Any more feedback on the Quest? Curious on the wind range and upwind in particular.

Yeah it looks bloody nice!

czareka said..

Velocicraptor said..
Any more feedback on the Quest? Curious on the wind range and upwind in particular.

In my personal opinion after many sessions so far, the Quest is currently the best parawing on the market. Its upwind performance is about 95% of the Frigate, and the speed is exactly the same. However, the bridle and line configuration is truly outstanding. It is very clean with only A and B lines and a two-point connection, offering easy handling with zero tangling and instant depower. The A-lines are split into A1 and A2, and in the first two sections of A1, the lines are softer and spliced. This makes packing much easier and, more importantly, it doesn't cut or irritate the skin on your hands. This is a huge advantage over other parawings. Overall, it is a 10 out of 10 parawing for me so far.

What kind of wind range are you getting out of the 3.5 and have you tried any other sizes? What size are you and what size board? Can you compare wind range to anything else out there? Trying to figure out if I can do a 1.5m gap or need to stick with 1m.

Looking at the below wind range table for the 3, 3.5 and 4 m Quest a few things stand out

1. The bottom end is not as low as I would of expected (4m showing as 17knots)
2. The bottom end does not increase much as you size up
3. The top end increases a lot as you size down
4. The wind range is huge

At 75kg coming from a 4m BRM Kanaha with an advertised wind range of 14 to 19 knots and where it gets challenging when I get into the 20's, this table seems incredible. On the Sunshine Coast I would ride 70% in 15 to 20 knots and the remainder 20 to 25 knots with a few days in the high 20s. I have a 100 litre 8.2 downwind , and a 85 litre 6.4 dedicated para board, with lots of foil combos to choose.

I am interested to hear from those who have had some time on the Quest.

The 4.5 and 3.5 m would seem like a logical choice based on the range table but I would prefer not to go bigger than a 4m. Could you realistically get away with just the 4m or maybe even the 3.5m?

I just had my first sessions on the 5m quest. I'm coming from the pocket rockets and was looking for something with more low end and easier to stash. Overall I'm very happy with the quest - it definitely accomplishes what I was looking for. I was pleasantly surprised with the upwind angles. Seems a little less than the pocket rocket but not huge difference for me and a good tradeoff for the low end. It isn't a "downwind parawing" and it rides upwind just fine for me. Super impressed at how neutral it rides on the front lines and how well it behaves overpowered. I was riding in 14-20 knot winds and it was very comfortable in that range. I think the f one wind ranges are about right although the top end might be slightly exaggerated. I probably wouldn't want to be on the 5 in consistent 20+ knot wind (fone says 21 knots as top end).
the white A lines are crazy in how they kill the power in the wing. As soon as you pull them even a little bit the sail collapses. That situation is new to me and is going to take some getting used to. As soon as I would begin to run them through my hands to collapse the sail, it would fall out of the sky no matter how powered it was. This is nice in how quickly you can get the sail out of the sky (sometimes I would have to fight the pocket rocket as it retained a bit of power while stashing), but it happens so fast on the quest that it can lead to situations where you haven't run your hands all the way to the leading edge but the sail has collapsed and it can start twisting. You need to get your hands to the sail very quickly to avoid this. Curious if anyone else has noticed this and figured it out.
Having a clean bar without B lines is super nice. I had some situations that would have lead to bad tangles on the pocket rocket that were very simple to undo on the quest.
after riding it and feeling the wind range I think I could have gotten by with a 1.5m gap in sizes. Still glad that I got a 5/4 (still have a pocket rocket 3) but I think I could have done 5/3.5.
super nice sail and excited to spend more time on it.

Can also confirm I'm still really enjoying my 4m quest

I feel I'm giving up a little bit of responsiveness when steering the wing around but other than that I'm impressed with how it performs in all other aspects (actually that's a lie the harness line on mine slides up and down the bar when not in use which is annoying I'll probably have to tape it in place)

I've had my 4m "overpowered" in 30kn and whilst it wasn't fun it remained relatively composed flying purely off the A's

Most importantly there's been times I've crashed and gone "oh no that's going to be one hell of a tangle" only to find it's incredibly quick to sort out.

I need 2 more sizes (probably a 3m and 5m) of course options like the pr2 and frigate2 are tempting but I also don't know if I'm in a rush to move away from the 2 bridle system of the quests!

I have 6 session on my 4m Quest after a year on Pocket Rockets and it has totally fixed my % redeploy rate.
I usually only go a relatively short distance upwind then DW so don't have time to fully pack down and will often just hold the wing in one hand and the bar in the other. With PR my rate was never better than 80%. From day one on the Quest using exactly the same technique it's about 99%. The bar and the 2 bridle attachment is brilliant and the white kill lines work a dream. Even turning hard both ways not trying to manage the package it never seems to tangle.

Upwind performance doesn't feel great because you are going slow (especially compared to PR) but when you look at the track data it's actually makes very good angles only a few deg less than a wing session I did immediately after. So for surfing waves it's plenty good enough.

I think the wind range on the FONE site for 4m is about right. I've used mine with a KT S K2 in 14-19 knots and also 22- 28 knots it's a mellow ride even at the top end.

I bought this before the PR V2 was announced which sounds like the answer to everything atm but the Quest has certainly improved my enjoyment of Parawinging its a great wing for allot of people.

I've only ridden the 3,5m and 3m Quest, but found the low end to be noticeably worse than the Frigate.

KB7 said..
The start method is a major point of difference between the Quest and PR or Frigate. If you try to start like those wings I agree it feels gutless and dead.
My start technique is to get on the board to my knees, then front foot up only , then turn the board deep off the wind (broad reach)with the wing stalled back holding in the downwind hand, it starts pulling hard like a spinnaker, the board quickly gets to just below foil speed with bump assist, then quickly stand and a couple of board pumps and away.

Thanks for this, been using the 4m and finding it totally gutless on water starts vs the power pac, will try the above to see if can make the difference

I have a question for the forum. Would I get much more range or other benefits from swapping my 3m PT skin for a 3.5m quest? I’m thinking better low end but still similar top end so more range overall? The 3m PT skin packs down super easy so don’t necessarily need an upgrade in pack ability. It’s a bit squirly and nervous in its top end so maybe the quest is a bit smoother?

WindWaterSailAU said..

Youngbreezy said..
I have a question for the forum. Would I get much more range or other benefits from swapping my 3m PT skin for a 3.5m quest? I’m thinking better low end but still similar top end so more range overall? The 3m PT skin packs down super easy so don’t necessarily need an upgrade in pack ability. It’s a bit squirly and nervous in its top end so maybe the quest is a bit smoother?

Just made that exact swop.
The 3m Skin has better top end.
Have had the 3.5m Quest in 30knot gusts and it is manageable - any para is going to jump around a bit in those big winds though.
As a heavier rider, the 3.5m better low end makes it much easier to get on foil which was the issue I had with the 3m PT Skin.
3.5m Quest stash size is a fair bit larger than the PT Skin though - very different material.
If you are getting up on foil ok with your 3m Skin, I don't think the Quest will give you enough benefits to justify a swopover in the higher wind ranges , the PT Skins are a very decent parawing.

Thanks that makes sense. I am usually using the 3m PT skin in stronger winds over 25 knots so I don’t usually have any issues getting going with it. I do love how tiny it wads up, sometimes don’t even bother stowing it, it’s so small I barely notice it in my hand. Guess I’ll just stick with it at the moment.