It's not an audible vario but the airplane gives you all kinds of clues as to what's going on.

Get the plane trimmed for minimum sink and then watch the airplane. If a wing is tipped up, there is a parcel of rising air under the up-going wing. If the "tip" is a good prolonged one (a second or so) it's most likely a well formed thermal instead of just a random disturbance. Turn about 120 degrees toward the rising wing and see if the nose dips slightly or the plane gain speed before rising. You're in the thermal, begin circling. If going up, tighten the turn, if climb slows down, widen the turn until it increases climb rate. Take wind drift into account.

If you're flying straight and level and the nose drops or the plane speeds up, wait for the plane to start to climb and then begin circling, chances are you will core it right away.

Thermalling is a skill that you have to develope but thermalling a 2 meter model sailplane is much much easier that thermalling a hangglider or real sailplane because the size of the model. Where a hanglider/ real sailplane may get to stick a wing into a thermal, a model sailplane will be fully engulfed in upwards moving air. I've had my sailplane heeled over 45-60 degrees and still going up... It's great fun. But it takes practice, practice, practice.

Don

I've read everything you mentioned Roger. I have a lot of glider experience, heck, I have even lost one when a friend of mine lost orientation after I gave him a piggyback ride on my trainer. It was twilight and he wasn't wearing his glasses. By the time I landed, the glider was a speck in a beautiful sunset. I have caught thermals before by accident. I know about cumulus clouds. The confusing part is watching a video and watching a guy looking for rising air before he tosses his glider. For crying out loud, how do you examine air? I have the FLING in the car and I am heading for a huge paved parking lot with my high start after summer school sessions. I should just place my piggy back launch on the Tripe and get it up there, but that is just asking for trouble.

Thanks Don,
I think I get confused between rising air and jsut the plain old wind. It is hard for me to distinguish between the two. I hold it into the wind as long as I can I then I make the downwind leg and land. I keep waiting for that sucker to just go up.

Flatland glider pilots often make use of the power pod. Ther are several kits that you can retrofit, both glow and electric. That might be an option while you gain 'Air knowledge'.

The work on TriPacer II is continuing at a slow pace. The gear legs have been filled and I will cover them in a day or so. I still have to mount the firewall and that is delayed as I havet' made up my mind as to engine choice. I dont' know if I want to go with my OS 65 and switch the engine between the Tri and the Pacer or mount up my old HP VT-49. The 4 stroke 49 will be marginal in the power department. I might have to cover the Pacer with film to keep the weight down. Coverall is lighter than film but the paint adds weight very quickly. 3 coats of dope, 3 or four primer coats and 4 or 5 topcoats. I put the rustolum on very thin but I have 3 coats on the wings and it is not enough.

I started sheeting the garage yesterday and at the rate I am going it will be August before I get it finished. Then I have to build the shop inside before I can dope and paint. It looks like this is going to be a 2 winter build. I have two new kits awaiting me. A world engines 52 inch Cub and a Great Planes .40 size
Cub. My winter months will be very busy this year.
I promised some shots of the Tail dragger and I will get them out shortly.

I have used both electric and gas for flat-landing. I also use one of these collapsable-chairs-in-a-bag. I enjoy my 3 meter glider with an os 10 mounted on the pod. That lil engine looks
hilarious mounted on that big plane. I then sit in my chair right on the flight line and watch her fly until the engine dies. I have no problems finding rising air over the woods near the flying field. I also like to soar with the buzzards. I use the chair because my neck gets stiff after an hour of flying.
Sounds like you will be plenty busy with the pole barn and two cubs in the works. I have to build a pier this week so I can get my boat in so that I can try out a Sea Dancer I bought off a guy. It's good to have goals. My wife thinks I want to build the pier for her, but I just need a place to stand to fly my floatplanes. Nice to see some dialogue here back in this thread.
Engine choice, I would go for the biggest one. I have no problems and I think it is because I over powered it with the GMS 76. I can't imagine a smaller engine pulling this horse around. I need to program my radio to couple in some rudder. With a slight breeze, it just banked and did not turn.

Is that plane done Roger? Ken, I'm about two weeks away from starting school and I will be looking at kits to build with the kids. Anything new? Here is what I have been up to. This were taken just before the maiden voyage.

