flybaby101

so what has happened with the plane so far , ive got ca in the eye before that sucks , but what with the plane pics would be good as i have a sagitta on the way and keep,n a spirit kit on standby just in case..

good luck with the canopy , personally id just order another and get back into it after your eye fixes

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

A Sagitta and a Spirit. Sounds like me. Love 'em both. They are different in air.

flybaby101

well after reading all the articles on the net about the performance i couldnt resist the spirit , so i got one straight away and when i build it im going to lighten it up and improve on its perfomance you can save almost 5-8 ounces of weight with the mods im doing which is to hollow out the ply floor on the fuse , use some hs-55 micros and a small 600mah battery up front put lightening holes in the te , use carbon spars , and go onto a v-tail which increases the turning radius without increasing the fin size.

using good jugement with glue , i sould also be able to shave an additionial 4-5 ounces

in regards to the sagitta I am building that lighter also , because the weght of the originial was the reason for the cracks in the rear just behind the wing , because if you have an originial sagitta chances are you have done this. for their size they are very heavy in the body so alot has to be changed to cut the weight down without sacrificing strength I plan yo do this when i start construction , keep an eye on my other post for photos

cheers

dug[&:]

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Give this a thought. The Spirit is the lighter weight floater by design. The Sagitta carries more wing loading and a better penetrating air foil. So it flys much faster than the Spirit. It flies better in the wind than the Spirit due to that weight and the air foil.

If you want to lighten the Spirit, that can be your light lift plane. Build the Sagitta more for strength, use your carbon spars here, design it for strong winch launches and wind penetration. Put the spoilers on both planes. This way you have two different planes that can be used in two different conditions.

If you are going to lighten the Spirit, work on the tail is the best place to go. I don't know what advantage a V will brings in weight, but if it lightens it, that is fine because it will reduce the balance weight needed. Actually writeups are that the Spirit's rudder is a bit small. So if your plane gives it more rudder authority, that is good.

Going to HS-55s will only help you if you lighten the tail otherwise you will just replace the weigh saved with lead. 55s are probalby OK, but I would use HS-81s to be sure you have enough strength in a dive and on a strong launch. I used standard servos. Moving them forward offset the balance weight so I reduced the lead by 2 ounces just by where I put the servos. If I had gone to HS-81s, I would just have put more lead in it. I think you read my story about changing the plane.

What would be interesting would be to buld one of them RES and one full house, or use the Spirit kit cut-outs to make a second set of wings that are full house rather than RES. Then you can switch off.

I like the planes the way they are, but will be interested to see how you change them. I may get ideas from you.

flybaby101

well another thing i might include in both models as i am using hs-55s is a ballast tank in the ballast box, which is a fuel tank that is modified to hold some thickand heavy oil injected via a syringe , this way you can increase or decrease the ballast as nessecary to improve wind penetrtion on windier days , I have seen this done on some of the gliders in the club and it works a charm , one of our members at one time during a fun fly event put a fresh tank in at some stage and injected it with some pancake mix , when the day was over he yelled out {WHO WANTS SOME PANCAKES} ,went to his glider and got a fresh syringe and started making pancakes , went over to his other glider and got the maple syrup then went to a mates and got some whipped cream ,(no im not kidding) this cracked us up , and it is now known as the"pancake penetration method"

quite funny..

cheers

dug

flybaby101

will keep you posted on my progress in the sagitta post

[&:]dug

ejett

My Feedback: (4)

I have an old Spectra (the electric version of the Spirit). The original power setup was pretty anemic and I had retired the plane years ago. This spring I dug it out and converted it to pure sailplane by fitting and carving a nose block, relocating the servos, and building a new balsa canopy.

I flew it today. I am going to have to make some adjustment to the towhook position because I kept popping off the highstart because it is a little to far back. I had several nice flights with the second flight being well over 30 minutes.

One thing I found when I got done with the conversion is that I was able to balance it with only the radio gear, which was totally unexpected. If anything, it seems a little nose heavy still. I need to reduce my elevator throws a tad or use my radio with exponential to make it a little less sensitive to small elevator inputs.

It was a perfect day for flying here in E Central MS. Light winds out of the south and I had the field to myself. I don't know where those other club members were today! Surely, they must have gone to one of our neighboring clubs.

