jon durand <<email>> writes:

I have been reading your discussion on glider prices and performance and could not help but make some comments myself.

First, I just want to make a few comments on the letters that have already been published from Moyes and Wills Wing. I think there are some misinterpretations from the letter Moyes sent to you, as Steve Pearson pointed out. I believe the comment about Moyes being the first ones to use carbon tubing is not correct, but it is true that Moyes kept developing and using carbon tubing whilst other manufacturers were avoiding it because of cost and lack of performance gain. Over the past five years, Moyes have invested significant amounts of research and development into perfecting the carbon components for the Litespeed, and now just recently other manufacturers are starting to offer more carbon components.

Wills Wing did develop the pre preg base bar and A frame which were fitted to many different gliders, including Litespeeds. Steve Pearson has done many great things for the development of the sport, just like Gerolf, Oleg and Manfred have done over the years. It would be fair to say that without all of these guys we would not be where we are today.

I don't want to get too much into that side of things but I will say that when you are going to purchase your next glider there are many things to look at.

I have been around hang gliding most of my life and have seen the performance and safety of hang gliders improving every year since I was nine years old. The gliders we're flying today have so much performance that sometimes it can be hard to see the difference between the different manufacturers, but that does not mean there is none.

Obviously everyone wants to have the best glider, whether it is for winning a competition, obtaining a personal best in a cross country flight, or simply just having a fun fly. The most important thing is to be on a glider that is comfortable for you in all aspects, regardless of the advertised performance that you may hear or read about. I know many top pilots who have very different flying styles and not every model suits every pilot. This is why Moyes, unlike most manufacturers, produces seven different sizes of their high performance glider to suit every flying style and weight, so that you can get that confidence to succeed.

This is why there are nine of the top ten and sixteen of the top twenty pilots in the world flying Moyes gliders (http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1).  All of these pilots have found a Moyes glider to suit their flying style and meet their performance expectations. Now you just have to decide whether you think you're one of these pilots who want what they're looking for or would rather save money and hope that what you read or hear is not false advertising.

I noticed in the recent Wills Wing ad that the T2 can glide beyond the horizon. I know I mentioned earlier that our performance these days is great but, please, if there is really a hang glider out there that can glide beyond the horizon, I want to fly it. Until then, I will stick with Moyes.