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Welcome
to the new evolution of king posted hang gliders - the Moyes Litesport.
The Litesport performs similarly to a non-kingposted glider, but handles
like an intermediate glider, making it suitable for many pilots whether
competitive or recreational. The Litesport design and development has
been enhanced from our experience and knowledge of the Litespeed. Gerolf
Heinrichs, our design engineer, has utilised many of the technical advantages
of the Litespeed to design what we believe to be the best king posted
glider in the world.
The Litesport's performance is attributed to the thick leading edge
tube, fipeglass wing tips, and the CAD/CAM design and manufactured sail,
providing a clean and tight leading edge surface for high speed glides.
The Litesport uses a 7075 alloy frame with the 62mm (2 7/16in) leading
edge from the Litespeed. The thicker and stiffer tubing assists with
leading edge wind deflection experienced at high speed as well as providing
a sturdy mounting point for the dive strut.
The sail is designed and manufactured with the same CAD/CAM system
used for the Litespeed. The sail is precision cut and assembled, providing
an extremely smooth and clean wing surface. The Litesport's standard
sail is constructed from Powerib (Dacron). Alternatively, a high performance
PX10 Mylar sail is available.
The Litesport's kingpost adopts a sophisticated G-String compensation
system, which requires only one luff line and a single dive stick to
minimise drag and weight. As the VG is pulled on, the kingpost mounting
point for the top side wires is lowered. The single luff line is secured
to the top side wire instead of the kingpost as with conventional gliders.
Therefore as the VG is applied, the trailing edge of the sail is lowered
to further enhance the gliders performance. Despite the extra functionality,
the VG system is extremely easy to operate.
The mounting point of the luff line is set 250mm forward of the trailing
edge, providing a more reliable reflex action from the luff line. On
most kingpost gliders when the luff lines apply pressure, the trailing
edge curls up. With the Litesport's system, the trailing edge is raised
evenly, which has proved favourable during certification testing.
The diverse range provided by the VG and G-string systems are a key
feature of the Moyes Litesport. When the VG is off, they provide a loose,
flexible wing with a raised trailing edge for launches, landings and
thermalling. When the VG is applied, they provide a tight, flat sail
for high speed glides. It is these key features, which make the Moyes
Litesport easy to handle, yet provide a comparable glide with most non-kingposted
gliders up to 65km/h (40mph).
The superior handling of the Litesport is also complemented by the
low wing tip inertia due to the gliders low weight design. As less hardware
is used in the wings (ie. one dive strut and one luff line only) the
glider feels more responsive, easier to turn and even easier to straighten.
As with all Moyes gliders, safety is an integral part of the Litesport
design. Glider stability is enhanced with a slightly increased sweep
angle, inbuilt sail twist and advanced dive strut design. The positioning
of the luff line in from the trailing edge also offers more reliable
reflex when required.
The glider comes standard with aerodynamic uprights and a standard
speed bar with rubber grips. The Litesport can be optionally fitted
with a Fast base bar or the Zoom A-frame.
Despite being a new glider, the Litesport has already proven itself
in competition, even against non-kingposted gliders. Gerolf Heinrichs
won the last day at the Australian Open 2002 and Jon Durand Jnr won
the entire Australian NSW State Championships 2002 flying the Litesport.
The kingpost is back! |