Litesport - too easy a decision...

Original post Litesport, too easy a decision, really. 17/09/2002; 09:31:49

I had a tip off to try a Litesport (thanks, Steve Ford). Indeed, good idea: on paper at least it seems to accommodate most of my needs. Psychologically it's difficult to think of bringing a glider from Australia to fly here in Laveno... But let's try.  I email Moyes and they put me in contact with Franco, their dealer. Just before the test day I read Dennis P.'s review (just how much did he get paid??? It almost put me off) but like the bit about the G-string and taut side-wires at launch: this is the greatest bit about my Laminar Easy, I'd just stroll up to the "ramp" at Laveno and go, no messing with balancing 10m of wings on a swivel. Add to this the aero speed bar, spring battens, adjusting geometry... Looks good. Do I ever fly at 120kph? Hell no. If it's all it seems, it's worth at least a try.

Franco and me meet up 14 Sep at his local site (which I can't recall the name of, on the north side of the Apennines near to Parma.) It's a 1500m TO with a 600m MSL landing field, 6km to the north. Even though I've not flown there before I figured a trip down to try the glider there was OK; yes, breaks a cardinal rule but I've got 150 hours now, should be OK. Although when he shows the LZ I probably looked a bit concerned (he goes over the approach like 3 times), obviously no 2nd chance here, sort of 45 deg. cross wind, up-hill with undulations, no wind-sock (right Franco, yeah, sure, winds always from the North. Always.). I decided I could put my Easy in easily enough, and that uphill was usually going to stop any kind of overshoot. Go for it. We take a GPS waypoint ëcos otherwise I'm never going to find it in this green-field wilderness (TO is a distant summit on the horizon).

As we drove up to TO it seemed like it might be blowing Northerly, which Franco said is a possible TO direction but not the most convenient (like, no thermals). In fact, on the top it was coming in nicely from the South, although there was an E crosswind component out in front. As we rigged it was obviously still early, 1.30pm announced as a good time.  We (well, Franco) set up the Litesport and I just checked out what was going on. Obvious observations: wing tips more cord than the Easy, double surface looks more (but reported as less, 70%), sail tension on cams less (VG off, of course), straight forward set-up although Franco put the battens in before tension, which means you can't use the kick stand. More battens of course (like 26 vs 18 or something). We struggled to get the nose batten in, finally succeeding (this was the glider's first flight). Then a hang check, change the hang strap for a shorter one, now I'm just clearing the bar (could be I'm a touch high in the Easy in retrospect).  Weighs in about the same as the Easy 16, so that's positive.

What does it look like? Very nice, yes indeed. Nice flat sail, no lump around the king post. I like the cord at the tips (always liked the Litespeed for that). Nicely proportioned. Er, yes, I was drooling. The sail was like, chunky. Solid. Confidence inspiring...

Did my own check around, clipped the harness in again, instruments on and went to check out the TO zone. Whoops, a few people low, no matter I'll go get in now and wait.  Franco comes over to watch me (maybe he's getting scared I'll crash, he only met me a couple of hours ago) and points out the bomb-out field in case I go down like one of the para's that's about to. (The bomb-out field looks better than the LZ we saw on the way up... But the wrong side of the mountain). I get the usual wheel hassle, we chock them with some rocks and I wait while two wind dummies (sorry, para's) take off and start to make a bad job of the light lift, which is getting broken by the Easterly coming through.

Finally I get bored waiting, and I make a guess that the para's aren't too expert since Franco and I agree they aren't coring properly, we can see them falling out the down-wind side of the thermals. I lift and balance (my extra concentration makes me hesitate and wobble, but I correct that) and then I head off, keeping the nose low. Think my TO scared him a bit, as the slope was very steep and so I was immediately airborne: I perceived I was slow so I pulled on a healthy bit of speed, probably looked like I skimmed the trees but once I was satisfied let the bar out to find its on natural position (which of course made a spectacular zoom up...). But for me the whole thing was positive feedback, and hitting a bump (1 thousand, 2, 3...) just beyond the first para, I 360'd hard, and after two turns climbed behind and then through the para who was wuffing around... Once I regained TO height there was no looking back. Things had obviously switched on, a convergence zone set up, and I spent the next 45mins above the clouds created by the cool damp Northerly air, surfing the clear South side. Very special, never done that before. Only 400m (1900m) above TO, but that was good enough given that I wasn't going anywhere today. Cruised up and down and out in front, but sink in some places was strong and no real way to get a feel of performance: you have to fly your own site for that. Lots and lots of climbing and gliding, play with this, play with that, no one in the way. Pretty good in retrospect, although it was so rough at times I didn't always want to be there... To give an idea how rough it was I saw a para take a huge closure, biggest I've seen and nearly cravating half a wing, so to feel secure on a new glider shows that it is indeed very reasonable to fly.

Ahh, the glider. So, more nervous than my Laminar Easy 16, lighter roll, in fact this was the main "adjustment" for me. It also trimmed slower than I was used to (VG off) so I was using a different set of muscles (I could feel them next day) than usual. It took a bit of thinking to realise how to re-centre, because the feedback on roll was less. It seemed to be better too for coordinating, no need to sometimes push out to get it to kick a turn like sometimes on the Easy. Pitch was harder to comment on because I flew mostly with the VG off; apart from that it was turbulent, I had wheels on which made using the clamp a bit difficult, plus I didn't have good gloves on so my hands got a bit numb (I normally fly with bar mitts, which were on my glider of course). It did trim slow, (probably near min-sink) which I didn't really like given how rough it was; I was pulled in most of the time. But in-flight a very solid feel, only one unintended dive in a turn when I was experimenting a bit with the coordination, and most of the time a very "Volvo" feel, but less work than what I'm used to. Obviously I could speed up more easily, clearly a step-up from the glider I fly now.

After an hour, I decided not get too anxious with 1) an unseen LZ, 2) a brand-new, un-flown glider, 3) cold hands, 4) potential airsickness (despite drugs) and I headed off for the LZ, a slightly uphill field 6km into the light Northerly wind. What a relief to be out of turbulence... Beautiful to fly over proto-clouds forming a couple of hundred metres below. The wind was mostly rising up the mountainside, and although my GPS said I needed 6:1 to get there, which had me concerned given it was into wind, I arrived with 800m above the LZ and completed a 20:1 glide. I headed off for a bit of sight-seeing, causing Franco to get worried I wouldn't find the right field (without my GPS I wouldn't have!) and he raced under me like an F16 to show me the way. I saw him coming in low and hung in some +0.5 until he was clear, approached nice and long with only one over-correction (and reverse!) due to the Easy-muscle memory, and put it down in the middle; OK, only one landing on it but plenty of feed-back on when to flair, and it settled back well with no effort. Different, but easy, too. Particular feeling: when the wing was ready to stall, it even seemed to go dead inviting you to push out.

So I want one please! Altogether this is the package I'm looking for, good move to make a sport glider based on the Litespeed. I feel it is the right step up from my Easy, and has the technology that makes it more interesting than a classic 1990's king-posted glider. Well done on thinking out that one, thanks to Moyes for not forgetting us guys who don't compete, with a family, who fly "only" 35hrs a year (my wife already thinks that's a lot).

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