ICARO is an acronym for Innovative and Creative Aircarft from Rosenheim. It is common knowledge that German engineering in all sectors, especially aeronautics, is legendary. Certainly, over the years of flying ICARO paragliding products, we can say they live up to the claim of innovation.
While most paragliding manufacturers have been aware for some time that paragliders have the best handling and trim speed when loaded near the top of their weight range, until recently, little proactive work had been done to address the issue.
In studying the phenomenon in detail, ICARO has found that aging and cold temperatures can also have a noteworthy effect on paraglider performance.
Most recently, ICARO has introduced a real game changer.
Like most good designs, the solution is simple and elegant: the Trim Speed Optimizer (TSO). Adjustable to the millimeter, one can fine tune a their wing to their specific loading, adjust for aging, or even cold, in a precise and simple manner.
Most importantly, when fighting a head wind, even a small difference in trim speed makes a significant difference in performance over the ground. See data curves for paragliders at varying loading in traditional format, versus enhanced with TSO:
As indicated in the curves above, with TSO custom adjusted for pilot weight, a paraglider can significantly exceed the performance of traditional gliders.
Adjusting for light weight pilots the TSO is opened:
Adjusting for aging the TSO is opened as follows:
Adjusted for cold temperatures the TSO is opened as follows:
Combinations of pilot weight, aging and cold are possible, with the TSO always yielding the optimum trim for the given situation. Read the complete Technical Manual on the patented ICARO Trim Speed Optimizer (TSO) Paragliding Riser here.
How is TSO different from traditional trimmers? Traditional trimmers are difficult to set to the millimeter, must be checked prior to each flight, and not withstanding, can displace non-symmetrically and unintentionally in-flight, especially under the high g-loading of non-standard flight attitudes. They were never designed to adjust for micro effects.
Here is a great video by ICARO test pilot, Xandi Meschuh, on the TSO:
Trim Speed Optimizer TSO Risers come stock with all ICARO paragliders for 2014.
With TSO, pilots will discover a new realm of paragliding, with the ability to custom tailor the trim of their glider for their body weight and the environment!
Looking forward to spring tuning...
Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 16:07 
