Back to Articles on Accessories / Articles sur les Accessoires.

Harness : Advance / Winner
by Matthew Carter. Created 2001/2/27, revised 2001/7/3.

The safest harness ever ? A cool looking, super-comfy trendsetter ? Or a royal pain in the ass ?

What I like : the Winner is the most comfortable and secure feeling harness I have ever flown/sat in. Lots of storage space in the very cool looking, aerodynamic back compartment. Several adjustment points that support the back beautifully and make for very low fatigue flying. The seat board is really long, has nice lateral supports, and is the only "large" size harness I've found that will comfortably fit my 6'3" frame. As a result, the harness seats you perfectly after take-off, automatically. A very nice feeling. The Winner looks beautiful {great colors!}, is sleek and aerodynamic, and has a well thought-out under-the-knees reserve compartment. In addition, the price is right, compared to other models in this range.

What I don't like- amazingly, for such a well known and respected company, the Winner seems not to have been designed around the fact that a human being will use it, and will start and finish every flight on the ground. The back compartment is nice, but if you fill it then you can't stand and look up at your wing at all- a potential disaster on take off, particularly when you have comp lines which need a good check before committing to take-off. You have to push the cool-looking back container down to minimize this problem, but even so, with a helmet on, looking vertically up is not the easiest- an apparent drawback created by the high level of support to the upper back. There are serious ergonomic problems also when standing:- the cross strap, even at its loosest setting and on my thin frame, is uncomfortably tight, and sits right on the hips, digging into them [right along a sharp webbing seam,] such that standing fully vertical is all but impossible for extended periods. The price of being pushed into the harness nicely after take-off seems to be that the harness tries to do the same thing on the ground. You can loosen the weight-shift trim which helps a bit, but this causes you to hang even lower below the hang point- which takes me onto the clinching problem with the Winner for me- poor weight shift performance.

Now its important to say that there are many different styles of flying, and many different types of pilot. One pilot I commonly fly with also has a previous model Advance harness with very similar geometry, and he flies exceptionally well and efficiently using little or no weight shift. The efficiency he gets out of his Omega 4 suggests to me that Advance as a brand shares in this philosophy, preferring brake control to weight shifting.

So I should add as a caveat here that this reviewer does not share this philosophy. The Winner, even when adjusted to the loosest possible settings on all trims, gave very little feedback and dampened much of the wing's activity. Weight shifting required major effort and was frustrated by the fact that the leg straps attach up to a point near the carabiners, {Advance calls this the "diagonal active system"} and thus any weight-shift rolling beyond a fairly flat angle is counterproductive. Pilots who prefer flat turns, dampened flight and little weight shift, will enjoy the Winner. I couldn't get to live with it, even after several hours, flights and much tweaking and adjusting. The dampening, difficulty with weight shift and lack of information from the wing, {communicated through the harness} resulted in many, very irritating and unannounced deflations. The ability to weight shift powerfully and quickly is a big factor in keeping the glider open in powerful air. On the Winner, I just couldn't. I switched back to my Contour harness, and the problem was immediately solved- better communication with the wing, and more agile and effective active piloting. If you are like me and like to fly with your whole body, I think you'll feel that the Winner holds you back in this category. Coring tightly, and performing wingovers, are frustrating and a big effort, even with the harness in its very loosest configuration. A experienced pilot and instructor in the same thermal as me, commented that although I was leaned over as hard as possible in the tight thermal, there was no kinking at all in the top surface of my glider. The fact that I couldn't core as tightly as I wanted, I feel, also contributed to the numerous small deflations and tucks.

Compared to the Apco Contour and especially the Sup'Air Cocoon - {see my review} wingovers are much more difficult and limited. I'm sure there are pilots who do aerobatics with the Winner {Andy Hediger, apparently} and I take my hat off to them, but I don't see the Winner helping them out in this department. In short, the "Diagonal Active System" may be great for passive safety, {the top-ranked U.S. pilot says that it is the safest harness for maneuvers because of this} and make for straightforward recoveries, but my personal feeling is that you also need the capacity to pro-actively prevent deflations. After much trying, I was sad that I had to part ways with the Winner. Its cool, comfortable, but doesn't suit either my frame or my flying style. If you fly mainly light lift, like a dampened and secure ride, use comparatively little weight shift, and can configure the harness so that its bearable on the ground, the Winner may be for you. I have settled on the XL Sup'Air Cocoon 2000, {much better weight-shift control, but somewhat less support}, which I shall review shortly.

A few words concerning construction. The build is excellent, typical Advance craftsmanship. But the foam bag on the Winner, is only 8 cm, and made of material that strikes me at first glance as less absorptive than the Bump'Air foam that Sup'Air uses. The seat board is unmolded, and is composed of thick wooden board. This makes for a lot of extra weight, compared to some manufacturers who use fiberglass/polymer at a fraction of the weight. The Winner I was supplied with had a split reserve bridle that was about 2 inches too short, such that despite much persuading, it persisted in popping slightly out of the cool Velcro channels on either side of the harness. The reserve top flap didn't lie flush with the undersurface of the harness, {for no apparent good reason} and so was very efficient at snagging my speed bar and stirrup} another point that could have been easily-remedied or re-designed and was consequently rather irritating, and could conceivably cause an accidental deployment. A bit of a contrast here to the flawless finish of Advance wings.

N.B. [To ward off any irate Advance enthusiasts] I am sure it will be said in response that this is the greatest harness, that I just didn't have it set up right, I didn't know how to adjust it properly, etc. Let me just say "in advance" that I spent many, many hours poring through the manual, e-mailing and phoning both the US distributor and Advance chief Valéry Chapuis in Switzerland, hanging in simulators, flying the harness for a good few flights, and tweaked about every configuration the harness had to offer. The simple truth is that after many flights and days of trying, I was unable to find an arrangement that I could live with. While it's possible that with enough time and effort and help, this could have been the perfect harness, I think it's unlikely given my experience thus far. Even if this were true, I also think there are a lot of potential problems inherent in a harness that takes so long and so much adaptation to get right. {i.e. appropriate for my individual flying style and preferences} This says something about its suitability to John Q. Pilot.

I hope this will give potential buyers a better idea of what to expect. By all means try it yourself, you may fall in love with its security, style and comfort, and harnesses are as individual as the preferences of the pilots who wear them. If you are already an Advance harness fan, {e.g. the HiComp, which I have also flown} the Winner is probably your dream come true.