The first few stalls were really messy - especially the first and fifth ones, which will make you cringe. After this I started to understand the glider a bit more and improved my harness position; more symmetric hands, more compact body with elbows tucked in. This makes a difference to the stability in tailslide and allows you to find a nicer exit. This was stuff I knew beforehand but it seems theory needs practice sometimes. Later, I really enjoyed linking some stall sequences and my first dynamic stalls.
From the on-board footage, I can see loads of things I was doing wrong, especially asymmetric hand movements in back-fly, missing some good exit windows and some weird paddling of the brakes on stall exit. I also seem to have the habit of releasing the brakes too fast on stall exit for this glider. A smoother and slower release from a slighly higher back-fly hand position would create fewer cravates but it was useful to have some cravate release practice which is always a possibility in real flying.
Overall, the R10 behaves very conventionally in stall: it fully deserves its reputation as one of the really well-sorted 2-liners. Any of the wobbles here are down to the pilot, not the glider. For some smoother R10 stalls have a look at French duo Nicolas Treins and Nico Di Bernardo. Here are the Swiss League pilots on their EnZos. For a true master of these wings, you must see Charles Cazaux, again on an EnZo.
By day three I was ready for some chill-out time. Having last done (smallish) wingovers on my first SIV in 2009 I was keen to try some proper ones. My homework was entertaining; Cade Palmer's Tandemonium and Tandemonium 2. By the end of the day I was starting to enjoy the rhythm. Great fun!
