I love my Flightjacket TQ, I gotta say I was skeptical when I 1st held the illume 15 material, but after the 1st use any skeptism over the feel of the material disappeared. I LOVE the material, it has a great feel to it and I've not lost a single piece of the 850 DWR downy goodness the quilt holds captive.
The construction of this piece of gear surpasses everything I've seen, the attention to detail is simply outstanding. Each seam in beautifully stitched and as the seams are straight and inline with the materials borders. One thing of note on UGQ's gear is the absence of any grosgrain, the quilts are constructed using only the material so there is no rough material anywhere on the product.
My TQ is the drawstring variety which I find particularly useful to allow the quilts upper temperature range to be extended. The quilt while sleeping on my back can be "tented" up off of the sleeper with little contact with the sleeper other than the sides and feet. This with the footbox open allows the micro climate in the "tented" area to vent bringing the temperature down. With a closed footbox and the head area "tented" away from the sleeper allows venting but with less fresh air intake. And there is an immediate and perceptibly warm flow of air from the radiant heat captured by the downy soldiers of warmth.
The illume material does a great job of keeping moisture away from those valuable downy soldiers of warmth, whether it's from blowing rain, a humid southern night or the sleepers warm breath on cold breath the moisture appears to be held at bay by the illume material. Drying with a cloth appears to leave the quilt completely dry. I have not had water pool on the illume material so I do not know at what point the illume material becomes penetrable but so far blowing light rains, foggy southern nights and my breath in 24* hasn't resulted in the down appearing wet and the illume felt dry after drying with a cloth.
Last night we were treated with a low of 21*, so I had to test, us southern boys have to travel to do cold weather test hence the 40* TQ (I did purchase mine with 1 oz. overfill).
Setup, HH Expedition with undercover and a 40* WL SSUQ, no over cover, no tarp and a REI sit pad for my feet. A space blanket was at the ready and was added after a few hours between the UQ and the hammock. I don't think I'm a overly warm sleeper and wore summer weight nylon long sweats and a summer quick dry nylon short sleeve shirt and short cotton socks to my ankles. I added a smartwool longsleeve top after a few hours mostly because I didn't want to deploy the space blanket in my short sleeve top, it was cold for a southern boy!
The Flightjacket never gave me any sign it wasn't up for the job, after bathroom breaks and deploying the SB I was warm shortly after tucking in. The UQ did have difficulty keeping a few spots in my back but the SB took care of that acceptably and with forethought and patience at the beginning of the night should be OK to 20*. With a better UQ (I hear there's a UGQ sale coming up!!) I think the 40* (I think 35* with the overfill) will be toasty down to 20*.
So the Flightjacket excelled my test and wins 5 stars in my book, I KNOW where I'm buying my next quilt and who is my 1st recommendation when asked where one can score a great quilt.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks