November 18th, 2005: Cheshire, CT
Big news on the Topnosis! I ran into FAO Schwartz in NYCity for the first time in years and saw that they once again are selling this toy. Not only that but Mr. Rubin was there!!!! If you have never seen a Topnosis® please visit my Topnosis! page for details.I have not updated these pages in forever! I had put my RC Soaring on hold for most of the year due to some new interest in sailing. Now that a new sloping site has been "discovered" 10 miles from my house I suspect I will become interested again.
February 24th, 2005: Cheshire, CT
Boy, that was quick! My Jester 2M RES plane arrive via priority mail today. After waiting until after dinner I eagerly opened the box up. As I scanned the pile of wood for parts I noticed the building guide was missing. I have sent a quick email to Brian to determine if I am supposed to be writing the building guide or if it was missing!February 22nd, 2005: Cheshire, CT
They said I won a major prize! (said in my best Frank from 'A Christmas Story' voice)Today I was notified that I am the "winner" of a chance to build a Laser Arts Jester 2M RES sailplane in exchange for doing a build thread on RCGroups. I originally noticed the offer on the http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336924 thread. Brian Eberwein, the proprietor of Laser Arts, has asked that I document the build both in order to give the kit some publicity but also to highlight any challenges with the instructions as written. I plan to use my son's new digital camera to take step by step pictures of the build as I put it together. It should be really fun and I am totally jazzed! I will, of course, keep a running diary of sorts here as well. As I go I will add to the Jester pages.
February 13th, 2005: Glastonbury, CT
Another Glastonbury Aeromodeler's indoor event, this time a contest. There were quite a few visitors from out of state, including at least two national record holders. In fact one of the record holders, Max, set a new indoor Category I or II indoor record for autogyros. Honestly, though, his plane is designed to the letter of the rules and flies much like a regular plane with a turning wing on the top. It even has regular wings so the turning wing on the top looks to be either just for show or is minimally helpful. Well, that is what makes a champion in any sport or hobby - knowing the rules and making sure you are *just* within the limits imposed.I am still seriously thinking of building an Allegro-Lite or a Bubble Dancer. I am always torn by the desire to build a composite, full house glider and the simplicity and pure enjoyment of a built up RES glider. Eventually I will decide what I want to do!
January 9th, 2005: Glastonbury, CT
Glastonbury Aeromodeler's held an indoor free flight practice today. I brought Janet, Jason and Kendra (my wife and kids) up to the gym to see what indoor flying is all about. I brought the whipper whizzes and some cheapo hand chuck gliders. Once we were there we were told that an older modeler had given up the hobby and donated all his stuff to the club, which was free for the taking. Janet picked up a few really nice handlaunch gliders. One of the gliders was really nice and I managed to get a 24 second flight out of it after learning how to throw the thing. Sweet!Dennis gave me some plans for a Sweepette 16, which is a 16" handlaunch glider he uses with the kids. I will put one of these together for Jason to see if I can get him interested. If not, I'll use it, besides I am getting very bored this year and need something to do during the winter!
January 1st, 2005: Bristol, CT
I finally finished my new BlueCor (Fan Fold Foam) Zaginutz last evening and the wind seemed just about right to go sloping at Bristol. So I left the house at 10:30 in the morning for the 1/2 hour drive to the slope. I ended up getting lost but learned a little bit about the towns around my house! Eventually I found Rte. 6 and backtracked to the right place, all the while looking at the trees and thinking I would be disappointed. When I got to the slope the wind was blowing nicely as it is at the top of a pretty big hill and I had been driving through the valleys to get there. I got my stuff, walked through the field through a whole bunch of curious dogs, and up the hillside. The wind is best from NW or NNW or E at the Bristol slope and the wind was going back and forth between NNW and NE so was hitting the slope pretty much right on the concave part of the hill. The Zaginutz was balanced with the CG way back and it sure was a handful, requiring a ton of up elevator to fly. I had thought if I needed up elevator I wanted to go backwards with the CG, but it ended up being worse the more lead I added back there. So I just put a few ounces of lead in the nose instead and it seemed to fly much better. Go figure! The plane was flying for about 2 minutes at a time, but the wind would shift and the plane would go from flying nicely to dropping out of the sky without warning. I am sure some of it is my technique. I can't wait for the next primo slope day!I have submitted this slope site and Talcott Mountain to the Slopeflyer.com database. I hope none of the local fliers get upset that I have done this. The more the merrier I think (although that kind of thinking often leads to stupid assholes showing up and not respecting the rules).
December 12th, 2004: Simsbury, CT
I got a call from Deane that he and his buddies were going hang-gliding off of Talcott Mountain and I was welcome to come and watch. The wind was forecast for WNW at about 5 - 15 and apparently that is perfect for hucking oneself off a cliff. Anyway I got there and hiked to the top of the Heiblein Tower trail and there they were, all put together and ready to go. It is quite a hike up to the top of the hill but the view is tremendous. I can't wait to give it a try, but Janet, my wife, says one hobby at a time and that hanggliding is too expensive. So I will stick with RC stuff for a while, at least until the kids are a bit older and more independent. I think given the choice I would get a motorcycle before a hang glider still as it is a little more versatile and just about the same expense. When windsurfing I got sick of getting skunked out on weekend days when the wind wasn't sailable, usually it was not blowing strong enough. For hang gliding the wind can't be too strong, but can't be too light either, so I figure there is double the chance of getting skunked with this hobby too!December 5th, 2004: Bloomfield and Bristol, CT
There is sloping in Connecticut!Well I hooked up with some awesome hang-gliding folks who happen to like slope/ridge soaring when the winds are not right for their primary hobby. So today the wind was blowing 10-15 or so from the N/NW. They were going to launch from Talcott and I was going to tag along to see what hang gliding is all about. The wind turned out to be just a bit too strong for them so via phone messages I ended up at two different slopes.
The first was behind the Seabury Retirement home in Bloomfield somewhere off Rte. 178. There is a power field there called the Wintonbury something or other. I put my clip on the frequency board, drove over to the slope and flew the plane Dennis gave me several times for about 5 minutes at a toss and it was doing great! I had the longest slope flights I have ever had and the lift was surprisingly smooth. Unfortunately I got kicked off the slope as the Prez. of the club came over to say I was welcome to fly at the field as a guest but that the slope is a "no fly zone" in order to keep peace with the retirement home. The lift was so good that I could not get the plane to come down at a reasonable speed. They were patient and told me not to break the plane, so I kicked in flaps (at which point directional control becomes rudder only and slow) to get the thing to slow down and drop out of the lift. After several minutes of it still going up I managed to get the thing floating out over the field in front of the slope. I didn't want to make anyone upset so I left and went to another site in Bristol. (it turns out the guys who pointed the site out to me have been flying here unhindered for 20 years and can't figure out why they all of sudden have a problem with glider fliers)
So on to the next field a few miles off Rte. 6 in Bristol. There I met up with the guy (Deane) who mentioned the sites, relayed the story of getting kicked out of Wintonbury, and met a bunch of the hang glider pilots. The slope is a public park, long-grass covered, about 60 feet high and has a pretty big field in front of it. There is definitely some obstruction upwind in the form of a tree-line but the wind seemed to smooth out enough, if a little light and cold by the time I got there. Direction seems to be North, Northwest and East. There is another field about a mile away, which sounded somewhat sketchy (e.g. no tresspassing signs) for South winds.
Anyway, once I hiked to the top I could scope out the wind locations. While I was flying the wind was striking a rounded concave corner where the West and North facing slopes intersected and the resulting lift band was narrow at times. When the wind gusted the lift band widened quite nicely and the hill is large enough to make some decent runs across the face.
Where to find the Bristol slope: My directions were somewhat around about as they were done on my lap in the Wintonbury parking lot! I am sure there is a more direct route.
Take Rte. 6 through Bristol toward Plymouth. Take a Right on Smith, at the end of Smith go straight by making a right and then immediate left. This road was unmarked but eventually turns into Perkins. Take a right on James Casey Rd and about 1/8 mile on the right is the parking lot. If the lot is full you can park just down the street in the Cemetary access road.
Lessons learned: 1) Go to a new site with someone who has flown there before 2) The plane Dennis gave me is a high wind sloper. It *loves* to be flown fast and aggressively. It is not a floater, although can be slowed down but then it sinks out in light lift. 3) The Bristol location *defintely* beats Lighthouse Point in terms of landing ease. Getting there through the holiday traffic is somewhat of a hassle.
