Wills Wing October 1997 Info Bulletin

Large ULTRA SPORT 166 Released

The vehicle test and flight test documentation has been completed on the large Ultra Sport, and we are now accepting orders. We expect to present the HGMA certification package on November 3rd. Delivery of the first production units is expected to be in early November.

The Ultra Sport 166 was designed to incorporate the best qualities of the Spectrum, Super Sport, and HP AT series in one model. You can expect best glide performance (VG tight) between that of a Super Sport 163 and HP AT 158. The handling is not as light as a Spectrum, but the Ultra Sport is less subject to roll/yaw oscillations when flying fast. Compared to the Super Sport 163, HP AT 158 and Spectrum 165, the 166 Ultra Sport has better climb performance with heavy pilots (based on flight comparisons with a 240# pilot who owns an HP AT 158). The 166 has very nice qualitative handling—it tracks well in thermals, has moderate damping on all axes and is quite easy to land.

Like the 147 Ultra Sport, the 166 comes standard with streamlined kingpost and downtubes and with a speed bar base tube. Sail pattern choices are the same as the US 147.

We believe that for pilot body weights of 175 or less, the 147 Ultra Sport is the better size. For pilot body weights of 200 or more, the 166 is clearly recommended. For pilots in between these weights, it is a matter of personal preference; it’s a pretty even trade-off between better marginal conditions sink rate on the 166, and more speed and snappier handling on the 147.

The introductory retail price is $3975.

Ultra Sport 166 specs

Extra Cost Ultra Sport Options

The Ultra Sport Is Not A Novice Pilot’s Glider

We have talked to several customers that were sold an Ultra Sport immediately after achieving their USHGA Novice rating. One got hurt and the other got scared because they had inadequate skills to land the glider. We do not recommend selling the Ultra Sport to pilots with Novice level skills. We realize that a few gifted student pilots, given the right supervision, could be transitioned into an Ultra Sport, but generally it is a bad idea.

Florida Fly-In and Dealer Seminar

Wills Wing turns twenty-five years old in February!

As part of our 25th anniversary celebration, Wallaby Ranch will be helping us host a fly-in February 18th through 25th, and a dealer seminar on February 21st. “The Ranch” is a great aerotow flight park located only ten miles from Disney World, just outside Orlando Florida. Factory demos of our entire product line will be available for dealers to fly from February 18th through the 25th. If you don’t already have your aero-tow sign off, this is a great opportunity to get it.

During the dealer seminar on Saturday the 21st, the Wills Wing staff will be offering instruction on stability system maintenance, including maintenance of the new stability systems on the Fusion, as well as tips on glider tuning and flight testing.

Pat Denevan will do a seminar on his Nintendo 64 ™ based virtual reality flight simulator. Pat has signed up over 100 students in a single month using his simulator as a sales tool! Pat will be selling complete simulators, and plans to build your own.

Orlando is a famous vacation destination, so bring the family for a Florida vacation in February. We suggest that you make hotel and airline reservations soon to be sure you get there for a reasonable price.

Call the numbers below and be sure to ask for the Wallaby Ranch – Wills Wing discount.
Holiday Express (941) 424-2120 ($45.00 – $69.00 per night)
Days Inn (941) 424-2596 ($63.00 per night)

Fusion Wins Again And Again!

The Fusion dominated the U.S. competition scene in 1997 winning three of the four major points meets and placing second and third in the one it didn’t win. Jim Lee took first at Sandia, Chris Arai won the US Nationals, (Wills Wing’s sixth consecutive U.S. National Championship), and won King Mountain (with Jim second)! Rob Kells won the World Air Games Telluride Speed Gliding contest (with Jim second), and the Morningside glide angle contest. In Canada, Willi Muller took the title of Canadian National Champion while his son Chris took first place in speed gliding. (Rob averaged 15.07 to 1 in the glide angle contest! He flew with a Jim Lee – Wingover Composites base tube, a clean harness, stripped cables, a faired helmet and lowered sprogs. As near as we can tell, a stock FUSION gets about 14 to 1!) Pete Lehman set a new Eastern U.S. Distance Record with a remarkable flight of 182 miles on his Fusion.

In Europe, Chris Arai took second at the highly competitive Bassano Meet, and Fusions swept the top three places at the Ludesch Open. In South America, Fusions took first and second in the Columbian National Championships. See our ad in the October issue of Hang Gliding Magazine for details.

With its competition and cross country record this year, the Fusion has clearly established itself as a leader in performance. As is always the case, the bulk of the credit for these accomplishments belongs properly to the pilots themselves, but even top pilots cannot win this consistently without the best in performance and handling, or without the highest level of confidence in their equipment. We know that issues of strength and stability are of particular concern to pilots with regard to the new generation of “topless” gliders, and we also recognize that no design is likely to be immune from all possible mishaps when flown in the big air that characterizes modern hang gliding competition. Still, we are happy to report that with 100 Fusions flying, there have been no reported tumbles or structural failures to date.

