- Thu Sep 28, 2006 11:13 am
#762
I've flown almost 300 gliders, (all but 2 were flex wings) several research prototypes, and just about every brand of equipment and glider made since 1975 (most of which are no longer around), owned 15 gliders of 5 brands, harnesses from 6 different makers, and parachutes of 4 different brands, (yes, used one when my mental parachute inexplicably failed) not to mention all the aftermarket accessories, instruments, helmets, etc. Flew most of the total of them, as an employee at UP and WW during the 1980s.
I'll be the first to admit that it might be easy for anyone to say that I'm biased. One of the many things that a test pilot must learn, in evaluative terms, whether it's cool-exotic-sounding avant guarde competition R & D or plain old crunch 'n' grind production monitoring-tuning-trouble shooting, is to at least try your best to be as impartially objective as your personality allows.
I flew mostly UP equipment from 1979, mostly Wills equipment from about late 1984, but since finally giving up the Ram Air 146 in the summer of 1999, I had owned and flown various Aeros gliders 90+% of the time. Just returned to Wills this summer for the T2 144. Having tried most of the high performance wings on the market in recent years, I'm confident in my decision.
Taking into consideration the comprehensive product lines for the full range of peoples' levels in the sport, structural and aerodynamic integrity, craftsmanship, as well as service, I've found day in, day out, decade in, decade out, a couple of things:
The sport's evolution has been naturally selective in numerous ways, to say the least. Unlike the '70s, there really are no poor equipment manufacturers or importers out there any more. (Although, frankly, there are a few dubious dealers and instructors.) The present hang gliding industry is a remarkably professionally dedicated, prolifically creative, diligent group as whole.
For such an esoteric cottage industry community, it's marvelous that there's enough variety of good safe equipment out there, new and used, to suit the taste and budget of practically anyone who is serious enough about it to put up the effort to do things properly.
All that said, in my opinion, it seems that it's not easy for some people who believe that they're knowledgeable to argue plausibly against the 34 year history of my veneral favorite wing mine, the good old "Won't Wang Gang" at Wills Wing.
Of course folks will always kibitz and argue anyway... part of the comraderie and fun of our flying community. As small as this sport is these days, there's still room for plenty of different opinionated ideas and room to fly different equipment.
See you in the air...
Last edited by Pilot 3D on Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:46 am, edited 2 times in total.