4shizzle

Hey... if you read my last thread "PLEASE help me find a thermal ship" I was asking people for their opinion on finding the right glider for me. Well.. after an unsucessful attempt of dealing with NES I decided to go with Art Hobby's thermic v-tail. I have had a couple of cheesy gliders before and thought the art of thermaling was out of my skill level even though im a pretty good glow pilot. Well it took about a week to put it together and some of these guys had some good tips for me like cutting the boom to get the weight and balance closer. Anyways.... I got this thing in the air today. At first it wasnt doing anything maybe one or two minute flights. The ground was wet and we were expecting rain in NY. Later on the sun started to come out and I put this thing in the air and I just could not get it down! This thing shows lift great and I just stayed in it and by the time the flight was over I had put in my first 20 min. flight! Thinking it was luck I went back up and I was in for another 25 min. flight that I just had to bring down cause im using a GWS rec. and I was getting scared that I was running out of range. Well... if you guys have any recomendations for a good souce on thermaling info. or which rec. I should be using let my know. Just be careful the tail feathers are pretty fragile but otherwise this thing is somethin else. Sorry about the long post but geez my *** is excited. Thanks for the help guys!

Rick K

My Feedback: (6)

I read of a video as I recall called 'Secrets of the Thermal' by Radio carbon arts in the review section here. It sounds good to me and I'm going to get it (you can never know too much) They have a web site, I think it's radiocarbonarts.com but as that name is not 'highlighting' after I type it I may be wrong. If so just do a 'search' or see if it's still in the review section. You may also check out the RCM Pub. 'Glider and sailplane Handbook', it's rather dated but still goes over the basics and those don't change with age. After today I bet your hooked now, it worked that way with me.
Rick K
Just tried that site address, its correct

kamakasi

My Feedback: (3)

What sort of radio gear are you using?
Do you have the RES ship?
If so how was the spoiler installation?
I've been looking at this plane and am curious.

4shizzle

Ok.... well im a little new to the whole glider thing so your gunna have to tell me what RES is. As far as radio gear is concerned i was using a GWS rec. without any problem but i only have a few flights on it and i dont want it to go out of range so i just installed a hitec electron 6 rec. so i can screw around a bit and add in some spoilers and flaps. I used hs-81 sevros all around but make sure you measure everything up first because they barely and i mean barely fit in the wing and in the front you have to mount the servo underneath the fiberglass and not on top. Otherwise the cover for the front wont fit. If you are having a hard time understanding ill send some pics. I would like to know how other people do the spoilers because i would consider cutting in dedicated spoilers. But all around it seems like a real solid ship so far
Rick

Rick K

My Feedback: (6)

Hi, 4shissle RES= Rudder, Elevator, Spoilers. No flaps or ailerons. NOS is a 'date' sensitive class. Basically 'Old School' airfoils are only allowed.
Rick K
LSF 6493

4shizzle

ok... mine has ailerons

mattebox

Glad to hear you're enjoying your new glider. I also have an Art Hobby plane, a Velvia with flaps, but I've only flown it on the slope. A classic source of thermal info is the "Old Buzzard's Soaring Book" by Dave Thornburg. Just Google the title and should be able to find it for sale.

4shizzle

thanks i have the thermic and my buddy orderethe "velvita" but he did not install the flaps. What do you think of them for TD flight.... worth it or no???

Tomi

My Feedback: (4)

You'll be suprised on how durable the plane is. The vtail breaks only if you break it. I haven't broke one from flight yet. I've broken them from moving the plane around. Walking in the house holding the nose, and squashing it into the door. anyway, after flying some EPP foam wings, I jumped to a "more real looking plane" type of plane and got me a Art Hobby Falco-V 60"er for slope flying. Flew it for half a season and met many many things with the wing. Tree's, Planes, and it's still going. Last one I hit a Combat wing coming out of a hard pylon turn and snapped right wing in half. Fixed it but it's too ugly to fly.

Here it is just before the radio installation. It looked so nice.. Now it's ugly!


Instead of replacing the wing. I bought the Timon 2m instead. Looks just like it but 2meters. This thing flys awesome. Slope or thermal. Their prices are affordable and the planes fly nice.

Here's a picture recently.


Both planes I used the same Radio gear.
2 HS-81MGs for the Ailerons and 2 HS-81MGs for the vtail, Electron 6 RX, and a GP700 AAA 4 cell battery pack. Bought loose cells from cheap battery packs and soldered it myself.

Overall it doesn't matter which art hobby plane you buy, I bet they all fly just as good as a more expensive plane.

-Tomi

mattebox

Well, I'm certainly not a TD expert, but overall I think Art Hobby planes are great values and work just fine for thermally. They fit well in the mid-range of sailplanes. I think most guys who TD Art Hobby planes use the Thermic or the Timon. I have to admit my Velvia doesn't seem to find lift as well as my Omega HLG. There's a good Thermal forum over at RCgroups.com: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36

I also fly powered, but I learned to fly gliders first when I got into R/C. I'm glad you decided to pick up gliders. They're a wonderful form of flight and flying them makes you a better pilot. You learn a lot about energy management that can help you out in the power plane world. Deadsticks, for example, don't scare me at all because out of glider habit I already land all my planes at idle during the entire approach.

4shizzle

cool to see we are gettin some responses... One problem witht he thermic.. The tail is strong but the other day I had the thing almost out of sight and when i went to bring it down the tail started to flutter soooooo bad and i had a hard time tring to get it to pull up. I would guess i was only moments away from loosing the plane. The problem was that it was soooo high I could not really judge airspeed or altitude that well so i had no idea I was pushing the limit till i heard the flutter. Any ideas on how to stop that. I can see the plane wantes to fly fast... really really fast at time but im afraid of destroying it. Thanks!!!

cuzz

I am about finished with my Sierra II, was your plan and manual engineered as well as mine?

What sort of time frame did you complete yours in?

Thanks

tf49665

I am thinking of getting a Falco also. Can I put one servo at the V-tail for elevator only?

Rio

My Feedback: (3)

4shizzle,
I'm thinking about getting a thermic 2.5 and would like to know if you are hand launching the plane or using a winch or high-start? Does it come with a tow-hook?

drive2survive

My Feedback: (27)

if yall have a thermic be REAL CAREFUL not to bring it in sideways, where the boom meets the pod is real weak and will break very easy, something needs to be done about that weak point......o