back out again preventing the nose wire ring from coming out of the hook. Another beautifully engineered solution from Icaro2000.
On the subject of the nose wires, all IC2 gliders are supplied with a little length of red yarn secured to one nose wire with a bit of heatshrink tube (for wind direction indication on launch). Other brands you have to add one yourself so this is a nice touch.
The Alto’s sail comes with ‘speed batten’ pockets in the trailing edge. These are short pockets sewn into the sail (3 each side) that allow a chordwise carbon fibre lollipop stick to be inserted. They do not HAVE to be fitted (at full bar back on our demo without these sticks fitted there is ZERO flutter in the sail) but in theory they will extend the life of the sail especially for those who like to fly fast a lot (which the Alto does really well!). This is of course in addition to IC2’s outer trailing edge tension cord as is also fitted to some of their other gliders.
The sprogs simply rotate into position and then the zip closes out their pocket and holds them in position. Slightly disappointing compared to Wills is that the Alto only has the one zipper pull. This means you cannot leave a gap in the middle of a zipped-up sprog for a camera mount like you can on the Wills. Minor niggle I know. The spanwise batten in the upper sail that the sprog rests against does not need to be moved or removed to roll the sail and just stays in position at all times.
The VG chord routes very easily into the cleat on rigging and the VG is incredibly light to pull on. IC2 use a sheathed poly cord for the VG. The jam cleat is different to that used by either Moyes or Wills but seems to be very reliable to use and with no moving parts should outlive the rest of the glider.
The optional wing tips are much smaller than Wills Wing’s ones. Wills’ ones are made of carbon sheet and Lexan laminated and they are therefore very stiff and flat. The IC2 ones have a MUCH smaller area and are made of sailcloth so are much more flexible and tend to not sit perfectly flat. Who knows if one brand’s tips are more effective than the other for any of these reasons… The IC2 tips win for me for two reasons. For one, they are far easier to fit. Wills’ tips are quite fiddly to engage at the front and then they have so much Velcro it is very hard to get the tip all lined up before one or other part of the Velcro grabs and locks the tip in the wrong position! The IC2 ones are nowhere near as fiddly. I would probably not bother fitting the Wills ones every time I fly because of the faff of transporting and fitting them. But these IC2 ones are so easy that I see no reason why I wouldn’t always fly with them on. The second win for me is the lesser Velcro itself. There is so much Velcro on the sail (the hook half at that) on the Wills that if you do fly without the tips on, the Velcro collects everything it sees (as Velcro is want to do!). So you are forever picking debris out of it. The Alto uses a fraction of this area of Velcro and they also use the modern hard type that doesn’t collect the way the classic loops do. So this gives a much cleaner tip without the extra tips fitted.
IC2 have developed a new leading edge insert which is an option (no cost charge) in lieu of the traditional Mylar inserts (which are still available if you prefer). These new inserts are made of black foam. They serve the same function of keep the LE shape at speed but they are significantly lighter than Mylar. We have this on our demo Alto (and also had it on the demo Piuma we had last year) and really like it.
One minor niggle is the packing/bags. IC2 don’t seem to believe in padding and there are a couple of areas that really want some additional padding pieces to protect things in transport. The tip bags are a set size/shape with no closing feature. I can’t speak for Moyes but the Wills tip bags are made wider at the opening and then have a Velcro tab that allows you to cinch it up when on. This allows you to easily fit the tip bag and then secure it tight. The tip bags supplied with our Demo Alto have a taper to them but without the ability to have them loose to pull on you struggle to pull them on and then with no cinch-device you can’t secure them and they just want to slip off again. Packing our demo Alto away after its first outing the tip bags kept falling off and blowing away. Despite our best efforts those nice new wing-tips are now all muddy! On a positive note, IC2 ship the Alto as standard with a split batten bag. It has separate slots for each side’s battens, for the tip wands and for the little carbon rods for the extra wingtips. This is a huge improvement over the single sock that Wills ship as standard with the Sport 3.
The Alto has all the typical modern features you would expect – kick-down keel, flip batten tips (the latest, more robust ones), kingpost hang point (with backup stitched to main strap) etc.
As standard it comes with Finsterwalder rubber backed ‘Aerosafe’ uprights and a round speed bar. The IC2 speed bar is bent down in the middle so you are always the same height above it as you shift for roll with is kind of neat. As an option you can have a black anodised A-frame, keel and kingpost (the standard is silver anodised aluminium).
A further option is a competition frame which includes the MR carbon speed bar and deeper chord uprights. And then there is the option for a full carbon frame with carbon uprights. I don’t like the idea of carbon uprights though for a few safety reasons and I really can’t see a benefit from them…
As standard the upper and lower sail is Dacron with a laminated leading edge. As an option you can order with an ODL Technora upper sail and leading edge. This is a very expensive option and is of nil performance benefit on an intermediate but it does look AMAZING.
I hope to be able to give some in-flight feedback when I get some decent airtime on it (if I can ever get it away from people who want to have a go that is!).
