Advance EPSILON 8 (PAST MODEL)

Technical data

EPSILON 8 Motor

Due to its excellent takeoff qualities, high stability, damped behaviour and compactness the EPSILON 8 is ideally suitable for paramotoring. Find out more

Colours

Standard colours: Aubergine, Lime, Orange, Pacific.

Custom colours: Choose your custom colours on the Advance website and then email us these to us with your order. There is an extra cost for custom colour orders, with full payment is required in advance, and these cannot be cancelled. Expected delivery time is 6-10 weeks, but could take longer.

EPSILON 8 - True Friendship

Comfortable

Relax and enjoy the thermals. The EPSILON 8 demonstrates a very successful combination of pitch and turn behaviour. Steering demands are answered directly and precisely. The EPSILON 8’s compact and stable canopy invites plenty of confidence from the beginning. Even in challenging conditions pilots feel calm and content, able to enjoy the thermals in a relaxed frame of mind.

Light & strong

Long life thanks to a unique high quality light structure. Not just very light, but downright robust as well: the EPSILON 8 gets attention with its unique choice of materials. Upper and lower surfaces are made of the normal strong European Porcher cloth. Inside the wing the latest technology from the OMEGA XALPS comes into play. Thus the EPSILON 8 weighs almost as little as a light wing, and even so has a long lifespan.

High performance

Modern technology delivers great performance. Many performance-enhancing new technologies are featured in the EPSILON 8. It was designed as a three-liner but has only one gallery level. This skimps on line metres and reduces drag. Precisely computed double-3D-shaping provides a super-smooth surface in the critical nose area, and supports the correct shape of the real-life profile.

Technology & Features

Sliced Diagonals: X-Alps research

There are sliced diagonals inside the EPSILON 8 wing. This technology, created first by ADVANCE for the sensational OMEGA XALPS, minimises the area of cloth required for the diagonals, without compromising life or strength. The Ripstop yarn in each strip is exactly aligned along the local tension vector: this maintains canopy shape over a long lifetime. Tech Report: Sliced Diagonals

Safer with a deeper airflow breakaway point

Modern "Air Scoop Technology’ at the leading edge now applies to the EPSILON 8. Combined with the typical ADVANCE semi-circular intakes this feature results in a significantly lower separation point with clearly progressive brake loading. Brake travel is 15 % longer than the EPSILON 7 value, so passive safety is enhanced.

"Easy Connect System" for safer hook in

The EPSILON 8 risers have a new Easy Connect System, which helps the pilot hook in correctly by using a coloured marking system. This reduces the probability of the nervous beginner connecting a twisted riser, or attaching the risers to the wrong carabiners. For maximum compatibility among ADVANCE products the same coloured markings will also apply, in future, to all ADVANCE harness.

Big Ear system with "Quick Snap"

Big ears made easy. The EPSILON 8 outer A-line has its own easilyreachable riser, making it easy to pull effective big ears. Taking off with both A-risers in hand is also simplified by the "Quick-Snap" magnet system which holds them together on the ground. Line sorting remains child’s play. After pull up the risers separate and take up their flying position.

Advance Speed System

Advance now only supply speed systems with their harnesses (with some exceptions) and not their wings. Check out our speed systems here.

FAQ

Who is the EPSILON 8 intended for?
The EPSILON 8 is the ADVANCE thermaling wing, and was developed for improvers and recreational pilots to have thermal flying fun. Climbing up, gathering above the takeoff and setting off on first cross country exploits becomes child’s play with the EPSILON 8. An enormous performance potential means that experienced pilots, who value simplicity and maximum safety, can also fly 300 km or more with an EPSILON 8. A stable and very compact canopy ensures that pilots feel completely secure and comfortable under the EPSILON 8, even in challenging conditions. Thermals can be enjoyed to the full.

Where does the EPSILON 8 fit in the ADVANCE range of models?
The EPSILON 8 takes the place of the previous Epsilon. This means that, as a basic-intermediate, it is positioned perfectly between the beginner’s ALPHA 6 and the high end EN B IOTA cross country wing.

What are the differences between the EPSILON 8 and the Epsilon 7?

