http://moyes.com.au/productdetail.asp?ID=115&Cat=

Span:
RS 3.5 - 10.3 m (33.7 ft)
RS 4 - 10.4 m (34.1 ft)
S 3 - 10 m 32.8 ft
C4 13.5 - 10.00 m 32.8 feet
C4 14 - 10.4 m 34.1 feet

A number of pilots who tried to go north on Saturday decided that they would rather go downwind and headed toward Grenfell. Some headed for West Wyalong. Phil Shroder headed that way, then decided after 30 km that it would be best to come back and land at the airport. He did.

When I awoke on Sunday morning a mid level layer had moved in covering most of the sky, shading the ground and filtering the sunlight. The forecast was for rain and scattered showers. Still there was no reason not to ride my bike out to the air field and see what was up.

Steve Moyes was there and he had offered me the opportunity to test fly Davide Guiducci's new Moyes Litespeed RS 4. I asked him if I could also test fly Tove's Litespeed S 3.5 (not RS 3.5) after I test flew Davide's glider (there are four gliders headed for Italy and Bassano that are getting ready to be shipped out together). You might remember that I had a little trouble with Steve's red RS 4, and I wondered if it was just his glider or whether I had trouble with all RS 4's. See here, here and here.

The sky was still gray and the ground was still shaded but there were areas of blue and a few cu's off in the distance. After I set up Davide's glider Steve inspected it and we found a bad VG cord in the sail. It was about to break, so we replaced it. Good thing I set up the glider.

Armand towed me up and I pinned off at 1000' AGL in a thermal having gone through one at 500' AGL. I missed the thermal I pinned off in so went back to the earlier one and climbed up from 500' AGL to 4,200' under cu's that were now all around us. They were getting really thick to the north and soon it would be raining there.

The RS 4 was definitely more spanny than the Airborne C4-13.5 that I have been flying. I felt that right away, still it wasn't as bad as Steve's red glider (also a RS 4). I had mentioned to Steve about Blinky's issue with his red glider and the tip wands, and Steve pointed out to me where the yellow marks were on the carbon fiber wands, and how I needed to be sure that these yellow dots were on the trailing edge of the wands. I made sure that I put them in the right way.

The glider was a bit stiff, but reasonably easy to turn and get into the thermal. It was a light thermal and I was glad I had a bigger glider. It didn't have to high side it at all with just a little bit of VG on. This is in contrast to my Airborne C4-13.5, which now requires high siding after we tuned that out previously. It'll have to get Scott Barrett's help to retune that out of the glider.

It was a smooth climb up and very enjoyable. After I got high I pulled on the VG line and tested how straight it flew. I noticed that if I pulled in the VG line to just past the half way point, that the bar pressure dropped off to where it was comfortable to pull in the bar a long ways, for a long time. Steve wanted me to pull the VG line full on to get 1 KG of bar pressure at up to 120 km/h. I didn't get a chance to try that.

The glider flew straight and the bar pressure was light, but not scary light. And now it was time to land the glider, but there was lift every where over all the shaded ground, with lots of dark cu's and the rain from a cell maybe ten or fifteen kilometers away. It took a while, and the wind was blowing maybe ten mph out of the north northeast. Finally I was able to find enough sink to get it down and had a delightful landing. I had been concerned about the glider flying me, and it did that to some extent, as I came in in the buoyant and bumpy air with all the lift around, but it was so easy to land.

Next, I took up Tove's Litespeed S 3.5. She had been complaining to me about it and how much she like the S 3 that she had flown. Then again she had flown a S 3.5 in Greifenburg at the Worlds and loved it. On this new glider she had Moyes replace her previous all white sail with a inlayed one (like on the glider she flew in Greifenburg), hoping that would make it less stiff. Steve had test flown it and was happy with it.

This glider is a toy. It flies so sweet there is no way Tove is not going to love it. Maybe it is just Steve's weight or my weight (she can add some ballast), but this thing turns on a dime with the slightest of effort. I felt that I was flying the glider, unlike the contest I was having with the RS 4 for who was in charge.

Like when I was flying the RS 4 I found a nice light thermal after getting off low and now it was getting really dark. It was easy to stay in the thermal and there was no high siding at all. I got up and then pulled on the VG to 3/4's. The bar pressure was light, but again not scary light and it flew straight.

I thought with the smaller glider that there might be an issue with it landing faster, but again the landing was easy. It flew straight and there was no problem with flare timing.

We got the gliders back in the bags and made it back to the hangar just before the down pour from the cell hit and soaked the air field (but not the town). Perhaps I'll have a chance to test fly a RS 3.5 before I head for home.

So the question is, should one fly a glider that sometimes wants to fly you (and just learn to be a man about it), and this was in light Forbes soft conditions, or should one always feel in control of the glider, even if perhaps it is a bit "too small?" Of course, the spannier glider has better performance in glide (perhaps, it also depends on your wing loading), so the idea is that you are willing to go with a glider that you have to wrestle with to get that extra performance. See the URL's above for more on this issue.

Armand is scheduled to be back out at Forbes towing on the weekend of the 15th, 16th, and 17th.