[sg]

Vote and note your reasons.

[theTodd]

I voted Wills Wing because I like their articles on their web site. I want to get a discovery flight soon. I am in the Houston area. = )

[CHassan]

I had to Vote WW. I fly a Sport 2 and love every bit of it.

Having said that. While learning I loved flying the Aeros target. While waiting on my Sport 2 to arrive, I had a ball flying a Moyes Xtralite. (After I got past the PIO issues).

I've yet to fly a glider I don't like flying, and guess it will take me awhile to find one!

[sg]

Maybe its bad luck, but the only gliders ive had problems with are WW. I aerotowed an ultrasport once, and it was hell on tow. PIO's easily, but I already knew that, and the bar pressure was so high I was exhausted by the time I pinned off.

Then I purchased a Tandem Falcon 2, and it came with 2 defects. 1 being the wrong length side wires which made it fly like total crap, and the other being the pull back back wires being crossed behind the king post.

So not impressed with WW so far. But they did notify me of the side wire defect and quickly mailed me side wires and offered to replace them, so good service. But not worth the drive, so I did the work myself which was a pain.

[T2]

WW of course, Anything else is just a hangglider..
Very innovative Designs with Great! service.....

Just because one may fly a glider that wins in comps
doesn't make that a great glider or even one from a
Great Glider Company...

Its the people who design, build, then stand behind their Name
who make a GREAT product and a GREAT Company......
WW does both....

I've owned 5 gliders in my time and all but one was a WW...
I can honesly say that I have never had a problem getting parts
when needed.... And all but one of my gliders were perfect right
out of the box... The one exception was exchanged with no problem..


I fly for fun... If I own a wing thats always giving me problems or I have
to deal with an importer whos only interest in me is in making a $ Then
my fun just flew out the window..... I've seen this happen more than
once with the inport wings...

For my time and money I want a quality product thats backed by GREAT! service and people who care...
I'll Pick WW for that type of service any day...

[crumpy]

Voted Airborne... Well it had to be that or Moyes didn't it? I am an Aussie!

[EWDesire]

Hey, you don't mention my favorite brand in your list - hard to vote that way Anyway, after trying out 8 different gliders, among them Wills Wing and Airborne types, I got hooked after flying Enterprise Wings' Foil Combat and now I am a happy owner of two Desires. I assume it'll be my last hang glider before switching to Atos as soon as I can afford it.
Apart from the weight of the Australian aluminum I have nothing to complain about and I don't mind flying stone age tech gliders as long as they are as agile as possible and have a sturdy hardware. Both plus good looks, acceptable gliding performance and cheap availability of used older gliders (an almost brand new Desire cost 500 Euros one year ago, a more used one 250 Euros this year) made me happy with EW. Not to mention the name of the brand - seriously, who can resist to soar under the name of "Enterprise Wings" - a name that made my skin prickle with excitement when I was a small kid. Irrational thoughts are always part of the fun, aren't they?

[chickenhawk]

John Heiney designed some great hang gliders...they fly well...and built like a tank. So put my vote down for Altair/UP

[mahomedia]

I voted Aeros.

I'm flying with Discus. I'm at the lower weight limit for the Discus 14 and added 4-5kg balast. Now taking of, flying and landing is very funny for me.

Wing tip's and washout tubes are adjustable for performance. I adjusted it and now gliding better. Trim speed increased at higher VG settings.
Thermalling is a piece of cake

Discus is not a top performance hangglider but fits my needs. Landing small areas, taking of stony hills and acceptable gliding performance.

Thank you Aeros...

[soren_ladegaard]

What about gliders from http://www.finsterwalder-charly.de/?

[sg]

[Pilot 3D]

I've flown almost 300 gliders, (all but 2 were flex wings) several research prototypes, and just about every brand of equipment and glider made since 1975 (most of which are no longer around), owned 15 gliders of 5 brands, harnesses from 6 different makers, and parachutes of 4 different brands, (yes, used one when my mental parachute inexplicably failed) not to mention all the aftermarket accessories, instruments, helmets, etc. Flew most of the total of them, as an employee at UP and WW during the 1980s.

I'll be the first to admit that it might be easy for anyone to say that I'm biased. One of the many things that a test pilot must learn, in evaluative terms, whether it's cool-exotic-sounding avant guarde competition R & D or plain old crunch 'n' grind production monitoring-tuning-trouble shooting, is to at least try your best to be as impartially objective as your personality allows.

I flew mostly UP equipment from 1979, mostly Wills equipment from about late 1984, but since finally giving up the Ram Air 146 in the summer of 1999, I had owned and flown various Aeros gliders 90+% of the time. Just returned to Wills this summer for the T2 144. Having tried most of the high performance wings on the market in recent years, I'm confident in my decision.

Taking into consideration the comprehensive product lines for the full range of peoples' levels in the sport, structural and aerodynamic integrity, craftsmanship, as well as service, I've found day in, day out, decade in, decade out, a couple of things:

The sport's evolution has been naturally selective in numerous ways, to say the least. Unlike the '70s, there really are no poor equipment manufacturers or importers out there any more. (Although, frankly, there are a few dubious dealers and instructors.) The present hang gliding industry is a remarkably professionally dedicated, prolifically creative, diligent group as whole.

For such an esoteric cottage industry community, it's marvelous that there's enough variety of good safe equipment out there, new and used, to suit the taste and budget of practically anyone who is serious enough about it to put up the effort to do things properly.

All that said, in my opinion, it seems that it's not easy for some people who believe that they're knowledgeable to argue plausibly against the 34 year history of my veneral favorite wing mine, the good old "Won't Wang Gang" at Wills Wing.

Of course folks will always kibitz and argue anyway... part of the comraderie and fun of our flying community. As small as this sport is these days, there's still room for plenty of different opinionated ideas and room to fly different equipment.

See you in the air...

[sg]

Quote from Aaron Swepston on the T2

[rallyant]

[sg]

They are quite popular on their home turf, over seas.

As for aerobatics, I think topless gliders have proven themselves quite well. That was an early concern, but I havent seen any issues.

[soren_ladegaard]

I've created this list of hang glider manufactures on my (Danish) website www.drageflyvning.dk/producenter/page.html

Maybe the poll should be updated to include as many brands as possible?

Just a thought

[HuttoRhino]

I voted WW because that is all that I have flown!!

[the_end]

I voted WW because i love my Sport 2. Well made, good looking and above all that it really flies well and i feel very confident in it's good manors.

I think this poll will mostly show where the people who vote comes from. I've noticed that at least in europe different brands are more or less popular in different locations. Probably depending on the nationality of the brand and the local dealers popularity and service level.

For example flying in france you do see a lot of Tecmas, La Mouettes etc while in Italy and Austria you see lots of Icaros and so on. On some places a particular dealer has been very active and you see lots of wings by the brand he sells.

Magnus

[sg]

So true. Wills Wing will be #1 around here since most the guys are U.S. pilots.

[HGXC]

I voted for the ATOS because its simply the best performing glider over the longest period of time of any glider model on record. It continues to dominate over 6 years since its introduction, longer then the comet, m ore completely then the sensor 510.

It is the easiest high performance glider to fly, represents the most technological breakthroughs.