• Enhanced feel-good factor: The EPSILON 8 is even better balanced and coordinated in its pitching and turning behaviour, resulting in very direct handling and reassuringly precise response to steering demands. These qualities contribute significantly to this basic-intermediate pilot’s sense of well-being in the air.
• 650 gms less weight: ADVANCE careful design and high quality lightweight construction saves around 650 gms for the EPSILON 8, depending on the size.
• 20% less line length: Even though, like its predecessor, the EPSILON 8 is also a three-liner, a new line concept has made possible a saving of 20% line metres. This massive reduction of line used, combined with the airflow advantages of double-3D-shaping at the leading edge, results in a marked performance advantage over the Epsilon 7, and very high performance for this class.
• Airscoop Technology: Airscoop technology and characteristic ADVANCE semi-circular air intakes make the most of internal wing pressure, and this enables a high angle of attack to be sustained for longer. In practice this contributes to a 15% lower stall point with clearly progressive brake loading.
• With Easy Connect and Quick Snap Systems: The EPSILON 8’s "Easy Connect" markings for safer clipping-in, and the big ear "Quick Snap" system have made great improvements to riser handling. These especially help a pilot in potentially stressful pre-takeoff situations. See Description of Features. 

How can the EPSILON 8 be so light compared with other paragliders which also use standard wing fabric?
At 4.45 kg for size 25 the EPSILON 8 is virtually a light glider for its class - though its top and bottom wing surfaces do not call for lightweight cloth – in fact European manufacturer Skytex robust 38g Universal cloth is used! EPSILON 8 weight reduction comes from the inside, with "Sliced Diagonal" technology. These innovative diagonal Ripstop strips are a direct result of the OMEGA XALPS project. The yarns of each Ripstop strip are exactly aligned with the local tension force: this maintains canopy shape and provides a long-lived wing.

Which size EPSILON 8 should I choose?
EPSILON 8 sizes have become smaller than previous Epsilons. ADVANCE take into account the simple fact that equipment is becoming lighter – and personal takeoff weights are reducing – just a bit. Each EPSILON 8 size has a 10 to 15 kg extended weight range, which widens the area of use, quite a lot. For a dynamic wing you would probably prefer a size that puts you in the extended weight range (high wing loading). For best climbing performance you should consider being somewhere in the recommended range (medium wing loading).

Materials

Advance EPSILON 8 paraglider reviews

"The Epsilon 8 is a recreational 'mid' EN B wing, intended for pilots with a year or more of flying experience but who still want security and simplicity in their flying."

- Greg Hamerton, Flybubble (full review here)

Read our written review of the Advance EPSILON 8 here and see our accompanying video below:

Other EPSILON 8 reviews

"All in all the EPSILON 8 not only looks wonderful, but is a thoroughly finished product that achieves a great improvement on its predecessor", praises Franz Altmann. The editor-in-chief of Thermik magasine is very taken with the handling, as he writes in the May edition. "The EPSILON 8 is agile, without being snappy." As well as that it is very intuitive to fly, and would even make a very useful wing for the experienced pilot. "From talented beginners to leisure pilots, for local flyers, thermal hounds and fun flyers and just as suitable for beginners as experienced cross country pilots, the value lies in the highest possible feelgood factor." "Despite the good “sensitivity” of the wing everything points to a generally mild extreme flight behaviour; perfectly suited to the Basic Intermediate segment." About exiting the spiral dive he writes: "The EPSILON 8 both slows up by itself and reduces its bank angle in a remarkably progressive manner. It gives the pilot the impression that it makes its own comfortable "recovery" almost without his assistance. This is how it should be," he says to all other manufacturers! "The Epsilon 8 is a wonderful wing! It is simple and intuitive to fly, circles as if by itself and, despite a lot of pitch damping is very manoeuvrable – this makes it really fun."

- Franz Altmann, Thermik Magazin (download the full review as PDF in German here)

But it’s not only the handling that impressed the testers. In Parapente Mag Nr. 165 journalist and test pilot Cédric Nieddu declares that the EPSILON 8 delivers excellent performance for a leisure cross country wing and he went on to confirm its high degree of passive safety. His summing up ended: "This eighth generation of the EPSILON line turns out to be even more simple to use and presents more flyable performance than ever before." "The EPSILON 8 is yet more proof of the quality of ADVANCE products."

- Cédric Nieddu, Parapente Mag (full report in the French Parapente Mag N°165)

Downloads

• Getting Started
• Line plan
• Product Presentation
• Manual