Gecko stuff

A place to stretch the truth a little...
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gregangsten
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Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:22 am
Location: Westchester

Gecko stuff

Post by gregangsten »

I flew Moyes new Gecko a while back and was quite impressed. Handling was very nimble with VG off and though it was quite stiff with the VG on full, its glide was excellent and seemed to be to be up to a U2, though with just one flight and no side-by-side comparison it was hard to know. Landing seems very forgiving.

I weigh 193 I think, and am heavy on the glider so that has to be considered when evaluating the glider. I liked light weight Hungary Joe's comment after he flew it, "VG off anybody can fly it, VG on nobody can fly it." The difference between stiff and unflyable is weight.

I'm confused by the pilot weight range that Moyes published for the Gecko, which is 120 to 190 with optimal being 160-170 lbs. That puts me just over the top and well past optimal, yet it felt pretty normal to me. Wills lists the pilot weight for the Sport 2, a similar glider with the same wing area, as 150 to 250 with 155-215 as optimum. If performance on the Gecko is supposed to be better than the Sport, you might think it would have been the opposite. I'm wondering if on a lighter day I would be unable to keep up.
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