Steven Pearson <<Steve>>
writes:

I was just reading the Alpha thread on the OzReport forum and I
thought you might be interested in the conversations that motivated me to start
development and why I think products in this category are long overdue.

If we could reduce the training time to become proficient enough for a first
high flight by 25% then we could retain a significantly higher number of
prospective pilots. This is especially the case in areas of the country with
seasonal and irregular weather patterns. In many cases, obtaining the last day
of training before solo takes weeks or months when you consider the constraints
of weather, work, family, money, and other scheduling issues. This of course is
compounded by longer delays leading to remedial and recurrency training.

Pilot skills and hang glider technology have evolved far beyond what most of us
even imagined in the early years of the sport. Consider the mind-boggling cross
country distances, the format and task selection a modern hang gliding contest,
the monster loops and rolls in aerobatics, and the extraordinary airworthiness
and controllability of the modern hang glider. Somehow that progress has
unfairly diminished the simple but remarkable achievement of simple free-flight,
like launching from a modest mountain site and gliding to a controlled landing
below. I would argue that this event alone challenges the imagination and life
experience of many non-pilots and is worthy of celebration. Who among us doesn't
remember their first high flight, or even the first time our feet left the
ground for the briefest interval?

In 2011, John Harris at Kitty Hawk Kites hosted an event in associated with
"Soaring 100" to commemorate Orville Wright's soaring record of 9 min 45 second
which was unmatched for the following 10 years. A number of distinguished pilots
and designers from the early years of hang gliding contributed some fun and
interesting presentations. Ken de Russy talked at length about the merits of the
standard Rogallo which as we all know was neither the first foot launched
aircraft or the most airworthy but was unquestionably the catalyst for the
dynamic and exponential growth of hang gliding in the 70's.

In fact, hang gliding has done nothing but diminish in participation since that
time. There are innumerable reasons for that decline but the point I'm trying to
make is that the attraction and joy of free-flight is unrelated to performance.
We often have the expectation that more performance will result in better
experiences when more often there is an inverse correlation. In my experience,
dune gooning on a small sandy ridge on a single surface glider (and similar
activities) is as much fun as racing a competition task on a high performance
glider. As much as I enjoy flying T2Cs, I wouldn't give up hang gliding if I was
restricted to lower performance hang gliders nor do I think I'd have any less
fun.

The apex of the decline of hang gliding was the early 80s when the only model
that Wills Wimng produced (like many of our competitors) was certainly more
challenging than a T2C. We learned a little in the following years with the
introduction of the easier to fly Sport model in 1986 and more significantly the
development of the Falcon starting in 1993. A few years ago, Joe Greblo told me
that the Falcon 3 had too much performance. I was dismissive at first but that's
a difficult position to hold against the experience of someone like Joe. My
first thought was to 'de-tune' the Falcon but that does nothing to address the
essential requirement for more damping and more forgiving behavior in pitch. The
easiest way to increase damping is to increase the mean cord and that also, with
the constraints of weight and airworthiness, leads to lower aspect ratios which
have the additional advantage of a lower lift-curve slope and associated wider
angle of attack range.

Perhaps the most unexpected outcome of the Alpha development is that it's so fun
to fly. Climbing with a T2, at the same turn rate but half the radius is really
fun as are many other experiences like being relatively unconcerned where you
land or what the wind conditions are. I think it's fair to say that the Falcon
has been a significant factor in new pilot development and pilot retention over
the last twenty years. I often said that we could and should do more in those
areas and I'm hopeful that the Alpha will deliver some of those expectations.