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Where are all the pure glider pilots - seems all the posts are for electric

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Where are all the pure glider pilots - seems all the posts are for electric

Old 12-24-2014, 07:17 AM
  #76  
jeffEE
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this is my first try at sailplane flying. I have been into 1/4 scale WWI planes for years. So this should be interesting. It is an old Graupner Minimoa kit. 110 inch span. Now I just need to get in touch with the local pilots and get it flying.
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Old 12-24-2014, 07:08 PM
  #77  
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sierratango, the strongest winds are same as wave season for Hollister which we generally consider to be now though March with the storm door open and post frontal winds giving you the favored direction. March through early June is the best thermal season and summer is mostly characterized by subsidence. Fall can offer offshore events for a NE flow and Banos has a slope for that direction as well.
Old 12-30-2014, 10:25 AM
  #78  
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Default Old Dog not so new tricks

Hello,
Stumbled onto this forum and am making my first post, am also on the RCgroups forum as well. Have been in the hobby for almost 34 years now and have found that I prefer flying sailplanes and sloping probably more than anything. Just looking over these last few pages shows me how far behind the times I am. I pretty much still fly the "crunchies" if you want to call them that. Almost everything I have is made of balsa, did break down a few years back and get a Radian foamy and do have a few micro electrics. Don't get to fly as much as I would like due to kids in the mix but hoping to start back up somewhat seriously. I tried for years to get my older brothers into it and after about 20 years finally succeeded, they actually fly more than I do now, one never had kids the other an empty nester. We have a beautiful slope here in Montana and the access is somewhat limited during spring and early fall. As it is private property and there always seems to be someone tearing up the roads and leaving garbage behind. My brothers and I have a good relationship with the land owners and my brothers have on multiple occasions picked up trash, furniture, party messes etc. which has left them in good standing with land owners. once I learn to navigate this forum a little better I will post some picks of my old relics and of our site. Look forward to reading and being a part of this group.
Old 12-30-2014, 06:24 PM
  #79  
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Default Dr. Frankenstein is in

I had my daughter take a few photos of her father in rare form.
Yesterday I finished my fuselage mold. Will open it in a few days.
Today I flew the family from Southern California to St. George, Utah in my home built RV 10. With a cold front and the jet stream dropping into southern California we had a 70 knot quartering tailwind at 13,500' and a ground speed of 217 knots. Not bad, two hours to St. George, UT
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Old 12-31-2014, 01:31 AM
  #80  
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Count me as a purist as well. I've always enjoyed the quiet, the simplicity, and the challenge of keeping a plane aloft with nothing more than rising air.

I'm fortunate to have my own flying field in a sparse rural area, so crowded flying conditions restricting use of a winch or high start are not an issue. I have nothing against electrics though; they're relatively quiet, and I can see the appeal, but the compromised flight characteristics make them less than ideal for me.

I like using a high start, and even like the walking; I'll often walk out, pick up the chute, and walk it back while flying. The Onewinch looks interesting, though at first glance the price seems awfully steep for a couple of pulleys and pegs, tow line, belt and misc. hardware. It looks like something that should be quite easy to put together in the shop.
Old 12-31-2014, 12:56 PM
  #81  
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This is a Picture of the North East side of our main slope that we fly on, We have slopes that face West, North West, North, North East, and East there is also a small slope of about 150 high on the back side of this that faces the South West if we have to use it in a pinch we do. and here's a few pics from up top looking to the east, south and west
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Old 12-31-2014, 05:22 PM
  #82  
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Where are these slopes, Utah?
Old 12-31-2014, 10:13 PM
  #83  
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No, it's just one slope and it's in the Gallatin Valley outside of Bozeman Montana south of Three Forks.
Old 01-01-2015, 07:54 AM
  #84  
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Been there, Gallatin Gateway, Montana. Bought a model log home from a company by that name. Shipped it down to southern California and finished it in 1997. A great guy by the name of Jerry Gray came from the company to help build it. beautiful place.
Old 01-01-2015, 06:05 PM
  #85  
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not sure if that business is still going. With the recession that hit in 98 a lot of folks went down.my sister worked for someone out in that area I'll need to ask her who it was who knows it may have been the same company if so small world. She was working there to raise money for a bicycle trip her and her husband we're going to take. They rode their tandem bicycle from Seattle Washington to Boston Massachusetts. They were self funded so that the money they raised for scholarships would go totally into the Scholarship Fund. Took them 67 days. Yes I feel very blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the country.also wish I had more time to be out in the valley at our space slope flying.
Old 01-02-2015, 11:27 AM
  #86  
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A pic of the top of our slope about 1/2 mile across and 3/4 mile longA fly by with my Craft Air Freedom this plane is about 29 years old, my older brother liked it so much he scratch built one, it flies wellThis is an old Marks Models Wind Free 1972 or 73 design, it was the cat's meow back in it's day 99" span
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Old 01-02-2015, 05:26 PM
  #87  
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That is a beautiful slope. In Southern California slopes like that are extremely rare. The most difficult thing to find is a good landing zone that is no filled with rock outcroppings or homes.. When one does find a slope like that it is usually not accessible due to a fence with posted signs or it is really, really far away.

i hope to one day live close to a slope like yours!
Old 01-02-2015, 06:13 PM
  #88  
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Nice slope.

