Wills Wing
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Oz Report

topic: Moyes Litespeed S (10 articles)

2014 East Coast Championship

Day 7 and final results

Sat, Jun 7 2014, 9:27:48 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat GT 15|Aeros Combat L|Aeros Discus|Airwave Vision Pulse|Bob Filipchuk|Brian Boudreau|Bruce Barmakian|Charles Allen|Cory Barnwell|Dana Harris|Dan Lukaszewicz|Dave Proctor|Davis Straub|East Coast Championships 2014|Felix Cantesanu|Greg Dinauer|Greg Sessa|Highland Aerosports Flight Park|Hugh Mcelrath|Icaro Laminar Z8|J.D. Guillemette|Jim Messina|Joe Schmucker|John Claytor|John Dullahan|John Waters|Knut Ryerson|Michelle Haag|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Moyes Litesport 4|Richard Elder|Richard Milla|Soraya Rios|Tom McGowan|Tom Mcgowan|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Sport 2|Wills Wing T2C|Wills Wing Talon|Wills Wing U2

http://soaringspot.com/ecc2014/

Task 7:

1. Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat 12.7 02:26:13 1000
2. Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 02:26:22 994.02
3. Charles Allen Icaro Laminar Z8 12.8 02:40:06 837.19
4. Tom Mcgowan Moyes Litespeed 03:34:53 546.85

Final Totals:

1. Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 136 4913.06
2. Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat 12.7 4560.29
3. Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 3821.55
4. Jd Guillemette Moyes Litespeed S4 3037.99
5. John Waters Aeros Combat L 15 3026.09
6. Jim Messina Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 2953.45
7. Charles Allen Icaro Laminar Z8 12.8 2941.23
8. Bob Filipchuk Aeros Combat GT 15 2397.18
9. Dave Proctor Wills Wing T2C 154 1449.28
10. Tom Mcgowan Moyes Litespeed 967.38
11. John Claytor Wills Wing Talon 160 276.18

Task 7 Sport:

1. Hugh Mcelrath Wills Wing Sport 2 01:39:20 1060
2. Brian Boudreau Wills Wing Sport 2 155 01:43:18 980.21
3. Dana Harris Wills Wing Sport 2 155 02:17:47 660.81
4. Cory Barnwell Airwave Vision Pulse 02:21:01 640.73
5. Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 2 135 02:29:32 592.70
6. Richard Elder Wills Wing Sport 2 03:00:45 468.69

Final Sport:

1. Felix Cantesanu Aeros Discus 3798.89
2. Hugh Mcelrath Wills Wing Sport 2 3519.46
3. Cory Barnwell Airwave Vision Pulse 3258.15
4. Brian Boudreau Wills Wing Sport 2 155 3044.54
5. Dana Harris Wills Wing Sport 2 155 2810.15
6. Richard Milla Wills Wing Sport 2 2804.88
7. Knut Ryerson Wills Wing Sport 2 2440.09
8. Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 2 135 2417.55
9. Richard Elder Wills Wing Sport 2 2203.56
10. Greg Sessa Wills Wing U2 1982.97
11. Michelle Haag Wills Wing Sport 2 135 1156.05
12. John Dullahan Moyes Litesport 4 649.96
13. Dan Lukaszewicz Wills Wing Sport 2 482.98
14. Joe Schmucker Wills Wing Sport 2 175 462.76

Results from the first day

The top ten on day one.

Sun, Jan 4 2009, 9:21:10 pm AEDT

Aeros Combat L|Airborne C4|Attila Bertok|Blay Olmos|Cameron Tunbridge|Davis Straub|Forbes Flatlands 2009|Gerolf Heinrichs|Lukas Bader|Maxim Usachev|Michael Friesenbichler|Moyes Litespeed RS 4|Moyes Litespeed S|Moyes Litesport|Pedro Jesus Garcia Aviles|Robert Reisinger

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes Litespeed S 5 03:34:40 997
2 Robert Reisinger Aut Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 03:34:56 988
3 Michael Friesenbichler Aut Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 03:44:31 877
4 Blay Olmos Esp Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 03:51:37 873
5 Gerolf Heinrichs Aut Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 03:46:35 859
6 Lukas Bader Deu Moyes Litespeed RS4 04:02:17 747
7 Cameron Tunbridge Aus Airborne C4 14 04:10:23 734
8 Pedro Jesus Garcia Aviles Esp Aeros Combat L 13.7 04:19:36 681
9 Maxim Usachev Rus Aeros Combat L 04:21:34 671
10 Davis Straub Usa Moyes Litesport 04:21:37 670

