I picked up a Gentle Lady kit a few weeks ago and began assembly. It took me a while to put together. From my experience level the instructions were incredibly vague and I think I spent 50% of my assembly time just trying to understand what the instructions were telling me. Regardless, the model finally got put together. I covered it (much easier than I imagined) and purchased a radio. I put everything in, added some weight to the nose to get the CG right and took off to my local school.

I started just running with it in my hand. Then started letting go and catching it. Kept going faster until one time it flew out of my hand. Starting throwing it and was having flights on the order of 100yds. Absolutely incredible. I couldn't believe the thing flew. It was like the biggest paper airplane ever, and I even had control!

After close to an hour of that I decided it was getting boring and it was time to head to the beach. Went up to Fort Funston but the abundance of people to whack in the head with the aircraft turned me away. On my way home I found another less populated ridge (right near funston) and got the nerve to huck it off the cliff.

It took a few throws (and one walk down the mountain) to relax enough to let the plane really fly. But wow. Gliders are absolutely incredible. Throw it into the wind and as it comes into a little upward moving air it just floats, hardly moving at all. Going downwind it flies incredibly fast, though I only once was ever able to get it upwind enough to come back to me. I had one flight where I was able to make two complete, large circles.

Overall it was an amazing experience. I couldn't believe that something I built actually flew, and flew well! It wasn't quite as graceful as the birds, but it was close enough. I can't wait to get back out there.

So the plane is a gentle lady kit. It is completely un-powered and I don't even have the hook installed for a winch. Just hand launches. The radio is a 3 channel, single stick. They didn't have any 2 channels in the store and I wanted to fly sooner rather than later.

Sounds like you had a blast Bob..... How do you like soaring???? I've recently decided to try electric and am beginning to think I made a mistake seems like its costing me everything I can get my hands on to try to get everything I need to get it going. I may cut my losses and go to pure sailplanes.

It's good to here someone have a good first flight. I'm getting a sailplane for christmas and it will be my first time ever...im getting kinda worreid...

It is good to see you're hooked.

Thanks for using good judgement and not lauching with all those people present on the beach!

After some more flights, consider getting a high start and installing the tow hook per your kit's instructions. You'll get much longer flight times. Check the forums here for advice on proper launch techinque.

I definitely like it. I went back this afternoon to try my luck again but the wind was blowing the wrong way (out to the ocean, instead of in from the ocean)

I can't comment from experience on the electric vs. sail plane since this was the first time I've ever thrown an airplane that wasn't made out of binder paper. One of the (perhaps great?) things about the gentle lady kit is that it has optional power kits. So if for some reason I decide later on I need more power I can go buy a motor and build up the optional parts to have it.

The way I did things was I just bought the kit for however-many-dollars and some glue, an x-acto knife and sand paper. Made a sanding block by gluing sand paper to a deck of cards :-) and just started going. Once I finished construction I went out and bought covering. Used the household iron to cover it. Then after some very gentle tosses on the lawn outside I went and bought the radio. Installed the receiver and servos and practically ran to the car to find a place to fly it.

All in all I spent way more money than I anticipated. My local hobby shop wasn't exactly cheap. They did give me some advice along the way and I definitely like to support local businesses but it's quite possibly a route I won't go in the future except for things I need ASAP. The kit was >$60 ($45 at tower hobbies). The radio was $68 ($50 at tower). Covering was almost $20 for 6' (need two, tower hobbies is $12ea).

I know all about the local hobby shops... I do all my shopping at tower now. It wasnt to bad when the original owner had it we became pretty close friends but he decided to sell the place to have more time to fly. The guy that bought dont know jack about anything but cars.. Its a wonder the place is still even open..

There were quite a few people who tried to scare me into having someone else do the first flight on the craft, get it real high and then let me takeover. Other's gave me the "***?" look and then tried to scare me out of flying by myself. Just take your time. Go download the X-plane demo (www.x-plane.com, if you like it, buy it). It has an RC airplane mode. The RC airplane, when you fly it, is very jerky. Very, very fast to react to your inputs. The glider, despite its size and relative slowness (it gets cookin' downwind), can be very snappy and requires smooth inputs. It seems that rarely should you ever need to move the stick fully in any direction. My one trip down the side of the mountain was caused by getting scared and jerking the stick around. The time the airplane almost took my head off was caused by me losing the planes bearing and not realizing it was coming in not going out. These are things you can see in the simulator.

I think the most important step in my learning to fly was my trip to the big grass field. Running with the airplane in my hand was a great way to feel what it takes and see how it flys. Doing very gentle tosses and catching it (radio in left hand with thumb on stick -just- in case) were also important. Finally giving it a toss and watching in amazement at how far it flew on its own. All of that before heading up to the ridge. I think being on wet grass (think morning dew or foggy san francisco) also helped. My landings were very smooth and the glider seemed to skate across the grass before stopping. I think I'll end up doing this with all of my planes in the future.

I think you should take most of my advice with a grain of salt. Much of it could be coincedence. The next time I take the plane out I may crash it on successive attempts. I could have just been lucky. I definitely have a lot to learn and a ton of experience to gain. But I can't wait to do it :-)

Part of it was not wanting to be embarassed when I crashed :-) I suppose other people's safety is reasonably important :-)

Next you'll have to get a HLG or DLG, the flights might not be long all the time but it's like that paper airplane reference you made.

Sometimes we forget the fun of just flying and worry too much about performance type things.

Bob,
I hope you know that when you took your plane to the ridge and threw it off, you were entering the realm of slope gliding. It's a great way to fly . Next time try to keep the plane in front of you and fly a figure 8 pattern, turning into the wind (which should be in your face as you look out from the ridge). You'll be amazed at the altitude and speed you can get out of even a GL.
Actually, you should be congratulated all the way down the line. By doing the hand tosses you made sure your plane was balanced and the controls were working properly. You showed proper concern for others when you decided not to fly in a crowded area (someone else also said this). I wish a lot of other people showed your common sense. Have fun and Merry Christmas!

papermache