Hey All, A short update on the Tripacer. On Sunday I drove the last screw on the new shop building. Got the final inspection today, passed, so I can start moving in. As I built it almost alone (40 x 40 ft. ) it has taken all summer to get it done. I have not stopped work on the model bench only backed off some. I repaired the Tripacer fuselage and re-covered it. Finished the Pacer fuselage except for firewall/engine mount and will cover it soon. In the interum I have started an old World Engines Cub. It is covered and only needs final assembly. I have a GP 40 size J-3 in the box but I won't start it untill the two pacers are finished.

Here is one for the dumb file: My reciever did not function on the throttle channel so I sent it back for repair. While it was there I had them put in a new xtal. I bought a new Futaba transmitter on E-Bay and as I was writing the repair letter I looked on the box for the freq, (56) and told Futaba to change the reciever to that freq. OK. They changed the freq xtal for me and I was good to go. I installed the reciever to set up my throws and tried it out. NOTHING. I checked the back of my transmitter.... CH 50, DUH.... and now I can't find the old xtal to use with my old Transmitter. So now I have three airplanes, two radios, and nothing to fly. My kingdom for a CH 50 crystal.

I'll try to shoot a couple of pictures of the Pacer fuselage in the next few days.

PS. How did that Spitfire turn out? Did it get finished by the end of term?

As you can see, I too became a little side tracked. I had summer school, a new pier, a porch to build and the North Star. The Spit is fairly close but it needs finished. I plan on starting in August. Right now I am just enjoying a little break and alot of flying. Can't wait to see your pictures. I have a World Models Clipped Wing that I tried floats on. It tipped over because the floats were kind of crappy. I am holding out for some discontinued EZ 40 size floats. Let's some some pictures and is anybody else have one done??? We would love to see it. By the way, I learned to glas on the bottom of the N.Star and I used 21st Century Fabric. That stuff shrinks really nice.

Here are a few shots of the Pacer on her gear.
I tried the TriPacer gear but it put the wheel and the forward edge a bit too far forward of the leading edge. I then made a new set of gear that placed the wheel center just forward of the wing leading edge with the fwd edge of the gear in line with the windshield upright. From the photos of the Pacer that I have this was the correct position. My gear looks a little spindley what do you think? Anyone out there have a real pacer that would care to comment?

The first shot is the plane on my gear. The second is on the TriPacer gear and the third shows them side by side. Which do you like best?

Recently crashed a Cessna built from an old Global Kit. No battery in plane after take off and it climbed straight towards town for about a mile and then finally banked and dive bombed the ground. Scariest crash I have ever had due to the fact that one of the club members responses was, "that thing could make it to town". I was actually happy that it did not go into town and that I was smart enough to realize that I did not want to kill my Tripe. I loaded my pieces and my Tripe and went home and called it a day. Sometimes you just need to understand the signs. If you crash one, you'll probably crash another and then you'll ask yourself. "why did I not stop while I was ahead?"

Does Ken have a new kit yet? Is anyone else done with their plane and want to share it with us?

Yes, Ken does have a new plane. However, it's a little bigger then the rest. I can't say what it is, but I will give you this: The Tri-Pacer kit (in box) is about 9 pounds. This kit, add 5 more. The T-REX is 85" wide. This kit, add 5".

What we are working on is just as easy to build as the rest, but twice the complexity. We were concerned (ya, right...) that builders through the winter months would have our kits framed in a week or two. A month if they dragged it out. This kit will actually fill their schedule (we hope). There are a few surprises in this new kit. And, as always, a few "firsts" in the industry.

We have bets that once this kit goes out, other manufactures will follow our suit in 1-2 years. The sad news is, it won't be ready for x-mas.

Is it finished yet Roger? I have only flown mine three times. I am too afraid of killing it. I may build another soon just to have a spare. Are there any other completed Tripes out there to look at. How do they fly?

Mine is complete. I've been waiting for a decent day to do the initial test flight. Looks like this weekend may be the time frame, broken cloud and 10 degrees celcius winds from the south west!

cheers
Daryl B.

