My glider fleet has grown quite rapidly since I started flying, although the inflow of new gliders has slowed somewhat lately, primarily because of the storage issue. I need more space! Storing a lot of gliders is quite interesting – the garage is full of them. It’s actually quite a serious issue, as the biggest plane “killer” is not due to crashes, but due to damage in the “hanger”.
How much of an afficionardo am I? Well, I now have eighteen gliders and counting, listed in no particular order:
Spirit Elite 2m
The Spirit Elite is my first glider, which needed to be built up from plans, instructions, balsa sheets and lots of balsa sticks. Probably the biggest mistake I made with this glider was not checking the table beforehand, as one of the inner wing panels ended up with a bow built into it. She flies quite ok though, but sits on top of the cupboard gathering dust, as I’ve stripped all the servos, battery, and receiver to use in other planes.
Blejzyk First+ 2m
I bought the Blejzyk First+ not long after finishing the Spirit Elite. The First+ is a fast glider built for the slope – the wings are sheeted poplar wood with foam core, and the fuselage is fibreglass. The kit came with everything necessary to build a V-tailed, 4 channel glider with ailerons, but I modified it to include flaps, and built a conventional rudder-elevator tail. The last time this glider flew off the bungee (hi-start), I somehow knocked the tail off on launch, she rolled onto her back, slammed into the ground nose first, and was dragged 100m down the field under tension from the bungee cord. Needless to say, she’s repaired, and flies quite nicely on the slope, where she really belongs.
Blejzyk First 2m
The Blejzyk First was purchased next, primarily to compete in the Millenium Cup 2M competitions. It’s a two channel rudder-elevator glider, with a polyhedral wing made of poplar sheeted foam cores, and a fibreglass fuselage. She flies off the two-man reflex tows quite nicely, but is a handful to fly sometimes. I thought that the First would be a floater, but discovered quite quickly that it wasn’t. It penetrates quite nicely, and is quicker than you’d expect from a glider of its size.
Building the First was easier than the First+, as they’re quite similar builds, even though the gliders end up totally different in shape, electrics, and flying characteristics. I’m glad I built the First after the First+, as I learnt from the mistakes made during the First+ construction, especially with regards to the wing seating. Both planes are vulnerable to cracking around the wing seat unless reinforcement is made. The key is to keep the access hole as small as possible.
Airsports R/C Vector
The Airsports RC Vector wing is a pure slopie wing similar to the ubiquitous Zagi, but with much better flying characteristics. As it’s made of EPP/EPS foam, the build was easy, fairly quick, but a bit messy sometimes. The surfaces were covered with tape supplied with the kit. My glider ended up lighter than the norm on the slope, and thus flies a bit slower than the other wings.
My Vector is good for throwing off the slope when it’s too risky to thow off the mouldies or crunchies, or when I just wanna fly a smooth, reasonably fast, glider, where I don’t have to think about flying it (mine is balanced quite nicely, and is pretty neutral). Great fun when I wanna get some stick time.
Starling Pro 2m
The Starling Pro 2m glider was my first fully-moulded full-house glider. Fully kitted out, it was extremely light for a 2m glass ship, flew straight and true during trim tosses, but on the slope, it wanted to point its nose at the sky when climbing, and required gobs of down elevator and patience to level out. I think the CG was too far forward.
I thought that, due to the lightness, it’d fly well in thermal duration events. One day I went down to the field, and asked one of the other pilots to launch it. First winch launch was dead straight up the line, and an awesome ping off the top (with the familiar mouldie whistle) – flight time was about ten minutes, with a good, slow landing. Second launch, it left the launcher’s hand, dropped a wing tip, and speared straight into the ground, smashing the centre wing panel into lots of bits, and otherwise causing a rather big mess. I was thinking of binning it.
