IMPROVING FLIGHT SAFETY - AVOIDING STALL
SRS® is responsible for the wings ability to fly and launch at amazingly low speed despite its high wing loading, preventing the wing and pilot from stalling at critical angle of attack.
SRS® is the most effective tool in aiding automatic wing recovery in case of a stall (exclusive APCO invention - pat. pend.)
A few words on the safety of paragliding, in particular about deep stall problems and possible solutions to avoid it.
The wing design of paraglider should provide for safe flight envelope, preventing the possibility of unintended stall.
Despite this, stall can occur sometimes, but the wing should recover automatically to avoid accident.
A difficult task, - often a real headache for the designer.
APCO team encountered this problem too while developing new wings, but unlike others they took an unorthodox approach in solving the problem.
Simple, ingenious system built into the risers, allowing for instant automatic wing recovery with no pilot input designed by APCO - it is now part of many APCO wings, keeping flying safe.
Named SRS® (Automatic Stall Recovery System) - It is a typical example of APCO's intelligent approach to problem solving and thinking out of the box.
The SRS® function is simple and makes perfect sense if you think about this.
It is only surprising that no one thought of this idea before.
In normal flight the center of pressure is near the leading edge (approximately the first third of the wing's chord - sketch 1.)
During deep stall configuration, the wing's center of pressure moves far back to the geometric center of the chord (sketch 2).
The principle of SRS® function is based on shifting the center of pressure when wing is stalled, creating an automatic leverage mechanism for reduction of wings angle of attack and immediate recovery from stall (sketches 3 and 4).
Above all, SRS® is designed to be an important safety feature.
But it is also responsible for the wings ability to fly and launch at amazingly low speed, (when SRS shifted to high angle of attack) while acting as the wing's gatekeeper, preventing it from stalling at the critical angle of attack.
SRS® is the most effective tool in aiding wing recovery, by automatically reducing angle of attack in event of stall.
In addition, as a free bonus, SRS® is a great help in improving launch characteristics of gliders too.
Wings with a tendency to hesitate in coming up over head on launch are helped by shifted down SRS® launching the wing at lower angle of attack.