EXPANDING YOUR FLYING HORIZONS
We’re often told that “it isn’t the wing, it’s the pilot”. And while it is true that no wing will make a bad pilot great, it’s also true that an extraordinary wing WILL seriously improve your flying! The Rook 3 (EN B) is that wing; a paraglider to make the very most of YOUR skills.
New look!
The look is made to support the Triple Seven philosophy: Performance and safety optimisation above all. The new design uses the smallest number of seams possible. Just about every stitch in the canopy is there for performance purposes; only the contrast-coloured panels create this beautiful, racy look.
With the reduced number of seams we ended up with canopy with significantly reduced pressure leakage. Put simply, the canopy is pressurised to the maximum at every angle of attack.
DESIGNER’S THOUGHTS
“Pilots in this certification bracket (the top end of the EN B class) tend to be ambitious and hungry for more, but also quite sensible when it comes to assessing their own skill level. So when designing for them we need to figuratively stuff new models with performance in spades while making sure that the new wing has no hidden vices.
We knew even before we began this project that it would be a hard call to improve the Rook 2 in enough ways to make it a worthy successor – so instead of starting with the original, we based the new wing on the Queen 2, our class-bursting EN C wing. The trick was to preserve the Queen 2’s great performance and handling characteristics but to make it suitable for EN B pilots, who are likely to have a slightly lower comfort threshold in rowdy air. After lots of prototyping, testing and trimming we can now say that we’re there.”
THE TYPICAL ROOK 3 PILOT
The original Rook was the first product from Triple Seven to hit the market, and it made a big splash already then. Now in its 3rd and much-improved incarnation, the Triple Seven Rook 3 is still a high-end EN B wing. It is made for ambitious leisure pilots, perhaps with a desire to do more ambitious cross-country flights, provided this can be done on a wing with a sound passive safety margin.
You’ll get the most joy out of a wing in this class by being current, with probably 50+ hours in active air each year, and with some XC skills to your name. Your style is quite assertive; you generally know where you want to go next and why, and you are happy to use the speed bar to improve your overall performance and safety levels. You are familiar with quick descent methods and with large, coordinated wingovers, or at least you’re working on this compartment in your free-flying toolbox, out of a desire to improve, to the benefit of safety and performance alike.
If this sounds like you then you’ll have buckets of fun on the Rook 3 – it’s a wing practically custom-built for you, and it’ll take you places you have previously only been dreaming of. Welcome on board!