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Mentor
Main characteristics:
The Mentor is a high performance wing in the DHV 1-2 class for occasional pilots. It offers very dynamic handling, extraordinary thermalling performance and top level glide ratio and speed.
The NOVA Mentor demonstrates in an impressive way the possibilities of up-to-date paragliding development by using very modern technical tools in combination of many years of practical experience.
Technical Changes:
The following characteristics have been changed, compared to the MAMBOO, its predecessor:
- Changed the plan form, cut, and a new outer wing. This leads to higher efficiency and better handling.
- Shorter lines enable higher agility, better behaviour in turbulences and improved safety in deep spiral
- Thin, unsheathed and coated Dyneema lines in the upper cascade reduces overall drag.
- Thin risers with a Dyneema inlet reduces the weight of the wing, and leads to slight performance advantages.
- Rework of the cell openings enables a cleaner airflow in this critical area.
- Changed surface tension gives the MENTOR a cleaner finish. Especially in the region of the trailing edge. Furthermore, the distortion in accelerated flight could be reduced.
- Lighter cloth (Porcher 45g/sqm on the top surface, 40g/sqm on the bottom surface) and smaller reinforcements, lead to less weight and to a bigger safety margin.
- Laser-cut profile: The patterns are cut with our new laser cutter, which enables a constant high standard of quality.
- The new brake geometry was a big contributor towards the better handling.
- Slightly changed airfoil shape leads to softer collapses and more stability of the center wing. So the MENTOR has a higher resistance to frontal collapses. Furthermore, the stability in accelerated flight could be improved. The trim and maximum accelerated speeds of the MENTOR are slightly higher than the MAMBOO.
What stayed the same:
- Number of cells
- Sweep
- Separate D-Lines from the top cascade down to the riser
Development Story:
NOVA has a long tradition in the class of high level 1-2 wings. The CARBON was the first to set new standards in performance some years ago. Following it, the ARTAX was the new reference in this class. It was not easy for us to realize a step forward with the MAMBOO. Now we wanted to go even further and improve upon the MAMBOO, which successfully held the performance lead in its class until its now, according to the measurements from GLEITSCHIRM MAGAZINE. Reaching this target was very demanding!
It took us one and a half years from the first MENTOR proto (X189: April 24, 2006) to the certification and production start of the final version. Very complex computer simulations (CFD) promised a big step forward in performance for new concepts. But flight tests showed that it was not easy to implement those ideas: Some prototypes impressively demonstrated their performance potential, but they were not good in other disciplines like handling or safety. We didn't just want to build a great performance wing, we also wanted to improve in the disciplines of handling, safety and even more in comfort and simplicity.
Early in Summer 2007 we thought that we had finally reached our goal. We had built wings in S, M and L sizes, which were very promising. But when we did some final performance comparisons against the Mamboo, we had to admit that we had not reached our own performance goals. We had to reject this concept and make further efforts to improve the MENTOR.
Amongst other things, we slightly reduced the aspect ratio and spent a lot of time on improving the wing surfaces. We tried many different wing tip designs and finally found a solution which was quite impressive in terms of performance and handling.
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