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PPC orbit 3.5m review 25-40knot gusts. El Medano.
98kg rider. 2mm wetsuit.
105l Paradox board.
Code 1130s, long fuse, 151r tail with 1 degree leading edge down shim.
First impressions of the PPC orbit 3.5m in well powered to overpowered conditions and a comparison to the Hybrid 4.3m. I have included mainly riding tips that I hope others can learn from.
Take off:
Don’t pump it! It will lead to a collapse of some sort or a back stall. Plane the board and then pump the legs. A 3.5m is still a 3.5m the PAL doesn’t give it the low end of a larger parawing. It would be interesting if someone could compare a power pack 3.6m to the orbit 3.5m just on take off.
When launching pull in the PAL to what you need. Too much and expect a back stall. Hand position goes further up the bar as the PAL is sheeted in. I aimed for 50% and it worked fine. Aim the board downwind and point the board at the LE. Gain speed and pump the board onto foil. Gain more speed by going downwind with the PAL sheeted in and then once at cruising speed release the PAL and turn hard upwind.
Manoeuvres
When adequately powered I sheeted in the PAL to 50% before a manoeuvre. Handle passes, C-line, A-line gybes and standard gybes worked fine. The easiest was probably the handlepass as the canopy remained inflated and it just accelerated out of the turn. For the other gybe variations it felt very intuitive if you are used to riding a hybrid.
As the wind increased I sheeted out the PAL at the apex of my turn to allow full acceleration out of the gybe. This worked really well and felt much more comfortable riding toeside. In overpowered conditions you can do all of the standard gybes with the PAL also sheeted out.
General piloting & upwind:
Hand positioning is everything. For two handed riding with the PAL fully released I found having my front hand at the top of the bar and back hand on the bottom of the bar was optimal. Then I could “t-Rex” with my back hand and sheet in and out to adjust the power. Alternatively put the harness line on at the very top of the bar and use the backhand to sheet in and out. For one handed flying slightly forward of the centre of the bar was optimal. Again with the PAL sheeted all the way out ideally.
When adjusting the PAL you need to have one hand on the bar. If the positioning is off 5mm then expect a wingtip collapse or some strange behaviour. Within a session i was getting used to finding the perfect balance point on the bar so that the parawing was trimmed. However adjusting the PAL whilst flying can be tricky and not friendly ergonomically. Reaching for and adjusting the PAL line whilst focusing on all the other aspects of foiling wasn’t the easiest thing to do.
Riding upwind was insanely comfortable. It was a completely new parawing experience for me. Like others have said on podcasts the upwind sailing became so much fun. I could point as high as I like (at Montana Roja - SW wind) and at the same spot my hybrid 4.3m would take 2-3 tacks and I could do it on one with the orbit.
Overpowered conditions 35-40knots:
Do not have the PAL sheeted in at all in strong conditions. It will lead to a wingtip collapse.
Even with the PAL sheeted fully out i was water starting without the need to pump. Edging hard and pointing upwind was the best way to reduce the load. “Soft bar pressure” didn’t apply here. If I started going crosswind then the board accelerated extremely quickly and I got a sudden change of front to back foot pressure leading to nose dives (a baseplate shim is needed).
Sometimes when overpowered the orbit would violently swing up and down in the wind window which could easily cause a collapse, reinflation and an aggressive surge towards the edge of the wind window. To manage this I tilted my front hand slightly down so the LE wouldn’t be inclined to race to the zenith when a gust hit. This felt much more comfortable.
With the weather station showing gusts up to 39-40knots, the end of the session felt like surviving. Smoke on the water and the wingers (of those who were left) were on 2.5m wings. The spot then got dominated by windsurfers and the foilers went in. Half way through my session the knot of the C line got ripped out from the bar. I thought it would be a session ender but I could still fly and continue the session albeit making a technically difficult parawing even harder to fly.
Stashing and redeploys
Point downwind and the orbit falls out of the air instantaneously. I only rode the bumps with it wadded and not stashed in a waist pouch but redeploying was uneventful. Have the PAL all the way out again to help with reinflation of the canopy. The new thicker A lines at the leading edge didn’t cut my bare hands so that’s an improvement.
Comparison to the 4.3m hybrid
The 4.3m hybrid is my daily driver and I love its stability when pointing upwind. However stashing it is a pain as it doesn’t depower straight away when pointing downwind. My redeploys as well usually end up with a line tangle of some sort or the canopy half inflates and rotates. For reference when i have borrowed a friend’s 3.1m hybrid the stash and redeploys were fantastic. Perhaps it’s just this size.
Overall impressions
Despite the technical nature of piloting this parawing i dont want to fly anything else now. One thing that people perhaps dont mention enough is the comfort when you are riding properly. I have a niggling left shoulder injury (a partial tear in my subscapularis) that complains when I’m riding toeside, with the orbit i was riding one handed overpowered with no pain. I’m sold. I’ve puffed the magic dragon and the rest of my quiver is getting a shakedown. I can see my quiver being now Orbit 3.5m & 4.5m, PT Skin 5.4m and that’s it. Take this review with a pinch of salt. I’m an average parawinger on the heavier side using the orbit for the second time. I can’t wait to take it out again!

Replying to Bryan here. Do you really think the top end of the orbit 3.5m is the same as the hybrid 4.3m? Assuming hooked in on both.
At 110kg wet I can take the hybrid 4.3m into over 30knots where it just gets better and better right before I can’t hold it down. I tried a friends hybrid 3.1m but I found there was a huge gap in low end between the sizes (that’s probably not an issue for a 70-80kg rider). So I just bought an orbit 3.5m to give me some overlap with the hybrid 4.3m and to take me further into the mid 30’s.

The orbit 3.5m should arrive next week so I’m looking forward to writing up a heavy rider comparison to the hybrid 4.3m and hybrid 3.1m.

Also can you define “playfulness” for when you are describing a particular parawing?