The 15th Annual Pre-Worlds 2004 - day seven, task four

Wed, Jan 21 2004, 5:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros|Aeros Combat|aerotow|Airborne Climax|Dave Seib|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Pre-Worlds 2004|Rohan Holtkamp|safety|Steve Moyes|Tove Heaney|tow|weaklink

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/preworlds2004/

Like I reported yesterday the day was forecast to be windy and with thunderstorms, and it is blowing 40 kph when we get to the paddock. But, unlike yesterday, the safety committee now is committed to waiting to see if it calms down, even if we have to wait until 3 PM. The lift is predicted to stop at 4,000'.

There are some cu's forming in the distant east which look like the precursors of a little over development. It doesn't look nearly as bad as it did the day that we canceled the task in mid flight, but it could be a bother.

The task committee has set a task 137 kilometers to the east down the Sturt highway. We will stick to that task the whole day in spite of arguments for the different directions (not possible given the 40 kph winds), the coming change (slowly coming), and the line of towering cu's (fly under them) in our way.

The safety committee is unfortunately split between two car towing guys and Martin at the aerotowing place. This is a bad idea. In the Hay Open we had all the safety committee at the car towing end, so that they don't get scared by the wind noise in the trees at the aerotowing spot. Also you need to have the safety committee all in one place to make a decision. The task committee doesn't even hear from the two other safety committee members until way late.

No one is setting up their gliders as we wait out the strong surface winds with the thought that it looks like they should calm down. Attila gives us the same report on the upper winds as the day before, with 35-40 kph strengths and bumpy.

Finally, at 2 PM the surface winds die down to reasonable strengths. I don't know if the safety committee at the car towing area is set up all ready or not, but the aerotow folks get their gliders off the cars and begin to setup. We call a three o'clock launch window and a four o'clock start clock.

The launch gets delayed at 3 PM when the surface winds come up again for a few minutes. The clouds are building quite nicely to the east and that is freaking out some people. Paul, Martin, Jonny and I are flaying about trying to get the task going, when I finally realize that we haven't heard from the other two safety committee guys. Paul calls them up and sure enough they are keen to go (Dave Seib, one safety committee member, relies on the other, Phil Schroeder, to make the call). Well, that's a majority, so I say, let's go, it's decided.

The launch reopens at 3:30 and the start time starts at 4 PM. I insist on starting a half hour after the launch window opens because: Everyone was ready for 3 PM, there is no need to wait and we want to encourage pilots to start launching right away and not wait because they thin that they will be blown out of the 20 km start circle before the first start time, in fact, there is no way anyone is going to get to the start circle circumference by 4 PM because it is 20 km away, so I want the start time opened so that pilots can start whenever they get to the edge of the start circle, and finally we set 10 minute start intervals given all the winds.

Bo is off first in our line and I'm right behind him. Unfortunately at 600' the tow rope breaks (I've got a stronger weaklink) under only minimal pressure. This puts me to the back of the line. Not good.

No gaggles form over the paddock as most pilots are blown down wind in light lift. Bo gets to 7,000' over the tow paddock and Jon Durand, Sr. gets to over 7,500'. They are the exceptions.

I don't launch until 4:30 and there are still five or six guys yet to tow. I drift out of the paddock at 2,500' with the wind west at 40 kph.

I'm down to 900' AGL before I find some good lift that gets me to 5,000' at the edge of the start circle at 5 PM. This is a late day, and for the most part the lift is quite weak although on the first two thermals both inside the start circle it averages 300 fpm. It will average 150 fpm after that.

Even with the strong winds and gentle lift I'm really liking flying the Moyes Litespeed S 4.5. It seems very responsive in this air and I'm pushed out circling up in the lift when I find it. I'm relaxed, the glider feels stable, and I'm zooming fast over the ground. My average L/D will be 25:1, so you know the wind is blowing.

About forty kilometers out from the tow paddock I'll come in under three pilots including Steve Moyes. Tove will come and join me low and we'll work from 1,200' to 3,000' AGL in 200 fpm. The guys above us will just continue to stick in the thermal even when it gets very very light.

We'll go on glide from low without the other higher pilots and look for lift along the Sturt highway trying to stay away from the large rice operations with their wet fields. I zig zag about and finally find lift at 900' AGL again while Tove misses it to the right and lands. Steve Moyes is right near me and watches as I dig out from this hole. He and I are going up.

