| Comments |
Mark Anderson
26/08/2008 |
The Shark was produced by Pacific Kites in New Zealand probably in 1982 and 1983. It had no keel pocket and the double surface was about 80 or 90%. I think only a few were made and it was never fully developed. Performance was good but handling was not.
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19/06/2011 |
Great in a straight line - really hard to turn - that is it wanted to keep on going straight.Saw a friend almost fly a borrowed Shark into a poplar tree because of this while setting up his landing.He landed OK.
Turning was improved by upper wing spoilers - which also could be used for air brakes
However the Shark made one awesome trike wing.
Saw a trike that had a 440cc engine -and that thing was a awesome beast of a machine.
This was of course in the 80's...
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25/06/2011 |
hile surfing the net recently i saw this picture of my glider! The site was the 1700 ft launch at the Paeroa Range near Rotorua, NZ. That was obviously a windy day with 3 wire men. I think i went backwards that day hence the initial shot still battling back to the ridge face directly after launch. would love higher res images for album.
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27/03/2020 |
I see you have deleted my comments requesting a correction to the manufacturer of this glider......I know it is a bad time for everyone concerned but The Shark was built by Graeme and Warren Bird Of Flight Sails New Zealand Ltd......Pacific Kites built the Vampyr and Lancer .......whilst Flight Sails built the Santanna (An improved Lancer) followed by the Sabre (which was an Atlas type Clone) and lastly the Shark......I know because I worked at their factory making Airframes and Warren Bird was my flatmate and still is my good pal working in the Specialist sport clothing trade now.....Graeme is a design consultant in Santa Barbara.....and has written the full story on how the Shark came to be and these will be published in X Country magazine and Skywings Magazine shortly .....which will show up your inaccuracies in your website.....please do us the courtesy of amending and adding a new manufacturer I.E. Flight Sails NZ and if you do , I will send you all the photos you need to complete this posting .....kind regards Steve Pionk
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27/03/2020 |
Hi Jutte......just FYI......I flew the Shark In NZ for three years and later shipped her back to the UK where I continued to fly her ,Tow , ridge soar , Xcountry.....etc etc......the secret to flying her well and making her turn was to fly it fast.....that meant you could'nt treat it like a floater. She had great glide,speed and sink rate but she also required a good experienced pilot to fly her well.....which pretty much proves that a poor inexperienced pilot will not improve his flying skills by jumping onto a hot ship....of course time have changed now and hot ships like the Wills TC2/T3 and Moyes Litespeed RX Pro are better machines for improving pilots to move on to......and probably more forgiving......keep well all.....the wind is picking up!!!
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12/04/2020 |
I agree on the shark comments and know Graeme and Warren well.... I remember when Graeme won the hang gliding world championship on one in the controlled surface category....it was a pretty amazing kite and like most of Graeme’s designs vey cutting edge.
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25/05/2020 |
Designed by Warren Bird with help from Bob Martin. I had the first production Shark and they were gradually de-tuned from then on to try to improve the handling. Amazing glide but it could lock into straight flight and it could be frightening. Once we put the spoilers on that helped. This was the first Delta to beat the Manta Fledgling when flown by Graeme Bird at the 1981 World Champs in Japan.
I put a British Tri-pacer trike, 330cc motor on mine and it made an impressive microlight. I flew it across Foveaux Strait in the first crossing by a microlight in 1981. It was an impressive machine, the sail was beautiful but the handling was horrifying at times. Sometimes it would turn and sometimes it wouldn't.
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