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I was as happy as I could be flying the stock Wills Wing T2 - 144.
Sure when I had been flying the Wills Wing Falcon 3 - 170 ever since the World
Record Encampment in Zapata and transitioned to the stock T2 - 144 it seemed a
bit stiff in roll, but after flying a Moyes Litespeed RS 4 (Gerolf's personal
glider) in Australia in the competitions, the stock T2 was a joy to fly. It is
remarkable (or maybe it isn't) how much the pilot's perception can change based
on their prior experience.



So I was flying around Florida in this wonderful glider (stock Wills Wing T 2 -
144, with the Dacron sail) having a great time going for big cross country
flights (139 miles) and then on the way down to the Florida Ridge for the US
Nationals I stopped by the Orlando airport to pick up a new race T2 -144 from
Wills Wing. So how were they different?



The race version, the one made for me, had a slightly different sail cut. The
sail was Mylar instead of Dacron. The battens were the thicker stiffer aluminum
ones. It came with carbon fiber inserts for the leading edges to prevent
deformation of the leading edge Mylar when coming into goal at 70 mph. There
were additional changes that I'm under an obligation not to talk about that I
was a test dummy for.



I was amazed at the range of handling that Wills Wing can provide in essentially
the same hang glider. The race version was much stiffer in roll than the stock
version and reminded me of nothing so much as the Moyes Litespeed RS 4 (the
Gerolf racing version with the sprogs upped a bit for me). It was quite clear
from this experience that Steve Pearson has the ability to design whatever type
of glider that you want or is most appropriate for the job. He has an incredible
range and it is just a question of what the customers and the racers want.



Steve said to me, or at least I think he said to me, that there wasn't a dime's
worth of difference in performance between the stock (fun to fly and easy to
handle) version and the race version. Andreas Olsson who has his own Wills Wing
prototype version, begs to differ.



Steve's contention is that racing pilots feel that if the glider isn't hard to
handle it isn't performing as well as it should on high speed glides. That they
have in their minds what the trade off (if any) between performance and handle
looks like, and they are too willing to have slow roll to go with presumed
better glide. That in fact the measure of how well a race glider performs in
high speed glide is how stiff it is in roll.



It's easy to feel how stiff it is. It is harder to measure how good a glide you
are getting. So stiff roll becomes the proxy for better high speed glide.



Well, anyway, enough of that theorizing. I set the glider up, took it for a spin
and sure enough it was as stiff as a board, at least that's how it felt compared
to the stock version. I just wasn't at all ready for the kind of antics that I
would have to perform in the control frame to get this thing to turn.



In fact I came into land on my first flight and I was barely in control because
I wasn't prepared for what I needed to do to control this glider on landing. The
bar was way out front and I was landing with too little speed. Time to change
that technique.



Kevin Carter kindly moved my sprogs down one turn (both inner and outer) to
match what I had on the stock glider. It is not recommended that you lower your
sprogs. Dennis Pagen's review in the USHPA magazine should not be used as a
guide as that glider was not configured correctly when he got it. Nor should my
changes be used as a guide.



I have heard from one pilot that he lowered his sprogs three turns on the
interior and four on the outside. Seems crazy to me. I have also heard that the
Brazilian loosen them almost completely, so I guess they they are betting on not
being tucked or that they can get to their chutes fast.



Paris mentioned that he almost got tucked during the competition and that from
the description it is clear that his sprogs kicked in and he recovered. Dustin
almost went over sideways during the record flight on Thursday. Perhaps it's a
good idea to have a real safety margin.



I also moved myself to the front hang spot, which gave me a little more
authority on pulling in and landing (as well as in the air).



After a while I grew used to the race version of the T2 - 144 and I no longer
felt that it was stiff at all. Of course it was probably just as stiff, but the
pilot's mind is plastic. We adjust and then we don't know any better. We are
pretty useless as measuring devices (others are perhaps less useless than me).



I flew with lots of pilots over the last few weeks and really couldn't see any
consistent differences between any of the gliders. Richard Lovelace in his Aeros
glider did get a one point better glide on me the last day going into goal at
the US Nationals. Who knows if that means anything.



Andreas in his Wills Wing T2 prototype was fourth on the day we flew to the
Florida Ridge, a day that was a good test of glider performance and not of pilot
decision making (what decision making, just stay under the converging clouds).
It appears as though all the gliders are very similar in performance, which
makes for great racing.



I loosened the tips a bit to see if that would make the roll any easier then put
them back in their original configuration. I noticed when flying in really light
air, on Wednesday when I went north 120 miles, that it would have been nicer to
have easier turning. I may cut the tip wands down 4 mm. 



I didn't get tired on any of my flights until the record attempt on Wednesday.
The glider is still easy enough to fly so that I can fly it every day for five
hours, if need be, without concern.



I had an opportunity on the second day of the Race of Champions to push the bar
back to my full arm extension and see how fast it would go. Surprisingly I have
never done this before (well at least not in the 21st century), and it was great
to see 71 mph on my vario and feel the rock steady glider over me.



I would love it if Steve is right and the stock version has the high speed glide
performance of the race version.