The cu nimbs have formed in a line off to our northeast. It looks like it is possible to make it to goal without getting in under the over development. I can see lightening under the area where it is raining, and a wall of dust stretching about 30 kilometers. The wind has switched with west northwest to southwest as we approach the storm. It feels like the cloud of dust is far enough away and stationary so that it won't bother us. The wind is so strong out here away from the storm that it is hard to imagine the storm doing anything but calming the winds.

I'll circle while drifting almost twelve kilometers getting to 3,400' AGL. Then it is an eighteen kilometer glide toward the wall of dust without a low save at the end, even though I find zero sink at 800' for about five kilometers.

I'll end up 48 kilometers out at sixteenth for the day. Steve Moyes who was just above me will get to within 41 kilometers. Kevin Carter will make goal (among the few) and Bo will go down 89 kilometers out from goal. Bo doesn't find any lift after getting high at the tow paddock. The same will happen to Diego Bussinger.

Some of the pilots who make goal well get nearer the storm cell and ride the air above the wall of dust. The winds die down in this area, but the air gets bumpy. Rohan Holtkamp will fly until 7:45 and get to within 25 kilometers of goal. Kraig Coomber will land 53 kilometers out.

Results from task four:

1

Hazlett Brett

Moyes Litespeed S4

Can

1:36:05

892

2

Pritchard Phil

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

1:51:47

846

3

Bares Radek

Aeros Combat

Cze

1:43:14

834

4

Bondarchuk Oleg

Aeros Combat 2 13

Ukr

1:52:15

825

5

Durand Jon Jnr.

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

1:52:20

820

6

Durand Jon Snr

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Aus

1:49:06

808

7

Carter Kevin

Aeros Combat 2 13

Usa

2:08:36

761

Overall Results:

1

Hazlett Brett

Moyes Litespeed S4

Can

3602

2

Bondarchuk Oleg

Aeros Combat 2 13

Ukr

3474

3

Durand Jon Jnr.

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

3423

4

Holtkamp Rohan

Airborne Climax 13

Aus

3120

5

Bares Radek

Aeros Combat

Cze

3089

6

Durand Jon Snr

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Aus

3087

7

Coomber Kraig

Moyes Litespeed S

Aus

3039

8

Moyes Steve

Moyes Litespeed S5

Aus

3018

9

Barthelmes Oliver

Moyes Litespeed S4

Deu

2875

10

Pritchard Phil

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

2847

Oliver Barthelmes «oliverbarthelmes» sends this picture of Belinda and I (that I think Carol took) in from of the Airborne Climax:

The 15th Annual Pre-Worlds 2004 - day six

Tue, Jan 20 2004, 5:00:00 pm GMT

aerotow|battens|Brett Hazlett|competition|Dave Seib|Dragonfly|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Ken Brown|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|photo|Pre-Worlds 2004|record|safety|tail|tow|variable geometry|weather

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/preworlds2004/

Five days ago the forecast was for 30-35 kph northwest winds on this day, and slightly lighter winds tomorrow with the possibility of showers. I've been impressed with the weather modeling services provided to Len Baron who is handling the weather here, much as I do at the US meets.

I'm also impressed with Len's improved ability to forecast the weather. Having the fast internet connection and the fact that we get a local temperature trace and wind speed and direction at altitude when they send a Dragonfly up at 8 AM definitely helps. Len also has a whirling psychromiter to give us the wet and dry bulb temperatures in the tow paddock.

Today Len's thermometer recorded thirty six degrees dry bulb and nineteen wet bulb. The clouds to the east likewise told the news that cloudbase was 11,000'.

The winds were indeed quite strong, 20 to 30 kph out of the northwest in the tow paddock and, given the instability, dust devils would come through every so often and really stir everything up. My Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 was tied to a tree, tensioned and the wings horizontal, so it was easy to set up while the winds blew hard. There were plenty of lulls that provided for very launchable conditions.

Kraig and Jonny worked on my Litespeed S 4.5 last night and got the pulley back in shape. I also got Kraig to show we how to roll up the sail. I just need to start near the front and not at the tip, and that worked great.

A pilot writes:

Re your VG line jumping off the pulley. It has happened to me twice. First time your shaking method allowed marginal movement. Then I set it back on the pulley for next flight. Last summer though, it got totally squeezed inside of one of the pulleys that are deep in the upright.

