Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

Wills Wing brought a lot of demo gliders to Sylmar last weekend, and on Sunday I got to fly their T2C-144. The T2C is the competition version of the T2, and the 144 is the smaller of the two sizes. On the same afternoon, Rob Burgis flew the larger T2C-154. I liked the glider very much, while Rob had some strong criticisms. We may both be right, given different personal preferences and differences between the glider sizes. Read on for the details.

I own a Moyes Litespeed-S 3.5 (120 flight hours logged), and the T2C-144 is the Wills Wing equivalent. I really want to favor my glider in the comparison, but if I were objective, the T2C is probably the winner.

Sunday was a very bumpy day with slow climbs below an inversion barely over 4000 feet. Immediately off of launch, I found the glider more responsive in roll than the Litespeed-S. This meant I was willing to work a little closer to the terrain than I would have in my glider, and could track the stong ratty thermals a little better. The T2C climbed very well, and combined with a little luck, I was promptly at the top of the stack. After topping out, I went to full-VG, pulled in the bar, and got the thrill of acceleration that one only gets on topless gliders. The VG on the T2C is both shorter and easier to pull than that on the Litespeed. At 45-50 MPH, the T2C was responsive and tracked straight, behaving more like my U2-145 than the Litespeed. No doubt its glide ratio is very good, but the day didn't lend itself to side-by-side glide comparisons, so I don't really know how it compares with the Litespeeds. The control bar is rigged farther back than on Moyes gliders, which I personally find more comfortable when thermalling. On the other hand, I can't push the bar much below my waist in a back-plate harness, so I have a sense this limits my maximum speed on the T2C to about 50 MPH, while the Litespeed will go an easy 55 MPH before I scare myself. The specification sheets for both gliders say Va=46 MPH and Vne=53 MPH, so a law-abiding citizen shouldn't really care about that difference.

The T2C sets up and breaks down very much like the Litespeed, though with details familiar to U2 and Sport-2 owners. The Wills Wing hardware appears superior to the Moyes hardware in places, with better made control frame corner brackets, and a simpler cross-bar junction that I can actually understand. Interestingly, the battens are large-diameter aluminum, because Wills Wing claims this provides a stiffness-to-weight advantage over carbon. As a tiny detail, it would be nice if Wills Wing either numbered the battens, or provided a bag that kept them separate. As it is, I was confronted with a large bundle of nearly identical battens to sort. During both setup and breakdown, the sprogs were perpetually in the way, but I assume one would adapt.

I'll try to summarize Rob's comments, but it would be better to let him speak for himself. Understandably, the demo gliders were equipped with an aluminum basetube and wheels, just like the U2, rather than a carbon basetube. Rob flew with gloves, and he found the aluminum basetube nearly intolerable and the skinny VG string difficult to get hold of. I virtually always fly bare-handed and have no objection to the aluminum bar and thin VG string, except that the aluminum freezes my hands in cold weather. Rob found the handling of the T2C-154 between that of the Litespeed S-4 and the RS-4. He was also suspicious of the T2C's glide capability, but he admitted that his Litespeed didn't gain a foot in a side-by-side glide with Zippy on a T2C a day or two earlier.

Some people have heard me say that on my Litespeed, I don't command it to turn, I negotiate with it. On the T2C, I felt much more like a pilot than a passenger. Likewise, on the Litespeed, fast glides with full VG demand my full concentration to prevent wing-walking and roll-oscillation even on moderate days, while the T2C had no issues flying fast and straight. Again, Rob disagreed in these comparisons. Perhaps it's the difference in pilot skill, or in our particular experiences on this day. Or maybe it means that the handling of the Litespeed-S 3.5 doesn't live up to that of its bigger siblings, the S-4 and S-4.5.

In summary, I found the T2C a very compelling glider. It climbed well in thermals, and handled excellently when flying both slow and fast. While I don't have a good comparison, there's no evidence that it can't match glides with the best. Next time I'm looking for a topless glider, I'll seek another demo flight to confirm these impressions, and the T2C could easily be the winner.

Nice write up, Kent. Your analysis is appreciated. I hope Rob can find some time to give his take. All the best!

Nice job ken that really might help somebody who wants to step up to a topless glider.

Great write-up Ken!

I got inspired to demo the same glider today due to your enthusiasm so I did. The live narrated video is rendering as I write this and will be uploaded over night.

One note of interest: I hook in at 200# and was able to get the glider to 76 mph today in a gradual acceleration in level flight. You will see in the video just where I had my hands and arms in order to do this. It's nearly identical to mine in this respect so it's a normal T2C 144. Like you, I was able to track it at 70+ mph with relative ease and did this on multiple runs. It's a fairly easy glider to fly and I did extensive thermalling with the VG both full tight and full loose. In other words it's a very well balanced glider. Landing was a cinch too BTW.

I'll add a post with the video once it's available on YouTube.

Jonathan

Hey Jonathan,

How level would a 76mph run be? Seems like the polar on any HG would fall off severely at 76mph.

Marc

addicted2climbing wrote:Hey Jonathan,

How level would a 76mph run be? Seems like the polar on any HG would fall off severely at 76mph.

Marc

Hi Marc,
I did one run into a head wind where I averaged 75.6 mph for 28 seconds and my glide angle over the ground was 7.4:1. An earlier run lasting 16 seconds with tail wind and 73.5 mph average yielded a 9.75:1 glide over the ground.

If I had a cleaner harness and my carbon speedbar it would have been somewhat higher. 10:1 at 50 mph is expected with modern equipment. I have been informed that only a handful of comp pilot can hold speeds of 50-60 mph for extended distances in a straight line. It's easy to have the glider roll over at high speed. they become very sensitive.

I swooped over a couple of folks enjoying the view by the Nike missile site behind Towers launch. I was gong over 60 mph when they waved up at me and I put both hands in the middle and waved back, only to have the demo T2C go into a steep right bank that was impossible to stop without slowing the glider down. I had no choice but to push out hard and pray that I didn't hit the road or the hillside at 55 mph. The glider came around right back over the couple and had slowed to 35 mph and leveled out. So I gave them a proper wave and noticed the husband had his video camera pointed skyward.

I can only imagine how this will look if it ever ends up on youtube. The 360 turn at that speed took 2-3 seconds and shows up as a squiggle on my flight tracks. I had the camera off but recorded the sounds and my startled comment. As you can see, speed like this on a weight-shift glider comes at a price.

Jonathan

This is 76mph over the LZ:

The video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppHD0ujUhvc[/youtube]