"30 YEAR OLD WING" I Advance SIGMA 11 Paraglider Review

[@flybubbleparagliding]

Wondering which is the right and best wing, harness or reserve for you? See our Flybubble MATCH service - flybubble.com/flybubble-match-service

[@copcie]

First of all congrats for your honestly in reviewing the SIGMA 11. I am a pilot of sigma 11 for more than one year, and I already have 260 flying hours under this gorgeous wing. I came from the Cayenne 6 (I don't want to make comments for the C6) and I soon I had my first flights under the sigma 11 was love at the first turn. Yes I think the big advantage of the S11 is the handling and the response at the command input. Is precise as a Rolex! Joyfull handling and pleasure in each second of airtime. I fly mostly in the Alps, southern and once in a while northern, in the French Alps. So the conditions are tough, strong thermals and strong air, but with my sigma i feel free to enjoy the views of the alpine peaks with only some active piloting. In 250h I had only one massif collapse for about 70% of the chord, the wing was absolutely predictible and with the right input I was thermaling again after maybe 2sec! Gorgeous! The gliding performance is as you said, as most of top C class. Yes piloting with b/c is a bit tiredly but I am 85kg industrial mechanical I don't have issues to fly for 6h 😬, but this is typically for 3 liners b/c even the C6 had this characteristic, I've tryed the Artik 6, the same. And yes, a very importat aspect is that after 170h of airtime once I checked my sigma, it was only a max 7/10mm off trim at the greatest difference between lines. The cloth and the porosity, as the lines were in conditions of "as a new glider" 😍. Cheers and i hope my comment will be useful to other pilots! Congrats Carlo for your reviews, better and better, each time! PS I already think seriously to buy another sigma11, just to have it as a spare one 😂

[@mauriziochina]

Nice to have read your comments. I had a Cayenne 6 too and I also refuse to comment on it.... (a small comment, come on... I need to take it out of my chest: a sh....t, but very safe. Maybe good for pilots who want to jump from a very low B...). So, I've then bought a Flow Fusion and now a Sigma 11 and an Impress 4... Thery are in my studio waiting to fly since more than a month... Busy and bad weather... but I see a window for next Tuesday... I hope so... Let's see how it will perform... I hope I will like the Sigma 11... It is my 3rd glider in one year... where I live distributors don't let you test... so I need to buy to try...

[@flybubblecarlo]

@copcie Thanks for commenting 🙏 most helpful indeed! 😁 Glad to hear our new video reviews are getting better each time. Constructive criticism on how we might make them better always welcome! 💡😀

[@thisisyol]

The more of this C6 rumors I hear, the more I get intrigued. I almost want one!

[@copcie]

@@thisisyol had C6 for one year in the Alps. I came down a few times. 🤣 Good luck!

[@paulgoossens1973]

I absolutely love flying the Sigma 11. Coming from a high-end B (Ozone Swift 5), the step up in terms of pilot demand was very little. The oerformance gain is definitely real. Also the behaviour in the SIV-course was very well behaved. Keep the reviews coming, I love’em!

[@mauriziochina]

Finally I've flown the Sigma11 and the Impress 4. The first flight to set the harness, then the past 3 weekends I tried XC... Sigma 11 is not very agile in my opinion but it is enough for an XC glider... considering all the features together, handling, glide ratio, speedbar.... it is the best glider I've ever had. Here in China where I live thermals turnoff quite early... sometimes 15.30, rarely 17.00 I managed to have 55km, 61, and 91km last flight... crossing over a very beautiful lake, something I wanted to do since long. It was very turbulent down especially because it was NE wind in a south takeoff... but the glider is very easy to control. In my opinion I will put it in the B class in terms of easiness in turbulence and general handling... I agree on the fact that it is perfectly balanced in terms of feedback: you receive the information you need without being over stressed... BC system for me is ok, not too hard, you just need to have 2 modes:sweet girl for the brake, and Spartan for the BC system. About the harness, I tried to close a little the pectoral... but for my tastes the info received was not enough... I keep completely released, and I control how much the harness shakes by the foot-plate... pushing on the plate with my setting works as an ABS system... I use it also in thermal to control how much I want to shift the body in the internal side... If I want a total body weight shift on the left I push only with the left foot and nothing with the right one... the more I push with the right foot the less the harness shift leaning left. Impress 4 is without any doubts the best harness I ever had... after 5 hours I didn't feel any discomfort to any part of my body.... better than a comfy sofa. But it took me more than 3 hours to find the right settings... Very, very happy about the combo!!! Now that a D is finally available to the public I'd like to buy the Omega ULS too.

