Fabiano Nahoum <<marusco>>
writes at the request of the Aeros dealer, Carlos Niemeyer:

After I wrote a little piece about the Sport Class in Andradas, I
was asked by fellow pilots to write something about the Open Class too, so that
I did, while taking the opportunity to comment on the performance of the
different brands of gliders involved. As you know we only had 3 tasks out of 7
days, but in fact it was flyable 5 out of 7, with 2 days that were wasted due to
local conditions that affected take-off at the precise wrong time.

Task 1: a good high pressure day in the blue with some tight bumpy cores and
strong climbs see many pilots at goal, on a 98Km triangle finishing back into
the official LZ. It was kinda hard to get a good position on the start circle
because the take-off was very crowded and the cycles were weak so pilots in
front were wasting minutes choosing the best time for their own take-off and
this was unfair for those in the back of the line. Why can't we get a handle on
take-off priorities, respect the take-off corridor, says a lot about the way
Brazilians do things. David Brito on his Wills Wing T2C wins the day followed so
closely by Oleg - who actually had the fastest time - and by Carlinhos Niemeyer,
both on the new Aeros Combat 12.7C.

Task 2: what turned out to be the best day of the week had blue skies and also a
difficult wind direction for the task committee, who decided on a 105Km dogleg
with the one waypoint to help keep pilots away from Poços the Caldas airspace.
The route had scarce landings for the 1st third of the distance, and then huge
LZ's from the 2nd third on. As the day progressed, conditions improved to a 3000
meters ceiling and most pilots made goal, with leading squad speeds in the
50Km/h area. Oleg wins the day followed by Niemeyer and Andre Wolf who puts his
Moyes RX in the top 3.

Task 3: a survival task. Despite having the best call for the weather,
conditions didn't materialize, probably due to a thick dry haze trapped under
the inversion that filtered some of the heat that was supposed to break the
inversion. Stunned pilots who were told to expect 3,400 meter ceilings for an
ambitious 115Km triangle had instead to struggle for one hour at launch level. A
large contingent of those who get away from the ridge on the start go down in
the bomb out zone. Nobody makes goal, but the task is worth 752 points reminding
us how important it is to fight hard in the weak days! Marcelo Moikano on
Niemeyer´s last year Aeros Combat GT flies the furthest, just 1 mile ahead of
Oleg, and then Sergio Galvas on the Wills Wing T2C.

The top ten in the Open Class had 5 Wills Wing T2Cs, 2 Moyes Rxs, 2 Aeros Combat
12.7Cs and 1 Laminar.

The most impressive performance, as most pilots seemed to agree, was by the new
Aeros. Oleg explained, to quite a few interested pilots, some of the refinements
he made to the project, like the new oval tapered carbon leading edge, more
flexible in vertical loads, resulting in more flexible wing tips.

He compares this to flying long vs. short winged sailplanes. In bumpy air, a
shorter winged sailplanes reacts a lot harder on the pilot than the modern long
winged very high aspect-ratio sailplanes, which smooth out the turbulence by
"flapping" their wingtips.

Talking about higher aspect-ratio, the chord in the new Aeros is so short that
the longest rib measures about floor to chin. Carlos Niemeyer says this glider
is the easiest to turn he's ever flown and that gliding also requires less
effort due to the traveling CG. Niemeyer put it this way "I already loved last
year's model, but now I'm very surprised. This is a whole new concept of
hang-glider."