November 30th, 2004: Durham Fairgrounds, Durham, CT
What I think may be the last thermal flying day of the year. Forecast was for mid40's and light winds after some real howling days here in South Central Connecticut. I got the car all packed and ready to go just as Janet was going out the door. The plan was to leave by 9 a.m. to get to the field early for some nice early morning air. Unfortunately the car was on empty and I had left my wallet in Janet's car. Bummer, so I made a 3D model of my Marauder for the FMS flight simulator instead and posted the file to my Marauder directory. The zip file contains the various files for download.So Janet came home by 11:30 and I was at the field just after noon after gassing up the car. I brought Dennis cut-down 2M plane to try and get it trimmed after unwarping the ailerons and the Marauder so I could get some quality flying time. The 2M plane was miserable at thermaling. It kept popping off the histart and the lift was so light due to the soggy field that I only was able to get 30 - 60 second flights. This thing is going to be a slope only plane I think! The Marauder was better although due to the light wind/launching downwind the launches were rather poor. So most flights were 2 - 5 minutes. I quickly got tired, wet feet and cold and so stood around to watch Felix and his friend Chris fly their very fast electric planes. They are nice but there is a ton of money invested in these things and they are rather twitchy to launch. No thank you! I prefer bounceable planes or ones that are unpowered thank you very much. Time to put the Marauder away or at least start ripping off the covering so I can re-enable the spoilers. If I do that I will need to unwarp them and put hooks in the corners to make the airfoil at that part of the wing perfect.
October 24th, 2004: Lighthouse Point, New Haven, CT
EPP floats!The forecast for today looked like it might produce a nice light slope day at Lighthouse point in New Haven harbor. They were predicting N to NNE winds of 10-15 mph, which is easily doable with the Highlander. When I got there I found the wind quartering onto the shore, so I expected the lift band to be narrow. This is especially true since the actual slope is rather marginal anyway. The first couple of tosses of the Highlander showed that there was some light lift being produced right at the water's edge. So I went along the pathway to where I thought the wind was hitting more directly onshore. The first flight I stalled the plane into the sand. No big deal, pick it up and dust if off. I was thinking, "this is my first time sloping where I am not at all nervous for the plane" unlike last year. Immediately after that I turned the plane to come across the slope and discovered that the quatering wind, which I had been flying into, changes the dynamic of the plane greatly. It started to slow down (even though it didn't look like it) and as I tried to guide the plane back to the shoreline I stalled the plane just over the waters edge about 2 feet up. Well EPP floats! I made a quick dash across the rocks and pulled the plane from the drink by a wingtip. Deciding that I had no idea if there was any water inside of the servos or receiver I turned the plane and TX off and headed back for the car. I didn't want to waste my trip down there so I pulled out the aileron plane Dennis gave me. I pulled the wing out of the car, plugged it into the fuse and then opened up the hatchway to plug in the receiver and... uh oh, no battery. A rapid search of the toolbox netted nothing as I left the pack at home inside my charging/battery box. Oh well, back to home with all the planes in one piece.
I pulled the Highlander apart (really just slitting some tape) pulled the various wires from the receiver and cracked open the receiver case. It was dry inside but I gave it a bit of heat from the heatgun anyway. The servos are a tiny bit wet, but I will let them dry on their own since they are buried in epoxy/foam. Hopefully the salt water does little damage, or is just on the outside of the servos.
October 17th, 2004: Brattleboro, VT
My first contest since I blew up the plane! Today I drove 2 hours up to Brattleboro, Vermont for the end of the year Pumpkin fly put on by the Brattleboro Area fliers, and CD'ed again this year by Bob Rondeau. $10 entry fee for 5 rounds plus a nice lunch is not bad at all, and you can't beat the colorful views this time of the year. I am very happy they moved it up a few weeks as last year it was in the first weekend of November (brrrrr!).Today the weather was also iffy, like last year, but unlike last year it was not rainy but was chilly (high of around 50 degrees) and very windy for me. We measured a few wind gusts as high as 18 mph on the ground, which makes the Marauder just about stop in midair without ballast. Overall I had a blast, even though I did come in last place of the active fliers and 14th/17th place (the last 3 were DNF's from people who crashed in the woods). The wind was tough to fly in. I spent the first few winch launches just getting used to the plane off the winch and only had 2 minute flights. Thereafter I improved and got 3 minutes on 6 minute tasks. :-) The wind really pushed the plane around a lot and the small field crowded with lots of people, and the car parking only a few feet from the landing tapes made me very nervous. As a result, I tended to overcontrol the plane to make sure it didn't do anything remotely uncontrolled toward the cars or people. On one flight I even landed between the winch lines to avoid the crowd of people waiting to launch. Some might say that was rather rude, in itself, but then again I'd hate to hear what they would have said if I came barreling through them!
Three planes got lost in some *very* tall trees trying to make the landing zone. These big trees were down a huge hill from the landing zone with the tops just about even with where we were standing, but in the wind people were inadvertently slowing the planes too much and stalling them right into the trees. Even Steve S. did some funky flying and an unintentional landing way out after stalling his Escape on approach to the tapes. After seeing that I always flew my downwind leg with the nose down to avoid any perception problems. Unfortunately without spoilers I tended to want to land short rather than overshoot the tape, so while I did get a few landings in they were not spectacular and 3 of the flights landed 5-10 feet short.
So now it is time to pack away the contest gear for the winter. Dennis has given me a winch, so I can probably continue to fly in the winter if I wanted to, something I cannot do with a histart. We'll see as there are always things to do around the house. Steve gave me some Falcon880 wings and Eddie has given me a Falcon fuse. I just need to build the tail feathers, buy and install some radio gear and purchase a 7+ channel radio. Steve tells me that plane is outstanding especially for a first time contest plane, so I will get it together this winter and have something to do the LISF I & II, CRRC and Brattleboro contests next year.
August 27th, 2004: Pine Island, NY
Well it is taking me a lot longer to get "back on the horse" than I thought it would. Having two car payments can do that to ya, when even replacement spruce seems like an expensive expenditure!Dennis and I went to a huge sod field on the NY/NJ border called "Pine Island". This sod farm is in a huge valley called the "black dirt valley" or something like that. There are large fields everywhere with mostly onion farms all around. We were flying F3B planes from one field but there was at least two miles of field north-south and one mile east-west. I was doing the "base B" portion of the flight course, calling out on the radio when the plane would pass a marker 150 meters away from the launch point. I had a blast calling the plane, watching them fly in and out of lift, and in general just sitting in the sun enjoying the weather and looking at the clouds form and dissipate.
Dennis gave me a 71" wingspan aileron plane and I got a few flights in on it. I really like flying with ailerons, although I will agree it takes a whole lot more attention to fly with them than a standard RES plane. Dennis also gave me a winch and turnaround and I am so grateful!
One thing that is excellent about Pine Island is the free aerobatics show you get from full sized planes. When we were there, in the morning, there was a Pitts and another plane doing all kinds of fantastic maneuvers in their planes. Hammerheads, stalls, flatspins, corkscrews, lomecevak (sp?) etc. I don't even know the names of all the stuff they did but it was truly amazing to watch... and it was free too!
July 21st, 2004: Suffield, CT
As posted on the CT sailplane thread on RCGroups the Marauder is in pieces. :-(Today started out great and ended with a bang. I tried two winch launches with the Marauder today. The first I was very light on the pedal and got a poor launch. The second I stood on the pedal and was getting a great launch, but then out of habit did a dip to get off the hook and apparently fluttered my wing. The Marauder came down in pieces. It is in remarkably good shape that will probably take me a week or so to repair. Unfortunately this cowboy needs a little more courage to get back on this horse! Gotta go into the basement for a few days now. While I am at it I am going to get rid of the double spoilers and just do some regular spoilers.
