AA5BY

The guys at our field are generally in on a little competitive diversion from normal sport flying. In the past we've done combat in various forms, pylon with various aircraft and other fun fly events. They provide something new and interesting and usually run the course of a season of flying to await something new. The problem has been that there hasn't been anything new like that in a few years.

This season, we are gearing up for one design RC glider competition. To engage as many as possible, the airframe is a cheap hand launch foam glider available at LHS or Hobby Lobby under $10 . The 54" glider is converted to two ch RC control of the pilots choice of control surfaces. The airframe needs some strapping tape or otherwise spars to strengthen for piggy back launching but a glider can be converted in a few hours.

The launch tractor needs a cradle and released mechanism and altimeter telemetry for equal altitude launching. Test show a reasonable height is around 750 ft where the glider can still be seen well but will yield lengthy flights (five minutes plus). When summer temps heat up and we start getting some thermal activity, they will likely add fun.

Wing loading is down around 4oz per sq ft and the gliders actually fly quite well when balanced well.

dbacque

My Feedback: (3)

Sounds like a fun club project! I'm interested to see what happens because just a couple of weeks ago somebody handed me one of these and said "Here, RC this!" Of course I accepted the challenge, even if it will be a while before it reaches the top of the build list.

I once helped a friend who built a slope soarer from a larger foam toy airplane finally make it fly. It was the big foam thing that had a dragon head and very swept wings. Seems like it was about 6' span. What a hoot when it flew over the hills of Los Banos! The guys with their extremely expensive racers were nonplussed. Crash, here's to ya man!

For this one I'm going ailerons and elevator. But in my case I'm going with small glow engine. I'm thinking power pod over the wing rather than engine in the nose, it'll save on props and CG. The .049 that I put on a 2 meter Gentle Lady ages ago was way too much so I'm thinking that an .010 or .020 would be just the ticket for this little piece of insanity.

Strapping tape reinforcements, radio and servos set into the foam a la the EPP slopers.

It'll fly, it'll fly!

Dave

red head

Hey Tex, I hate to admit this but you might be ahead making it "electric " . Check out what the fuel spray will do to the foam , sometimes it will eat one up . I hate that when it eats one up while I'm flying , makes for sloppy landings . lol ENJOY !!! RED

AA5BY

Yeah foam attack could be an issue with some launch tugs, but not this one. It is an Ultra Stick Lite 120 with a gas engine that exhaust down and leaves hardly any oil deposits on the plane and none on top... attacks on the foam are not a worry.