Ken Brown sent me diagrams of the mechanism right away. I had to take the whole assembly out of the upright but freed it up. Now, when loosening VG I always remember to let it out slowly not with a mindless snap.

The pulley that got out of whack for me was the one on top of the keel by the pilot's hang point. I was conveniently located to allow Kraig to smash it back together. Everything seems to be working fine now.

Very few pilots were setting up and this is always a bad sign. Dave Seib was on the safety committee and all setup and ready to fly. But the other two safety committee members were not set up.

The task committee looked at the strong tail winds and decided to call a 301 kilometer task, to try to break the record set the day before of 242 kilometers (150 miles) as the longest task set and made in a major hang gliding competition. We could fly to Brown Bothers Winery, or to the Mt. Beauty airport, but to get 301 kilometers we needed to throw in a turnpoint and go to Holbrook, the town with the submarine.

The task was called, but the safety committee voted to call the day given the statement from Attila in the Dragonfly that the winds were 35 to 40 kph and the gusts up above were very strong. Attila and Dave will be among a number of pilots who later take off and try to fly 300 kilometers from Hay. I remember when Conrad flew from Hay to the Mt. Beauty airport (225 miles). He was up in the mountains but didn't feel good about flying over them.

Paul Rundell, the meet director, feels that the day was wasted by a bad call by the safety committee to not fly. He says, "This isn't Disneyland." I think he means Disneyworld, in Florida.

You'll notice that Brett Hazlett is in the lead with Oleg, now that he is feeling better, just behind him. On Tuesday, Brett was following Oleg as closely as he could to make sure that Oleg didn't gain more than a second on him. You've got to be good to follow Oleg, and Brett was being smart to follow the guy who has best chance of beating you.

Wednesday is the last day. The forecast is for thunderstorms.

The people and businesses in Hay have been great to us this year with many vouchers for dinners and other services. We are taking the car in for new shocks and an oil change thanks to the local Toyota dealer.

Oliver Barthelmes «oliverbarthelmes» sends this photo of the setup area in Hay for the aerotow guys. Notice that many pilots have staked their gliders into the ground and set them up into the wind. This works very well with gliders that can be tensioned and then the battens inserted:

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Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 and the Airborne Climax 14 - preliminary evaluation

gliders

Sun, Jan 18 2004, 5:00:01 pm GMT

Airborne Climax|Moyes Litespeed S

What follows is a very preliminary evaluation of these two hang gliders and I invite any comments from the readers and the manufacturers. I really appreciate the opportunity to fly these two wonderful hang gliders and remind readers that these are just my opinions, and the opinions of a rigid wing pilot, at that.

Airborne has provided me with a Airborne Climax 2-14 to fly in the Hay Open and the Bogong Cup. I got to fly it three times before the Hay Open and got to get more use to flying flex wings. I really appreciated the opportunity to get less rusty with my flex wing skills.

Moyes has provided me with a Litespeed S 4.5 with the new smoked Mylar cloth (lightweight) to fly in the Pre-Worlds.

At first I felt that the bar pressure was too light on the Climax, and now I feel that the bar pressure is too much on both the Climax and the Litespeed S. This is an example of pilot conditioning and tuning. Rohan is going to tune the Climax for me to be like his before the Bogong Cup. Kraig is going to tune the Litespeed for me during the PreWorlds.

Bar pressure is very much an issue of what the pilot is use to and the ATOS has significant bar pressure at high speeds which can't be eliminated by using the nonexistent VG rope. My triceps are quite sore now from flying the two gliders pulled in as well as due to the problem that I had with the broken tip wand. My triceps don't get nearly as sore flying the ATOS, but a good deal of the problem is me getting use to flying a flex wing glider.

The Litespeed S has a very nice feature where you can tension the glider and then insert the battens. Apparently the batten profile is flat enough, and the batten pockets wide enough that this is the preferred method.

I tied the Litespeed nose to a tree to get the trailing edge up in the air, but you can also try to balance the glider on te stinger used as a kick stand (pull the stinger out and balance the keel on the stinger). I personally don't like using the stinger as the balance is easily upset with a little wind.

It was quite easy to insert all the Moyes battens, and with the trailing edge high in the air I didn't have to get on the ground to put in the under surface battens. The ground here is full of prickles. It was also easy to put in the sprogs without having to get on the ground.