July 7th, 2004: Durham, CT
Had a great time also. Quite a few flights to high altitude, although none to heights where the stabs disappeared. On the last flight of the day my TX started beeping just as the plane was going up. I decided to land just in case, and it was the low voltage beep. I landed just in time with about 3 minutes charge remaining. I just finished charging and I had used 521 mAh out of a 600 mAh pack. I took 1 1/2 ounces of lead out of the nose and I still think there might be room for another 1/2 ounce to come out. The plane is far more responsive now although still a bit sluggish on the elevator and still has a tendency to "fall into" the turns. I had this same problem with the Highlander and it was because there was no washout in the tips. The Marauder doesn't have any either, so I may put in 1/8" or so for next time. I hate to fly with washout, thinking that it must be inefficient, but if it helps save altitude wastage from the tip stalls it must be a better tradeoff. Total weight on the Marauder is now 57.9 ounces - quite a bit lighter than the 65 ounces I have been telling everyone and less than the projected weight on the plans (60-70 ounce target weight). Steve, thanks for the company. You are right, for the 100th time, never leave lift to find better lift. Felix, glad to see you. Whatever I say should be taken with a grain of salt, or at least run by Dennis, Steve, Tom and the other experts. I fly mostly by the seat of my pants and have distilled 3 seasons worth of advice from these guys into whatever I know now. We can see that their expertise has value because even though I do not consciously know what I am doing, or where a thermal is, I seem to unconsciously recognize when the plane is going up and keep flying where the lift is. We got to see that today a few times with some decent altitude. When the brain starts to engage is when I get into trouble and leave the lift in search of better lift, hence Steve's reminder again about leaving lift. Gotta love motorless flight! I am most pleased with one of the flights where I was setting up for a landing at about 100 ft. high. One wingtip went up so instinctively I turned toward it. Then the plane seemed to get up on a step - first the nose came up and the plane seemed to climb over the step and the tail came up. A few tight circles and the plane had not lost any altitude, so I widened the circles just a bit and up it went. After 20 or so circles I was probably over 500 feet. I moved forward into the wind, having seen the windsock go limp and caught one heck of a ride up to almost speck height. This was a good reintroduction to the hobby after two weeks off. I am jazzed to go again (next Wednesday).June 21st, 2004: Cheshire, CT
A long day at work punctuated by visits to RCGroups. I received a private message from Fast-forward (Jeff) that he had some pictures of me launching my plane at The Charles River RC pictures site. I quickly downloaded them and they are now here in low resolution format.This is a picture of me stepping up to the winch with the Marauder for the first time and just about to launch.
Next is a shot immediately after I throw the plane. I have my left foot on the pedal and there is no way, given that I throw with my right hand and have transferred all my weight to my left foot that the plane is getting any less than full pedal at the moment.
Finally, my second launch where John is tapping me up the winch line. You can see the plane is already high and he is only tapping it. The wind certainly helped let some of the line back out between taps.
Many thanks to Jeff for sending me the pictures. High resolution pictures can be found by visiting http://charlesriverrcpictures.org/fprintf/
June 20th, 2004: Long Island Silent Fliers ESL I contest, Syosset, NY
Phew! I drove down to Long Island this morning to participate in the final day of the LISF Eastern Soaring League contest. I got up at 4 a.m. and left the house a few minutes after 5 a.m. I arrived shortly before 7 a.m., with a pilots meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. So I had a while to kill, but it is better than being late as I had no idea how quickly I would get down to the field. 108 miles each way, not bad.I got to meet quite a few people who I have gotten to know via the RCGroups and ESL forums. Ed Anderson (aeajr), Jeff (Fast-forward) and others I cannot remember just now. All in all a great bunch of people to learn the art of contest sailplane flying. I got the lay of the land from a couple of LISF club members and then chatted for a while before the pilots meeting. After the instructions were given we all headed off to finalize our planes. In this contest we were flying Man-on-man, which is a format I really enjoy! It is especially beneficial to a newbie like myself who might not be good at the art of "sandbagging" while waiting for sink to blow through. The classes were divided into expert and sportsman, with me participating in the sportman class against 15 or so other pilots. Some looked quite accomplished, and others not so. :-)
I was exceptionally nervous as the Marauder had not been on a winch before. As the first expert group was called up I watched in earnest just to remind myself how things worked. Some of the guys can really get some zooms with their Mantis unlimited sailplanes. Then the second group of experts had their turn and I was asked to time. I had done this before at a contest in Simsbury, CT as well as last fall in Vermont, so fortunately I thought I knew what to do. As it turns out, each flier has their preferences with the standard ESL routine being:
- First few minutes just count the whole minutes unless asked for the time.
- Always count up
- On the second to last minute count up every 15 seconds as X:15, X:30, X:45 etc.
- On the last minute count up every 10 seconds as X minutes; 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
- On the last 10 seconds count up every second; 51, 52, 53 etc.
- When the timer reaches the task time announce "Time"
- Be prepared to stop the stopwatch at any time, so you have to pay attention to the time, where you are walking, guiding the pilot over to the landing zone, telling the pilot where his competitors are and if they are in lift, and keeping track of the pilots plane so you can stop the watch when the plane touches the ground.
So I ran to get my plane, made sure the radio was on the right model number (#1 in the case of the Marauder), and everything moved the right way. The adrenaline was already pumping, but the short run really got it moving. I felt rather numb and wobbly waiting for the 1st group of sportmen pilots to move from the winches. I hooked up to the last winch on the left, having seen the first 4 or 5 groups start with the farthest winch on the right. I figured I could use the extra time. Everyone was looking at my plane, I think to watch it like people like to watch car racing for the wrecks. They were expecting a folded wing, for sure. Then the guy running the winches announced, "pilots ready? OK, starting with the left!" Say what? He just smiled, and I think he was busting my chops for setting up on the left! So I announce to all, this is my first winch launch with this plane. As I tensioned up the winch with my left foot, it pulled the plane harder than I expected and pulled me forward, off balance, so I let off the pedal. I tried again and this time threw the plane and stood on the pedal! Bad idea with a built up wing, but she was holding and climbing really well. Just as I got my wits about me I started to tap the pedal and she popped off. So I looped her and everyone yells "pop-off!" The winch master comes over and starts talking to me while I am flying... "Ok, just take it easy, land right in the middle of the field. We'll get the plane down and you can try again." Meanwhile everyone is waiting for me to get out of the way and I am getting even more adrenalin pumping around my body. I land the plane nicely in the field, hand off my transmitter to my timer and run to get the plane while the winch master runs for the parachute. We hook up again and John, the winch master, asks if I would like him to run the winch. I was so happy that he offered! So I hold the transmitter while John throws the plane and then taps the winch rapidly and I hear the "oooohs" behind me as the crowd watches the plane go really high. At the top of the launch where the winch line is almost vertical I give it quick down elevator and then up elevator and get a great zoom launch. Probably an extra 75 feet of altitude. I hear a couple comments like "wow, that was a great launch Stuart", "great zoom", and "I cannot believe that wing took that launch!"
But the first winch launch adventure is not yet over for me, although I was thinking that it was. After the zoom I did well to keep the plane from stalling, which is what I usually do. But it was flying slowly and the wind was probably blowing 15 mph or more at altitude. So the plane started drifting back just as the other fliers started to launch. When the pilot next to me had zoomed my wing clipped the winch line and I heard a few gasps! I put the nose down quickly knowing that the end of my plane was pretty close by. I figured I needed some speed to ensure the parachute and winch line did not wrap around my tail. After I lost 100 feet or so I had maneuvered away from the winch line successfully. Afterward, when I was back on the ground, I would get quite a few visitors asking how I managed to avoid disaster. Instinct, I guess.
So here the plane was, about 300 feet up, going quite quickly and I had no idea where the lift was. I just puttered around the far upwind end of the field and when the plane had lost another 100 feet or so I brought her downwind for a landing. I think on a task time of 5 minutes I ended up with 3 minutes. Since it was man-on-man, the fact that the group before had lots of sink did me no good because I was flying against 4 other fliers only and then the scores would be normalized. So in this case my 3 minutes was the worst flight time because everyone else landed closer to the target task time. So after I finished my flight I went over to the SAAB to sit down, completely relieved that I had survived that round. The adrenalin was really pumping and I just wanted to sit down. With everything turned off I put the plane down, and parked my butt on my towel on the ground. A few people came over to admire the plane and I was happy that it was noticed.
My second round was my best round. I had a target time of 6 minutes. John the winch master pedaled me up the winch again and I got a great launch. I thought there would be no way with the wind that I would make my task time so I concentrated on flying smoothly rather than looking for lift. At the upwind end of the field is a line of trees and I pretty much flew back and forth across the tree line, venturing out occasionally to test the lift. At about 5 minutes, I'd guess because my timer wasn't telling me anything (tsk! tsk!) and I wasn't asking (double tsk! tsk!), I lost a bunch of altitude. I thought I had only been up for two minutes and in my defeatist attitude said to my timer, I'll just try for some landing points. So I brought the plane downwind, found some lift over the tall grass, did one circle and then landed about 30 feet away from the landing circle. I asked my timer what I got and he said "6:01". Holy smokes! 1 second over on a 6 minute task! I think I got second for that round because another flier got exactly 6:01 but got some landing points.
