The wing performs so much better than I can recall when I flew it in Sywell a few months ago. On its first flight I went for a short-field take-off and lifted at about 38 mph (remember it's hot here and was about 82 F on this day). I climbed to about 700 feet agl and started to wind the handle towards the "fast" setting...... all of a sudden I was in a shallow dive at 100 mph IAS (about 104 TAS) and so I increased the power to get her into level flight - I couldn't believe I was in level hands-off trimmed flight at over a ton.
I wound the handle back to give me a cruise of 85 mph IAS (about 88 TAS) and found myself buzzing along at around 13.5 LPH and feeling very comfortable. I'd read reports of buffeting at the higher speeds but I can report none at all. I then played at winding-the-handle up and down and started to bond with this new machine. When my friend Alasdair flew her for the first time his verdict was "you've got 4 aeroplanes there - depending on which speed setting you fly her at" - I think this describes the versatility of the wing very well.
Handling was very crisp, especially when you consider it's a brand new wing and, when you consider I'm used to an iXess 13. She was very easy in roll at all speeds although she was more responsive as the speed increased, as is to be expected. In pitch she was predictable and went where she was pointed. Stalling was gradual and predictable with a very slight tendency to drop the starboard wing but I reckon this will be eradicated once I've finely-tuned the wing. Apart from the novelty of adding about 20% to my cruising speed, the most amazing thing was the ability to fly her trimmed at very low speeds. I made several low passes down the runway at 10 feet and at about 40 mph - I could have flown slower but I'm still getting used to her. Landings were ridiculously short and I was getting ground-rolls of 20 meters or so in still air.
In short, the BioniX is an extremely capable wing and does so much more than the pure numbers would suggest - it really makes my Tanarg a far more able machine and a lot more fun too.