With the Airborne Climax 2, you apparently need to leave the tension off according to Scott Barrett and Rohan Holtkamp and also my experience, for all but the outboard four or five battens. You can then tension the sail and lift the trailing edge up to put in the tip wands, the undersurface battens and the sprogs.

The Climax doesn't have a kick stand like the Litespeed S, but it is just as easy to tie it to a convenient tree here in the tow paddock up high enough to keep you from bending over. Also with the sail tensioned the battens didn't catch on the cross tubes as you pushed them in.

Both manufacturers use plastic flip tips at the ends of the battens. I understand that Moyes invented the tips to replace the difficult to use spring loaded ones. Apparently when Airborne couldn't get Moyes to sell them to Airborne, they made they own slightly different ones and now Moyes, as I understand it, has sued Airborne for patent infringement. Too bad.

The Moyes tips are slightly lighter and thinner, and perhaps a bit more prone to breakage as the one half of the tip is integrated with the other. The Airborne tips are beefier and one half of the tip can disengage from the other half if there is too much up and down pressure. I did notice that a couple of times the Airborne tips did come apart and I had to snap them back together. It seemed like you might be able to lose a tip half.

On both gliders the batten tips are screwed in and this allows you and the factory to easily adjust the batten length to account for any discrepancies in batten pocket length. You can get a feel for the tightness of the trailing edge when you flick in the batten tips and make the adjustment at any time.

Both gliders came with Mylar sails. These are a big pain to fold up when breaking down the glider. I really need two people when I'm folding the sail. I'm hoping to get more guidance from both Rohan and Kraig on how to do this is a manner that help preserve the sail.

The Litespeed S came with new material that Moyes is trying out. It is apparently 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilos) lighter than the normal Mylar sail cloth (due also to some fancy sewing at Moyes). This is supposed to improve the handling and the handing sure seemed nice on the second day after I got a good tip wand. Of course, the day was very sweet with huge strong thermals, and that counts for a lot.

Both gliders came with race control frames. Moyes has their Zoom frame with black anodized down tubes that look great. I believe the Climax uses the Aeros control frame. Moyes uses their own aluminum downtubes and I believe the Climax and the Combat use the Wills Wing Slipstream downtubes.

The bottom brackets on both control frames look very aerodynamic. I had heard from a Moyes pilot that the Aeros bracket that Airborne uses was a bit stronger than the Moyes bracket which were being damaged when pilots piled in and broke their down tubes. Just a rumor.

I found both control bars to be very comfortable on my lightly gloved hands. The downtubes were also quite comfortable on my shoulders.

Both gliders required that I pull in significantly when aerotowing. I would suggest at least half VG when towing to reduce the bar pressure and making it easier to engage roll controls while towing. I flew the Climax at ⅓rd VG while towing, but perhaps with the changes Rohan is going to make this would have been okay. (I won't be towing at the Bogong Cup.)

I towed the Litespeed with half VG after getting the new tip wand, and still the bar pressures were pretty high. Still it was easy to tow behind the trike and I had no problems controlling it. The topless gliders require a lot more work than the ATOS to aerotow because of the bar pressure required to fly at the higher speeds, but they seem quite controllable.

I was a bit nervous about aerotowing these gliders, especially the Litespeed S, because I had heard that it was difficult to tow. I don't feel that way now. Both gliders were similar on tow.

The Climax has a cross bar and VG setup with cams at the cross bar-leading edge junction. This makes for a much more user friendly VG rope. It is much shorter and much easier to pull than the Litespeed S VG rope.

I found myself reacting to this by quickly and easily going from no VG to almost full VG on the Climax. I quickly found myself pulling on the Climax to full VG, trying to eliminate the bar pressure. On my first few flights I was afraid of putting on full VG as I felt that the bar pressure would be too light. Funny how things change.

I found that it required too many pulls and was too much work to get the Litespeed VG fully on. I got it maybe ¾'s on sometimes, but it was too much work to get it further on and the force required increased.

On the Litespeed I found that I could thermal at half VG pretty easily, although it would have been better at no VG letting the bar all the way out. I still wasn't use to having the bar so far out (unlike my ATOS), and I kept trying to pull in a little, even when the bar pressure was saying to me, let it out, relax, let go.

Since it required so many pulls to pull back the cross bars on the Litespeed, I found myself going from ¼ VG to ¾ VG or a little less. Fewer pulls, less work. If I was gliding for a while I would pull on the VG rope a few more times.