All flying sessions after that were anti-climactic. I had lost any sense for the lift and was basically just struggling to keep the plane aloft and over the field. I did not want to go downwind because a) I was overcontrolling and b) the trees looked really hungry (in fact they ate at least one plane). After the contest was over we did some fun flying and I had a few nice launches on the histart. I am much more comfortable using that, rather than the winch. Eventually I'll figure out the winch and learn to pulse the pedal a bit better. The drive home was uneventful, except for the ridiculous traffic on the Long Island Expressway. I had traffic all the way from the LIE to Rte. 95, and even then 95 was pretty busy up until New Haven. It still only took my 2 1/2 hours to get back, which is not bad for a day trip.
Today was a great father's day. I met some really nice people, and am making plans to try and visit the LISF contest in September for both contest days. Hopefully I'll have my LSF I stuff done by then and can use the contest points for my LSF II tasks. My next possible ESL contest is the CRRC Soar-in in Massachusetts in August. By comparison they have a really small field with lots of big trees, so you have to be confident in your flying skills. I am not yet with the Marauder, even though it flies so smoothly in light air, so may just decide to use my 2M Highlander for that contest. We'll see.
June 13th, 2004: Tuckahoe turf farm, Suffield, CT
Forecast for today called for light winds all morning, then rising to 10 - 15 mph from the south. So I went to the sod farm hoping to get some practice in for the LISF Eastern Soaring League sailplane contest. The wind came up early, even at 8:30 a.m. when I got to the field and was blowing a good 5 - 7 mph for the first hour. Flights could have been really quite long, for so early in the morning, but I was there for landing practice. Got a couple of good flights in, and moved the towhook back a 1/2 inch to the CG. But the thermals were very small bubbles that rolled through repeatedly. The Marauder is a very nice plane and has a great sink rate as even without any lift it still takes two - three minute to get on the ground after a histart launch.I did try the Highlander, and there is no going back to it satisfactorily after flying the Marauder. If I fly 2Meter any more it will have to be with a purpose built-up ship. The EPP was great to learn on, and I still recommend it for the first year or two of flying. But once you can land every time with the wings level it is time to give it up and get a really good flying ship.
Anyway, the wind came up to around 10-15 mph by 10 a.m. Again the thermals were rolling through and I was able to get some long flights but I decided that I needed to save the plane until next Sunday. There were times that I was really quite high but could not get the plane back upwind without diving it down. I suspect the winds aloft were quite a bit stronger than on the ground. So I packed up the plane and headed for home. Only I didn't make it home, but took a detour to the Durham field. The grass is sooo long and I hate flying in the high grass. The free flighters were all flying, but their planes were quickly going downwind. All in all it didn't look like too much fun for them either.
I must say I really like the Marauder and am glad that I picked it for my first built up plane. All those late nights of worrying were worth it.
May 31st, 2004: Tuckahoe turf farm, Suffield, CT
In case I haven't mentioned it before, I just re-read the Marauder thread on RCgroups and there are lots of construction pictures plus some first flight pictures that were attached earlier. All in all, it is a pretty good read with some supporting comments from friends I have met over the Internet.
Today I had an outstanding day at the sod farm in Suffield. I just love flying there as there are basically no trees to reach out and grab the plane, and with some practice there are easy to find thermals over some of the larger buildings. I had my first 20+ minute flight with the Marauder today. I really do have to come up with a name for her as I am getting tired of calling her "the Marauder". Back on topic, the first flights at 8:30 in the morning were trim flights off the histart only and went OK, except there was no wind and I couldn't get any altitude on the launch. So I fiddled with the plane and took another 1/2 ounce of lead out of the nose. The plane is now much more responsive, and probably can use even a little more lead taken out, but I think I have it just where I like it for now. It doesn't recover from a shallow dive, but does from a steep dive. It does have a tendency to "fall" into the turns now, which has me concerned I may not have it quite right yet either. When that happened with the Highlander it turned out to be a decalage problem. I can see perhaps a little shimming of the wing might be necessary, but I'll fly it as is for now and fiddle with other things after I practice a lot more.
The 20+ minute flight came as I was setting up for yet another landing and the wingtip went up and the plane floated for a second or two. So I turned into where I thought there might be rising air. The first turn I maintained altitude, so that is always good. Second turn I porpoised the plane a little bit and still maintained altitude. Third turn the plane starts going up very quickly. I think this was the point that the bubble of warm air let go because it was a rapid elevator ride almost to speck height making rather large circles. At the point the fuselage disappeared from view and all I could see were the wings and stabs I decided to leave the lift I had and go flying elsewhere. I could range around very broadly and the plane didn't seem to be coming down. I had another flier who had joined me with his electric planes earlier in the morning and at this point I decided I should try and make my 5 minute LSF I flight. So I called Roger over and asked if he would sign my LSF witness form. He agreed and so I started the timer. About 4 minutes later the plane was coming down rapidly but Roger thought I had at least one minute of altitude left so I brought the plane back toward the field, found a quick bubble of air and made it last another minute or so. Final LSF I 5 minute flight task ended up with a 6 minute 21 second time, but Roger couldn't believe I didn't want to write down 20 minutes since that was at least how long the flight was. Nope, got to be honest here as the LSF journey is one of both self-discovery and self-motivation and not playing precisely by the rules is only cheating yourself.
The next flight I went over the big buildings again and hooked up with another thermal. This time I couldn't stay with it as the thermal really tried to kick me out. The plane ended up inverted from the plane standing on one wingtip and then flopping over. At this point I decided I would save the plane, bring it back in one piece and practice my landings. I suck at landings. I can't seem to get a rhythm, but part of that is because I am still fascinated by chasing every small bubble and never wanting to give up on a flight until it is too late. With this bigger plane I need to realize that if the plane is below 200 feet, it will shortly be on the ground and I should properly set up for a landing. Anyway I shot some landings and got at least three that were within LSF I range, but did not have anyone to witness them. Practice makes perfect, so I'll keep practicing getting the plane into the right spot. After I get good at it I'll add in the time element (spot landing right on time).
May 16th, 2004: Durham, CT
The Marauder takes its first flight. As usual the pictures are rather fuzzy because of the Zire71 PDA they were taken with. Eventually I'll get a digital camera and get decent pics. For now this is the record of the Marauder's first flight. Sorry it has been a month and a half since the last update! I'll fill in some of the details on the covering and provide some pictures too.
All in all it was a fantastic day for flying - the thermals were really quite strong in the morning under the cloud cover. As the afternoon progressed the thermals seemed to disorganize a bit, either that or they were more organized and I couldn't find them! Either way, flying a 3M plane is a whole lot different than flying a 2 Meter.
April 5th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
How hopeful I was, almost an entire month ago, when I wroteA couple more weekends and the plane should be about done, providing I don't goof up too much more!As it turns out, there is a whole lot of patience required to build a balsa plane. I have goofed up a few times, used far too much glue and epoxy, and yet no doubt will have a fine flying airplane. They can't all look like Steve Syrotiak's expert built planes! Lots of images from the build are in http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/marauder/.
March 7th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Measure twice, cut once. I now need to make another trip to the hobby shop. I was following the plans for the Marauder when building the wingtips and picked the wrong line to use as my mark. F*ck! So I ended up with more of an angle than the plans call for.In any event, both center wing sections are pretty much complete. The fuse is sanded and actually looks pretty nice. A couple more weekends and the plane should be about done, providing I don't goof up too much more! At least I am learning a ton of lessons about measuring from the right point in the plans, sanding slowly and using a sharp #11 blade.
