Slope Soaring with a difference – Part 1

Greyhead · 14-12-2005

During the long summer holidays (I knew there was a reason I wanted to work in education!) I spend quite a lot of time away from home in our caravan. So as not to miss too much of the all too short flying season I always take a couple of models with me.

Limited space and the stringent COSHH and Health and Safety rules imposed by Senior Management (the wife!!) means that power models are out, so Slope Soarers are the order of day. An E-mail to a “local” club always get a friendly response and invariably someone can point you in the direction of a suitable slope.

The first model is a Bullet.

This is an “unbreakable” EPP, not very aerodynamic but ideal for finding the “good” and “bad” air on the first few flights from a new slope. In my experience all slopes have these areas of turbulence or negative lift but it’s often not obvious where they are; with this model you don’t end up with a bag of shattered balsa.

Having sorted the slope it’s time for the Plouf.

This is a super little model, launch and gain altitude, then for the adrenalin junkies convert some of the height into speed; loop, roll, inverted, high speed passes, you name it and the Plouf will do it! This is a French designed “micro” glider; I’ve built it at 125% to accommodate a “standard” AAA battery pack, it now spans an impressive 890mm and uses 2 mini servos and a mini Rx.

I downloaded the free Plouf plans from the Internet and if anyone’s interested I’ve still got the file for the plan. (A question for John; can I attach the file to this post for members to download?)

Ran out of time, I’ve said it before, a terrible thing having to earn a living, roll on retirement! I’ll add “part 1” to the title and hopefully continue tomorrow.

**wonwinglo** · 14-12-2005

Grahame,I have got one of those Bullets ! made from a sort of rubber door mat material for want of better words,mine has been shot into the air many times with a bungee when there was no wind,this thing really is indestructible,it has hit the side of the slope more than once and just bounced off ! a very aerobatic little model,you can as you say fly them from the roughest of slopes and get away with it,it is as near to the break proof aeroplane that you will get.
And I bet that you get just as much fun with these soarers as you do with the power scale jobs ? and above all plenty of practise as well,anyone who can fly a slope soarer can handle almost anything.
It is good to have models that cost nothing to fly and once more that you can throw in the car.

Greyhead · 15-12-2005

I agree with you Barry, the Bullet is one tough model. The only weak point, or I should say not ridiculously strong point, is the aluminium joiner for the carbon fibre wing spar. On one fast head-on collision between the Bullet and a rather large object, namely a mountain near Kendal, the Bullet ended up with forward swept wings. It didn’t really matter as the model flew just as well in this configuration but it certainly looked a bit odd! As your Bullet is aerobatic I must have a forward CG as mine just flops over loops and rolls are virtually impossible.

To continue:

Problems started at the beginning of the summer holidays, four days away and a virtually unheard of meteorological phenomenon for “The Lakes” a flat calm! I was resigned to visiting stately homes and garden centres; something drastic had to be done!

I had recently acquired a “field charger” so electric seemed to be the answer but with only 10 days to the next planned outing time was tight. After lots of soul searching I headed for the local model shop to buy a Thunder Tiger e-Hawk XXXX Electric Glider. It’s no good I have to come clean, it’s an ARTF; there I’ve said it!! I tried to keep it a secret; I should have travelled farther away to buy it but I was “outed”, at the flying field people whispered and pointed, after all I’d said about ARTFs. I pointed out that I’d modified it to have 2 part wings and would remove the awful (in my opinion) see-through covering but I still had to eat copious amounts of humble pie! At least I was prepared for the next becalming and I must admit it’s a very nice looking glider.

Now for the reason for this thread:

The usual method of slope soaring is to launch from the top of the slope into the rising air. This is OK you are lucky enough to have vehicle access but all too often cars have to be parked at the bottom and plane and TX carried up the slope to the launch site. Not so easy at my age, especially as I now needed a 12-volt battery to recharge the flight battery. I then had a Eureka moment, I could launch in the “dead” air at the bottom of the slope and fly up into the rising air using the motor, I could even launch and fly to otherwise inaccessible slopes. This coupled with the fact that ” bad” air is not really a problem when you can turn on the power made a lot more places suitable for a days flying.

If no slope is available the Hawk is quite capable of flat field flying, 20 minute flights without thermals, but personally I much prefer to ride the rising air currents, in fact we share our local slope with a real hawk. We keep well away if she’s hunting but she often joins the models and seems to be soaring for the pure joy of it, diving and swooping around the sky as if challenging us to match her million years of evolution, of course we fail miserably. I’m no “twitcher” so don’t know the gender or even the species but I suspect she’s a Kestrel and she’s so graceful she’s certainly a female to me.

As this is “Scale-Models.co.uk” I’ll finish off with this:

My Wik Salto, now over 30 years old and recently refurbished ready for the next 30.

**wonwinglo** · 15-12-2005

Grahame,some nice models there,yes I too use the electric motor to climb to a decent height from a valley into thermal air,it certainly has its uses for us oldies ! now dont you just like to go flying in decent clothes without wreaking and dripping fuel ? it is a very sociable way to fly,and above all models last forever,no need to fuel proof even.
My Bullet has barn doors for ailerons with no differential either,pull in some up and over she goes on the ailerons,in fact she will keep on rolling if not arrested.
Yours is a lot nicer finished,mine is just wrapped in that greenhouse type tape they provide,it needs some attention now as the adhesive has dried out and she is like a paper bag,apparently the answer is to spray first with Scotch 3M spray adhesive,this gives extra bite for the tape if you use that route.
I had a laugh about your forward sweep on those wings ! that really would place the c of g further aft,but this model has a lot of latitude in the balance department.
At least you have found the solution to keep flying when on vacation,that cannot be bad as it gives you valuable stick time.

Greyhead · 15-12-2005

Barry

Electric certainly has its advantages, definitely for sport flying, but for scale the sound is just as important as the looks and you can’t beat a Laser burbling away up front.

I was given the Bullet by my brother after it had been stored in his garage for many years and the fibreglass-reinforced tape had dried out, just as yours has, so I replaced it with Solatex, hence the “nicer” finish. I’m sure it’s lost some of it’s strength but I’ve yet to do it any serious damage. Taking the tape off is an awful job; if you decide to do it I strongly advise wearing a boiler suit with the cuffs held tight with elastic bands, a dust mask and working outdoors, the fibreglass dust gets everywhere, I know from itchy experience! I painted the model all over with Balsaloc because the Solatex wouldn’t bond to whatever it is that the model is made of and I’ve also made the fuselage bolt together with 2 nylon wing bolts.