Hope you fellows got some good air today.

Ed Jett

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Pancake mix? Strange!

I just use lead balance weights, fishing sinkers, washers or coins. I have a small ballast compartment right over the CG in the Sagitta.

I have the center area open on the spirit, so no problem adding ballast to that one, but typically I fly the Sagitta on windier days.

Rick K

My Feedback: (6)

Hi guys, CA in the eye? OW! How'd they treat that? You should submit a article to RCM about it, another good reason to always wear the safty-glasses, not only when you use the power tools.
After my recient (last Mo.) stay in the hospital (sudden onset of Type II diabetes, now seven pokes a day keeps the Dr. away) I understand your 'appreciation' of medical 'professionals' I finally got so pissed I had to remind them that they weren't the only people that went to college and held a degree or two and yes, despite my longish hair, I could therefore understand a explaination of, and would like to have a full understanding of . . . what the heck was wrong with me and what was to be my future.
I too had trouble with the canapy of the spirit, I'm suprised they haven't fixed it yet (I built mine over ten years ago). I ended up cutting off the canapy rear of the LE and making wedges out of balsa to match the V of the wing, then shaping the resulting plug to conform to the curve of the canapy and gluing the end product to the top of the wing.
Rick K.

smoking joe

Wow 7 pokes a day does that include the test strips? I take 2 injections a day, and test once a day usually at bedtime, I was diagnosed with Type II in 76. The Dr. who examined me in ER said it would dissolve in 12 to 15 hrs. but would be uncomfortable till then. REALLY? Sunday morning it felt much better but the drops they gave me stung like crazy, vision now is good no problem. I burnt a hole in "butt" of canopy just cut it off flush, going to try 1/64th ply to duplicate the original. I don't know if Bruce will let me post anymore pics after the GL thread, seems I have better building skills than computer, posted same damn pic twice. Flying "podner" was out of town yesterday umpiring JC game, we hope to fly today, the conditions yesterday were great, about the same as Ed in Marion, Ms. If I can get some help I'll try to post some pics. Smoking Joe

flybaby101

sounds like a plan my man , just dont get ca on the eylet of the camera your using , you might just end up in hospital taking pictures of all the cute nurses

lol

[8D]

anyway be great to see some pics

dug[&:]

Rick K

My Feedback: (6)

Hi Joe, It's only three Inj. a day, four tests. The odd thing is the inj.'s don't hurt much ever if at all (the thing I feared) it's those damn test pokes that hurt, more so when it takes (often) more than one try to get enough blood to test . . . well could be alot worse. It sure was scary though, loosing 30# in two and a half weeks, finally giving in to my wife, going to the Doc, ending up in the Emerg. room and intensive care from there . . . quite a thrill.
Back to the Spirit, what I did was to borrow a 'duplcator' one of those 6" long things full of 4" sliding little rods (I know the spelling isn't close) used to duplacate moldings from my woodworking hobbiest neigbor to get the dehidreal angle of the wing center right to cut out of a hunk of 4"X2" balsa scrap I had around to match, alot of shaping/sanding later had a plug to match the wing and canapy.
Rick
Too bad I didn't think of this earlier, still have the wing from my old spirit, fuse was destroyed in rough landing(s) (well just say got tired of how it looked with all the repairs). besides being covered in Flo. Pink (cool twelve yrs. ago) and having a wing tip chewed some by my pet rabbit (my then pup, now old girl GS dog also did some chewing, . . . on rabbit, Her now grey snout is resting on my foot as usual, starting to have trouble walking . . . my wife took her to the Vet a few weeks ago, while I was in the hospital. Not much time left He said, stomach cancer, she'll just get worse and is in pain, maybe better to . . . wife finaly told me Fri. night, knows how much I love the dog, didn't want to see me cry. Iv'e been trying to avoid Sit. can't any more . . .Sorry, sometimes I hate being a man, the one who has to make the 'heavy decisions', do the dirty deeds, the kind my kids (and myself) will hate me for, doing the right thing for the dog we love that they don't understand has to be done. I have to deal with it tomarow, God forgive me. Sorry, lost my thought. Rick

smoking joe

Spirit and Aspire maiden flights this afternoon. Both flew great, Aspire amazing how well it flew the turns were absolutely flat specked it out 2 times. The Spirit lived up to the reputation it has on the forums here great flying plane. The GL had it's turn also had three fantastic flights with it. Can't wait till next weekend. Smoking Joe

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Aspire, GL and a Spirit. You have three sweet planes there.