March 2nd, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Go to attach top spar on left wing and find there are all kinds of gaps! Grrrr! These are the kinds of things that will cause a catastrophic failure. So I give up for the night after only sanding and gluing one part, the top spar. Building is coming along very slowly because I get frustrated easily. In this case I have to wait for the yellow glue to dry before mixing up some epoxy and microballoons for filling in the very tiny gaps. Yet more weight to add to the plane I guess. This wing panel is going to be quite a bit heavier than my first panel.March 1st, 2004: Cheshire, CT
The build of the Marauder continues. I continue to make mistakes along the way. Hopefully they will not be so great as to cause a wing to fold or cause a catastrophic accident - little trim or other flight issues I can live with, a crashing plane due to poor build quality I cannot.February 29th, 2004: Durham, CT
Today was relatively warm for a Sunday in February, and on the leap year day as well! The temperature got up to 50 degrees or so, although it felt colder because the wind was blowing about 10 mph out of the North. We had arranged through RCGroups and telephone to have a bunch of us glider fliers head out to the field in Durham. The ground is not as wet this year as it was last year. All in all we had 7 glider pilots (me, Dennis, Steve, Joshua, Tom, Al, Daly), more than I have ever seen there previously.After flying the slow stick in the morning Dennis showed up with his 1.20 Pattern plane and let me try it after some coaxing. I was pretty chicken, not wanting to wreck somebody else's plane. What a blast! Now I can understand the attraction for power planes, although I am not sure I could deal with all the equipment necessary to run it. I got to try his flying wing combat plane as well - that is very difficult to maintain orientation on, as it tends to disappear along the wing edge and then you can't tell whether it is turning left, upside down or what.
About noon we set up the histarts. Very weak thermals were working through and only Dennis really ever found a strong thermal to take up to great heights. I did find one set of thermals against the hill and was able to work that lift for a few minutes. After abandoning thermal seeking I worked in the wind on my landings. Out of 10 attempts I was able to make 5 right at my feet. As for timing them, I only did that once but was able to land within 10 feet of my spot only one second over my self-imposed 3 minute task. The last 30 seconds was nuts as I was too high on approach and had to do a few very quick s turns to burn altitude and speed. All in all it was a super day to get out with the boys. I think we have Daly, a newcomer to this hobby, pretty well interested in catching some thermals once Spring is a little closer.
February 26th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Progress update on the Marauder - the first center wing panel is coming along slowly as I get accustomed to building. Luckily no major mistakes so far, although I am petrified I am going to have an improper fitting glue joint and have the wing blow apart on launch! Worked on the spoiler boxes of the right center panel today.February 22nd, 2004: New Haven Harbor, CT
Time for some sloping action here in Connecticut! The wind was forecast to blow 15-20 MPH from the Northwest, and it did not disappoint. I am amazed how smooth the air is when it has a mile of fetch across New Haven harbor before it hits the shoreline. Here are some pictures:
February 20th, 2004: Westchester, NY
The WRAM show was boring this year. It looked like the aisles were much larger, there were less people and the vendors weren't giving any great deals. It has been said this is not the Toledo show, which is true, but it is the closest thing we have in the Northeast to any kind of RC trade show. Too bad, because I had been looking forward to it all year. Some more of my comments are scattered around RCGroups and RCUniverse.February 14th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Got up at 5 a.m. this morning because Kendra woke us up at 3 a.m. to see if the tooth fairy had been and I couldn't get back to sleep. Went downstairs and by 7 a.m. had half the fuselage framed. This is fun!
February 13th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
After a somewhat frustrating morning I am told how to handle the misalignment - it is designed that way! I really do have to figure out this building thing on my own without assistance from the world. Little things like this are going to crop up and I need to learn a decision making process. That is, learn to make a judgement whether something will affect the flight of the plane. In this case even if there was misalignment that I had built into the plane we could have accomodated it by shimming the wing or tail. Lesson learned.February 12th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Well I was excited this evening. The new plane arrived! Before dinner I opened the box and read the instructions twice. I posted my thanks to everyone who had helped so far on RCGroups and RCUniverse. I set up the plane according to the instructions and am impressed by the level of detail in the instructions and plans. However I am almost immediately stumped by a misalignment between the parts and the plan. Not knowing whether I had set things up incorrectly or had to somehow shim the parts I posted to the Internet and to MMGlidertech. Details on the Marauder are here.Some notes I wrote at the time:
The plane is here! It came very well packaged via Parcel Post all the way from California. No damage to the box or the contents. A nice color picture of Mr. Brady on the front with an award, presumably for winning a contest with the plane. I think he could probably fly a Zagi and win a contest with it. This is supposed to be a really super model according to the few reviews I have found online, and certainly Mr. Brady has done well with it.
I open the box to find a box just brimming full of balsa wood and sticks! 3 pages of nicely rolled plans and a large instruction booklet.
February 11th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Getting ready for the building of my first balsa kit. So posted a couple of questions about how long it takes to build a kit on RCgroups and RCUniverse. I find the people at RCGroups know me better, so I try to phrase my questions as if I know something and just need confirmation. On the other hand, the folks on RCUniverse don't know me at all so I can post as a total Newb without any guilt, either for asking lots of stupid questions or for asking a question I may have asked elsewhere a few days/weeks/months earlier. The other thing is, Steven.s1 and Dephela, two local fliers, participate on RCGroups and I'd hate to ask repetitive or stupid questions in front of them! At least it keeps me honest! :-)February 9th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Nose pressed against the glass looking for a big box. Sent an email to Merrill to check on ship date etc. He thinks it'll be here by Friday. Yee haw! And with the WRAM show just one week away I'll have plenty of time to get started and then decide what tools I will need. I am really looking forward to it getting here, nose pressed against the window-glass kind of anticipation.So the WRAM show is the following weekend, February 20th through 22nd. I have taken Friday the 20th off of work as I anticipate being able to buy some really cool tools and perhaps a 1400 mah battery pack for the new plane. I promise not to spend too much money.
Janet and I cracked up tonight watching a preview for the Simpsons. Marge asks Homer what he did last night and he said "Marge, I cannot tell a lie" and left it at that. Janet asked if I would say that to her when she asked if I had bought a new plane or spent any money at the WRAM show. :-)
February 6th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Peek outside to see if my package has arrived from California. Nope. I am sure it has been shipped, so it is just a matter of being patient. So in the meantime I chat with Janet about the color scheme for the plane and we think we are going to do black on the bottom and orange on the top. Since I am new at covering I think I will stick with just two colors and a simple top/bottom color scheme. I'd love to take advantage of transparent colors on the open bay structure on the plane and make it really shine in the sunlight, but I think for my first plane I'll go for visibility and ease of covering first.Next on the list of things to do: make sure my building board is really straight. I can slip a piece of paper under the straight edge now, which is probably only a few thousandths and not a big deal. Still I would like the plane to be reasonably straight, especially with such a big (9 1/2 feet) wing!
February 4, 2004
Two questions asked of Merrill:
1. Does the construction of the fuselage utilize tab and slot design - e.g. builds pretty straight regardless of the building board?
Yes.
2. What do you recommend for the size of a building board? I forgot that this wing is almost 9 1/2 feet long and that I needed to plan for a decent size building board.
48".
February 3rd, 2004: Cheshire, CT
I ordered the a Marauder sailplane from Merrill Brady at MM Glidertech. As with most internet purchases I have a strong sense of buyers remorse. #1 because I had been asking Steve Syrotiak questions about building a Big Bird from Sky Bench Aerotech and he had offered to help with any questions I had (he has several LilBird 2Meters and is currently building a 132" Sky Bird), #2 because I had emailed Ray Hayes about buying the plane only to find out he was on vacation until February 18th., and #3 because the Bird series are so well regarded and the Marauder is a bit of an unknown.The reason I went with the Marauder is mostly price per sq. foot. The Marauder is a full 3 Meter (115") competition built up sailplane, whereas the Big Bird is 100". In the flying that I do I am sure the Big Bird would be an awesome plane, and it gets tremendous reviews online. The Marauder has also received some good reviews, although much less than the Bird series. It is built and flown by a LSF Level 5 aspirant, Merrill Brady. Now most would look at this and think that if a Level IV.9 flies a plane that it must be good. I am a glass half-empty kind of guy - it is probably that a Level IV LSF flier can fly a plane made out of bricks!
I posted my frustration regarding emailing Mr. B (Merrill) on RCGroups and got a very quick response via email from him with all the answers to my previous unanswered questions on email. There were also some posts defending him from people in his club, explaining that he is a very busy person (school, family, regular day job etc). I can appreciate that, so definitely no hard feelings intended. I did speak with Merrill on the phone and he seemed like a real stand-up kindof guy and certainly knowledgable about building the plane. Once I had given him my credit card number he told me about some changes to make to the plane that weren't in the plans, and gave me some advice on using CF tow on the spar. I can't wait for the plane to get here!