Hey guys,
I am a little suprised that we have some action in the Tri-pacer thread. I kind of thought it had died. I have been a very lazy guy this winter. I have not moved my models out to the garage because the shop portion is not yet built. No heat yet. My wife has laid down the law, "No dope in the house" So I am just slowly finishing the first cub. I had my second heart attack a month ago. It was fun flying into Spokane in the back of the medevac chopper. Since my return I have sort of layed low. Darrel, werent' you making a fiberglass cowl? How did it come out? I ask because it would save me a lot of effort if I could buy one for the Pacer.

I finished the plug but haven't pulled a finished the cowl from it. I hope that your health is good and getting better, 2 ticker attacks doesn't sound very good. I'm posting a couple of pics of the tripe in my shop as there has been way to much rain for outdoor photograghy. Hopefully this can kick start this thread again. I've started on a Bud Nosen Mr. Mulligan that I'm going to run a Q35 in hopefully it will turn as nice or better than the tripe has.

Mahalo
Daryl B

OK I'll try again

Daryl,
She came out very nice. I'm sure she will fly as good as she looks. Are you going to put the swooshes on her? I'm still in the market for that cowl, hint, hint. I still have a couple of feet of snow outside so it will be a while before I can get back to the Tri pacer/ Pacer project.

How do these Pacers/TriPacers fly? thinking of building one.

Thanks,
Ron

I'd love to get one of these on the bench too...but it has to have a fiberglass cowl in my opinion, so I will wait until it is available.

Yak

I'll try and finish the cowl and see how well it fits. As far as the original cowl goes, don't let the stock one scare you away it's functional, looks fine and allows easy access to adjust and tune the "under the hood stuff. The swoosh patterns are rough cut and I just haven't fine tuned them in order to cut the Monokote and complete them, maybe I should do this prior to the first flight. Generally a great build but I had other issues with the kit with missing parts which were replaced with a phone call, and landing gear wire incorrectly bent that I just replaced myself. All in all the model was easy to build with some interesting ideas on construction. Also the manual doesn't have any control surface setup information, I tried calling mosquitobite yesterday and went to voice-mail, maybe Ken will see this post and respond with his experience and some info on control throws. Hopefully I will get it in the air this weekend. The sun came up 07:30 with broken cloud, scattered showers and 7 C. I will be publishing a full review on our club web page, if anyone is interested I'll post the URL here.

Have a great day all

Daryl B.

Daryl, E-mail Ken. He answers every one the same day, sometimes in an hour or less. ken at mosquitobiteplanes. com

Wow, that was more response than I expected. Nice Tripe. Keep the pictures coming. Hey Roger, did you make a bunch of lifestyle promises to yourself when you had the first heart attack? I ride my bike every day because of my family history. I hope you remain healthy. I want to see more pictures.

Daryl B--Did you get one of the later Tripes with the servo boxes in the wing? If so, how did that work out? I would like to see a picture of your trailing edge. Very nice looking plane.

Yes, my TriPacer is the later version and the wing boxes are a very unique and interesting design. I am very pleased with how they work, I setup the flap pushrod internally and the ailerons have exposed pushrods, pictures to follow. I am going to try and use a variation of the design on my 1/4 scale Mr. Mulligan that I currently have on the workbench. I didn't get out to the flying field last weekend but hopefully this coming weekend.

Wascamp, your suggestion of the email kinda worked, Ken called me back. The only problem is he called my work phone and I hadn't bothered to turn it on. Funny how that is when you work for the phone company. I will try calling him back later this week.

Cheers gents have a great day

Daryl

Folks I've been following this thread for some time and I would like to offer a suggestion. I started a wetech plans for a 1/5 scale tripe I never finished as I really didn't like the fuselage. I purchessed a fiberglass cowl from precision fiberglass and it is well made. since then they have changed hands and are now making and selling again. attached is their website for the tripacer cowl. 1/5 and 1/3 scale. also I have the plans for hostlers 1/3 and capitol plans for the 1/4 size. I'm really waiting for you guys to get some built and report on how well they fly. Joel you are doing both are they in the air yet?. Anyway check this website for cowls: http://www.precision-fiberglass-prod...dex.php?cat=14 regards to all who have done one heck of a job on this thread. Jack Deland fla. Home of the giants