Stealth

The Wills Wing T2 with UVM Mylar sail cloth (Highland Aerosports, Ridgely, Maryland, USA)

David Glover wrote to Wills Wing on Tuesday:

I have heard from a number of tug pilots and hang glider pilots that the all gray cloth gliders with the gray leading edges are very difficult to see and there have been numerous close call mid-airs.  Just an fyi these are good pilots saying this.

I myself haven't had this problem with other Wills Wing T2's when I'm flying with them.

Steven Pearson <Steve> the designer at Wills Wing writes back:

Thanks for the feedback.  I'm aware of the problem (I test-fly with UVM gliders every week) and we do our best to let everyone who's considering UVM know about it.  Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it short of discontinuing the fabric--unlike conventional Mylar there is no color option for this special film (for example, 'smoke' Mylar is a cosmetic option).  I'm reluctant to discontinue it because UVM has twice the lifespan of any other Mylar laminate.

Mike Meier <Mike> writes with a possible solution:

One thing we have done for people, and are happy to do at no charge on new glider orders, is to offer a contrasting nose cone in some more visible color.  Since the nose cone can easily be replaced, it doesn't matter if it deteriorates before the remainder of the sail.  Pilots who already own gliders with the UVM material could, if they wished, replace their nose cones with something more visible.

We don't recommend applying stickers to the leading edge as a solution, as we have found in the past that even the very slight disruption in airflow that can occur due a a slightly raised edge on an applied sticker can cause a noticeable premature stall and stall hysteresis on a high performance glider.

Discuss Stealth at the Oz Report forum   link»