PHI MAESTRO 2 Light - Test Flights

First I would like to Thank Paraglidingshop.ch for being very helpful.
www.paraglidingshop.ch


I‘ve only flown my Mescas 6 before so in comparison with it the Maestro was very different in handling and flight behavior.
I chose purposely a day with calm air and without thermal activity for test flights so I can comfortably perform the maneuvers.
1. Take off was really easy and it inflated quickly as you can see in the end of the video, nice inflation with little pull and the wing comes up as a whole.
To me it felt easier than Mescal.
2. Trim Speed was similar.
I flew parallel with another Mescal for about 2 mins and I wasn’t any faster.
3. Speed Bar.
I crossed the whole Wolfenschiessen valley with full speed bar and I can say that it was much faster and had good glide ratio.
In this calm air condition the wing felt very solid in full speed.
4. Hybrid 3-2 Line System.
My first time using this system to control the glider while on speed bar. It felt heavy to use comfortably but I will have to compare it with another similar glider to tell the difference.
5. Break Input is much sharper I could control the glider with little brake input compared to my Mescal. Is easier to turn and do maneuvers but also is easier to mess up if you don’t know what you are doing.
6. Big ears and Collapses
Ears are easy to pull and don’t open themselves without some small pumps.
I couldn’t tell any big difference in collapses they seem to open pretty quickly and there wasn’t any dangerous reaction.
7. Maneuvers.
It gathers more speed and momentum in wing overs and quick turns. So you have to be careful to bleed out the excess energy when exiting.

OVERALL

The Maestro 2 Light is very agile and playful glider, for me it was definitely more fun to fly with.
I have some other High and Low B gliders on the list to test fly before I make the final decision to purchase.
The Upgrade to a new glider is a difficult decision to make when we have so many options to choose from. I hope that by sharing our experiences we can help each other to make better choices.