January 27th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
Fortunately the guys on RC Groups are a patient lot. Every time this year when I get stir crazy I ask lots of questions about new planes, new tools, building techniques etc. This year I don't intend to dissapoint, however, as Janet has said I can buy a new plane with our tax refund. Oh the joys of tax deductible interest from home ownership and fiscal irresponsibility, e.g. knowingly paying more taxes throughout the year. I went online to purchase a Big Bird but Ray is on vacation. In the three weeks he is on vacation I could have the shop all setup and the tail group complete. Now what to do!?!?Break out the web browser and go back to MMGlidertech.com and take a long look at the Marauder. It certainly isn't as pretty as a Big Bird, but it looks like a straight forward build. Price is right too. Started emailing some more questions to Merrill and got similar responses as before. Not quite as put off as before.
January 16th, 2004: Cheshire, CT
No flying lately! It has been between 0 degrees farenheit and 20 degrees for the past two weeks, plus pretty windy. Wind chill today was 25 below zero, winds 20-30 miles per hour, and temperature at 10:30 pm of -2F - obviously not good for flying the slowstick or the gliders.At the end of December I was working on a wing for the slowstick with Ailerons. I did build it but ended up having problems with sloppiness in the control rods. Right now it is sitting on the bench waiting for me to either fix it or scrap it.
This is the time of year that I get a little stir crazy. I start bugging Janet, my wife, for new planes - especially balsa built up ships that I can put together in the basement over the course of a couple of months. I still have my eye on a Big Bird from Skybench Aerotech which is 100" wingspan and looks just beautiful! Maybe once we get all the Christmas bills paid off I can order it.
One other plane I had been eyeing since it came out at the end of 2002 was the MM Glider Tech Marauder. It looks like a nice plane, except for the rubber band wing attachment. So I emailed the manufacturer with questions. Honestly I was a bit put off by the responses. I tend to ask lots of questions together. In most cases I would get a response, not even quoting what I wrote, "Yes" or "No" without any explanation. I thought that was kindof rude and not a very nice way to treat a potential customer.
December 29th, 2003: Cheshire, CT
Last night I made my first cuts into the new aileron wing. This morning I added some probond to the wing to stiffen it up. Good thing probond is relatively light and stiff! Today during breaks at work I spent much of the time posting to rcuniverse and rcgroups about the virtues of the slowstick and modular wing setup I have. Once things come together on this wing a little more I'll add some pictures. Later this evening I added control horns to the ailerons. They are almost full span and approx. 2 inches in width so should have excellent control authority. I cut out the space for the servo and will wait tonight for the probond to set up.December 28th, 2003: Durham, CT
The weather is supposed to be in the high 40s and no wind. Very unusual for a Connecticut winter day. Janet is sick, but the kids have promised to behave. So after sitting expectantly on the end of the bed she finally gives in and tells me to go flying. I load up the car with *all* the slow stick wings and the Highlander. I get to the flying field at 9:45 am to find only one other power flier at the strip and a bunch of free flighters in the field. After shooting the sh*t for a few minutes I begin to unload and setup the slow stick. I forgot the damn nut and washer that holds the prop on! F*ck! So I guess flying the aileron wing or the poly wing is out for today which is very disappointing.Oh well, at least I have the glider. There is one other flier on Channel 22. I hate Ch. conflicts. He doesn't even ask if anyone else is on 22 and I only happen to notice when I turn on my RX and see my rudder moving. He apologizes when I walk over to ask if he is on 22.
Anyway, so I stretch out the histart, somewhat concerned at the lack of wind and the histart's historical lack of performance in light air. I have been posting questions to RCSE about the best way to lauch the plane. On the recommendations about throwing the plane upward with a lot of force, for the first launch I tried it and noticed the plane was veering really badly to the right. Nothing a quick grab of the TX and rudder correction can't fix. Two launches just like this and I remembered the recommendations to throw with the left arm so that the right hand can be on the right stick (forgetting that I hold the TX with the left hand anyway). A big stretch, 60 steps, of the histart, give it a big lefty heave and ooooooo shit.... a big arc right into the ground! Astounding and upset I accidentally drop the TX. Damn Damn Damn! Everything seems to be working and the wing is cockeyed but hasn't broken the wing bolt. I pick up the plane, TX and head back to the car to reset the wing.
So after fixing the plane, letting Lloyd fly a battery pack in his electric, I forget about everything everyone said about launch technique and do it my usual way - launch at about 15 degrees from horizontal with a hefty push. The plane went about a foot out of my hand, instantly pivoted and went right up the histart just like it is supposed to. That flight I got my longest flight of the day of at least 7 minutes. The lift seemed there but was very light as I never really got to any great altitude.
So I decide to try my talking timer on the next flight with a two minute countdown. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I found some lift and ended up 3 minutes over because I didn't want to lose whatever flight time I had on hand. I found some nice low level lift below 50 feet and did 5 or 6 circles without losing altitude. It was only after I landed that I heard a whistle way over on the landing strip and saw Lloyd trying to get my attention. Alan, the other flier on Ch. 22 that I know, had shown up and wanted to fly. What are the chances that on a day with only 6 fliers at the field that three would be on Ch. 22 and two were on Ch. 38?
So all in all a good day even though I didn't get to fly the slow stick at the field. I did fly it when I got home in the cul de sac. I determined that the full airfoil bluecor wing is not a slow flier and the draggier undercambered wing works much better in the circle. So I decide to cut some ailerons into the airfoil wing and try to make a quasi-3D wing. It should be sweet and this time I plan to make the ailerons quite large.
December 14th, 2003: Cheshire, CT
I read a thread in RCGroups about slicing Dow BlueCor in half. This is supposed to allow very lightweight structures to be build for electric fliers, and still really cheaply. Since I have a home-made drop arm foam cutter I posted some questions about how to best use the droparm cutter to slice the foam in half. I am still getting one "half" slightly thicker than the other, but intend over the next week or so to experiment with building up some more wings for the slowstick. I am told that you can have a two surface wing for less than the weight of a single undercambered full thickness wing. This remains to be seen but I am excited to try! More updates as the weekend progresses!December 27th, 2003: Cheshire, CT
Christmas was excellent for the family. So many happy people, especially my son Jason! I opened my presents from Rod Carr at talkingtimer.com and found an extra talking timer that had a broken clock. Perfect - no buttons to mess with, it just counts down and that is all I need it for! I cut off the clip using the Dremel cutoff wheel and zip tied it to my antenna.There is a new Hobbytown in Southington, CT. I bought up their supply of GWS 11x8 props, all six of them, because I get propstrikes all the time on the pavement. It was probably overkill but I am tired of epoxying busted props back together - it could be dangerous!
December 4th, 2003: Cheshire, CT
I had planned all week to go flying today. After putting my daughter on the afternoon bus I headed over to the local condo complex that has a large field. Temp was about 35 degrees F and there was just a slight breeze. When I got to the field the "slight" breeze ended up being occasional gusts to 10 mph or so. Just about the limit of the slow stick. So I got set up, launched and found the wind to be strong enough to make the plane stop in its tracks using the Bluecor wing. I think that wing has too much undercamber and cannot fly in the wind as well as the stock wing, even though the stock wing isn't that great in the wind either. After flying through 2 battery packs, one at full throttle almost the entire time, I gave up...disgusted with the weather this week.I plan to finally get finished with my Terminator. I cut the pink foam cores last winter using my homemade droparm hot wire cutter. The cores have been sitting all this time waiting for me to buy some 1/32" balsa sheets to finish them or buy a vacuum bagging setup. I'll finish the wings with balsa this winter and leave the vacuum setup for when I get better at building with balsa. I need to learn a lot of basic construction techniques before I have enough confidence in my ability to spend the appropriate attention to detail needed to bag with expensive carbon fibre and epoxy. Right now any free flight planes I build tend to have sloppy fitting peices and built in warps. At least I know my limitations! Dennis P. has offered to help, and I have planned to visit the Wilbur & Orville Wright club in Hamden to learn some of the basic techniques in working with balsa. I bet I can learn enough by building a few of the same planes and learning from each subsequent iteration.