Back in OC n LA have always become more rare.
Old 01-03-2015, 09:09 AM
  #89  
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Yes it is a very nice slope and we feel very fortunate to have access to it. what makes it so nice is the Landing zone and the ability to be able to drive up on top and to each individual face should the wind direction change while we're there. There are some rocky spots that we have to be careful of when landing our balsa monocote planes but there's always plenty of space to land. As I've perused different forums and looked at what others are flying on I would have to go to foamies or glass ships to fly on some of the different ones I've seen. There is a group of guys on the RCGroups forum from Port Elizabeth South Africa that are a very active bunch and some of the places they fly i would never take some of my planes. If you want to see some great videos and pics type in PE slopers forum and there will be something that will come up. Very funny guys.This is a better shot of our East facing side of the butte we fly on, we don't get to use this side very often, when we do it's usually late in the year and a very cold windHere's a couple of photos of my brother and my Freedoms, He scratch built his from the plans from my original kit. Sorry for the face blur, but to respect his request, he prefers to not have his picture shown.This is a shot of my sail plane fleetThis was the test flight of my only foam sloper, a Canterbury Models F-20, Flies very well and my brother was kind enough to put it together for me.
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Old 01-03-2015, 09:57 AM
  #90  
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VERY nice! I might even go so far as to say you folks might be a tad spoiled with access to a slope like that.

LZs on many slopes are extremely limited in many places where people choose to fly. There was one place I used to fly years ago that was a very steep drop, covered with tall trees, next to a road that, fortunately, was not terribly busy. We'd sit on or against the guard rail with about 3' of level ground in front of us before the 3-400' drop to the ocean and rocks below. Landing was generally done by catching the plane (which some of the guys were extremely adept at, even with rockets like the Rodent), otherwise the only choice was the pavement behind us, or a very small spot where there was a narrow gap in the trees and the plane could be stalled/mushed against the mostly rip-rap covered slope just below our feet (a couple of guys would bring sleeping bags to cover a spot on the rocks). Needless to say, this latter spot was normally subject to lots of turbulence and only worked when the wind was just right. We'd always bring combat foamies along to "rescue" the planes that were purposely ditched into a tree (and we'd often end up inadvertently lodging the foamy in the tree too). I flew a built-up balsa Dynaflite Talon V there many times (and repaired and rebuilt it many times). The guys described my normal "landings" as more like a somewhat controlled "tackle" than a landing, but I'd also attached small, custom Teflon skid plates to the fuse and wing tips so I could just skid it across the pavement when things got too hairy (which, admittedly, was most of the time). Fun times!
Old 01-04-2015, 10:04 AM
  #91  
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D400webb,
Will definitely agree with you that we are spoiled, not just a tad spoiled either, very spoiled, the only complaint we have is that it's almost 30 miles to get there. I also think that having that much room to land makes us lazy and takes away skill, I do have to tease my brother though, with that much space to land, he sometimes gets to take a long walk to go pick up his planes. I'll bet the small LZ you had to use made you a much better pilot though didn't it? When I first learned to fly and soloed, I was living in North Dakota and our RC flying field was very small, it was nice and had paved cross runways with paved taxi way, but the run ways were only 20 ft X 125 ft. which isn't that big for powered planes when you consider a bowling alley is 86.6 ft long, and the wind blew constantly, which made it nice for sloping, but made it very challenging to hit the runway. However it made a very competent pilot out of you. If you missed the runway, you were usually repairing the firewall or landing gear on your plane. Come to think of it our slope in North Dakota had a phenomenal LZ as well, could drive to the top and had grass in the spring and through the summer that was 12" to 16" tall making for nice carpet landings. Come to think of it I've been way to spoiled my whole sloping life. We do have a couple other slopes that we have to use when the wind doesn't cooperate with our main slope that the LZ's are pretty sketchy, rocky and slope down toward the slope edge, usually have to make a few passes to get them down. FF
Old 01-04-2015, 03:34 PM
  #92  
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Certainly, the guys I flew with were generally excellent pilots. In fact, I would rate many of them as amazing pilots (one of the guys was a specialized TV/movie camera operator whose job entailed the use of tx-like control sticks all day long). Me? Not so much, but I definitely had a lot of fun, and you're probably correct that it improved my skills considerably. Perhaps as much as anything else, I flew longer sessions because of the trepidation of eventually having to land (!). Those longer sessions included lots of practice landing approaches though, so it really worked to improve patience and selectivity in judging just the right approach speed and angle, and one quickly learned to judge when to abandon an approach.

Of course, you can choose to develop these skills on great slopes like yours too; just toss a beach towel on the ground to mark a landing target, and then define your (artificially imposed) approach angle and height; turn it into a game.

Good air to you FF!
Old 01-04-2015, 05:14 PM
  #93  
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Good Idea! but will have to wait til spring.-15 at home right now
Old 01-25-2015, 01:15 AM
  #94  
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here are my two starting young, 2-4 about the same age as myself when i started flying.
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Old 01-25-2015, 03:32 AM
  #95  
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Great photos of great memories.
Old 01-28-2015, 03:25 AM
  #96  
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I took a Hi-start down to our power field, but it only works in some wind directions or it gets snagged on the trees when released. But an electric powered tug cured that and allows power and gliders to co-exist harmoniously. We now have 4 more power fliers with pure gliders with another couple swaying
Old 02-13-2015, 09:49 PM
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A flying friend passed away recently. He was a contest glider pilot for many years but stopped flying gliders about 7 years ago. They had an estate sale for all his aircraft and he had a LOT. gliders, helis, giant scale, you name it.

Picked up a brand new Stork 2 Pro V tail. All built and never flown. Perfect conditions. Adds another F3J/TD winched glider to the fleet.

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