Along came one of the guys on the slope – “yup, I can fix that! Do this here, and that there, some reinforcing here …”. A few months later, he turned up with my rebuilt Starling Pro. The damage is reasonably obvious, and I was rather nervous on her first re-maiden, but she flew away over the slope, and hasn’t skipped a beat since. I think this glider flies better now than before the rebuild, and I attribute this to the “ballast” effect of the many repairs. It’s certainly heavier than when it was new. Alas, it still retains its old trait of pointing its nose at the sky when climbing, with gobs of down elevator and patience needed to get it to level out… Tom, your blood’s worth bottling, mate!
Genesis Barbarian 2.8m
The Genesis Barbarian is a rebuild of the original RnR Products Genesis, a 2.8m moulded glider. Being second hand, it’s quite a few years old, and I’ve been a bit scared of it, for some reason. It’s heavy, slow, has a T-tail that’s vulnerable on landings, and (to my eye) has a wing that’s a touch out of alignment, which I can’t correct.
Why did I buy it? I bought it as my first big Open-Class glider, so I could reasonably compete against the guys in the Club competition. She flies, and flies quite well, actually, so I don’t know why I’m scared of it, which reminds me of one of the club comp days.
We were having lunch, it was a brilliant day for flying. Carl says to me, “Are ya gonna fly that thing, or just look at it?!”.
“I’m scared of flying it, Carl”, says I, quite frankly.
He stands up, picks it up, has a look, tells me to switch my transmitter on, hooks the Genesis to the winch, and looks at me, “are ya ready, Bec?”.
“Ok, Carl, I guess so…”, as the glider goes zooming away up the line.
What am I worried about? It flew for over 30 minutes that flight, and I had an absolute ball flying it. So easy.
Big really is better!
QuickFlick II
I get very bored whilst at home during the evenings. The computer doesn’t interest me, as I’m on it all day. One night, I was scratching for something to do, started browsing the online RC hobby stores, and stumbled upon the little QuickFlick II HLG by Paul Daniels. What really piqued my interest was the simplicity in the build, and it would be my first foray into hand-launched gliding. The build would also keep me busy at night, as this would be my second balsa kit.
Over the following couple of months, I slowly built the kit as per the plan and instructions, taking my time to ensure the wings were flat (unlike the Spirit Elite), taking lots of photos at the same time. I documented the build on the RC Groups Forum.
The build taught me a lot of techniques, how to build light, how to build accurately. During the build, I had to glass the tail feathers, and the fuselage pod, which were interesting. Because I don’t have vac-bagging equipment available, I had to use the classic technique where the fibreglass is laid onto the balsa, mylar film placed over the top of the glass, and the work put under pressure from lots of books and weight – the classic sandwich. I was rewarded for being patient, with a beautiful glider being the end-result.
This plane is rather interesting to fly. It’s a rudder-elevator ship, and is very pitch-sensitive. I still need to play around with the CG position, as again I think this plane is a touch nose-heavy. I’m also still learning how to launch using the side-arm launch technique (pretty much a discus launch). I certainly won’t be able to compete at any top level with this glider, but it’s sure going to teach me how to spot and fly weak thermals, which will help me fly my larger gliders.
Alula HLG
Whilst I was waiting for my Icon TD to be built and shipped from the US, a friend asked whether I was interested in joining in on a shipment of Alulas from the US. This little thing is an EPP hand-launched glider, with a rather characteristic forward-swept wing. For about $160 Australian, I bought an Alula, a battery pack, and the recommended Dymond D47 servos.
Building this little beauty was easy. I think the hardest part was deciding which glue to use to join the two wing halves together. For three days, I sat down in front of the TV, marked out, and texta’d a pattern into the wing surfaces, to save weight, the pattern being inspired from my First glider’s checkerboard covering.
Test flights were interesting – the elevator is extremely sensitive. Just a few mm of deflection, and it’s all over the sky. Until recently, I’ve had problems with the glider porpoising, and tucking-under in a dive. I thought nothing of the CG until recently, when I crashed it once, and managed to tear the EPP foam nose pod near the wing root. After applying strips of CF tow down both sides of the pod, the CG location was anyones guess, so I decided to experiment with the CG.