New FUSION Spars

The first 100 Fusions were built with rectangular cross section spars made by Erik Raymond of Solar Flight Research. While we were very happy with the performance of these spars, in the end they proved too costly and time consuming to produce. As a result, the number of Fusions we could produce was limited. Designer Steve Pearson has developed a new tapered cylindrical spar which will be fitted on all new Fusions produced from this point forward. All testing for the filing of the HGMA addendum covering the new spars has been completed, and we expect to file the documentation on November 3rd. The weight, strength, performance and handling of the glider are unchanged.

Free FUSION Winglets Until November 30th!

All FUSIONs ordered between October 1st and November 30th will include the standard wing tip fairings AND a free set of the latest style winglets. This is a $310 retail option included free to entice your customers (or you) to buy a FUSION now. This offer only applies to FUSION orders placed on or after October 1st, for which we receive $2000 deposits by November 30th. To get the free winglets you must take delivery of the glider when it is ready.

Service and Technical

Bridle Adjustment For Older Gliders – See Also: 970702 – Reflex Bridle Adjustment and Maintenance

Although we have stressed in our owner’s manuals for years the need to actively maintain proper bridle adjustment, it has become clear to us that this is not being adequately addressed on older gliders in the field. Many pilots assume that they should never change or adjust anything on their glider, and prefer instead to leave it “in the factory settings.”

The problem with this is that a glider which is “left in the factory settings” does not, in fact, remain in a proper state of adjustment. With respect to reflex bridles, the glider will, all by itself, go out of adjustment to the point where it will no longer have the original pitching moment. In some cases, it may not even have a positive pitching moment at the critical angles of attack near zero lift.

There are several mechanisms responsible for this, but the most significant is shrinkage of the sail along the trailing edge, which significantly lowers the bridles. In more advanced cases of this, the traditional method of adjusting the bridles by raising the bridle ring (either by installing a shorter pigtail or by adjusting the compensator setting) is insufficient to regain the original bridle adjustment and stability levels. The reason is that the amount of sail shrinkage is greater over the greater distance to a further outboard bridle, which lowers the outboard bridles more, and results in the requirement that the further outboard bridles be raised more than the inboard ones to regain the original adjustment.

Recently we conducted a vehicle pitch test series on a HPAT 158 with about 400 hours on it. Prior to making any bridle adjustments, we found that the glider retained a positive pitching moment at VG loose, though the pitching moment curve had a few areas where it failed to meet HGMA minimum requirements. At VG tight the situation was dramatically worse _ the glider actually had a negative pitching moment at near zero lift angles of attack. After adjusting the bridles to the proper “just slack in (one G) flight at min sink” criteria, the glider passed all the HGMA pitching standards under which it was originally certified, as well as the somewhat more stringent standards in effect today. However, in order to achieve this adjustment, it was necessary to shorten the outer bridle cables by more than one inch _ a level of adjustment that was far outside the range of adjustment provided by the compensator.

This is a good news _ bad news story. The good news is that by re-adjusting the bridles to the proper settings, a very satisfactory pitching moment could be recovered. The other good news is that this glider had been flown for hundreds of hours in mid-day, mid-summer thermals with these grossly mal-adjusted bridles, and had never had a tumble, or even any incident which indicated any level of questionable stability to the pilot. The bad news is that this glider was owned by a very knowledgeable pilot with direct local access to the factory and still had not been maintained properly. The other bad news is that the normal methods for adjusting the bridles would not have been adequate to do the job properly. The final bad news is that these two observations indicate the high likelihood that there are many other gliders in the field with the same problem.

Wills Wing is recommending that all pilots of Wills Wing gliders carefully check their bridles against the proper “just slack” criteria. A Technical Bulletin which was first published this past July is included which covers the inspection procedures in detail. What is not covered in the bulletin is the method for correcting bridles where the adjustment required is beyond the range provided for by the normal method of raising the bridle ring. We have found the most effective method to adjust bridles which are grossly out of adjustment due to sail shrinkage to be to shim the bridles from below the sail. What is needed is short pieces of tubing which are larger in outside diameter than the hole in the bridle grommet, and smaller in inside diameter than the bridle ball. Pieces of 3/8″ or 10mm batten tubing work well, as will any ½” tubing with .065″ or greater wall thickness. If you cut pieces to ¼”, ½” and 1″ lengths, you can easily make adjustments in ¼” increments using no more than three shims to obtain up to 2.5″ of adjustment. Wills Wing will provide a supply of these shims to anyone on request. By removing the bridle ball, sliding the tubing shim over the cable below the sail, and re-installing the ball, you can shorten the cable in calibrated amounts. Since it is difficult to sight the bridles accurately in flight unless you have a lot of practice at it, the most accurate way to achieve the “just slack” adjustment is to actually go a little too far, and adjust the bridles to the point of being snug (see the Technical Bulletin for descriptions of how to sight the bridles). Then by backing off ¼ to ½ inch from “snug” you will have “just slack.” Use caution when making these adjustments, because as the bridles become tight, the glider’s handling will deteriorate and the pitch trim will change. Once the proper bridle adjustment is achieved using the shims, the pilot can order a custom made replacement bridle set fabricated to the proper dimensions, by specifying the total length of shims used to correct each bridle.

