What Class to fly?

After deciding to compete in the World's next summer the first decision was whether to stick with the Standard class and fly an LS8 - a familiar ship, but in the Mountainous terrain around Rieti, Italy or to fly the flatlands in the 15 metre class around Luesse, Germany.

I decided that it would be better to fly in flatland conditions in the 15 metre class in Luesse. It has been four years since I sold my LS6 and competed in the 15 metre class, but with 11 years of flying in the ASW-20 and LS6 in the 15 metre class I figured that the flap hand would remember what to do.

I decided that an ASW-27 would be my best bet instead of a Ventus 2 for the Worlds. I have already flown a 27 and found it comfortable to fly and an easy transition. I have heard that the Ventus is not so intuitive.


So Jerzy and I borrowed Walter Weir's ASW-27 (2W) for the months of August and September and both managed to put in a lot of time to get accustomed to the ship. One day in September I went out for a training run with Joerg in his LS8 and me in 2W. Joerg and I typically fly together in our LS8's and are pretty evenly matched, so I was pleased to see that we were still flying about the same for most of the flight, but the 27 did pull away from the LS8 on the run.

All in all it was a good comparison!