LoneRanger

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I am currious as to how you did your "Glide test"~


could you give me some insight?



L.R.

soarrich

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I saw some Canadians do it for a Flying Saucer type once. They glided it out on the ice and steered it with brooms.

ajcoholic

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Seriously, I went out last night in the lot where my shop is (remember I am a woodworker ) we dump out dust collector bins into a large pile then have a truck come and haul away the wood chips/shavings. I figured that would make a good soft landing place. I took off the prop and clesed/taped up the carb. There was a decent pile of chips about 2 feet deep - perfect - so I walked about 20 feet away and held up my arms, supported the underside with my left and put my right hand fingers on the TE in between the elevons. Gave it a little bit of a push and launched it slightly nose down. I was hoping it was not going to dive sharpley, or nose up and flip over (which it did not). I progressively walked away further from the pile and threw it a bit harder so it would glide further. I was pretty amazed it did what it did!

AJC

ajcoholic

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I believe you are referring to curling, a game, which I am pretty sure, we just won the world championships two years in a row... (yes, I curl and it is fun, but not as fun as flying model airplanes!)

AJC

LoneRanger

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I want to test "glide" my LBBBA but I dont have any nice soft sawdust for it to land in! oh well, I guess I'll have to wing it-


L.R.

ajcoholic

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Well, since the ground is still frozen here and soft grass is still about a month away... it was my only option

In the summer I use the tall wild grass to test glide planes over/into.

Andrew

soarrich

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And second place was?

Sound suspiciously like our "World Series" in baseball.

ajcoholic

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Actually the curling world championships are indeed a world wide event, with only one team per country.

If you didnt know, the USA team defeated Canada in the Women's finals and Canada beat Switzarland to take the title 2 years running, a feat that hasnt been done in over 30 years!

Quote from a news source:

"The United States Women's curling team won the World Championships on the weekend, defeating Canada's Colleen Jones in the final game. The US, skipped by Debbie McCormick with Allison Pottinger, Ann Swisshelm Silver and lead Tracy Sachtjen, defeated the Canadians at their own game, playing it open for most of the contest and winning by a final score of 5 - 3.
The Canadian Men, skipped by Randy Ferbey, with David Nedohin, Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque, won their second straight World Championship defeating Switzerland 10 - 6. "

Now can we get back to Airplanes?!



AJC

Cdallas2

You tell'em Andy

Ky Flyer

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I think I figured out what made that Foam Stealth thingie so snappy, it was the fact i used the cuttoff thick foam control surfaces, I should have tapered em outta balsa, and made some wash out in the elevons.

wild fred

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hey- you need to make another to prove the theory- but I aint flyin' the beast! I think it needed more carbon fiber! and more than one color... is black a color, or lack thereof?

ajcoholic

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Well guys, tonight after work, in the drizzle and cloud, I loaded up the LCB and my flight box and went to the club field for our meeting. I had some hope I would get a break, even 5 minutes, of the rain and cloud so I could test fly this thing....

WOuldnt you know, as soon as I got there, the rain stopped, the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds and as to not loose my chance I quickly fired up the plane, and with my friend Dan working the camera and about 10 of our club members standing by watching, I simply let the LCB fly out of my hand, and away it went!! It was fantastic! After a bit of down trim, the plane was flying quick circuits, like it was on rails. Very manouverable but not too touchy. Pretty quick, no estimate of speed but I will have to bring the radar gun next time. The first flight I flew the 1 ounce tank dry without a hiccup, and glided it in for a perfect landing. The plane turns awesomely, bank and yank without loss of altitude and rolls are fast and axial. All in all I was pretty pleased! I flew another tank and this time played with the throttle. The VA with the tarno and the pipe will actually idle pretty decently and I can do slow passes with the best of them. The 7 oz wing loading sure lets it slow down.

I will have some pics off of the video to post tomorrow!

Good night all, I will certainly sleep well tonight!

Andrew

ajcoholic

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No pics yet - my friend who is a teacher at the local community college is taking my video off the tape and putting it onto CD as well as making some stills and some short (10 to 15 second) clips of the take offs,landing, some close in fly by's down the runway, etc. He didnt get a chance to finish it yesterday...

Hopefully by tonight I will have something to share.

I am still smiling 2 days afterwards - having a great test flying session is so rewarding! And you wouldnt believe it, after monday's test it turned COLD again (minus 10) and we got more snow! Good thing I took a chance and brought it to the meeting or I wouldnt have gotten my chance to test it before the end of the month it looks like....

Andrew

phuffstatler

My Feedback: (20)

Good Goobley Goo! 10 below in April?!?!?!?!
Lord, we're in the upper 80's here already, looks like to stay...

Glad you got your test flight in... I'm hoping to finish covering the star fighter tonight, and try to fly it by Friday... maybe...

phil in austin

Mavericman

Glad you got the plane flyin, Im still a little nervous about gettin my stealth sport in the air. Someone at my club had the honors of putting the first 3 flights on it.

ajcoholic

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It'll be a cold day in hell before I ever let someone else test fly one of my planes

Thats the most exciting part for me!!

AJC

phuffstatler

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I totally agree, AJC. I can pile my stuff in as good as anybody!

And yes, when it all works, the satisfaction level is sky-high...

ya gotta love it...

phil in austin

Mavericman

well you also have to take into consideration that i have never flown before!!

phuffstatler

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Ah, that'll do it!!!! Great choice....


Admittedly, on some of my special projects (read, expensive), I'll usually have a good flying buddy close by, for that extra set of eyes and opinion, in case I'm too nervous and make a silly mistake they can catch before it splatters...


phil in austin

ajcoholic

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Man oh man! What are you waiting for?!

All this talk about planes is only superceded by one thing... ACTUALLY FLYING THEM!!

I agree, under certain circumstances it may be wise to get a more experienced pilot to test fly a new design, but then again, I happen to be the most experienced pilot in our club... so what do you do? I take my chances with my own skills...

ajcoholic

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OK here are some pics - captured from video so not the greatest but its better than nothing... more to come!

AJC

Here is the hand launch... flew right out of my hand like it was nothing! Not bad for an 049 hauling around 23 or so ounces!

ajcoholic

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Here is a low pass down the soggy runway (which is covered once again with snow!)

ajcoholic

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What would a picture be without the back of my head?!

One showing it did indeed fly. No kidding! (would I lie to you guys?! )

Mavericman

hey, I took your advice and went to fly the stealth sport. My uncle was there to launch it for me. Everything was fine until the plane tilted right. I was trying to gain altitude, but i guess it wasnt trimmed right. Or it could have been that It was launched crosswind. anyway, it started to crash then it came down snapped a boom and the tail section became completely dismantled. I am now in the process of epoxying the tail back on. Should i try it again?

ajcoholic

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If you are just learning to fly, I would pick an easy slow flying plane to learn on. A powered glider is the easiest, like a 2meter glider (gentle lady, etc) with a power pod.

Some of these small 1/2A planes can be wickedly fast and quite agile, and if you are inexperienced and set the throws too great (my problem when I was learning back inmy teens) they are allmost uncontrolable!

Having never flown or seen a stealth sport (other than in a magazine) I cannot
say whether or not it is a good trainer....

ANdrew