Little-Acorn

Has anyone else put an R/C set and/or an electric motor into one of those cheapo 4-ft span styrofoam gliders you can get at Wal-Mart, Big Lots etc.?

I did thid one last January, flies surprisingly well. Rudder/ elevator and motor speed, an old Troll-35 motor and Pixie-14 ESC with BEC, and a 2-cell 1800 mAh LiPo battery. 12 oz. all-up weight, flat glide, good climb, wings pop out when it lands hard and it doesn't get damaged. Surprisingly good results from something so cheap and easy.

Anyone else done this? Share the experience! What works, what doesn't, etc.?

slopemeno

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah, but we bought them from K-Mart, hence the name "Blue-Light-Specials". That's "The Comet", right?

We would take the sweep out of the wing, put a spar in the wing and fuse, and 3m-77 them, tape them with clear packing tape, and sink the servos in them. A friend of mine even made his have a fully-flying tail witha gucci clear lexan bellcrank. His ended up weighing about 30 ounces.

They flew well, but were a bit "buildy" for what you ended up with. They survived, and were a good plane to put some old Futaba-G gear in.

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

I knew a guy that put an 049 on the nose of one of those and tried to free flight it. It worked perfectly on the very first attempt.
It worked so well that he never saw it again

Little-Acorn

Yes, Slopemeno, it's the COmet. I've seen a practically identical one under the name Flying Eagle.

Yours weighed 30 oz.? Mine was twelve, ready to go. What on earth did you put in it?

I've been searching for these 4-ft foam gliders now, both straight wing and swept wing. The local BigLots has the straight-wing version, so does a local hobby shop. Toys R Us has a swept-wing version, but it's not quite the same as the one shown above. White foam, looks the same at first glance, but the foam seems to be of poorer quality, it has an odd plastic retainer clip over the top of the fuselage that puts a round plastic peg down thru the root of each wing, to hold them on I guess. Sort of defeats the pop-out feature of the wings in hard landings, doesn't it?

But my son has an older Flying Eagle with swept wings (no radio or motor, just what came out of the bag, with an extra nose weight for balance). He's rough on it, and I've glued various parts back on many times (tail, wingtip, 2 fuselage halves etc.). It's had its wings pop out innumerable times (he's 9), and now they slide in and out with almost no force. Maybe that's why the plastic pegs?

The local Hobby People has an odd four-footer, whose foam is blue. I don't mind that, it could be pretty. But the wing trailing edges are cut back, almost as though someone were cutting off the tailing edges to make ailerons and then didn't put them back on for some reason. So the wings in the package are narrower, and the trailing edges are cut off flat like a block instead of tapered. Very strange.

Local Wal-marts and Target both told me they don't have these 4' span foam gliders, and don't plan to be getting any in. Spoilsports.

Has anyone found one of the swept-wing ones recently, in white foam, that doesn't have that plastic retaining device ove the fuselage at the wing roots? What store did you find it at?

Anyone know if K-mart still has these? How about KB Toys and Hobbies? Any place else?

soarhead-RCU

LA:
I have converted a couple of these foamies to electric also. I had one like yours and also the straight wing by Guillows I believe it was. Other places to find them are in craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Micheals. Even a local ACE Hardware stocks a box in the spring and keeps them untill there gone and then does it again next spring.
This was several years ago and I used a well used GWS 300 D Slow Stick outfit with nimhs. Cut the nose off a little and mounted the motor on a stick there and made a new nose out of a yogert container. They are great fliers for the money.
If any one is building these, be sure to assemble it and then balance it on your fingers and mark the wing so you have the CG and then do your mods. Saves finding the CG later on with the swept wing jobber.

Happy Flying
Bob

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

One of our club members buys these just to use the wings. Then he makes a hollow fuse out of foam board. His tail and ailerons are made out of meat trays. Puts in the servos and a motor. they fly gret!

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

There are some Guillows foam glider similar to these on ebay. They are listed as a lot and looks to 6 to 10 still in bag in the lot. ??? says 4.5 foot span and looks to be the same s you are talking about.

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

I can't remember where I saw a site recently on making a nice flying wing out of these. Search for WALLY WING and you can find it.
They wacked the fuse down for a gear pod and reangled the sweep added CF spar.Balsa TE and ailerons... ended up a nice foamie flying wing. it was a site just for this bird with really well done build pics and instrctions.

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

There have been articles in the RC magazines on converting these, but they usually put the motor in the nose.

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

This "wally wing " site wacks the fuse down to pod status and rejoins the wings for a nice sweeping flying wing. It barely resembles the original at all.