I couldn't tell which VG was more effective, although I could tell that the Litespeed VG made a bigger difference in bar pressure and bar location. The Climax VG was way easier on the pilot, but if it wasn't as effective, than that would be the trade off.

As I wrote above, I liked the handling of the Litespeed S on the second day of the preworlds. Perhaps it was because it had improved so much after the first day with the broken tip wand or in addition because the day was much nicer. I'll have to fly both gliders more to see if I feel a difference between the two gliders in handling. You can tell from my story about the broken tip wand that I'm a pretty insensitive instrument.

I don't have any idea yet about the performance difference on glide and in climb between the two gliders. You can see from the results that top pilots do very well in both gliders. This was not always true of the Climax, but, over time it has improved.

There were plenty of bags for protecting the gliders' parts. The bags that come with the Litespeed are thinner and lighter and more oriented to cross country. I didn't fly with the glider bag in either case, but the Moyes bag is lighter and more easily put in your harness.

The nose cones were well fitted on both gliders. The Climax has two upper battens that don't come out on the nose, and the Litespeed has one.

The Litespeed seemed to be lighter by a bit than the Climax (although not nearly as light as the Combat). I was just carrying around these glider so I don't have an accurate weight for them. You'll have to get that from their web sites.

The Litespeed came with 2 mm uncoated wires. I'll have to check the Airborne Climax again to see what the wire story is there. Jim Zeiset played wire policeman and came and measured all the wires.

A day later, after flying the second task on Sunday, the 18th, (the first second task was cancelled), I'd have to say that the condition of the air has a lot to do with how one feels about the glider. In the smooth, unstable, very powerful air, the Litespeed S was as sweet as the Wills Wing U2.

In the inverted conditions of Sunday the Litespeed S 4.5 was a handful and felt very much like the Climax 2 14. I'm getting a handle on these flex wings things and really enjoy flying them, but I am not as smooth as I would like.

Kraig made the adjustments to the Litespeed S that reduced the bar pressure and in fact the bar pressure is reduced. The gliders feels stable and I like flying fast.

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Moyes Litespeed S »

Wed, Jul 9 2003, 5:00:02 pm EDT

Betinho Schmitz|Gerolf Heinrichs|landing|Moyes Delta Gliders|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Thomas "Tom/Tomas" Weissenberger|Vicki Cain

Thomas Weissenberger <tomtom@direkt.at> writes:

I heard a lot of incredible and high praising rumors about the new Litespeed S. Like there was an totally enthusiastic Betinho Schmitz in Millau who was just talking Portuguese on the landing field after his first Litespeed S flight. Also Gerolf Heinrichs who was reveling in colours about this orgasmic handling of the glider.

In Millau I had a couple of flight comparisons with Gerolf and Betinho. I could see that in glide they were doing better than me on my Litespeed from last year (and this is still a good one). At Task 3 Manfred, Oleg, Gerolf and I made a 30km final glide with head wind into goal! We started to glide slow and dolphin under the last clouds of the day between 60 and 65km/h airspeed. After 15km Manfred and Gerolf were still wing to wing (incredible!). Oleg and I were already lower. Because of speeding up first Manfred could get in front and come into goal first of us. For me it was interesting to see how equal these new gliders were (Manfred on the new Laminar 14.2).

Now after getting my new Litespeed S 4 shipped from Vicki to Skyline in Germany I was ready for these orgasmic experiences and they came true!

My Litespeed S with outer carbon leading tubes handles very easy. I could thermal with ⅔ VG easily without much high siding. Half VG no problem at all! The turns are easy to control, the glider remains in the turn very stable but reacts immediately to any bar impulse.

The most improvement to me beside handling is the glider stability in gliding straight with full VG! The Litespeeds I had before were pretty nervous to keep them flying straight with full VG. The faster the more corrections on steering. The pilot had to work a lot during the glide to keep flying on a straight line. Now with the new S-model the glide is much more comfortable and relaxing for the pilot especially at longer lasting flights. The Litespeed S remains on track mostly by itself!

All in all a perfect high performance hang glider! I did not believe that such a big improvement is still possible. Now it became true! Thanks to Moyes Delta Gliders especially to Vicki, Steve and Gerolf! The Moyes squadron is ready for Brasilia.

