Mark Stump () writes:

Jim Lamb came down to the TTT Team Challenge and spent all week supporting the Atos pilots and anyone else that needed help. He brought the Atos VR and the new VQ. I have been looking forward to seeing what the latest wing out of Felix's brain would be.

Jim flew the VQ and stayed specked out all week. He let me fly it the last day of the meet which was the best weather with 500fpm up and sweet clouds at 6000+ AGL.

The VQ weighs 85 lbs, same as my V. Nice! On Jim's 7th time of setting it up he had it together in 10min and that's while answering a lot of questions.

The sail slides down the D-spars about 3' allowing the first 6 ribs to stay attached and you never need to open the sail in this area. It's super clean at this sail/flap junction.

You open up the trailing edge at the second to last rib opening and slide the tip tubes in. They have two ribs attached to them just like the VR. Plug in the tip wand that stays attached to the trailing edge. (super clean no opening for tip wand levers. Not needed.)

Go to the root and pull the sail toward the root with a long cord and pulley system. Simple, clean, quick.

Once it's together you place the root rings on the pins and cam one side in. Then zip it closed.

As you pull the sail to the root all the ribs swing into place along with the tip wand loading up. Too Cool!

The back half of the keel is now a carbon tube with the tail stand molded into it also. It's black and white and reminds me of a slick killer whale.

The static balance is neutral with the bags in the nose. Launch is easy.

The double spoilers like the VR are very far out. The roll rate is quicker and lighter than my V.

It's super stable in a wider range of bank angles. In a steep bank it stays put, not requiring any spoiler input to stay banked up or to keep it from steeping up.

It flies / thermals at least 5 mph slower than my V. I climbed turn for turn with Jim in his VR when we were together at the start. I did not see Jim again until we were at goal so I can't comment on the glide vs the VR. We went diving down to help our teammates. Huge FUN!

It glides good at 45mph with the flaps off. The flaps are the same width as the D-spar which makes them about half as wide as the ones on my V or the VR. They seemed to work just as good as the wide ones.

It lands really nice with a lower stall speed than my V and a wider flair window. It reminded me of landing the 2000 Atos, sweet, just walk it in.

I sort of wish I had not flown it because now, I want one really bad. It's the most "FUN" glider I have ever flown. Send Donations to: Mark Stump.

We've heard rumors of an AIR ATOS VQ accident in Germany within the last week, which the factory is checking out. If you know more about this please contact me at ">davis", "davisstraub.com.

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