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Buying Used Equipment PDF Print E-mail

 

Buying used is (provided you buy the right thing) – a much cheaper route into the sport.

  

Wings

 

At the cheapest end, a sound but well used wing of perhaps 6 or 7 years old might be as little as £400-£500 and should have at least a year or two’s useful life left I it. A used harness with protection and carabiners will cost somewhere around £150-200.

 

At the other end of the scale you might pick up an ex-demo wing or a current model with just a few hours on it for £300-£400 less than the new retail price.

 

Your life will (quite literally) depend on the integrity of your canopy! This is well worth remembering and is the reason you should never ever be tempted to buy a high performance wing just because it is cheap or looks good if you are a beginner. 

 

Never buy a wing unless the seller knows all about it and can tell you its full history.

 

The problems associated with used wings are that they have a shorter life, will probably offer less performance and in some cases less security, and your choice is limited to what is available in your size at the time.  There are some bargains to be had but you may have to compromise on the exact model you choose.

 

It is critical that you never buy a used wing without a recent independent service. Every year we (and other dealers) are asked to trade in wings that prove to be un-airworthy when we have them checked.  Some are thrown away, some the owners want back, so maybe they will try to sell them to you next!!

 

All Northern’s used wings are sold with a service report and we often have around 40 gliders in stock, so you are assured of a good choice.

 

The advantages of buying a used glider from us, rather than privately are:

  • If you find you don't like it - we'll change it!
  • We cannot be beaten on price
  • All our wings have a current test certificate
  • We will always give previous customers a good part-ex next time around

Harnesses

 

It is easy to underestimate the part the harness plays in your flying set-up. It doesn't matter how good your wing is, if you have a poorly designed or badly fitting harness then you won't get the best out of your wing. If you are on a budget, start with the harness and get the best you can afford. 

 

Harness design has come a long way in the last 3-4 years, so be careful of buying anything much older than this. Modern protection is better, harness geometry has been refined and more modern harnesses usually have a better reserve deployment system and are lighter.

 

Things to look out for are:

  • PROTECTION. Anything without an airfoam protector or 'Cygnus' airbag should be discarded.
  • RESERVE. Make sure it has a pod even if you dont have a reserve yet.
  • BUCKLES. Most have automatic buckles
  • SPEED SYSTEM. Make sure there is a good routing for your speed-bar lines
  • STORAGE. Its surprising how much you will carry - glider bag, spare sweater, water, gloves etc
  • SIZE. It must be the correct size for you!
  • BULK. If a harness looks good on the ground it is probably stiff and inflexible so may be a bugger to get into your glider bag!

We always have a good selection of used harnesses and often ex-demo or surplus stock that we sell at bargain prices.

 

Reserves

 

Used certified reserves are a good bet, but again they must have been repacked and be the right size for you. A reserve has a useful life of 10 years, (after that, most professional packers will not certify them airworthy). So that must be borne in mind if buying an older system. We do not recommend any “steerable” reserve systems.

  • Make sure it is the right size. When choosing, remember that it is the total payload - you, glider, harness, the reserve itself and anything else you'll carry
  • Reserves should be repacked annually.

Instruments

We usually have a couple of good used alti-varios in stock. Bear in mind that a good, new entry-level vario costs around £170, so don't pay more than about £125 for a similar used instrument.

Ebay

We love ebay! However, we have found recently that most 'bargains' are not as good as the purchaser thinks. If you see a used wing on Ebay, talk to us before buying as we can usually offer a better deal. You never know, it might even be us selling it on Ebay!

 

Finally, never buy or wear a used helmet.
 
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