suggestions for a new bird

[enrico74ec]

Hi,

I 've been flying for quite a while and i have come to discover that my gentle lady i fly themost out in almost any condition, thermal, hand launched and specked out, beach soaring :p hey, its awesome to cruise for 5, 10, 15 minutes at eye level skimming barely 2 to 5 feet above the ground!!!

So my question go on to what would be a good choice for a 3m size type gente lady, looking in to portability, funfactor, a bit of competition factor type RES, maybe go a bit onto full house? Any suggestions? Something that can be called as theultimate funmachine (now, keep it clean please :p :o ;) )

ive read up and down about the thermal and sailplane talk forums, read about the bubble dancer,hawk, bantam, oly III, marauder. Is just i cant get all of them and building isnot a problem but a bit of a budget is. Is there any such thing?

I'm leaning towards the BD so far, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Enrico

[rduanehill]

Atrix by Harley Michaelis.

The plans are available from AMA. It is all balsa ship with optional boron filament reinforcements in the spar and tailboom. I'll probably substitue carbon fiber. Good looking full house ship, with three piece wing. The plans will need to modified to account for today's computer radios as it only a 3 servo wing. The substitution of rotary drive systems instead of swingees for the ailerons will be required.

[kzimmerm]

If you are looking for something to build then you cannot go wrong with a Bubble Dancer. It is easy to fly.

Kurt

[lincoln]

I think that if you are stubborn, patient, and careful, you will not find a better RES glider than a BD. If you are not, perhaps you should build something a bit easier. People seem to like the Marauder. Either one would have a much wider speed range than the Gentle Lady. If budget is a problem, RES will probably be much cheaper. The Bubble Dancer probably outperforms the Ava. Not sure how many other comparable designs can say that.

If you found an ancient Gnome 3M kit, perhaps you'd like that. I liked the 2M.

You might also find it fun to build a new, d-tube wing for the Gentle Lady using a faster airfoil. Either one of Mark's foils or perhaps the S3021. Long ago I had a Gentle Lady that I put an E205 wing on. Very enjoyable flyer. But of course larger is higher performance.

[neonbutterfly]

hi....,having built 3 bubble dancers :D .....they are awesome...they will stay aloft on a seagull fart!!!!.....not difficult to build and cost would be about $200 to 250 to build, excluding readio gear.....if you are going to build a BD....drop me a pm...

my flying buddy gene has a complete list of materials...hope this helps

bob :cool:

[Phoebusflyer]

I don't think you could go wrong with an Oly III! It isn't full house as sold, but you could make it that way if you so choose. It has a great airfoil, it's solid and if you build it as an RES, it's a great step up from the venerable GL. If your going to stick with RES, then think about the Hawk by JW or the Yardbird II. Both are great flying planes.

[enrico74ec]

Thank you guys for all the responses. Actually i do have to clarify that i have a bit limited funding, radio gear is no problem and i have plenty of transparent monokote in green, red and yellow that i can use. I know its a bit heavier than ultracote or is it? Why built up balsa, mainly because I have a stack of balsa sheets of various sizes, only problem is that it is in metric, so my closest to 1/32 is either a 0.5mm or a 1 mm sheet and so on. :p

I guess the BD or maybe the Yardbird would go more on the line I'm looking (although the marauder and Oly III are very very nice ships :cool: ) Is just like when you go to the shop, which is the first plane you put in the car to go to the field? In my case is the GL, then I load either the 3M mouldy if Im going thermaling or the slimer (i know the slimer is got to go .... :o ) if i try to practice aerobatics.

The sort of comparison is like the Hand launch guys, like the little 30 or 40 size you put in the back of your car for a take a long ride just in case. Your play toy.

Anyway, something like that but in a 3m size.

I still have a few days before committing to anything so let me know your insights for each one, handling, user friendliness plans availability, etc.

thanks for your comments guys, they are greatly appreciated

Thermals

Enrico

[lincoln]

If you could figure out how to fix a busted Ava, I bet you could find plenty of parts. Cheep. Then, afterwards, you can hire yourself out as a consultant to all the king's men. For a princely sum, I'm sure. ;-p

[enrico74ec]

It sounds interesting, are there many AVA pilots willing to send their busted pieces? I'll post a wanted add see what we come with. :p now for the consulting part .... mmm :confused: :cool: :p

[enrico74ec]

Well, finally got a chance to sit down and think things real good. Definitively, I whant to build a BD so I'll go that way, but I'll keep as second option the OlyIII from skybench. I did look into the Atrix mentioned before. Sounds like a very interesting project, maybe updating a little bit the airfoils? maybe jsut building it as it is. Although after extensive browsing I read somewhere here that a Smoth Genie pro from Harley Michaelis is going to be offered either as full kit or partial kit in full wood version!! :eek: :cool: If that happens, I will be so into it! definitively!

Guys thanks a lot for the tips, and although the AVA parts wanted didn't work too much if you know of anybody wanting to get rid of some broken ones let me know :p :o

Happy thermals

Enrico

[lincoln]

It sounds interesting, are there many AVA pilots willing to send their busted pieces? I'll post a wanted add see what we come with. :p now for the consulting part .... mmm :confused: :cool: :p
Didn't you recognize the reference to Humpty Dumpty? Was more of a statement about how an Ava wing breaks (i.e. many places at once, and kind of like an eggshell at that) than a realistic suggestion! This isn't completely accidental because much of the structure is a very thin layer of carbon over much lighter balsa, so, when it finally goes, it kind of splits and shatters.

[enrico74ec]

Lincoln, sorry no I didn't recognize the humpty dumpty point, but it was a great idea to get a phoenix bird type together from splinters. I've read a few threads of AVA's being trashed and then stacked in the dumpster that I figure why not give it a try.

Anyway,im back to square one waiting to get a 46 or 50 inch building board, so far the 31 inch glass plates wwont do the trick but with smaller wings.

Thanks again for the help ;)

Enrico

[ronrange]

Let me make a plug for the Oly !!. Get a set of plans, cut some wood and go for it. Easy to build, durable, good flyer and relatively inexpensive.

With luck you might find a kit at a reasonable price.