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A-I-R new website

Posted: Thu, Apr 30 2020, 02:29:13 pm
by Mike B
Lots of pictures of the latest Atos creations and sail materials.

http://www.air-atos.de/


And a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jddi5puQAVU

Posted: Fri, May 01 2020, 01:00:26 am
by Fabiano
AIR has such pretty gliders.

Posted: Fri, May 01 2020, 01:35:27 am
by Col.r
Yes, beauty and performance. I guess the gap between the have and the have nots will be increasing in the foot launched high performance hanggliding world as in all others. I feel a little sad, now my topless is nearly permanently in storage, however my sports glider gives me now, a more all round relaxed ride. Fly the hell off that Atos of yours Mike - keep posting your great videos because for this aging hanggie, a rigid wing sure looks the ultimate foot launched wing ..

Posted: Fri, May 01 2020, 02:10:34 am
by Ken de Russy
I am seriously out of touch. Someone tell me what that glider and accessories - harness, chute, instruments, helmet - as seen in that video would run, ballpark. More than $25,000? Am I seriously underguessing?

Posted: Fri, May 01 2020, 09:41:48 am
by Martin
Ken, yup if you walk up and buy all your stuff new, go to the cash register your going to pay $35,000 usd+ for a rigid wing, zippy do dah harness, high tech instrument, tack on another $75,000 for your 4x4 beast with some fancy chrome bling wheels… (the bill is even greater if you are trying to pay using something like the Canadian Peso…)

Or, if you buy used, you can probably re-create the same package for less than $8000.00 (mooch your rides and take a Skoda to the hill?). Which why all of us dumb smucks that pay retail should get a whole lot more respect for kiting out all the mooches ;-) .

Flex wings ain't much cheaper, even PG's can suck up a whack of cash (full kit of a comp wing, pod harness, instruments and reserves… .after all its a PG, you have got to have more than one reserve!… bet you will dole out $12,000).

There are dark times ahead… Covid-19 not only kills people and economies, its going to suck the life out of disposable income that feeds our industry. Who knows, maybe we will be going back to the old rogallo days and be looking for bamboo and plastic sheets to get our air fix on gliders like the Batso or Chandell Comp?

Levitating our fat asses into the thin air cost bucks… no bucks… no "Buck Rogers".

Martin

Posted: Fri, May 01 2020, 11:54:39 am
by Remmoore
Dark times for HG, indeed - and not just due to the virus/economy.

I've been thinking about the future of our sport. If trends continue (I hope they don't) HG manufacturers may close entirely, to be replaced by smaller companies or individuals who make replacement parts for select gliders. I could imagine the skilled employees of the shuttered manufacturers starting up home/garage businesses, making some of the most in-demand components for the most popular beginner and intermediate gliders.

If the writing is on the wall (or at least more clearly than right now) I expect to buy 1-2 good used gliders that I can hope to get replacement parts for in the future. Wings that can use dacron sails and less sophisticated hardware. I don't have much hope that there will be replacement carbon fiber d-cells for my VR in this possible future, but perhaps a dacron sail could be made by the right people. Picking up a Sport 2 or similar would fill my HG quiver for a future with no new gliders coming off the production lines.

RM

Posted: Fri, May 01 2020, 05:39:42 pm
by David Williamson
Martin wrote: There are dark times ahead… Covid-19 not only kills people and economies, its going to suck the life out of disposable income that feeds our industry.
Martin
I don't want to sound smug but I've been astounded that business is booming, for me, under lockdown in the U.K.
I work from home all the time anyhow and I've got stacks of jobs to do. The stuff I sell is in great demand now, as lots of folk are trying to find ways of spending their time at home and are getting around to salvaging their old taped home videos by transferring them to PC.
Our ATOS VX was £5500, used. My 24-year-old saloon car is still hauling it around.

Posted: Mon, May 04 2020, 12:06:23 pm
by Christopher
Remmoore wrote:I don't have much hope that there will be replacement carbon fiber d-cells for my VR in this possible future, but perhaps a dacron sail could be made by the right people.
Mayhaps, consumer flight will dwindle; those not satisfied with the Earth will become builders, use the old D-cell as tooling for a replacement part. Decades on, builders will attempt to reverse engineer this moment, the lost tech of the bird-folk, magic from the likes of Pearson, like unraveling a Stradivarius.