BGD - BASE 2 LIGHT

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!” Bob Marley

Feeling tethered to the nine-to-five or crushed by the daily grind? You need some lightness to free your mind. Grab your Base 2 Lite, hike up to a launchable place and take to the open skies.

The Base 2 Lite is a high-performance sports class paraglider that is easy to handle and a joy to fly. It has the same great handling and feel as the standard Base 2, and pilots say they feel at home on it straight away. It speaks your language with clear, understandable feedback and ‘feely’ wingtips that tell you about the air. It’s relaxing to fly, leaving plenty of mental bandwidth for you to be working out where the next thermal will be, or whether that grassy ridge would make a good camping spot.

Its light sail makes for an even easier launch than the standard Base 2, and the brake pressure is slightly lighter. Base is in the name and the nature of this wing. It thermals beautifully, is smooth and relaxed in the turn, and will get you up to the wispies in no time. For gliding on bar, the C-steering handles are light to operate for effective steering.

TARGET

A lightweight sports-class EN-B, the Base 2 Lite is the perfect match for cross-country pilots who enjoy the hike to launch, for vol-bivouac adventurers looking for high-end safety, or anyone who wants a fun, performant lightweight wing. Pilots stepping up from low-B category will not find it too taxing to fly, yet its performance will impress XC distance seekers.

BRUCE'S NOTES

The Base 2 Lite keeps all of the design features that make the Base 2 such a great wing. It has the new arc design, double leading edge, and the fine-tuned sail and line tension that make it so well balanced in the air. But we have optimised weight wherever we can without compromising functionality. It has been a labour of love!

It is made from Porcher Skytex 27 with 32 on the upper leading edge for durability, and unsheathed Edelrid lines throughout, which brings benefits in terms of both weight and performance.

We created new lightweight hybrid risers. We chose narrow webbing for its handling, and mixed Dyneema and Kevlar to play to the strengths of each material. Dyneema is very light but it can stretch, so we used it for the C-risers and C-steering which don’t take heavy loads. For the load-bearing A and B risers we opted for Kevlar, which holds its shape well. Soft links have come of age now, and for the first time we have fitted them as standard on the Base 2 Lite. (Maillons can be ordered as an option for pilots who prefer them). They are light and user friendly, and the riser feels nice and cohesive without the metal link in the middle.

The speed-riser C-steering is similar to that on the Base 2, but the handles are slightly smaller and we’ve reducing the padding to save weight. Even the brake handles are optimised: they are still padded and comfortable but we’ve reduced the stiffening. We kept the snaplock keepers but did away with the brake swivels.

Designing the Base 2 Lite has been a lot of work and effort focussed on many small details, and we are very happy with the result. We hope pilots will love it as much as the BGD team do.

TECHNICAL DATA

	XS	S	M	ML
LINEAR SCALING FACTOR	0.92	0.96	1	1.04
PROJECTED AREA (M²)	17.8	19.5	21.2	22.9
FLAT AREA (M²)	21	23	25	27
GLIDER WEIGHT (KG)	3.5	3.7	3.9	4.1
TOTAL LINE LENGTH (M)	204	224	243	262
HEIGHT (M)	6.9	7.2	7.5	7.8
NUMBER OF MAIN LINES (A/B/C)	3/4/3
CELLS	57
FLAT ASPECT RATIO	5.7
PROJECTED ASPECT RATIO	4.4
ROOT CHORD (M)	2.4	2.5	2.6	2.7
FLAT SPAN (M)	11.1	11.6	12.1	12.56
PROJECTED SPAN (M)	8.8	9.2	9.6	10
TRIM SPEED (KM/H)	39
TOP SPEED (KM/H)	55
MIN SINK (M/S)	1
BEST GLIDE	10.5
WEIGHT RANGE (KG)	55-75	65-85	75-95	88-108
CERTIFICATION (EN/LTF)	B	B	B	B