Discuss the Litespeed S at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Moyes Litespeed S" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flytec/Quest Air WRE – photos and legends

Wed, Jul 2 2003, 1:00:00 pm EDT

cloud|cloud street|George Steinmetz|magazine|Mike Barber|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|National Geographic|photo|Quest Air|record|speed record|sport|triangle|Wallaby Ranch|Zapata

Wallaby Ranch’s Mikey Barber gets ready to launch his Moyes Litespeed S for a photo shoot and is kind enough to voluntarily include one of the major WRE sponsor’s logo on his glider. Mikey feels strongly about supporting those who support the sport.

George Steinmetz is still here on assignment from National Geographic Adventure magazine and trying to get the perfect shot that illustrates the magic of Zapata. Of course, he wants the shot of a pilot at cloud base under a 50 mile long cloud street and we haven’t had those for a few days.

Still Mike and Pete get up and get high as the sky fills with puffy cu’s as the cirrus backs off. The winds are light out of the southeast and I’ll go up a bit later thinking about breaking that small triangle record speed record.

We’re watching the clouds and they are building rapidly. As I climb up the rain starts dropping out of the cu-nimb five miles to the south. Most of us decide to land. Chuck stays up but then he finds lift everywhere and then gets concerned enough about not finding any sink than he comes over to land.

The winds will continue to build out of the southeast in all the coming days.

At 7:30 PM we get a tropical downpour. I expect flash floods.

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Flytec/Quest Air WRE - a sweet day for a triangle flight

Sun, Jun 29 2003, 5:00:00 pm EDT

cloud|cloud suck|Dragonfly|George Steinmetz|harness|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|National Geographic|photo|Quest Air|record|Ron Gleason|science|Swift|towing|triangle|Zapata

Gary writes early in the morning from Kansas (he had to return home for a couple of days and will be back tonight) that we should expect a lot of cirrus clouds today. The cirrus is pretty thin in the morning and the cu’s are going off at 9 AM. The winds are forecast to be light out of the east with a trough in the Gulf. Conditions for big flights aren’t forecasted to return until Tuesday.

George Steinmetz on photo assignment for National Geographic Explorer is here for the next three or four days, so I decide to go out to the airport around 10 AM to take a flight and let him capture a shot of a hang glider up next to the clouds. Evan …, senior science editor for WGBH Boston, producer of NOVA, is writing the article for National Geographic Explorer and have been here all this week for interviews.

I’m looking at all the beautiful cu’s around the airport as I arrive and it looks like a wonderful day to be in the air and floating around. We get George in the front seat of the Dragonfly with the 912 (or is it 914) four stroke engine and he and Russell have no problems towing me up to near cloud base at 4,000’.

I circle up to the wispies hoping that I’m following George’s directions closely so that he can get a good shot. Actually it turns out that he wants me at cloud base but in the blue so that the glider is highlighted in the sunshine against the darker cloud. Well maybe next time.

The lift is good up high and I’m a lot higher than I would normally expect to be this early, 4,000’ AGL. My zipper opens up again, so I was thinking that maybe I would just fly around and then land and fix the zipper before going up and leading the pack around the 25 km triangle.

After reflecting on the good lift and the plentiful cu’s I decide that even with the open harness I would go ahead and do the 25 km triangle that we are encouraging everyone to take a shot at today. We’ve picked this task because Junko in the Swift Light is afraid to land out so she doesn’t want to go too far from the airport.

No one else is in the air yet as we’d normally wait for better conditions around 1 PM or later, but with the promise of a lot of cirrus later in the day and the fact that things look beautiful now I head over to the cloud right over the start point. There is a lot of cloud suck under it and I keep jumping back to its edge to stay out of the cloud. Finally I race across under the cloud to get the start time.

There are plenty of cu’s on the 5 mile leg to the turnpoint, but if you have to turn at all you most likely won’t get the record. It is 50.4 km/h, the fastest of the triangle records, so it will be hard to beat. Tommy’s flex wing record is 50.84 km/h.

Fighting a 5 mph east wind, I do have to thermal before the first turnpoint and that slows me down. Also on the second leg. I’m feeling that I can’t make it. I come back toward the airport averaging 53 mph. I average 49 km/h over the triangle, not quite enough for the record, but great practice. I land so I can fix the zipper permanently.

The cirrus comes in thick now but there are plenty of cu’s forming under it. In fact they have plenty of vertical development and we can even see some virga under some of the cu’s. The ground is almost completely shaded by the cirrus and the thick and plentiful cu’s underneath.

