This forum is dedicated to discussions on how to grow the sport of hang gliding. We will take a methodical approach to collect data and come up with implementable ideas on how to increase our numbers. This includes effective marketing, lead generation, site access issues, improving regulations, lack of instructors, lack of sites, etc

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By Fletcher
#389771
I've hiked in a half mile a few times on relatively flat ground and it was not fun.especially if it was not flyable and had to hike gear back out.
If you do it in 2 trips take your battens and basetube on the harness trip and leave the glider bag and the padding in the car for the hike. :goodidea:

Even driving to launch can be rough sometimes
I've gone on many miles of REALLY BAD dirt roads and had many flat tires,gotten stuck in mud and had several dents and scratches to the car. :cuss:

What we do for the love of flight :crazy:
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By Sford
#389773
With regard to the Perfex, I'm the guy that Rich referred to.

I did indeed call the dealer who had a demo that was for sale. Simple purchase and voila! it arrived in the shortpack bag via FedEx within 2 days of purchase. I also got a long-pack bag for it.

After receiving the glider, 1st flight at Mt Zion in Golden CO: I launched from south launch, Mark Meyers and Matt Wentz were already up and about (on Fusions if I remember right)..... they had not seen the glider and didn't know it was me...... I got into a light thermal with Mark on the opposite side..... after three circles together (me, the unknown pilot so Mark was cautious and we made big flat circles) I pimped him on the upwind side and cored through him. The look on his face was priceless

The Perfex is 176 sqft and has remarkable glide for a single surface. Slightly tail heavy feel on launch due to reflex bridle at DHV setting; provision to drop it slightly while still maintaining HGMA pitch numbers was possible. 2 fixed cross bar tensioning positions to choose during set-up: soft for training; stiffer for performance. I never used the soft.

No tools required for shortpack or rigging from shortpack. A remarkable plug-n-play design IMO. It has an interesting mix of old school (noseplate) with new tech (oversize diam 7075-T6 ribs allow lighter weight due to thin wall for example). Attack tubes with safe edge worked as replacements if needed.


Fun glider! I used it as a lightweight set-up with a Wills Flylite cocoon harness. Harness, glider, and gear/water: 15lb+46lb (in the bag!)+ 5lb.... 66lb total. My Litespeed5 and pod harness/gear combo was 100lb+40lb. A dramatic difference for hike and fly!

The Perfex retains energy well enough to be useful in ground effect during landing; king post hang point made roll control easy and landings were a dream; forward raked control frame put trim bar position at same place as my Litespeed. Nice faired speed bar too.

I bought a hardshell surfboard case to put the glider and harness in when flying on the airline. Test run of the baggage set-up was to Torrey from Denver and it worked flawlessly.

Flying it locally in Denver Metro: I flew it XC to Lyons from Golden (a hike up launch, only about 1/8 mile and 150 feet on 10% single track) twice. Fun and stress free although 3X slower than going the same route on the Litespeed. No worries about where to land the Perfex though :>

I sold the glider and case to Sean Dycus who was moving to Switzerland....... I've missed that glider often since.

IMO, the Perfex outperformed the Falcon3. My new single surface is the Icaro RX2 MR (all Technora, full race control frame)........... it has become the most fun glider that I have ever flown and has much better performance than the Perfex. 'would be cool to have it shortpack to 6 or 7 feet, but 'not sure that could be designed in.

Long post about my Perfex. Rich's post brought back fond memories :>

SF
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By TomGalvin
#389778
CRV wrote:
noman3 wrote:
TomGalvin wrote:I hike with regular packed length gliders a fair bit. My personal limit is about 3 miles and no more than 2000 feet elevation gain, and most pilots think I am crazy for even going even half that distance.

I would like to have one of these though.

http://www.finsterwalder-charly.de/html ... rachen.php

holy jumpin sheep shitt batman,you are a monster sir!!!!!Keithster is our local iron man,hes a monster to!.Id cough up a lung or two before i could do that.You have got my salute to. :shock:
But, does he kill a rattlesnake along the way like Josh?

Probably not... :)
I milk them :wink:
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By miraclepieco
#389870
For a hike-and-fly hang glider, how about the Woopy-Fly inflatable wing?
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By old newbie
#389872
Whoopsie, the worst of both
By lynntalon
#389876
Hi , heres how I go the same places paragliders go, works great , wheels can go on control bar at top . I have a 70 pound glider.[/url]
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By darkcloud
#389889
PG is your only option
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By zamuro
#389892
Jakeramp wrote:Hang tight! Hope it's not supposed to be a secret, but I hear there is a revolutionary WW in the works that will be 5-6 feet shortpacked. Super light (40lbs). Beyond that Ill leave it to the WW team to disclose. :thumbsup:
:shock: :thumbsup:
By darkcloud
#389893
darkcloud wrote:PG is your only option
Just noticed this is a six year old thread :?
By old newbie
#389894
lynntalon wrote:Hi , heres how I go the same places paragliders go, works great , wheels can go on control bar at top . I have a 70 pound glider.[/url]
I don't think so, but it could be entertaining watching you drag that 3,000' up a trail.
By lynntalon
#389901
I have gone up 3000 foot mountains I have a electric front drive wheel that goes in double surface , I launch in 50 plus mph winds and in the Alaska range gone to 15 thousand feet only a hangglider can do that or a sailplane I once saw a guy flying with a mountain bike ontop of his wing very amazing .
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By brian scharp
#389906
I launch in 50 plus mph winds
Fantastical.
By david888
#396051
Any more news/rumours about the lightweight Wills Wing project
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By TomGalvin
#396053
The Northwing sky surfer is supposed to be out this spring The demand for the topless Freedom pushed it's release back a year.
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By miraclepieco
#396084
Carts open myriad opportunities for hike-and-fly. I once organized a fly-in at a nearby mesa, but none of the flexies wanted to go because they couldn't carry their gliders in, while I had no problems hiking the two miles with my Atos.

My cart is fairly sturdy because my wife will roll it back out after I launch, but carts can be made small enough to be disassembled and packed into one's harness or double surface.
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Last edited by miraclepieco on Fri Feb 17, 2017 10:26 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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By miraclepieco
#396085
How Didier Favre did it when men were man enough to hike gliders - and wear purple tights:
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By miraclepieco
#396091
darkcloud wrote: Just noticed this is a six year old thread :?
That's okay - almost the entire forum membership has turned over since it was originally posted, so lots of guys are seeing it for the first time. Plus this forum is so slow these days because of it being winter in the northern hemisphere, so it never hurts to revive an old thread.