Using a 10c piece, I taped it to the pod near where the CG is supposed to be. Initial flights were wild affairs – it was quite uncontrollable – so move the 10c piece forward, and try again. After some 50 flights over a few weeks, I had the CG at the point where the plane was flyable again, but it’d still exhibit the tuck-under phenomenon. On my way home from flying that afternoon, it dawned on me that I had a 10c piece right at the nose, and that my initial flights after building it were very nose-heavy, with two 10c pieces in the nose.
The following weekend, I drove down to the slope, and discovered that the breeze was almost non-existant – perfect for some Alula CG trimming flights. I placed a few grams of weight between the 10c piece, and the marked CG point, and threw it off. Guess what!? No more tuck-under. I was so happy, I flew the Alula all afternoon until there was no light, and no lift left.
The controls are still extremely sensitive, but I’m learning not to over-control it. With the CG position correct, my Alula is quite neutral, and pretty much flys hands off, which is how I like it.
I must say that this is the best value for money glider on the market today.
Multiplex Easy Glider Electric
I bought the Multiplex Easy Glider Electric 1.8m glider as a Christmas present. I wish I’d bought the non-electric version, as I have the wrong motor in it, and it’s going to be a pain to put a new motor in it.
This glider was to be my foray into electric-powered gliders. At the time, electrics began to appeal to me because of the ease of launching – turn the motor on, full throttle, throw it, and up it climbs – no bungee to lay out, no winch to set up. However, I’ve discovered that, with so many different motors on the market, along with ESC’s, props, and batteries, it’s difficult to know which combination to get for this glider. Some combinations are too powerful, some are too weak. I eventually went with a brushed Speed 480 with a smallish ESC, and 8 cell Sub-C battery pack, and a prop that I think is too big for the plane, which (in hindsight) was inadequate.
It was woefully slow at climbing.
However, get some height, switch off the motor, and the Easy Glider was a joy to fly. It’s another of those no-brainer gliders that’s great to fly around during lunch breaks at flying comps, but where it really excels is on the slope. There, I don’t need the motor. I can fly it around for as long as I like, it’s docile, slow, flys great inverted, has an interesting wing bend under load, and is awesome fun.
Thus, my desire to remove the motor and ESC, and fit a chunk of foam into the nose to convert it into an un-powered sloper.
Maple Leaf Design Icon TD 3.4m (“Icon-ography”)
For two years, my dream had been to own an Maple Leaf Design Icon. That dream was formulated when I watched Carl Strautins fly his Icon with ease. Mind you, it’d take a long time for me to fly half as good as Carl, so on that basis alone, my Icon dream should have remained a dream – you don’t buy gliders based on the flights of someone with natural talent in the sport.
The dream remained alive, however, as I also fell in love with the lines and curves of the Icon, the tail feathers especially – they’re just so darn beautiful. Remember, my motto was/is/shall always be:
If it looks good, it’ll fly good
The only problem with my dream was the money factor. I estimated that purchasing an Icon brand new would set me back about $3,000 Australian. I was wrong. It eventually cost me close to $4,000 for a new Icon, but to me that was money well spent. I learnt all about Customs, taxes, dealing with importers, being extremely frustrated at the time it took to ship the glider from the US, but in the end, my dream was fulfilled.
I bought the Icon with the TD (Thermal Duration) wing. This wing had a lighter layup than the F3J/F3B wing, and it flexed quite a lot on launch. However, it was capable of withstanding full-pedal winch launches in light breezes to moderate breezes. Assembling the glider took two evenings of work – installing the servos into the fuse and wings, install the receiver, wire it all up, test, install battery into the nose, check balance. Too easy!
I’ll remember the first trim throw – it flew straight, flat, clear across the field. Carl turns up, and after the days’ flying, he launches it using a winch someone bought with them. Third flight ever (second flight using the winch), Carl has the controls, and says to me, “can I land it, Bec?”. “Yes, Carl, so long as you stay away from the fence, and don’t scratch it!”, says I. “Don’t worry, Bec, I won’t even get a blade of grass on it.”
