RE: Fun with Flat Foam
Well THAT's your problem!
A 17 oz foamie is no light weight aircraft at all. (and it's probably a 3d plane too)
I am almost finished with a foam glider i am converting to rc, and so far the AUW is 7oz even (54" wingspan)
All i need to add now are pushrods and control horns.
When i threw this plane with a light toss in my front yard, it went all the way across mine, and halfway across my neighbor's.
we both have 1 acre lots.
You tell me that 150 feet of gliding from a light toss isn't a good glide ratio?
I think you need to learn how to build lighter, and learn what airplanes are designed to do.
A p-40 was designed when they didn't have high horsepower engines, so the plane has very large wings that make alot of lift at slow speeds.
A 3d aerobat is designed with a 300+ horsepower motor in half the size of the p-40's engine. (believe me, 300 ponies of an airplane is alot)
Aerobatic planes aren't designed to glide. They are supposed to go really fast.