Glider Review: Aeros Target 16.2

by Marc Fink

Over the past few years I've noticed that several of my very experienced pilot friends have been purchasing single-surfaced entry level gliders and have been subsequently transformed into personages that can only be described as giggling teenagers sneaking around with secrets to hide.

Well, their conspiratorial secrets can no longer be hidden: They have been proving that in many OTB downwind instances a single surface low performance glider can equal or exceed the distances obtained on the latest super ships. What's more, they are having a boatload of fun doing it with the low-effort, low-stress demands of an entry level glider.

Being a long time paraglider pilot none of this is surprising to me, and I have spent the past couple of years actively flying several of latest entry level gliders with an eye towards eventually getting one for myself. Until recently I was getting ready to snare an Eagle from Wills, but a visit to Ridgley (along with some stellar recent flights by Mitch Shipley) made me join the fun-and-grins set with the purchase of a Target 16.2 (Sonny says its close to a 180).

First things first: The glider assembly from the factory is very quick and straightforward, you simply slide the outer LE into its pop-pin hole and slip the sail end plug strap on. This glider is designed to travel well--the LE's and battens can be broken down so that the entire package becomes a neat little bundle of about 6 ft and can be checked in as regular luggage on a plane. Other niceties: the glider comes equipped standard with an anodized speedbar which attaches with pushpins The base tube also sports a couple of rubber bumpers which keep the tube off the ground and can also position wheels if used. Also quite thoughtful, a spare downtube and LE section are included--never seen that before with any glider manufacturer. A generous assortment of pads cover everything and the glider bag is really an XC bag which compacts down to a space not much larger than what a standard pad on another glider would take up. Two quips I do have, however, about the design/assembly: attachment of the luffline bridle requires an effort pulling back the kingpost--this is a negative for the more diminutive pilot. The other beef I have is the flying wire attachment to the bottom of the downtubes--in this day and age of quick-change downtubes I really dislike this feature on any glider – no big deal if you don't munch a tube, I guess. OK, on to the flying stuff...

It was quite strong and 90 cross initially at Highland on Sunday, perhaps not the best conditions for towing a single surface entry level glider. As it turns out, my fears were pretty much baseless, the glider is very easy to tow and recovers its composure easily and quickly when bashed about by errant cross-gusts and thermals. For the first time in recent memory I was able to relax and gently push out instead of pulling in all the time on tow. This glider gets an A+ for towing behavior.

Upon release the glider handles pretty much exactly like the Falcon--the industry yardstick for the class of glider. I could slow way down to "paraglider emulation mush mode" to make the best of the marginal zero-sink we had yesterday. However, the major advantage the Target has over the Falcon (at least in my opinion) becomes apparent when you pull-in and fly into the wind, the Target doesn't sink as fast and penetrates very well for a single surface glider. For this reason, I believe the Target is really closer to an Eagle in performance than a Falcon.

Landing the Target is very easy for the most part--I had some minor difficulty in that "topless memory" had me consistently setting up too far back and ending up short. Again, the Target felt more like the Eagle than a Falcon in the landing department. I didn't pound on any of my three flights, but I did twice get the glider to nose-over when I turned it tail to the wind while walking it--something I think you need to watch out for. I suspect it has something to do with the pronounced sweep up at the trailing edge where the lufflines attach to the trailing edge.

I ended the day with that tell-tale silly grin on my face--I believe that the Target is likely the best-of-class for an entry-level single surface glider.