offroadn_redneck

I am new to gliders and I have inherited some gliders and gear. The one that ive just recently put back together and have it flight ready is this one:



Now i dont have a high lift, but i was given a winch. I have heard that winching can be difficult and may snap wings. Can anyone give me some advise and insight into this? The glider i posted is (i think) a 3 meter (judging by looking) and it is not a solid wing. There are two wings that slide onto a metal rod and a rubber band attached between the wings holds them together. I have it set up as a 3 servo (elevator, rudder, and speed brake). Will it be more prone to folding than a solid wing?

Thanks

scaflock

Your best bet would be to hook up with your local sailplane club there in San Antonio.  Have one of the members take a look at your plane and make sure it's all balanced correctly and ready to fly.  Launching from a winch is no harder than a high-start but there are a few differences.  Since it's a built up wing, you can't go full peddle on the winch.  You'll have to tap it on and off so you don't snap the wings.  Again...  Someone at your local club can show you how.

You make no mention of if you've got any R/C flight time.  If not, then be SURE you contact your local club for help.  It would be sad to hear that you crashed such a nice looking sailplane on your first attempt to fly it.  Maybe some of the members here that live in your area would be willing to help.  If no one here speaks up, you can try posting over at RCGroups.com in the sailplane section.  I know there's some fellow Texans there.

Jeff

Ranfred Radius

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What Jeff said!

Randy

offroadn_redneck

ok, Ill try to find some people around here that are also into sailplanes. And yes, i do have rc flight time. I have a dynaflite butterfly as well. I really want to "learn" to fly with one of my other gliders that is a solid wing. But it is so old I cant find any servos that fit in it. I dont know exactly how old these gliders are, but just to give you an idea, the servos that came in them have the cord with the 3 metal prongs on them that plug into the receiver, not the other way around like now adays.

BMatthews

Now the three wire servos yell out that it's a VERY old radio. Box up all these old parts, receivers, servos and transmitters, and sell them to one of the folks that enjoys the vintage stuff.

Modern servos will fit fine but you'll need to make up new servo mounting plates to replace or adapt the existing plates. You'll want to attach a newer servo to the pushrod end and then measure out where and how it needs to be set up to locate the servo where the pushrod will work and hold neutral at the surfaces with neutral at the servo.

I also highly recomend you find some glider guiders in your area. Although running a winch isn't hard there's a fairly big workload for someone new to it with a new to them model. You need to work on a really strong javelin style throw as the line tension comes up as well as steering the model using the rudder and at the same time tap the pedal just enough to keep the speed of the model on the line up high enough but not TOO high. Typically on a model of the sort you have this involved evaluating the bend in the wings and moderating or increasing the tap duty cycle accordingly. It's not hard at all after you've done a few but a knowledgable helper is really handy as they can tap the winch for you while you worry about the other stuff for the first few launches. Then once you know how the rest goes you can do your own tapping while they launch the model. And then finally you can put it all together and do it yourself. Typically all this takes a dozen or so launches and you'll be doing it without a care.

And just so we're all using the same terminology a "solid wing" would be a one piece wing and the others are either two piece or three piece depending on where the wing joints are located. Then you also add on a reference to the dihedral. A one or two piece "flat" wing would imply little or no dihedral and ailerons. A one or two piece V wing would imply lots of center joint dihedral combined with simple rudder and elevator. Then there's one, two or three piece tip dihedral wings with a flat center and angled up tips. And finally there's one, two or three piece poly(hedral) wings like you have in this case.

offroadn_redneck

Well, the servos are old, but i cut off the ends and spliced on the new style and put my own radio and receiver in it. they work awesome still. they are futaba 3000 or something like that

BMatthews

What the heck was I thinking about !! ! ! ! ! ! !

Sorry OR Redneck, the three wire style is the new and current method. Silly me was thinking of the old 4 wire stuff ! My bad....[sm=red_smile.gif]

I double checked the rest of my drivel and can't find anything else as bone headed....

scothman

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I have a pluse unit for my winch that works great. just step on the swicth and up up and away.
scothman