- Thu Sep 24, 2015 6:20 pm
#376310
Hi Dave,
I fly a U2 - 145 and hook in at about 175 lbs. I think I would prefer to be hooking in at ~200 lbs because of the gains I would get in handling. My glider's polar will shift - making everything faster- which can be useful when you want to penetrate or go somewhere, and the stall speed and sink rate difference would not be that much higher. The air can get rough out here in Califotnia and I don't love having the glider fly me. I think having more control of your glider allows you to fly it where you want and so potentially more efficiently, for instance, like staying in the stronger part of a thermal. So, I fly with more water than I need to drink usually.
The easier the glider is to fly (falcon etc.) the bigger wing I'm willing to fly (lower wing loading).
It's all about having a comfortable amount of control for me. If I only flew smooth air or weak lift/turbulent sites, I would want to fly on the lighter side I'm sure.
In short, the higher performance my wing - towards the top
The lower performance the wing- towards the bottom
Hope you're still having fun with that Eagle.