What have I got?

[dee-grose]

Hoping somebody here can identify this glider. It was given to me by a guy at work who has no idea what it is called. It is pretty old. Wingspan is about 8 feet. Horizontal stabilizer is built-up construction and has an airfoil shape to it.

If you need more detailed pictures to make a good ID, lemme know.

This is my first sailplane, so I don't have any idea what I'm going to do with it! :D

dee

[Ollie]

It looks like an Olympic 99 by Airtronics. This plane had a lifting stab and an undercambered wing which make it slower even than most floaters. Airtronics replaced it with the Olympic II some time in the 70's.

[aeajr]

Ollie may have pegged it. Here is a picture of hte Olympic II

http://www.skybench.com/slnost.html

[dee-grose]

Well, this morning the guy brought me the plans for this plane, and yes, it is an Airtronics Olympic. I didn't see a date on them. It appears from the plans that you could build it to be an 88 or 99 inch span. Not sure which mine is, but it is probably the 99 since I couldn't stand the wing up without hitting the 8 foot ceilings.

Now, here's a question (since this is my first balsa/monokote plane)...there seems to be a lot of slack in the monokote on the wings, especially on the bottom. There aren't any tears, so that's good. What do you suggest I do to shrink it up tight? Heat gun? A friend here suggested I just lay it out in the sun for a little while and it will be OK.

Oh yeah, hey aeajr (of Aerobird fame), you'll get a kick of this picture I took just for size reference.

dee

[aeajr]

Hey! An Aerobird! I have one of those too! Thought I had seen your name around here before.

Anyway, you can tighten it up with the heat gun. That would probably be the easiest. I can't see any real loose areas in the photo.

Good luck with it!

[Ollie]

Because the airfoil is highly undercambered the covering should be firmly attached to the bottom of each rib from the LE to the TE, if you want to preserve the original (slow) floaty flight characteristics.

If you want to modify the airfoil so that the Olympic 99 penetrates better, then you should use a heat gun on the bottom covering to shrink it flat and away from the undercambered ribs. This will decamber the airfoil some and give the plane a wider usable speed range.

If the Monocoat is original and 25 or so years old, it may have become quite brittle and lost some of its shrinking ability. In that case you may want to remove the old covering and replace it. It is a difficult and tedious job that takes a lot of patience, an insulated glove, tweezers and a heat gun. If you do end up replacing the old film covering, the new covering should also be Monocoat. It's the stiffest of the film coverings and provides much needed torsional rigidity to the open bay wing structure. The torsional load on wings with highly cambered airfoils is considerable and one of the things that limits the speed range because of the onset of torsional flutter.

[nr5a]

Speaking of the Airtronics Olympic I've been thinking about getting one from Skybench. Has anyone ever put a motor on one? I'm looking for a project, and just about have to have a motor on mine, I can't get around as good as I use too.

CrashinJ

[skysthelimit]

It is for sure an olympus 2 I have flown one for about a year and they fly great. I still have it after sitting around for about 5 years. i also hav one almost built. Mine is modifed for a .15 glow motor because the high start didn't work for me.but yes that is for sure an airtronics olympus 2.

[dee-grose]

Quick update on this...

I went out to join the North Alabama Silent Fliers today and had a great time. Got some of the guys to help me get this plane flying. One of them gave it a couple of hand tosses to make sure it was flying right and the up the winch it went. Flew like a champ! After a minute of demonstrating what to do, he handed me the controls. Let's just say I picked a good day to start flying sailplanes. Lift was everywhere! My first flight lasted about 30 minutes. I was having so much fun. Landings were smooth and I flew a few launches off the winch myself. This old bird held up good today. Not bad for a free airplane. I think I'm hooked on sailplanes now!

dee

[aeajr]

Sailplanes are VERY addictive. You have been warned!

Welcome to the additction!

[flybaby2000]

congrats on the score , i was hooked first time i saw 300 dollars of mine get to 500 feet in no time , then to los it in a thermal and have it back again after spec spottin , which is trimming the plane to circle and grabbing some binoculars to follow the istructors directions,,

thats how it all started...

I think ive got osd {obssessive soaring disorder}

working on a sagitta now

cheers
dug

[CHARLIE BRITT 7]

Totally diffrent but outstanding kits from Airtronics back in the early days, but both Great flyers.
Charlie