TheoA

2m sailplane.

I can't afford a winch right now, but I want to get back into soaring, so I thought a 2M would be the way to go. I don't want an ARF or RTF, as I enjoy building as much as I do flying. I have experiance with composites, foam wings, and vac bagging. I have nessicary equipment to vac bag as well.

All the nice planes I see now are $400+, rtf or arf. I want to find a high performance thermal ship which I can build, and I do prefer foam glass over built-up, although I would do either. I have also considered an electric style high performance 2m, but I believe they are out of my budget. ($400 for the motor + batt setup alone)

Any reccomendations?

BMatthews

How about Mark Drela's Allegro....

http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articl..._allegro2m.htm

Other than this there's not a lot of plans for high zoot composites out there. Most of the people that bother to design this stuff carry on and produce the kits.

He's also got a built up version called the Allegro-Lite....

http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articl...egrolite2m.htm

Or if you're happy to design your own internal structure then there's lot's of 3 views for the fancy stuff that you could work from.

MTT

My Feedback: (8)

How about these : Arthobby

$ 150 for a plane like the Boar is a terrific deal, and so far I haven't been able to find really bad comments about the sailplanes from Arthobby.


Happy new year,

Michael

BMatthews

The comments about the electric option aren't really that accurate.

Yes you CAN spend $400 or more for fancy motors and stuff but if your goal is just to get the model to altitude for some soaring then there's no reason at all why you can't use a basic Speed Series brush motor and a carefully selected prop. And 7 cell packs don't need the higher cost chargers either.

You won't get Hotliner performance out of a combo like this but it IS an option. It all depends on where you place your performance prioities.

I like the electric option especially if you fly by yourself in areas that wouldn't be highstart friendly.

Oh, and what about joining a local club and using the group winches?

KevinSheen

Since you want to build, you really have to check out:

http://www.proptwisters.org/genie/genie.html

or

http://www.proptwisters.org/jouster2/index.html

The designer claims that you can get the GENIE built for $300. I built the Jouster 2 two years ago and I'm about to embark on building another. The J2 was a great flying plane and I'm sure the GENIE is moreso. The designer also claims that he uses a hi-start to launch his nearly 100 oz bird. The hi-starts can be purchased from:

http://www.aerofoam.com/hosemonster.html

I know neither of these planes are 2M but they are definitely worthy of your consideration.

Good luck with whatever you decide,

Kevin

Johng

My Feedback: (4)

The Drela designs are quite nice, probably the best thing going for thermalling planes - but you have to build just about everything from scratch and you could end up spending a good bit of $$ on carbon materials. They are top of the line contest winning airplanes though.

For an affordable sport model, the Sagitta fuselage ( and other parts) can be bought here:

http://www.dchobby.com/fuselages/

They also sell partial and full kits as well, so you can choose how much stuff you want to make up yourself - and how much you want to spend. I like the sagitta fuse's because there's no wing root molded in and you can choose whatever airfoil you want for wings of your own design and then maybe add a fillet to the wing root once you've settled on an airfoil/wing.

So, you can get the fuse and then cut your own wings & bag 'em or whatever and have a custome plane for less $$. Also, take a look at other designs on those pages.

I fly sailplanes and other stuff about halfway between DB and Deland out off of 92 (Speedway). Way may even have some stuff you could fix up and use. Gimme a PM or e-mail if you wanna hook up.

Reminds me, I gotta order some new tubing for my high start.