Since the Spirit is the only one of the three with spoilers, I hope you take advantage of them to advance your flying skills.

Enjoy them.

smoking joe

AEAJR The GL has spoilers also just never hooked them up. I built it with 3 piece wing so mounting servo in center section should be no problem. It was built in a hurry to get in air and get stick time. I think I am going the route you used with the Spirit. Smoking Joe

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Joe,

You say the GL has spoilers. Did you design them in? I was of the impression the GL was not designed with spoilers. Have they revised the kit?

smoking joe

AEAJR I got a lot of help on this forum from a thread I posted on GL spoilers. It was basically the same as the Spirit. I built the GL with a 3 piece wing, the center section will accept a small servo like a HS 81 and should be easy to hook up spoilers. I'll try to post some pics. I was pleasantly surprised with all 3 planes and how easy they flew in about 10-12 MPH winds, not quite as many thermals as a couple of weeks ago, or at least it seemed that way. Hope to have winch ready in the next few weeks. Smoking Joe

flybaby101

pics please

id love to see those photos , i just started yesteray on a sagitta 600 , im including spoilers and have done a few mods to increase strength at the rear , which is ad some 5mm in the bottom where the 1.5mm usually runs and tapered it with crosbraces , the only problem i am having is alaigning the fin to be straight to the body which becuse of this new taper which il be putting some 3mm balsa along to sand to the rest of the body flush...

anyway where are those pics get all three birds then we can stop asking

also is there a way to crow on a flash 5 system x as im getting one as my next radio

cheers

doug

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Don't think you can really do a CROW on a Flash 5. Not enogh channels. Someone will have a way, but will it be convenient? I don't think so.

Nice radio, though for only 30-40 dollars more the Futaba 7C would seem to be a much better value and would be you could Crow on that.

smoking joe

The Spirit went in today, the result of spar failure, after spar modifications, the spar broke on the outboard side of the main spar. I don't think they were meant for electric winches. She will remain in "SPIRIT" in these forums forever. Smoking Joe

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

The Spirit is a very light plane by design. Mine has been launched on a winch many times, but you have to take it up easy. You can't full pedal it or even strong pedal it. I snapped the wing on one launch when a strong gust hit it on the way up.

On the other hand I have taken it up on my NE Sail XL hi-start which will launch 4 meter planes and it has never had a problem on the hi-start and I get very high launches.

kamakasi

My Feedback: (3)

smoking joe, sorry to here about the mishap. I'm toying with the idea of building another Spirit and bashing the heck out of it. It won't be a Spirit anymore but I can't find any kits with excatly what I want.

aeajr. According to Futaba Tech dept. the 7c will not do crow mixing. Not enough p-mixes.

jf_moreira

My Spirit helds over 300 flights. Just had only one crash (hit a pine tree with left wing, plane "screwed on air" and hit the ground breaking the left tip), and one "transport sh*t" (broke right wing tip again, fixing just now!).
Already flew this guy with 25 Mph winds, no problem (100g ballast on CG).

Also, I don´t feel I need any more rudder input, even on slopes. Already took those 1:30h thermals "pain in the neck" literally...
Attached goes a picture...try to find the spirit in this "crow tunnel"!!!! (more than 40 crows flying along!)

The Spirit attached, and a picture with idea for your canopies..

Jeffo.

http://talk.to/jeffo

jf_moreira

Oh, I forgot to ask something!

Does anybody have ever launched the Spirit by bungee? Ever tried? Using a nose hook or something?

I´m toying with this idea, just like a friend do with his F3J (similar to a SPACE, german model), but I´m a bit concerned with the polyhedral and its attitude after launching (don´t wanna smash the plane onto the floor...)

[ ]s!
Jeffo
http://talk.to/jeffo

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Nose hook? You mean for Aerotow?

I would not use a nose hook for hi-start or winch launches. No height!