We will be publishing this information in the hang gliding media. We encourage you to make precise bridle adjustment a part of all annuals and super pre-flights, and to help your customers figure out how to conduct this maintenance on their own gliders. The key is to get the word out at club meetings and flying sites so that pilots take this maintenance seriously, just like replacing bottom side wires and hang loops.

FUSION Stability System Adjustments

Like bridle equipped gliders, the Fusion’s stability systems must also be properly and continuously maintained. There are instructions in the FUSION Owner’s Manual on how to adjust the stability system. In the case of an internal washout support system such as the Fusion uses, sail shrinkage is probably not much of a factor.

However the cables which support the sprogs are under very high loads, and will stretch. Also, the leading edges are under high torsional loads, and the connections will seat over time as the glider is subjected to negative loads by being tail into the wind or dropped on the base tube during landing. We have found that the sprogs on one Fusion lowered themselves in the field by as much as three inches in a matter of one flying season. One other disadvantage on the Fusion is that you can’t see the sprog adjustment in flight. One advantage is that, unlike bridles, the sprogs on the Fusion do actively affect the glider’s pitch bar pressure and maximum steady state top speed when flown VG tight. If you can maintain a steady state speed in excess of 60 mph indicated (prone pilot pulling in slowly to a position of pilot full forward, but not hunched or balled up over the bar), it is likely that your sprogs are too low. Also, if you do not have solid, consistent return to trim bar pressure (other than momentary reductions due to significant turbulence bumps) when flying at maximum steady state speed as described above, it is likely your sprogs are set too low, and it is certain that something is not correct.

We have developed an easier “in the field” way to check the sprog height than the method we use in the shop when the glider is assembled. It is important that this be checked every 20 flight hours, or after the glider has been subjected to any significant negative load. Set up the glider completely as if you were going to fly it. Set the VG to loose. With the control bar resting on the ground, place two similar objects of equal height under the rear ends of the leading edges. You can use chairs or any similar object that is tall enough to raise the rear keel about six to eighteen inches off the ground while the glider rests on the basetube. The purpose of this is to lift the frame against the bottom side wires, so that the wires go snug. String a piece of sewing thread tightly from one #4 batten to the other, over the top of the keel. (The straight, plug on tip batten is the number one batten; the number four batten is the one immediately adjacent to the sprog). The string should be at least 5 ½” above the keel tube. If it is not, follow the procedure in the manual for changing the adjustment on the sprogs. Note: if you have a turn in the glider that shows up only at VGT at higher speeds, or is worse in that condition, it is likely caused by the sprog on the side the glider is turning towards being adjusted higher than the other. If overall adjustment is proper, raise one and lower the other to correct.

FUSION Car Top Mounting

Note: This was only recommended for the square-spar Fusions (the first 100 made)

Please advise your FUSION customers to mount the glider on the rack zipper down (spars up). New versions of the Owner’s Manual will cover this, but the early manuals did not. We have not had reported damage on any spars but we think it is better to have the leading edges resting on the rack supports instead of the spars.

Cracked Rear Leading Edge Slots

A few dealers have informed us that they are finding cracks in the slot in rear leading edges where it engages with the front leading edge pin. This applies to any of our gliders that use slotted rear leading edges. We believe that this damage is caused by dragging a tip on landing and not by normal flight loads. We have never cracked this slot in any of our load tests, which go well beyond the loads seen in normal flight. Please be sure to check the rear leading edge slots when you do tear downs on WW gliders.

Tight Inboard Batten / Bad Handling

Batten strings on any battens inboard of the crossbar leading edge junction on any Wills Wing glider should never be tighter than necessary to just begin to tension the sail. Overly tight batten strings in this inboard area of the sail will significantly stiffen the handling. This is another of those issues where leaving the glider “in the factory settings” is the wrong thing to do, because both the sail and the batten strings tend to shrink, tightening this important adjustment. We see and fix gliders in the field all the time that have this problem.

Please take the time to check those batten tensions when you see an older Wills Wing glider on the hill. The pilots will really appreciate it!

We have also included three additional new Technical Bulletins with this dealer bulletin. Please take the time to read them and review them with your staff, and with any customers to whom they may apply.

Best Year In Years!

It looks like this will be our best sales season in five years! We thank you for your support and welcome your suggestions!

Hope to see you in Florida!
Please Fly Safely!
The Wills Wing Crew

Last Modified: 3 May, 2001