“Sure, Carl”, I said, before he brought it down from a great height, deployed full crow, edged it in over the fence, and caught it with his hands. I was amazed, as he’d had all of about 5 minutes flying on this unknown, but rather docile and slow, brand new glider.
My first competition flying with the Icon was down at Goulburn, the Ted Swan Memorial Cup. The format of this competition was interesting – five flights, no one flight more than 8 minutes, no flight less than 1 minute, landing within the mown area of the field, no spot landings required, total elapsed flight time for the five flights to be as close to 30 minutes as possible.
Our strategy was to fly three by eight minute flights, one four minute flight, and the last flight of two minutes. In the end, I flew 8:03, 8:00, 8:00, 4:03, and 2:00 exactly, which meant I flew 30 minutes exactly total elapsed time. Two other pilots also flew exactly 30 minutes, so it looked like a three-way fly-off for places. Unfortunately, I broke my Icon’s nose during the landing for the 2:00 minute flight. In the end, a fairly simple repair, but one that couldn’t be repaired at the field. So I came third for that competition.
I’m learning how to fly this Icon quite quickly, learning it’s little quirks, how it behaves in thermals (it gets quite active and fidgety) and sink (very sluggish and hard to maneuver), flying the launches, and the landings.
Would I spend the money again to buy another one? Absolutely! I’d like to get two more Icons: an Icon Lite, and an F3J wing to complement my TD wing.
Maple Leaf Design Icon F3B 3.4m
Breaking my new Icon TD, and subsequently placing third in the Ted Swan Cup, reinforced the need for a “backup” glider. Problem was, I wanted to back up my Icon TD with another Icon. That way, I don’t need to shift mindset/flying style if I have to resort to using the backup glider.
Just before the Armidale Sailplane Expo, Thomas put his Icon F3B up for sale. I was a bit dubious about the F3B version, as I’d heard that it flew faster, had a thinner cross-section on the wing, and was much stiffer than the TD/F3J wing, and therefore needed to be flown more hands-on than the other gliders. Unfortunately for me, he turned up with the Icon at Armidale, and I was given the opportunity to have a few flights. This glider was no different than my Icon TD, it would slow down, speed up, and pings had so much more energy in them. My thoughts were clouded – could this be my next Icon?
Absolutely. Thomas’ Icon was spotless, completely ready to fly – all I needed to do was swap receiver, and program my radio. Done deal, sir!
My strategy was clear – fly the Icon TD while the breeze was light to medium, and fly the F3B when the wind picked up further. I could fly the F3B without ballast where others would need ballast, but I also had the ballast option if I wanted to use it. This also meant that I didn’t need to stuff around with refitting the ballast tube into the TD glider.
My first competition flight with the Icon F3B was into a stiff breeze. The ping was enormous, and I eventually won the round. Yip yah!
Again, money well spent!
Maple Leaf Design Icon F3J 3.4m
During the Jerilderie competition in 2007, I destroyed my Icon TD (which was 6 months old) on launch – it literally just blew up into confetti, carbon, kevlar, and fibreglass pieces. I was shattered – I’d lost my pretty Icon. But I still had my Icon F3B.
Before the Armidale Sailplane Expo in 2007, I approached Carl about buying one of his Icons. His original yellow Icon F3J was pretty beat up, and had obviously led a hard life. I held off buying it because of some problems with the wing, went up to Armidale, and bought Thomas Cooke’s Icon F3B (see above).
Before Armidale this year, I’d heard that Carl had an F3J wing available for sale, so I approached him only to discover that he didn’t want to sell his spare F3J wing, but he would sell his original yellow Icon F3J, and to sweeten the deal, sell his unused (nearly brand new) F3B wing.
