One hour flight -My 2nd!  
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One hour flight -My 2nd! - 5/9/2002 11:10:28 AM   
greg-RCU



Posts: 124
Joined: 12/5/2001
From: Gibsons, B.C.
Status: offline 		Wooooo. The Electra/GL does it again. Won't say it was all my doing though! Conditions were absolutely perfect. First couple launches gave me 5 and 10 minute flights then a 15 then a 30. Then I got a big thermal. Once I got some altitude from the first one it was easy to find more lift. It seemed to almost randomly hook up a good thermal about every 5-10 minutes or so. All I had to do was pay attention.

I've flown with Eagles and now circled with Seagulls. I was circling in about the 7th or 8th patch of good lift when I notice the sunlight on white wings along with my dark one. About a handful of gulls were circling below me. Well below me and I was out climbing them. We climbed for a while and a watch check confirmed 50 minutes for SURE and I had at least ten minutes of altitude. Yes! My second one hour flight. I climbed a bit more and then headed upwind. Unlike the gulls, I'm tethered to the ground by the radio and eyeball range!

Watch check - 55 minutes. It started to get hard to see again and was still climbing. Final watch check - almost 60 minutes. Time to come down, my eyes were getting tired. Spin. Not really helping much. Hmmm. Stick forward and hold it. Yesh! Even a GL will move pretty fast when you push it. I did a 'high' speed flyby (well.. high speed for that plane). Back up, and around, and set-up the landing. Perfect. Just past the highstart hook. Done. ONE hour!

I had the camera on board so hopefully got some great shots. Unfortunately a problem with the film advancing - it wasn't - cost me some good ones I'm sure. Gotta get a decent flight camera!

_____________________________

Soaring axiom: Landing is a letdown.
       Post #: 1

One Hour Flights. - 5/9/2002 2:00:15 PM   
Ollie


 

Posts: 958
Joined: 12/8/2001
From: Punta Gorda, FL
Status: offline 		Congratulations! The first ones are quite a thrill.

Did you launch from a histart? Were you carrying the motor and batteries?

_____________________________

Regards, Ollie

(in reply to greg-RCU)
       Post #: 2

One hour flight -My 2nd! - 5/9/2002 8:10:30 PM   
greg-RCU



Posts: 124
Joined: 12/5/2001
From: Gibsons, B.C.
Status: offline 		Thank you. My Electra is completely converted to histart only. My histart is, like my field, quite small. 10Meters of rubber and 40 Meters of kite string. It's just about time to replace the rubber but there was enough breeze to get nice 50 meter or higher launches. Can't imagine working light lift with 300grams of battery and motor on my 800 gram plane!

_____________________________

Soaring axiom: Landing is a letdown.

(in reply to greg-RCU)
       Post #: 3

One hour flight -My 2nd! - 5/13/2002 7:52:36 PM   
Al Stein



Posts: 968
Joined: 1/7/2002
From: Johnstown, PA, USA
Status: offline 		Way to go Greg!

On weight, my GL weighs in at over half an ounce heavier than yours and I've used it with ballast much more than without. With a well built plane (I do a lot of rounding and smoothing on mine) and a little extra weight (I very often carry 4-8 oz... sometimes as much as the 300g your motor and batts would weigh) and a good CG placement, there's no way that a Gentle Lady can live down to its reputation for slowness.

Comparing the airfoil with some way more developed competition airfoils shows it to be pretty slick and you will get A LOT of speed with it if you want to. (I've many times enjoyed my Gentle Lady on days when our local power flyers couldn't stay in the air.) It's a great little plane.

Anyway, congrats

_____________________________

. . . Aim High!

(in reply to greg-RCU)
       Post #: 4

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