Dynamic Soaring Goal - Raising the Bar

For me my model aviation hobby is much about new challenges; that is what keeps it so interesting. After finding a slope with a ridge that is fairly close to me I have been determined to improve my success in dynamic soaring of a radio controlled glider on that hill. It was just the end of the last flying season that I had any success of flying more than a single DS circuit. That was with a DLG glider that I really do not want to break, after that one time I have been concentrating my DS efforts using foam gliders that are not as efficient but can take more abuse.

This past Saturday the wind was close to north which blows against the larger portion of this hill which appears to give greater lift. After flying my Super Scooter on the front side enough to get a feel of flying it again, I dived to the backside and made about three DS circuits before having to land because it was out of the proper groove. This was a pretty good start and I felt I could do better. I reduced the aileron throw because I was over controlling at times.  All my attempts at DS circuits after this I was always getting at least three circuits but I didn’t seem to do any better than that. 

On one particular dive over the hill I made an over correction and the glider was on the ground, it occurred to me that I need to get the path for the dive setup on the windy side and then stay off the controls as much as possible as it came across the ridge.  With more practice that was working well for me and I was using very little control on the bottom half of the circuit and keeping better speed. Now I made six circuits and the glider appeared to be accelerating at times as it was flying the circuits.

My progress hadn’t been linear and I had more attempts with fewer laps but I was building confidence that I could do more. Finally I really had the glider circling in the DS groove, what a thrill this was. I was hoping to make ten laps but as I passed that I was hoping to make at least dozen. It wasn’t to be as after the eleventh lap the glider went off course and landed at the bottom of the hill.  

The bar had been raised on my soaring goal and I had lawn mowing to do so I quit flying for the day. I have a fiberglass glider that I know will work better almost done so hopefully I will get a chance to fly that fairly soon.   If I get the chance to fly on a bigger slope, I think I will have the technique now to do much better.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com

Check  Out my Small Slopes Webpage : Small Slope RC Soaring



Previous Blog Posts on Slope Soaring

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2015/04/forecast-this-past-weekend-was-for.html

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/11/dynamic-soaring-weekend.html

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/10/making-my-dynamic-soaring-goal.html


http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/08/small-gliders-small-slopes.html