So, I bought them – I now had the white Icon F3B, the yellow F3J, my original Icon TD fuselage, and the spare F3B wing – I essentially had three Icons! Up to Armidale, and Joe Wurts turned up. He was one of the designers of the Icon, and knew them inside out, so I asked him to launch the yellow Icon F3J for me. It was a handful, to say the least, completely unlike an Icon. So, it stayed on the ground for the rest of the event.
A few weeks later, I attended the Hunter Valley Championships, and took the white Icon F3B to fly with, and the yellow Icon F3J to continue playing with the trim. I flew it in the morning before the comp started, and it was still exhibiting the same nose-up/tail-down trim attitude (even after some more gobs of down elevator trim), was very tip stally, and not fun to fly (very unlike an Icon). During lunch, I thought about the CG location, performed a rough field test with balancing the plane on the tips of my fingers, and discovered the CG was _way_ too far back.
A bit of lead in the nose, and up for another flight – much better, but still a bit rough.
Advance a month or so, and Round 1 of the Heathcote Cup comes along. The flights in the morning were flown with the F3B and ballast – the conditions were tough, and windy. The last flight of the day, and I decided to use the yellow Icon, and won the round. Hello!
Round 2 of the Heathcote Cup a few weeks later, and I flew the yellow Icon F3J pretty much all day, loved its’ floatiness, won several rounds with it, and eventually won the Heathcote Cup.
Success at last, and with a plane I had almost written off as a bad mistake!
During the Jerilderie 2008 competition, I chopped and changed between the F3J and F3B Icons, and conducted a bit of an experiment. The fuselage from my original Icon TD was still ok, but without a ballast tube – it’s light, strong, and so I wondered how well it would fly with the F3J wing. Well, after some programming of the radio, the Icon Bitza flew. Maybe a plane for light air days?
Vladimir’s Models Super Ava 3.7m
Before Jerilderie 2008, I was thinking about my flying strategy for the event. One thing that struck me during the event the previous year was the stillness first thing in the morning. One of the problems I’m still working on is flying in very still conditions efficiently enough to eke out a good time.
One glider I’ve been lusting after since seeing pictures of them on the Internet when I first started in the hobby was the Ava. I thought that a good strategy for conditions first thing in the morning was to fly an Ava, then switch to the Icons for the rest of the day, so I bought the Super Ava, a 3.7m monster, with a massive rudder, a full-flying elevator, and a spoiler blade that’s bigger than my Alula! It’s a 3-channel RES glider, and it’s super light (some people on the Internet say that it’s too light for its size and span …)
The challenge during construction of the Super Ava was connecting the massive spoiler blade to the servo. In the end, I glued a ply tray to the bottom of the wing in the spoiler servo bay, glued the servo to the underside of the tray (i.e. below the wing), and connected the servo and blade together with ball links. The spoiler moves about 45 degrees, which is more than enough to stop the plane in the air.
Flights were great – slow, long glides, graceful turns, but a bit tip-stally if I wasn’t careful. Because the Super Ava is a Rudder/Elevator model, and the wing span is so big, it takes a long time for the plane to respond to rudder input. I found that it would tip stall if it’s flying at min speed (floating along) and I applied rudder input – it would drop the inboard wing and nose-down quite a bit. If I was flying at speed before rudder input, it would drop the inboard wing, and start turning – I could fly it hands-off once it was in a turn. So, speed into the turn was the key.
Launches are still a bit flat, I have to force the rotation – I think I need to move the tow-hook back further. The ping is either not there, or is a wild affair, as it screams off the line, and I end up with little elevator authority. One thing I suspect with this is slop in the elevator pushrod – it is bendy inside the fuse under the wing seat, so nothing I can’t fix.
In the end, conditions this year conspired against me – generally too windy for this light ship. One thing I needed to consider was whether the height lost by not pinging could be gained by thermalling the Ava. If conditions were right, maybe yes.
But there’s no doubting that a super-hot ping is worth a lot of time in the air, and as a result, the Icons are hard to put down.
Big Bird 2.5m Carbon
Blejzyk Elf 1.5m
Blejzyk Mefisto 1.8m
Pulsar 3200 Electric