30 September 2003

2003, what sort of glider was my Litesport? My Litesport is a classic, I'd say. But a few gripes. I'm 99% sure it came cross tuned, that is a setup fault (outer wands differentially rotated) was tuned by setting it up wrongly (one sprog raised about a cm compared to the other). I had to learn to tune the glider to get rid of it. Thank Dennis Pagen for his articles in HG mag for the explanation. The manual wasn't much use. Tuning this glider is possible, but not for the faint hearted. It takes hours of fiddling. The sail quality "could be better". The Laminar Pause sail (on my Easy) was a superb finish by comparison. There is no doubt this won't last as long. Plus in July I discovered a rip on the trailing edge root cover, created by bad stitching which had made too many perforations. Still to be repaired - doesn't seem structural, but it's not good. The ZOOM frame is a bit OTT. It's strong - very strong - but at the same time delicate. The front and rear wires look as if they touch and rub the uprights, and the black anodising/coating comes off too easily, and so looks immediately tacky. The corner mounts are fiddly, since the pip pins seem to pull out the tubing/sleeve that holds the side wires in - a bit scary, you need to include that in your pre-flight check. The bag is too big - too long, by 10cm at least, and too baggy. Makes it difficult to carry. Apart from that, it is great. Especially in flight - superb. Take off easy with VG full off, then after I'm in the 1st thermal I pull VG on 1m, then I have just a hint of high siding. One handed in 3 or 4 up isn't uncommon. Go on glide, in smooth air just pull it on as much as you want and let it fly at trim. In thermals with VG on just 1m or so, trim is slow, once you are used to it that works great, the glider climbs with the best. VG is long, but easy to operate and doesn't look like sticking. Bar pressure is low, roll low and responsive too. I can fly three hours and not feel too tired, and I'm a not especially fit 40 year old. Big improvement over the Laminar Easy, but I guess any advanced glider should be the same in that respect, more or less. Landing, of course if you get panicky could be a bit of a problem, it's potentially fast and responsive. But get it lined up, VG off and pull in and you'll drop OK. Then rounding-out comes quite early in general, and you'll need to just let it carry on going up, and flare will be quite soon, quite light, almost on auto I find. I've had four flights (out of 24) when the bar touched the ground, although two of those were bad ones (crashes, effectively) caused by unexpected conditions (exceptional ground effect, sudden cross wind). 20 landings in low or nil wind with the glider resting on my shoulders. Yes, I've got around 170 flights like that now, but even so. This is a great glider to land. Conclusion: great value for money, a great club glider for someone who wants to save 2 or 3 kgs and 1500 EUR... I'm not sure I'd trade it today for either a Litespeed or any other flex wing. Suits me fine.   9:46:46 PM     2003, what sort of year? Time to look back on the year a bit. The season is not really over, but the major flights are. All the more so since Sasso di Ferro is closed for the time being. January saw a couple of short flights, still getting used to the Litesport, certainly the 2nd flight was limited because I was still getting the handling sorted. February: great start on the 1st with a flight to San Martino, 1700m, effortless but freezing. But then I nearly hit a warehouse doing 200m in ground effect, bent two ZOOM uprights and bruised my ribs. That had me not using the HG 'till March, because I needed two uprights (plus we went skiing, etc.). I had a good preparatory flight, then a shortish flight with another whack - more due to conditions than glider, I think. Nevertheless, by now I was beginning as usual to get anxious for the year's big flight(s). Which of course came in April, on the 13th everything comes good and I go to Tamaro and back, at last. 2h45 makes it also my longest time in the air, as well as distance (75km OR). Basically it was technically straightforward - exposure at 2400m under a large Cu over the Swiss border, alone, was more the issue. Five days later I do 50km with ceiling at 1850 (blue?), then a few days later anotehr 47km OR and a 35km triangle over in front, out to Bogno. Four flights each of >2hrs. Excellent. May saw us in Annecy, but the weather was crap, and so was the flying. Felt I did OK on the last day when all the other HGs went down except me and Phil. Got three decent flights in at Laveno, of course, including getting out over Besozzo (first time).   June was still OK - can be dodgy, and although Tamaro never seemed on (for me) I had some good ones, nearly three hours one day, going everywhere (local). July had me going out a bit further, but my best opportunity was spoilt by feeling sick over Sette Termine at >2000m. Things never got that good again, I didn't fly at all through August due to holidays 8-( and so things as they are today with a couple of decent flights in September; of course the day (6th) I was getting back into it (after the six week break) I just did Sette Termine and Cardana, everyone else did Monte Generoso, Cento Valle etc...  On the Litesport then, 34h14min flying for 24 flights, with another 2h50 on the PG (3 flights so far), a Relax, and a Target. I might just scrape 40 hours this year, last year was 43 flights for 41h40; this year a better flight to time ratio. Personal bests: yes, this year, like each one so far, was a step forward. The glider is great, but here people can't quite understand why I bought it. The performance increase was really noticeable. The flying style I like. Landings great, although approach is very flat. 9:32:58 PM

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