http://moyes.com.au/productdetail.asp?ID=49

With results. So that makes it very hard for them to market the Moyes Litesport (or the Malibu either). Pilots don't naturally choose to fly the Litesport (sport not speed after all) in high level competitions, so there is very little results to point to.

Recognizing this "problem," Gerolf was very smart to get me to fly his Litesport even though I didn't see that at first (see here). He knew that the Litesport would get a lot of coverage through the Oz Report, but in my mind, the question was would it be positive coverage or would the glider send me into a tail spin.

I had done pretty well in the last two Forbes Flatlands earning enough points to help me make it on the US National team. I wanted to keep earning those good points against strong world class competition in an flying area that really suited my disposition. So I was reluctant to try an "inferior" glider at first, but then came around to give it a go after a few days of contemplation.

Well it turns out that Gerolf really knew his glider, as well he should. The Litesport proved to be quite up to the task of taking on the toplesses and doing well against all but the fastest pilots.

As you have seen in recent articles the Litesport glided competitively against the Litespeed, which was a big surprise to the Litespeed pilots with whom I glided and undoubtedly a big surprise to many Oz Report readers. The only issue I noted was that I could not get the Litesport to go into the sixty and seventy mph range on final glide and I'm still wondering if I have not rocked down enough.

The Litesport proved itself in thermals climbing well, sometimes through other pilots on topless gliders (all the pilots I was flying against were flying topless gliders). It was easy to thermal and not once did I have the glider scare me in any way. I was able to thermal out with confidence from 700' AGL when Kenji on an Aeros was not able to do so when we were in the same thermal and he only a few feet below me.

In that same area Julia felt that the air was too rough at 1,500' while thermaling and she decided to go and land. Perhaps the Litesport is more able to absorb the shocks and not transmit them to the pilot, so I was able to be much less stressed.

It has a very wide range of bar positions based on the VG setting and the string was easy to pull and set at full VG. Whenever I noticed myself pulling back on the bar, I just pulled in the VG to get rid of any effort. I didn't suffer any fatigue flying the glider.

The glider was easy to land and stable on approach even in very windy conditions. It flared without any problem.

In many pilots' minds my gliding and results raised the question of why have we gone to the topless gliders when the performance of the Litesport is so close.

 I finished in the top ten at Forbes compared to excellent competition and this is a big improvement from finishes in the teens the previous years.

We'll see how things go as I head for the Bogong Cup and then the NSW State Titles.