December 2nd, 2003: Cheshire, CT
Will the wind ever stop? I have taken the entire week off of work trying to burn through some vacation days and every day so far has been blowing 15+ knots (some gusts higher than 40 mph). When I was into windsurfing this was a week that dreams were made of. Now that my gear is crap, I am too heavy to fit into my drysuit, and more interested in flying I am p.o.'ed that it is so windy. Perhaps if I get enough money I can make these complementary hobbies. In the meantime I have ordered a talking timer from www.talkingtimer.com. This peice of electronic hardware has been so frequently recommended on RCSE that for $15 I just have to try it! It is supposed to make practicing landings much more accurate. After I get it, the next time I am at the field I will do 2 minute flights and attempt to land accurately where and when I want the plane to. It is getting cold so that the histart won't work well enough to get the Highlander up to thermal seeking altitude so I'll just shoot landings. In addition to the above website I also found http://members.aol.com/georgeebay/Timer/mount.htm where George describes how to mount the timer on the transmitter. I will likely just use a straw CA'ed to the back of the timer. Gordy Stahl also posted onto RCSE about the virtues of the talking timer. While not many people agree with Gordy all of the time, in this case I think he has a point. Practice makes perfect. Perfect practice with a talking timer is even more perfect! :-)November 27th, 2003: Cheshire, CT
Thanksgiving day! We put up the Christmas tree last night so there is little to do this morning. Last night I had built a 60+ inch polyhedral tipped wing with a flat center section.
I hook the wing on, notice that the slowstick is getting quite heavy. No worries. After a 4 foot takeoff the plane is up in the air toward Jeff & Julies house across the culdesac. By the time it gets to their house it is above tree height. This wing can really fly! I built the larger wing to try and catch thermals a little better than the smaller 48" stock wing. It goes nicely although I think I am at the limit of wingloading for this blue cor. In slight dives I notice fluttering of the leading edges. As I bring it down it catches some rising warm air off the roof of my house and signals the lift with a rising wingtip. Nice! I end up trying to be tricky and walk to the end of the street to try some landings. After shooting a few landings and generally being impressed with my wing and my new flying skills I do the proverbial "last flight", end up catching a wingtip near Jeff's mailbox at about 20 feet altitude. As the plane heads toward the ground I gun it trying for a little more airspeed so I can pull out but end up plowing nose first into the ground. I should have just let the plane fall, but I am never one to give up. I end up only breaking a prop. Damn!
As I put the larger wing away I put the smaller BlueCor wing onto the fuse just for some fun flying. Now Bob and his daughter Bella, are watching. Bella absolutely loves airplanes and has since she was 2 years old. I fly for a little bit and end up getting crossed up during a landing (onlookers sometimes make me nervous) and stuff it into the brambles. Bob is helpful and runs over to see if I am ok, I am find but the plane is out of reach and the thorns are really nasty. I get my 6 foot ladder and painters pole. I fish the plane out with only a few scratches to my face and neck - battle scars! I guess I can't give up because I go back in the house deciding I am done for the day.
After an hour of being bored I am back outside with my new 
Aileron wing I had just made up out of BlueCor. I used a single Hitec HS81 servo to drive both aileron surfaces. I monkeyed the control linkage out of sullivan control rod ends glued to peices of a wire shirt hanger. Again, it seems a little heavy but the slowstick is a miracle for lifting extremely heavy planes. I fly around for a bit and decide there is not way I will be able to fly straight aileron/rudder/elevator without mixing as I am so used to using the right stick on the ground. So after a short flight I mix in rudder/aileron mixing. at almost 1 to 1. This makes the plane handle pretty well, if a little disappointing that I can't seem to make it fly as smoothly as I'd like. I get confident and gain some altitude to try and do some rolls. The plane won't do them, I think because of the excessive dihedral and mixing. I bring the plane closer to the ground to line up for a landing and as I am flying overhead a wind gust catches it. Ordinarily under rudder/elevator I would have handled this small gust without a problem but under the new wing arrangement it goes further off course at about 60 feet altitude that I expect. I as note the plane flying toward the center of the woods I try and get it back. I almost do but it catches in the branches of a tree overhanging the sidewalk at about 45 feet up. The plane is stuck pretty high up and no wiggling of servos will break it loose. Jeff and Bob hear my exclamation (oh shit!) and come over to inspect. It is high enough that my 28 foot ladder will not reach. I know it is going to get windy on Friday but it is supposed to rain heavily beforehand so the plane can't stay up there without wrecking everything. I have no idea how to get it down but decide to try different things. First I try one of the kids big bouncy balls but I don't even come close to getting enough height on my throws. So I scround in the garage for an old baseball and find one. I try tying masonary string to it but the string keeps slipping off the ball. So I drill a hole in the ball, lay out about 150 feet of string and thread the string through the ball. On my first throw I reach the correct branch. I pull both ends of the string as horizontally as I can manage. I shake the branch and knock the plane loose. Rather than coming down in a heap from the height I get lucky as the tail grabs onto the string and the plane slides down the string into my hand. In the process the string cuts into the foam tail surfaces but the plane is in one peice. Nothing a little Elmers Probond cannot fix!!
Three hours later and everyone is here for Thanksgiving dinner. The plane is fixed but I think I will give up flying in the culdesac for now. At least until I regain my confidence. I hit trees three or four times today and got extremely lucky to recover the plane each time. I don't want to tempt fate, especially with a week of vacation ahead of me. Next I plan to go to Durham a few times this coming week. It is supposed to be cold, but that only means that the tin roofs at the fairground will be better thermal generators! (talk about thinking positively!)
November 23rd, 2003: Cheshire, CT
I get up at 6 a.m. to catch the stillness of the morning. I intend to fly the slowstick from the culdesac in front of the house and try to catch the rising warmth from the homes as the sun peeks over the horizon. There was a hard frost last night so I bundle up in my hat and fleece gloves. The temperature is expected to climb quickly to 60F later today but it is below freezing at the moment. I put on a new 11x8 prop onto the slow stick and taxi down the driveway. After a 5 foot rollout the plane climbs into the sky. For the next hour I fly around the neighbourhood buzzing the neighbors dog (and stopping when he starts barking instead of running away) and practicing landings on the street. I have had a more enjoyable time flying at this time than any I can remember. I did stuff it into a tree once and broke a prop. I ended up flying through 4 battery packs with each pack giving up 14 minutes or so. I think the cold definitely has an effect on the NiMH KAN cells I am using but I don't care as 14 minutes is plenty of time. I am getting confident enough to fly to the stop sign, turn sharply with a little throttle and then back down to the culdesac. I am getting good at flying just a little over stall speed and keeping the plane within the diameter of the culdesac. Sweet!The afternoon: It is still windless and a lot of the neighbors are around. I usually hate to fly when others are around but George, the 12 year old across the street, wants to see the plane fly. I bring it out and pretty soon has my neighbor's brother-in-law (and his son), George and some other people plus my quiet neighbor on the corner who I have never met. I fly through two battery packs and demonstrate the virtues of the slow stick - nice slow flying and easy landings. I think I may have made it look easier than it actually is but I do caution everyone that they should find someone to teach them how to fly before attempting to fly from the street. We joke that I learned by whacking planes into Bob's house. :-)
November 22nd, 2003: Durham, CT
11:00 rolls around, I have finished all my chores. Janet asks if I want to go flying. Do bears crap in the woods?!?!? Sure! So I hurriedly pack up my Highlander and new BlueCor Zagnutz into the Saab 93 and head out to Durham. When I get there it is about 50 degrees F and barely blowing a breeze. There are a few power fliers so I start charging my TX since I had been flying the Slowstick earlier in the morning. As I am charging I watch one guy fly a beautiful biplane WWI german plane (no idea what it is called). It looked really nice! Also while I was watching and getting up the motivation to stake out the histart another guy goes up and then gets out of control and plows his new plane into the swamp. He walks out to the swamp and we all expected that due to how soggy the field is that he will be chest deep in cold water shortly. He returns with his balsa plane intact with only a small pinhold puncture in the wing. Talk about lucky! That swamp eats many planes per year and I think it thrives on a mixture of monokote, CA, balsa and water full of cow manure!So after waiting a bit I call out my number, 22, and a guy who just showed up with an electric glider says that he is also on 22. Shit. I hate channel conflicts and get very nervous. But he says that we'll take turns and that as he is flying a glider also that we should be ok. As I pull out the histart he offers to pull the chute for me. Sweet! Someone to fly with and help me find lift is always more fun. I introduce myself and find his name is Alan and he has been flying for years. Alan knows Dennis and Steve very well, which is not a surprise since those two guys are the real contest experts around here. So we get in a couple of 3-5 minute flights. The lift is not huge but is around despite the sun being intermittent and the clouds being at a very high altitude. I am still hobby horsing the Highlander around and am constantly questioning the CG position. The trim seems overly sensitive - one click up or down seems to turn the way I fly the plane from a diving monster into a stalling idiot. I have tried adjusting the control throws but I honestly think it might have more to do with the decalage of the plane being set slightly more than it should. We did try launching the wing but it just cartwheels on launch a couple of times and doesn't launch well. Then I discover that on one of the launches that an aileron is unhooked (it turns out the servo had broken loose and was flopping around inside the wing).
