gittarpikk

Well, I finally got a partial day off and her in Tennessee, I got perfect weather... To the Gentle Lady flew well. I first had a geared 280 and a 12X8 folder. and 7 cell and 8 cell NIMH but did not get good results.. I then replaced with a brushless HK that sent a 10 inch prop non folder (wrong for the motor) and cut it down and flattened the pitch some to keep it from loading up and shutting down. It will run WOT now.So I flew 1st with a 7 cell and got a good climb and snagged a thermal... went to 600 feet in just a few minutes righ alongside a red tailed hawk. Decided to not push it and brought it down for about 15 mins total. Then used an 8 cell and the climb was like 45 degrees... took only a min to hit 600 feet and snag another one. Here comes another hawk sharing my thermal... Accidentally hit the dual rates and thought my rudder was acting up..so deployed the spoiler s and was back on ground in 5. The fight was beauty to behold... very light on the wing, great turns (slightly tailheavy with 7 cell)

Had a great time...will be switching later to LIPO, a Berg 4 stamp maybe and micro (using standard servos now) servos . but nothing wrong at all with present set up...but will add a folder 9x5.(what the motor seems to like) Pic is with the old 12x8 folder and gear drive..(no contest)

Tinkrerpilot

My Feedback: (2)

Great flight indeed! NIce to see you are enjoying the plane for what it is. Nice and easy. A few mods here and there never hurt either. Great fun once you get it dialed in. Nice looking finsh also. NICE!

gittarpikk

Thanks for the comment, I bought that kit at a club benefit for $20. I rarely build from kits as I like to design my own, ...but.... I had flown the GL (other peoples modelsOPM)several times before...and it is a keeper.

I had stored it over the winter and when i got it out, found somehow I had used two different whites when I originally covered it last spring and boy was one of them yellowed so I had to completely redo the white . Made for a good time to re-engineer the nose for the new brushless motor though.


I will probably save a lot of weight when I switch to LIPO and the Stamp receiver.. may go ahead and switch servos as well. If I can knock 2-3 OZ off the plane, this bird would fly pretty much as long as I wanted to stay up in even nearly non-existant lift. Of course the amount of pure watts consumed would be way less too...and would either allow even higher flight times, or a smaller battery to accomplish the same climb or both. Makes for a REAL reason I put spoilers on it...may be the only way to get it down..

squeakalong

My Feedback: (8)

Nice flight on your Gentle Lady! Recently purchased one of the kits for myself (first glider kit) and look forward to starting the build in a month or so. Want to fly it off the sand dunes near Lake Michigan this summer (30 miles away). Looks to be a nice relaxing model. Have fun with yours!

Soft landings.

Tinkrerpilot

My Feedback: (2)

sqeakalong

Keep us posted on your build as you go. ALways a friendly bunch here to give a helping hand with the advice, in anyway we can help.
Although the GL is pretty much a straight up build.

gittarpikk

Really looks bad when the covering yellows like that. All good though. You did well on the re-engineering of the nose. Lets see what happens when you go withthe li-po's and the berg reciever. Loks great in the meantime.

gittarpikk

I will try to get a pic of the re-engineered nose for those that may want to mod it for one of those HK cheapo motors. Looks pretty unique with the motor bell being a part of the "spinner" nose. I will probably go with a Corona reciever from Heads Up RC. seems like it has more features and is maybe a better QC'd product. I like the idea of flying it with any transmitter I have (I have 3) . I have flown many different designs of sailplanes and I know of no other that is more trouble free and relaxing to fly than the GL. Seems she knows what is expected and
gets "right down to business" from the get-go no matter how she is configured.

tkilwein

The lady was one of my first ones and still in the fleet.
Here is mine with 2100+watts of power on the nose, Stupid power, 6inch rollout.
PJS1500 with my custom heatsink mount, 13x7 prop, CCHV85, 2x 3c3300mah, 87-90 amps at 25 volts.
Mustang Sally.

Needless to say she does not glide forever, but raises H. going long vertical.

You are going to enjoy your new addition!

gittarpikk

Here are pics of re-engineered nose

Finding camera does like macro very much