I was a big fan of the Artik 3. In fact I liked it so much that I bought an Icepeak 6.
That might sound like an insult but it’s not; I felt the Artik 3 was the glider where everything came together for Niviuk. Smooth responsive handling; great for coring; good glide at speed; nice level of feedback.
The 3 was just a sweet and balanced high performing sports glider. My reasoning held good and the IP6 was a beauty: an Artik 3 with the wick turned up.
It hasn’t been all good for Niviuk recently though. The Peak 3 (low EN D) had a mixed reception and although it was loved for its amazing collapse resistance and generally good behaviour the performance disappointed many pilots.
The Icepeak 7 Pro, in the white heat of top-level competition where small margins count, just couldn’t match the Enzo 2 in many pilots’ eyes. Although it was stable and many liked the handling it wasn’t long before low hours IP7 Pro Models were appearing in the classified ads.
For the Artik 4, Niviuk claim: “With its superb gliding even when fully accelerated, efficiency could be compared to an EN D glider but with the handling ability of an EN C wing.”
I was interested to see if they’d met the brief.
Read Pat Dower’s full review of the Artik 4 in Cross Country 157, Jan/Feb 2015.
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