Anyway I have some pretty good flights on this Saturday and as the sun starts to get pretty low the wind and lift completely die so I just start launching to get the plane high enough to practice landings. I am nervous about the couple of trees in the middle of the field so my landings are not great. Some of them are good but for most I am going too far downwind and not making it back or coming back with too much energy. Flying a R/E sailplane is not the easiest without spoilers but it is good practice. I pack up and go home and pull into the driveway at 4:15 just as it is turning dark (darn these Northern latitudes!)
November 15th, 2003: New Haven, CT (E-staven!)
The previous two days have been very windy. Gusts up to 60 mph which means absolutely no thermal or slowstick flying! So I took my Zagnutz foamie wing with the kids down to Lighthouse Point. We had a perfect W-NW wind of 15-25 today. I was there about 1 pm and the wind was directly onshore against the slope by the boat ramp/pier as recommended by Dennis Phelan on slopeflyer.com. Unfortunately Lighthouse point has so many trees that I was afraid of launching into the wind and losing my plane up in a tree. I had built the bluecor wing w/ coroplast ailerons in anticipation of today and it actually flew pretty well but it was a little too windy for it, plus the slope was pretty inadequate - perhaps a second or two of flight in each direction before a turn was necessary or I got too nervous about heading over the water. The seagulls were doing well by sloping at least 50 - 100 feet above where I was standing. Oh well, at least I tried and now know I need to wait for a good southerly breeze and go to Rhode Island or Long Island.
Perhaps there will be good soaring in the next day or two. The sun sure was nice today! I bet the wind caused any thermal bubbles to scoot away rapidly rather than forming into nice thermals. I noticed there weren't too many clouds about.
November 10th, 2003: Cheshire, CT
Well the weather is getting very cold. The histart won't work as it is less than 40 degrees outside, and the NiMH batteries on the Slowstick are underperforming in the lower temperatures. So what is a guy to do? Build a slope plane! In my case, I have plans that I have downloaded from http://home1.gte.net/texhills/index.html. The wind is supposed to be out of the Northwest, which Dennis tells me is the right direction for sloping at Lighthouse Point in New Haven. Since the plane only cost me $4 or so in materials, I'll take my chances there. My only hope is that the plane does not land in the water or the trees since I do have $80 or so or radio gear in the airframe.November 3rd, 2003: Brattleboro Contest
I attended the Brattleboro Area Flyers soaring contest this weekend and despite some inclement weather I had a wonderful time. I am looking forward to scoping out the contest calendars for next year to see what events I can make (within a days drive of CT). This was my first contest, and my first self-peddled winch launch. Now I understand why most of you like to compete. It is an adrenalin rush. I had more fun competing with my foamie Highlander vs. the one other flier with a 2 Meter plane (I lost, but it was only 5 points apart through 3 rounds) than I had anticipated. I also learned more from this one event than I had learned in a whole summer practicing by myself.I think I also understand how contests are mostly landing contests. It looked to me like there was enough expert flying at the field *plus* some planes that seem to stay up in nothing (for example a couple Escapes, an AVA, a Mantis etc) for the required time. The differences came down to how precise fliers were on time. I can imagine on a big lift day that making the time is a given and that the only differentiation would be in landing scores - or more precisely, everyone makes their time, and is accurate within a few 1/10ths of a second, and the only difference is how close on the tape. I also understand given those landing tasks how important skegs, shark teeth or a strong nose (e.g. Mantis) is.
To those fliers I met on Sunday, thanks for all the advice and encouragement. You have no need to watch out that you have created a rabid contest junkie, at least not in the short term. But you may have to watch out once my kids are a few years older as I feel this could be addictive (and hazardous to my kid's college education fund)! Most of all thanks for Steve Syrotiak for driving me all the way up to VT and taking me under his wing for the day (and answering a million questions there and back). And to Dennis Phelan for patiently explaining everything about soaring, getting me out on the sod farm and generally getting me hooked on RC soaring.
p.s. I think I impressed some folks with the durability of an EPP sailplane. I dorked it in from about 3 feet with a ton of energy and the plane basically just bounced. I truly hope that someone comes along to make a plane that thermals as nicely as the MAD Highlander and is as durable in a beginner's hands.
The journey begins...
I started thinking about flying remote control planes in 1980 as a 9th grader at Andover Junior High in Massachusetts. My friend Julian had built a glider in England and brought it over with him when he emigrated. I loved the thought of that plane, but it only hung in his bedroom. Until recently (more to come on that) I never knew how it flew without a motor. He went on to build and fly RC powered planes before we all got into cars and gave up most other hobbies.That was 23 years ago! Now as a 30something I had a little extra cash, a really forgiving wife and a huge desire to learn flying. I had been flying in my dreams and on MS Flight Simulator for years, but now it was time to quit dreaming and do something about it. For some reason gliders were again going to be the focus of my intentions. I just happened to visit my wife's friend Maury and her husband Larry. Larry was showing me his new workshop and pointed to his RC plane in the rafters. It was an old Paragon that he hadn't flown in years. After asking many questions and talking each other's ears off I was on my quest: to find a suitable beginners airplane to teach myself how to soar.
As is usual, I surfed the web collecting all sorts of information about gliders. For some reason I stumbled into some of the best resources. First there was RCSE. Some of the world's most renowned RC soaring and contest pilots belong to this email list - and they answered all my questions so patiently! Second I found RCGroups.com and its various sailplane forums. Finally while searching for a field to fly at, on the recommendation of a friend, I was put in touch with Dennis Phelan. Dennis then paved the way by recommending a MAD Aircraft Highlander EPP foam 2 Meter glider. I can't say enough good things about Dennis or his recommendation. I posted lots of questions to RCSE through the Winter of 2001/2002, finally settling in my mind that the Highlander was the plane for me. Tom Broeski, an RCSE member and dealer set me up with the plane, histart, and radio for a great price in April, 2002.
I constructed my Highlander after reading several webpages dedicated to the plane. I can remember reading pages by aeronut, Dick Williamson and hosenose. All had good suggestions that I incorporated into the plane. One thing I didn't do was put a CF arrow shaft in the fuse. I would do this later as I found the EPP tended to flex terribly during launch and tended to warp during the summer heat. Adding the CF shaft also seems to have saved my servos - they used to strip all the time, but now have not done so in a while. Anyway, I digress.
For my first flight I agreed to meet Dennis and another Connecticut flier I had met online, Steve Syrotiak, in Durham, CT at the BlackSheep Squadron field. It was a beautiful Spring day, and the spring that runs near the field was typically over its banks. I had my boots on and was very happy sloshing around the field with my histart. Dennis was a little later to the field than Steve, so I introduced myself and asked Steve if he would do a trim flight for me. Steve reluctantly agreed after replacing the quarters taped to the nose of the plane with a few small sheets of lead (they are still in the plane, Steve!) and listening to my reassurances that this was a foam plane and I thought pretty durable. After setting in the trim for me it was my turn to fly. By that time Dennis had arrived and we had stretched out my histart along the mowed runway. Dennis launched while I did the sticks. On my first flight I did really well, even landing it sortof close to the field. Dennis remarked to Steve how nice it would have been to learn flying this easily when they started out. My first flight was short, but I had at least one flight that day that lasted a few minutes. I attributed my fledgling skills to plenty of time spent on MS Flight Simulator in Tower Mode during the winter in expectation of this first flight. Subsequently I'd get hooked on FMS as a teaching tool and spent many hours getting my lefts and rights figured out. I probably crashed $10,000 worth of planes on the computer!
Fast forward one whole summer of limited flying. My Hitec radio crapped out several times and had to be sent back to Hitec. They fixed it free of charge and even paid for the shipping both ways. But I lost 8 weeks of prime flying. I was having a devil of a time chasing trims on the plane too. I decided at the end of the summer to rip all the covering off the fuse and insert a CF arrow shaft purchased at the local hunting store.
Fast forward a rather lazy winter. I had hoped to build a balsa plane for the Spring of 2003 but didn't have enough money and really desired an electric plane I could fly more locally. For a very early birthday present, Janet bought me a slowstick.
Thanks for reading this far! If you have any questions about my flying experiences please look send me a private message as "fprintf" on rcgroups.com or send me an email to fprintf at fprintf.rchomepage.com. You can also leave me messages on the bulletin board.