[@Shiwido]

Thanks for the review! I have flown sigmas since the sigma 4, my favorite has been the sigma 9 so far. I got my sigma 11 recently flying in Colombia and California and It is a real bummer that Advance made the sizes very awkward this time. Mine is size 20 (XXS) and it is too small. I feel like flying a speed wing, and the small size is too big for me. In the Sigma 10 the sizes had more ranges, therefore, little guys like me, we had more opportunity to be in the right size! I agree about the BC system, it would be nice if next time they make it lighter. Overall sigma is great glider.

[@81darocha]

Advance in general is dream brand. I tried Iota 2 the other day and I found amazing, considering that I’m coming from a B-low from a national brand. Thanks for sharing it. 👍🏻

[@flybubbleparagliding]

Great to hear! More Advance videos coming soon. Stay tuned.👆🙌👋

[@SerbanOprescu]

Very nice glider. Seems to be quite a step forward from the Sigma 10.

[@thomasdegremont6432]

Here is an idea for cool content: Does Advance have a Sigma1 still lying around that you could try out? Blast from the past - I'd love to see one of you experienced pilots on a "historic" glider.

I've been flying a Sigma 11 since February, before that I was flying a Sigma 10, and I think you're right when you say that it's more stable, specially at full bar. I also agree that piloting with the risers is very physical, so I'm asking if you think that it would be useful some kind of small bar in the risers (like the Enzo's)?

[@mountaindomina]

„Speak to us!“ :-) Here we go! I fly my Sigma 10 happily. Would it payoff to change to Sigma 11? I could not try it out myself yet. And delivery times would have been tremendous in the last year.

[@mountaindomina]

@@Random-es7yo Thank you very much for your comment! It helps me to get a better picture. If you think how „unstable“ or „lively“ the Sigma 10 is during glides steered with the C‘s: is Sigma 11 more stable during glide? And is it penetrating head wind as good? Even gaining altitude in head wind? A would like to carry half a kilogramm less but I love the performance of Sigma 10. :-D

[@flybubblecarlo]

@@Random-es7yo Thanks for your helpful pilot feedback and input in the discussion! 🙏👍😀

[@yvesrast7373]

Thanks for the review, what is your suggestion concerning the weight range? Is there a big impact on the wings behavior? I would be either on the very top or right in the middle... Thank you very much!

[@maarten_notjustagrip]

OI! Thats clickbait! I was looking forward to see you actually FLYING a 30 year old wing! I fly a Macpara Magus 5 25 C2006 with a recent test returning a 275 sec average. Its in such great condition and so much fun to fly, I just cant bring myself to bin it and blow unnecessary dosh on a new wing. It has a race line set and not a single patch. Who else can relate?

[@jonah1907]

Thank you for the review. I’ve been waiting to see what you think. I got a sigma 11 this year (moved from an Iota) and love it. I tend to fly on speed bar and rear risers a lot and I agree they are heavier than I’d like (it could be I’m getting old and weak!). 🪂

[@flybubbleparagliding]

See the new and used Sports Paragliders we currently have in stock and on offer on our website: flybubble.com/wings/sports-paragliders flybubble.com/used/used-wings

[@Colibri1931]

Been flying S10 for ever and love it. Thinking of new wing , S11 or a two liner C. My big problem is I go months without flying and I’m very happy to jump back into my S 10 no out concern , but thinking relevance is a big thing with the two liners so maybe I should stick with the Sigma 11. Is that how you would see it as well?

[@nejcdezelak6358]

Thanks for once again an amazing review! One thing I am wondering about - aren't the risers on the iota dls the same as on the sigma 11? Interestingly your review for the iota dls c handling was quite different.

[@yasmanz]

I find c handling easy to use on my Sigma 11, but I am comparing to my previous Mentor 6.

[@flybubblecarlo]

@nejcdezelak6358 You're right, the risers on the SIGMA 11 are very similar (almost identical) to the standard risers on the IOTA DLS (which also has the option of light risers, which are quite different). However, from my testing I found that the BC system seemed to be a bit heavier to use on the SIGMA 11 than on the IOTA DLS. Since the risers are very similar, I have to assume this difference is down to other differences between the wings. Having said this, I must mention that think the way my description of the BC system comes across in this review overstates how heavy the SIGMA 11's BC system is to use compared to others. This is partly why we added some text to the video, to give a better idea of how the SIGMA 11's BC system is compared to those of its main competitors: "The SIGMA 11's BC system is a bit lighter than those on the Delta 4, Artik 6 and CAYENNE6, but heavier than those on the ALLEGRO light and SAVAGE."

[@simonjeppsforever]

RE; 1:25 How much elevation do you need for take off? Here the person doesn't even RUN, let alone jump off a cliff... they just LIFT OFF the ground from STANDING! Thanks in advance for any answers.

