bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

Yesterday was a beautiful day. 80 Degrees, clear skies, with a light breeze from the North-North-West.

In the past few weeks, I've had several attempts with the Hight Start (Dyna-Flight Up Start), without any success. I just wasn't getting enough height with my GP Spirit. So I added another 25 feet of 1/4" surgical tubing from Mcmaster Carr. Still not getting high enough. I had about 300 feet of string, so I replaced the string with 400 ft of 20lb test nylon monofilament. So 50 feet of rubber, 400 feet of monofilament. Stretching it to about an 8 lbs pull (my fishing scale is not very accurate) and releasing into a light breeze.

WOO HOO! I know where the thermals typically develop at our field from watching the birds, so I headed in that area. Sure enough, I saw the tell tale signs. Circled into where I thought the thermal was, and started circlng. As the plane climbed I started to worry about too much altitude. I'm not used to flying that high, so I pulled the elevator and rudder to tighten the circles and drop down. To far. Next launch followed the same procedure, and sure enough, made it into the thermal again. This time I didn't worry too much about the altitude, and followed the thermal downwind. When I finally dropped out, I had enough height to make it back to where the thermal originated. Sure enough, there was another just waiting for me!.

My first flight lasted about 10 minutes, and the second lasted about 20 minutes. I ended the second flight because my neck was getting really stiff and my transmitter battery was getting low. Next time I'll take a lawn chair.

Brad

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Yep its a hard feeling to beat. Feels the same way when you learn how to hover a helicopter.

The first thing I had to do with my 9C when I started flying gliders again was go to hangtimes.com and get a high capacity NiMH pack or I wouldnt have enough juice for a few good glider flights as I like to take a chopper or 2, a plane and a glider out on any given day.

jooNorway

Gratulations bkdavy

I know the feeling, catching thermals low and being able to follow the thermals up and away.
Good to hear your story, since I have just started my holiday and it is raining like h***. Sitting with some sailplanes and a brand new Hi-Start eager to get airborne. At least some have summer.

I began to use crossbrases some years ago, and won`t go back to neckstrap. The radio rests on shoulders and not on the neck. Can fly for hours hunting thermals without problems.

Bad_Daddy

If you ever get caught in a really BOOMING thermal that's just dragging your sailplane upward no matter what, since you don't have spoilers on that model, just flip the plane over on its back and fly out of the thermal. Upside down that wing only generates about 1/4 as much lift, and you should be able to safely dive out of the thermal without tearing the wings off. Then flip it back upright when you get clear.
It worked for me when my ancient (and modified) Marks Models "Wanderer" was nearing 3000 feet up in a monster thermal. It was getting too hard to see the tiny spec of my 8' wing, and the fuselage and tail were invisible at that altitude. It took nearly 30 minutes to get it back down to my "normal" flying altitude that day - What a Blast!

da Rock

Hoo hah......... nice ain't it!

So how far is Frederick, Md from here...... hmmmmmmmmmmmm

whatever......................

"too much altitude" worried you. Don't let it. Here is an Old glider guider's trick to learn:

We talk about specking out, don't we. You probably already know what that is, but for them that don't...... you soar that bird up and up until she looks like a speck in the sky. It don't happen near nuff', not near nuff' atall.

Now the trick is to count the dots. As the glider gains altitude, any colors turn into shades of gray. I think that's about 600ft for most people's eyes. And at some altitude, you can't see the fuselage, but you can still see the wing and tail as "tiny sticks". No problem. And then higher up, the little stick becomes a dot. And then higher up, both sticks are dots. Now is when you need to pay attention. When that little dot vanishes, and you can only see ONE dot, consider that you've specked out. And it's time to spin that sucker back down a bit. Or pop the spoilers. Or whatever you've practiced within clear sight in preparation for just this exact situation.

And you best practice it sooner than later. 'Cause from the excitement you seemed to get from the first thermal, I'm betting you'll need the trick sooner than later.

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

My concern with altitude wasn't the size of the plane. Our airfield, although more than 5 miles from the local airport, is right on one of the approaches for the airport. Its not atypical to see airplanes around or just under 1000 feet above our field. Just one more thing to keep my eyes on.


Brad

TexasThermalKing

I agree, you need to know how that plane you are flying handles when you want it to come down, and I mean quick. You can't dive it to come down... It will flutter at some speed and destroy itself. If you have no spoilers, no flaps, learn at 400-500 feet to spin it tight, but heading down, to quickly get low. You will need to know how much elevator, and rudder to give it to get it to spin down, and never reach , that terminal velosity that destroys it.
Congratulations, on the thermal climb out. It is great fun. Keep a close eye when it's high, and if it's hard to see, get her down.

dld

A couple of suggestions for getting polyhedral ships down quickly if needed;

Fly inverted, this works really well with polyhedral ships! (On poly ships this usually requires full down stick and constant attention to the rudder.)

Pull full up and hold it. Let the plane do loops, or continuously stall and fall, either way it will come down quickly without damage.

Congratulations! I remember what it was like the first time I hooked one!

David Layne