Introduction
Slope
soaring is a wonderful hobby that enables you to discover beautiful scenery. It
has one drawback, however, which is that you sometimes need to walk to reach
the slope with all your equipment. REVOC Custom, based in Poland, is now well
known for tailor-made plane and glider wing covers, with the possibility to
customise them with additional accessories or even to decorate them with your
own logo. They recently introduced two universal backpacks, the Glider
Backpack able to carry one glider, but provided in two sizes, and
a Double Glider Backpack capable to carry two 3m gliders (F3x
type or similar). This is model which is reviewed here.
A Well-Made Online Ordering System
I have to
say that the REVOC ordering and follow up procedure looks very professional.
Once you have completed your order, selected options and paid, you receive an
automatic email to summarise your order. OK, up to know you will tell me this
is the same everywhere. The difference is that when your order is ready a few
days later, you receive a notification email with professional, studio quality
picture(s) of your order. As I said earlier, because of the highly customisable
product, this allows you to see and have a good idea of what you are going to
receive. Then you receive a second notification mail for the shipment. The bag,
protected in a thick transparent plastic, arrives in a second black
plastic-wrapped bag parcel, which is fine considering it is not fragile like a
glider kit.
The bag at
reception, after removing the first black plastic wrapped bag parcel.
Let’s Have a Closer Look
I found it
interesting to look at the different bag features because it gives you a good
idea about what is possible to carry, and how.
First the
bag size: the bag is proposed only in one size with the dimension 157cm x 36cm
x 16cm. It is suitable for transporting 3m planes but can adapt to larger
planes too. Up to 157cm half wing, you can close the upper bag with the
Velcro®.
Lots of
interesting details of the REVOC Double Glider Backpack.
But the
pleasant surprise is that you can also carry a 4m plane in it by letting the
upper side of the bag open. An additional Velcro® strap allows maintaining the
wings tight in the bag.
The bag is
available in three colours which are red, grey and black. Remember, however,
that dark colour will easily become warm under the sun and so everything which
is inside. This is the reason why I choose red. That, and it is highly visible.
The entire
bag is made of a durable fabric which is used on other wing bags or fuselage
bags. This gives a robust bag, but the downside is that the weight of the empty
bag is 2.5kg, which is at the upper end if you compare it with usual mountain
rucksack weight which starts less than 2kg for the lightest ones.
The only
option available is to add more inner pad(s). But the bag comes already with
three inner pads so unless you don’t have wing covers at all, the provided pads
are more than enough. For two gliders with wing covers you’ll need in fact only
one pad.
The inner
pads allow to separate the wings and offer even better protection.
On both
sides of the bag there are two adjustable pockets for fuselages. These are
interesting because by default they can host easily two F3x fuselages per
pocket, but in addition, they can expand by releasing the strap and receive a
much larger fuselage like an Alpina or an equivalent 4m
semi-scale fuselage. An upper strap secures the fuselage boom along the bag.
F3x fuselages can be carried with tails in place.
The side
pockets in details.
The bag is
also equipped with three pockets closed with a zipper on the front. The
objective is that you don’t need any additional bags.
The first
and upper pocket is a flat pocket that covers the entire width of the bag. It
is perfect for storing a mobile phone, small tools, your wallet.
The middle
pocket is mainly designed for the RC transmitter and has the following
dimensions: 30x23x11cm. It easily host any thumbs RC transmitter. For tray
transmitters however, you will need to check the size, and possibly move it to
the bottom and largest pocket which is 30x36x11cm.
The front
zipped pockets.
The bottom
pocket is the largest one and is perfect to host a rain jacket, or a softshell,
a cap and why not your lunch bag.
Let’s now
look at the straps: First the back straps as it is for what the bag has been
primarily designed. They are large and well positioned. They can adjust in
length. There is also a waist belt to maintain the bag laterally during the
walk.
On one side
of the bag there is an adjustable shoulder strap to be used occasionally when
for example loading your bag in and out of your car, of if you need to walk
under some trees, or open a gate to access the slope.
The
shoulder straps.
To finish
the description, I need to mention the hook and handle: the hook, placed at the
top is perfect to hang the bag on a wall to store it: this is convenient. A
second hook or more a handle is located at the middle of the height and which
can be used to lift the bag when placing it on your back.
The hook
and handle.
Overall the
manufacturing quality is superb, with only high quality materials and zips.
Seams, cuts, adjustments, finish, every detail is nicely done.
Using the Bag
Loading the
wings in the ‘tube’ bag is easy. The inside of the bag is made of a slippery
and soft fabric that eases the insertion.
The bag is
comfortable on the back.
The size of
the bag allows to put up to three F3x gliders including three or even four
fuselages on the side pockets. However this load means heavy weight on your
back which will be fine for a very short walk distance, but will be too much
for a longer distance, especially in mountains.
Replacing
the F3x gliders by one 4m glider by expanding one side pocket and letting the
upper side of the bag opened and you obtain a great bag to carry your Alpina, Excel or
any other 4m class gliders given that the fuselage is not too big/large.
Two F3F
gliders can easily fit in the REVOC backpack.
During the
walk, I found the bag comfortable on the back but I was missing a chest strap
to avoid the shoulder straps moving. I reported it to REVOC who acknowledged
the point, so I guess this is now added.
Also I
found the waist belt too large for me, even at its minimum size. This is easy
to shorten so not critical.
Later,
REVOC contacted me back to tell me that they took my feedback into account.
First of all, a belt was added between the shoulder pads that is adjustable in
length and can be moved up or down for a better fit. The hip pads are now
attached to the belt to improve comfort and transfer the weight when walking.
The side pockets have been revised and are now partly made of neoprene fabric
so that they can deform slightly and fit better to the front of the fuselage.
The
enhancements which resulted from the feedback I provided.
Conclusion
Overall,
the REVOC Double Glider Backpack is a high quality and
convenient bag to use, which keeps its promise to be flexible enough and adapt
to different needs by offering a high loading volume, multiple pockets. A good
addition to your equipment list if, like me, you often hike in the mountains.
And the later improvements makes the REVOC Double Glider Backpack even
more comfortable and convenient to use.
Left: My favorite fence. | Right:
Ready to fly.
Thank you
for reading and happy landings to all !
©2022 Text and photos Pierre Rondel