[@flybubblecarlo]

It's not so much about enough elevation as enough lift = air moving upwards 🌬⬆ faster than the paraglider is sinking through the air (roughly 1m/s). With a paraglider or hang glider it's possible to take off and soar a small dune (or similar) of only a few metres high! 😀 You just need enough lift to be able to soar! 🪂🦅😎

[@flybubblecarlo]

If you're interested in learning to paraglide we've provided free general advice on getting started on the Flybubble website: flybubble.com/blog/fly

[@simonjeppsforever]

@@flybubblecarlo OK thanks!

[@simonjeppsforever]

@@flybubblecarlo Awesome, cheers!

[@airgaborpara3824]

Hi Carlo, Can you compare the Bonanza 3 full speed behaviour to the Sigma 11. Which one you like better? Cheers, Gabor

[@fpv_3157]

can you make a review from the delta 4 pls?

[@flybubbleparagliding]

Hey thanks for the request. Actually we've already started making a review of the Delta 4, which we've flown a lot and know well, we just haven't been able to complete the review yet. Our plan is to make a combined Delta 4 and Alpina 4 (which we've also flown a lot and know well) review, however since making reviews takes a lot of time and relies on a certain amount of luck for everything to come together, we can't guarantee it will happen. What we can offer right now is a full detailed review, with direct comparisons to other similar / competitor wings, to pilots choosing to buy their new wing from us, via our Flybubble MATCH service. Otherwise fingers crossed we'll hopefully get another free Flybubble review done for you at some point! 🤞

[@SkidzFPV]

Do you guys sell UP? I really want to see a review on this kangri, it’s one of my options as my next wing

[@bieitotc]

great video!!!!!! I've been flying a medium B for six years and I want to change, I've tried high B but I can't find big differences either, what would it be like to go to an easy C like the Sigma???

[@flybubbleparagliding]

We'd cover that kind of thing in our Flybubble MATCH service - flybubble.com/flybubble-match-service

[@FlyingwithPeter007]

My dream solo sigma 11 ❤

[@dan7786]

What is better, the allegro/light or the sigma 11?

[@flybubblecarlo]

That depends on the pilot. Some will prefer the Allegro, others the Sigma 11.

[@lifeintheair22]

GRACIAS, GRACIASSSSSS 🤙

[@antholzlp9902]

nr 1

[@nonobebert7646]

if it's a complete different wing not just a new iteration why don't they change the name ?

[@flybubblecarlo]

You'd have to ask Advance themselves to be sure but I suppose it's because this new wing is aimed at the same target pilot group as the previous model i.e. experienced pilots looking for a sports class wing. If they brought out totally new model series, aimed at a different target pilot group, they'd give it a new model series name - for example, as they did with IOTA and PI series and XI, on the wings side of things. (On the harness side, the LIGHTNESS and EASINESS series, and the new WEIGHTLESS, for example.) Sometimes new models of the same series are more a development of the previous model. Other times they are more something new, starting more from scratch - as is the case of the SIGMA 11, Advance have explained.

[@flybubblecarlo]

Having tested both the SIGMA 10 (see our review) and 11 (and the 6, 7, 8, 9 - see our reviews) extensively, although somehow they both have an 'Advance feel' to them (an exceptionally sharp and precise handling and feeling, are the main aspects that comes to mind for me), the SIGMA 11 does feel very different to the 10, I think. Advance have managed to keep the best parts of the SIGMA 10 (that exceptionally sharp and precise handling and feeling, excellent performance in the class) whilst making the wing significantly more comfortable to fly (in rough air) and benign in reactions to collapses - and with even better and more usable performance, which I think is pretty impressive! Overall, my feeling is the SIGMA 11 is more related to the new IOTA DLS (see our review) than it is to the SIGMA 10.

[@flybubblecarlo]

BTW I really like the SIGMA 10, and think it's a great wing (see our written and video reviews of the SIGMA 10) but it is definitely significantly more demanding to fly than the SIGMA 11, I feel. Even more so than its predecessor, the SIGMA 9, which was more of a low C wing (an easy sports wing, again with exceptionally sharp and precise handling). The SIGMA 8 (lovely) and SIGMA 7 (more functional feeling, heavy brakes, bit stiff, still very precise handling but not so pleasurable) were more mid C / sports wings, I felt. The SIGMA 6 was more of a sporty mid DHV 2 / sports wing, I felt. Hope this is of interest to someone out there! 😅

[@mountaindomina]

@@flybubblecarlo This helps a lot! Thank you! I will have to testfly the 11 then. And if I like it I can only hope that the delivery timespan is less than 6 months… 😀 Thank you very much once again! I am looking forward to the time when we will visit the UK and in particularly Devils Dike. Austria is good enough, but the rest of the World is interesting too!

[@flybubblecarlo]

@@mountaindomina Thanks for commenting 🙏 and glad you found this helpful! 😀 That's The Whole Big Idea behind Flybubble! 😊

[@WaydeGaming]

SIGMA 😂😂😂