Frank was Aerotowing on Sunday so a number of people came out to take advantage of the fantastic weather. It was also the first opportunity I have had to fly my brand new Moyes Contour Harness. I have to admit I wanted to just jump right in and Aerotow on the new Harness but everyone advised against it. And I agreed that it would be sensible to get some scooter towing in on the new harness first. This meant that I sat around all day and watched everyone get 3+ hour flights off Aerotow while I waited for the scooter to be brought out. That was hard to do.
So, the Contour harness: It's a single suspension harness, which means it has a back-plate in which the main riser can slide back and forth. This also means that you can hang with your bodies center of mass (about at your belly button) either fore or aft of the hang point. If you have the slider all the way forward, your center of mass is behind the hang point and you tilt upright so that your almost vertical. And likewise if the slider is all the way to the rear, this puts your center of mass right at, or slightly in front of the hang point, which means you'll be hanging perfectly level, or even slightly head down.
It also has lots of internal storage, one long pocket that covers the back-plate on the inside, two medium sized pockets beside either ankle, also one pocket that opens to the outside of the harness with a flap door on the left side, and then a few small pockets with double zippers beside the parachute pouch. I can comfortably get my whole glider bag w/padding and baton quiver and tip bags into the various pockets and still have room to spare.
The main zipper is velcroed in pretty solidly but can be replaced if needed. And the separate pulls to zip up and un-zip are easily reachable. Although the velcro that holds the pull tabs in place could have been better situated. It comes with a very nice harness bag with shoulder straps and extra pockets.
At first glance, I didn't like that it doesn't have padded leg loops, so if I do choose to spend any time weighting the leg loops, it's slightly uncomfortable. Realistically though, I'll probably only spend a very short amount of time with lots of weight on the leg loops.
My conclusion: This is a fantastic harness. It's effortless, and really mean effortless, to rock upright and go head down again. I've heard people with older Contours say that the slider ends up wearing out a little and could be harder to slide with age, but at the moment, it slides like butter. I don't think I'll ever be wishing I had more storage, and the construction and craftsmanship of the harness is very clean and the harness looks beautiful.
I can't wait for some longer flights so I can really get a feel for the comfort of the harness. My 3 short flights on Sunday (2 minutes each) weren't enough to get a feel for any points of friction or rubbing that may be the result of a poor fit.
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