Deciding on one's second king post less glider one takes a lot of a lean chair approach. Having been there and done that affords one the comfort of hind and foresight.
This has been my subjective experience.
Buying a new glider for a South African pilot like myself requires a bit of research and foresight. A new glider is very expensive in our terms as the exchange rate has a very adverse effect on our decision.
My decision on my second king post less glider was one I took seriously and after considering that I would still want to fly my glider after a few years one of my main concerns was durability and having the damn best glider.
I opted for the Litespeed. The Mylar is supported by a thin layer of very light Dacron (it seems to me) which strengthens the Mylar sail and keep it crease free. My Talon has about a year of flying on it and the Mylar has been creased very badly through packing and folding. Comparing my Talon's sail to a 6 year old Moyes CSX's mine looked worse for wear.
With the glider rigged I immediately noticed that the washout at the tips were much less to what I was used to. This is thanks to the high grade materials that Moyes use in the leading edges. The LE is less susceptible to span wise torsion which forces the sprogs downwards at speed effectively lowering the sprogs and the wing's pitch stability. To counter for this other manufacturers are forced to put in more aggressive twist as to counter for the torsional deflection of the sprogs. More twist causes more drag and less high speed performance.
The A Frame is smaller and the Zoom uprights are heavier than on my Talon. Notwithstanding this the glider is light in roll and sticks in a thermal. Acceleration is phenomenal, maybe because of less twist at the tips and the glide at speeds exceeding 60km/h is amazing. I pulled my glider halfway to my legs at 3\4 VG and was doing 117km/h without heavy pitch control or any oscillations. I could never achieve this on my Talon not even after lowering the outer sprogs.
At my hook in weight of around 94kg, which is at the bottom end of the weight range of my 4.5, I am totally in control. On my first flight at the coast I did a very low turn over the ocean into wind for a perfect windless landing. Only afterwards did I realize that I must have felt totally relaxed and in control of my new wing.
This wing is beautiful and is build to last. The finish is perfect and the Zoom A Frame will take a hard landing without bending. The VG range is enormous and one can select the amount of high siding at a given bank angle by altering the VG setting without losing control.
The adjustable eccentrics on the leading edge and at the tips allows for fine tuning the glider to suit one's thermal and handling requirements. I had no need to adjust my neutral setting as everything was in perfect sync.
All in all a delightful and lasting investment in performance flying. I opt to try and break the current SA distance record of 350km + within a year of this article.