Most of the rest of the pilots are in the air now checking out the conditions. Mikey is test flying the new Moyes Litespeed S and loving it. He’s got the carbon aft leading edges for reduced tip inertia.

Ron Gleason tries the small triangle what doesn’t find any lift out by the first turnpoint nor under the clouds on the way there and has to eke it back to the airport. Most of the pilots are hanging up the airport and climbing up to cloud base. The winds are lift out of the southeast at about 5 to 10 mph. In spite of the over development and bits of rain there are no gust fronts. All is mellow.

That is what Zapata and south Texas offers, mellow buoyant conditions that are pure pleasure to fly in. It’s the closest to flying in your dreams that you can get, and still you can set world records. The lift today averaged 450 fpm on my 25 km triangle, and it was just so sweet to fly in.

Tropical storm Bill is out in the Gulf of Mexico. I assume he will have some influence on conditions here tomorrow, but may not. Tuesday looks like a return to our standard go long for it conditions.

You might contrast and compare this article with that which follows.

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Flytec/Quest Air WRE – a new world record

Sat, Jun 28 2003, 6:00:00 pm EDT

altitude|cloud|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Quest Air|record|Robin Hamilton|speed record|Stewart Midwinter|Swift|tandem|triangle|world record|Zapata

The area around Zapata proved to be magical once again. It took a little prognosticating to figure out just what made sense to do for the day, but after that the conditions were just what you’d want for a triangle or out and return record attempts.

The winds were forecasted to be light east until about 4 PM when they would be out of the northeast at 13 knots. It looked like there was a good chance of over development late in the day, but not around noon to 2 PM. The FSL temperature trace (modeled data) predicted cu’s forming early and staying all day.

Since I wasn’t thinking of going 500 miles I got out to the airport around 10 AM. There were plenty of little cu’s dotting the sky already. I wanted to get up and just float around in the light super fun lift that we get here early and see how it went. Perhaps it would be plentiful enough for a world record task.

I was thinking about doing the 100 km out and return. For class 5 there is currently no world record for that distance. Stewart Midwinter and Robin Hamilton have set that speed record in Class 2, but Class 5 doesn’t have an entry. So it was wide open. I could attempt to set it in the early morning lift.

The lift was plentiful, but light and getting to only 3,000’ AGL meant it would be hard to go out 30 miles and back against the early morning 5 mph east wind. Also my zipper opened up so I needed to land after an hour ands get that fixed. Still, it was so nice just going out a few miles and climbing every so slowly to cloud base.

I took off again at 12:30 to give it another try. Junko was going to try for the Swift 25 km triangle record. Dave Prentice was going for the 50 km tandem paragliding record. Mikey was going to test fly the new Moyes Litespeed S. Ron was going to test fly his older AIR ATOS so that David Glover could fly it. Chuck was already up for his first flight and Rick from Salt Lake was about to launch his ATOS.

The climb out over the airport was smooth to 4,500’ near cloud base. On this 10 km task I’m actually allowed a 6,560’ height differential coming back to goal, so in this case I’ve given up 2,000’ of altitude that I could have used if I had been able to climb that high. It’s still a bit early in the day.

I cross the start point sector at 12:50 at 4,100’ AGL and there are cu’s spread out in front of me on the course line. I’m able to stay high and go at 23 mph until 21 miles out I’m down to 600’ AGL. For the next hour and a half I will work against the 10 mph head wind and average a little over 4 mph. I’m over areas that would require a bit of a walk out to get back to highway 16, so I’m concerned about staying up at all costs. Besides any speed sets the record.

Finally I get high enough to glide into the turnpoint near Hebronville on highway 16 and turn around to go downwind. Over the next 55 minutes I’ll average 34 mph heading back to goal. Overall the new world record speed over the 100 km out and return task for class 5 will be 27.6 km/h, not particularly fast. But you’ve got to start somewhere.

And certainly a lot of fun on a pleasant day in Zapata when the winds won’t carry you far to the north. The other day when I did fly north, my average L/D while gliding was 62:1. Today it was 13:1.

Junko will try again tomorrow for the 25 km triangle record for class 2. Perhaps we’ll get everyone out for a try at the 50 km or 25 km triangle records.

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Moyes Litespeed S »

Wed, Jun 25 2003, 10:00:04 pm GMT

Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|photo

The new Moyes Litespeed with a new S-shaped trailing edge:

pilot Olli Barthelmes/photo C. Binder

We should have one here in a couple of days.

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