Up until last year my free flight flying had been smaller rubber powered models such as the Peck Sky Bunny, AMA Maxi Jr., and a couple of scale type models such as Guillows Super Cub.
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| Guillow's Super Cub chased by a Gull |
A couple of years ago I decided to try a free flight discus launched glider the Maxima. Even though I had launched RC discus gliders, I had a something to learn about launching and more critical adjusting the glider. It crashed many times in the beginning. As I got it dialed in better, the flights kept improving and I saw it circling upward in thermals fairly often.
To not lose it until the end of the flying season I was really lucky. It was stuck in a tree but blew down. It completely flew over a bunch of trees and landed next to a road. Another time it flew over a small pond. When I lost it the DT must have hung up and it circled for a long ways until over a cornfield.
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| Maxima DLG |
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| Wind Blew it Down |
I think it was the same year I had bought components for an e36 electric free flight from Texas Timers. Progress on a Pearl e202 model was really slow but before the end of the flying season I decided I would put the electric components in a Starduster ½ A free flight someone had given me.
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| 1/2 A Starduster Electric Components |
Not knowing anything about powered free flight, it flew pretty well for me. Only one time did it crash, probably because the wing was not on straight or a bad launch.
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| Rudder Only RC Crash |
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| Pearl e202 Successful Flight no RC |
The next season I finished up the Pearl e202 but with such a tiny flying site, I added RC equipment for rudder control. I really didn’t know what a proper test glide should look like and did not have enough decalage. Even though I could steer, it still crashed without a way to give it up. After repairs and getting the proper trim it flew good with only rudder control.
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| Jack Murphy Launching |
About this time I was going as a competitor to my first Nats in Muncie Indiana, I took the RC equipment off. My thought was getting there a day early someone could help me get it adjusted.
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| Dave Edmundson |
As luck would have Jack Murphy parked right next to us, I had come with Dave Edmundson from Minnesota. Jack helped me and I got in some flights.
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| Nats with Jim Jennings Jr. and Dohrm Crawford |
At the Nats I met so many super people, many I had only known from the Internet such as Dohrm Crawford. Dohrm helped me so much in getting my e36 flying. He borrowed a heat gun from someone and we straightened out the wing. On another day it made a very nice flight with over 10 second run.
For the competition day I launched it on a short run with a quick DT but the stab did not go up far enough, it just kept circling in a thermal for maybe a couple of minutes but it did come down on the edge of the field. Dohrm and Jim Jennings Jr. redid the DT system for me.
I met a bunch of people that I only knew through the Internet at the Nats, pictures of a few of them below.
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| Hank Nystrom - Timer Guy |
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| Hank Sperzel |
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| Bob Hanford |
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| Dan Berry |
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| Chuck Powell and Jim O'Reilly |
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| George Bredehoft |
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| Lee Hines |
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| Norm Furutani |
At the Nats I had the chance meet many of the great glider flyers including the designer of my Dynomite TLG Stan Buddenhom. My performance was just okay, I was not patient waiting for good air.
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| Stan Winding Up |
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| Jan Winding Up |
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| Tim |
My Dynomite DLG at 2016 Nats below
For 2017 I built several competition free flights and also experimented with other ideas.
A friend who flies RC sailplanes thought I might be more interested in some CO2 motors, so he sold them to me. The first plane I put the motor in did not seem to have enough wing area but this plane climbs very easily. So much so I installed fuse DT system.
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| CO2 Engine Free Flight |
I purchased the BMJR Sniffer kit originally thinking I would try a glow powered free flight again because I had a couple of Cox PeeWee .020 engines. Researching the PeeWee 30 event that this plane would qualify for I realized it would not be a competitive airplane so decided I would install a small brushless electric motor and use RC equipment to control the motor speed and to be able to DT on demand. This way I could fly from a smaller field and bring the plane down whenever I wanted to. It is working well for that.
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| BMJR Sniffer |
So much I have skipped through, look for video with many more images and video.
Bill Kuhl
Nice story and photos!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim, it is now I have more planes than times of good weather to fly them. I still enjoy flying RC sailplanes as well and want to try electric powered control line. Bill
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