TESTED BY GREG HAMERTON IN MARCH 2023, SIZE S (80-100kg) @ 94kg.
The Gin Bonanza 3 is a two liner EN C wing.
It has very narrow cell openings with reinforcing, a pronounced shark nose step and very slender lines, especially at the top near the wing. The A’s have a little split riser, and the rears have a nice little handle.
In the air, the Gin Bonanza 3 leading edge is all wavy! It looks weird. I’m not used to that. You expect a leading edge to be beautifully clean and straight. This has got this ‘whale leading edge’.
But it feels entirely normal, even on full speedbar!
It’s immediately responsive and gives a quick turn around, especially if you lead with weightshift.
It has smooth weight shift transfer with some freedom around the center point, which is very nice.
At half brake it feels normal. Solid. Around stall point it gives a bit of a sink back into the stall point, which indicates to me you need to be careful flying on deep brake … like any wing in the C class. It doesn’t offer the kind of EN-B ‘resistance and recovery’. There’s a little linger in the stall point.
It’s entirely predictable on its exit and doesn’t present any danger.
When I did a climbing turn and then forced the brake on the inside, it gave a slight slip in the turn with slightly delayed recovery, so you should take care if you thermal it too hard. But it feels very predictable.
Big ears are BIG and there’s a fair amount of flapping around and it feels a little bit unsettled. It re-opened on its own.
It has a lot of pitch freedom that reveals its energy. You’re going to have to catch the forward dive sometimes, and you definitely need to be a C pilot, ready for that freedom in active flying conditions.
I did a spiral with weight shift in and let it go around 360 before going hands up. There’s lots of G-force and I felt a clear need to continue the turn to gradually taper off the energy that had built up during the acceleration.
Wingovers were mild because the turn energy is limited. You can get it smoothly over the wing but it has a long line feel with a slow cadence. You must give it time to do everything.
I like it! It’s kind of ‘in between’: it’s not super playful, but it’s not restricted. I like the weight shift freedom. It gives you smooth control. And then the fact that you don’t have a real hook effect on the brake means that you get a smooth power steering feeling. It feels like a high C to me. I think you need to know your stuff to fly this glider, but if you do, it feels really nice.
You can learn everything you need to know and master the methods used by the pros in my special report on FLYING TWO LINERS