Sophisticated Lady 2.0! Major Modifications!

[e-sailpilot86]

Well, after delays over the course of half a year, I finally have it "near" completion! Very proud of it!

So, Here's the story:
About 4 years ago, I recieved about 5 sailplanes (kit/damaged) after trading in a model helecopter that was given to me by a family member. They'd crashed it a whole lot, seized the engine, all kinds of good stuff. However, 90% of it was still good and useful, so I traded it in and got a generous amount in return! :D I've had the Sophisticated just lying in it's box for who knows how long, and it was time to bring it to life. After having a bad experience with a 2 m Bob Violet Bobcat with a T-tail, I made my own mods to make it a standard tail. Also, since the tail wasn't especially strong, I hacked off the fueslage about 2 inches aft the wing, and used a DLG Carbon boom instead. I hollowed out the nose block for lead, moved the servos ahead of the forward bulkhead and decided against using the plastic scale pilot. I also didn't like the carved wingtips, so I made winglets that extend the wingspan 4" each side, making it an 86" wingspan sophisticated! In all, I'm guessing I've shaved about 4 ounces off the AUW, and for the first time, I think I'm going to have a nose heavy plane without lead! :p So, here it is, SL 2.0:

[e-sailpilot86]

Another angle...

[e-sailpilot86]

I think I'll take it outside for some nicer shots of it later, grass needs to dry off... Watering

[Ray Lowinski]

Looks really nice.

You were right to leave off the T-tail. Even though the company said they have never gotten a complaint you saved yourself a lot of headaches by doing the change.

That silver covering may be interesting to see. I hope it reflects the sun nicely for you.

Let us know how it flies.

Ray

[R. Carver]

That silver covering may be interesting to see. I hope it reflects the sun nicely for you..

Ray

My one and only experience with chrome was not so good. I did up a T-6 Texan in it one time, found that it reflected the color of the surrounding sky more than anything. It was difficult maintaining orientation when the plane would disappear at times :eek: Crashed the plane on the 3rd flight. But those are just my eyes, yours may differ :D

ANYWAY, nice looking ship. I especially like the winglets, very sharp!

[e-sailpilot86]

Thanks guys! ;)

[e-sailpilot86]

Flew it today. Performed two handlaunches to trim it out, second HL had shown no bad behaviors, so it was time to put it on the upstart! (going easy today). And guess what? It flew beautifully! Had a reasonable L/D, and a phenomenal sink rate. Put my dad on the buddybox and he caught a thermal, made me take over because he didn't know what to do, and I rode on a thermal for what must have been at least 20 minutes! We got some real excitement too! A dirt-devil developed from the first big thermal, it was about 15 feet in diameter and 60 feet tall! Flew forward towards it once it started to die, and WHOLLY COW!!!! It was like the plane was in an elevator, shoving the plane up about 100 ft in 15 seconds! It was a real nice flight, it turns just right, signals lift unusually well. For a comparison of just how well it (and I) did, an Icon on a winch made 3 launches during my flight! I think I'm going to write to Goldberg Models and see if they can copy my design, get it out there a bit more. You never know! :D

I think I'll call it the Gentle Lady Plus, or Sophisticated Lady Plus. How about Lady Plus? :cool:

[silentfly]

KOOL "upgrade" man... the plane looks great! I wouldnt mind buying it as a kit ;)!
So can shed some light on how you did the wing tips?

oo.oo...how bout "the LITE lady?" or

[tomi]

2 guys here in austin tx did the same mod you did. Looks almost like yours. Fuse and boom. they fly great. big time floater.

[e-sailpilot86]

Sure! I'll get a photo of the wingtip + a short description.

[e-sailpilot86]

Wingtips are fairly easy. All I had to do, was line-up a large piece of 1/16 inch balsawood along the edge of wingtip. I marked the appropriate length of it, guestimated a width, and made a free-form shape with a pencil. After I fine tuned it to the shape I wanted, I made a duplicate for the other wingtip, and soaked to two briefly in hot water. I gently flexed them to work the water into the pores, and just bent them to shape, and took my heat gun to dry them to the curve shape, and glued them with CA to the tip. I made a brace to keep the shape of the wood for just one wingtip, and made a duplicate for the other side to ensure they're nearly identical. Nothing to it really, except for the covering. I had to cover the wing and wing tip independently, then hide the seam with stick-on colored tape. I really had to finesse the iron to keep from getting wrinkles, I also had to set the iron to a fairly high temperature just to make the covering stick. Sometimes I'd have too much covering and I'd need to shrink the covering with the heat gun before I ironed it on, expecially along the leading edge. So, that's it! Here's some pictures:

[silentfly]

kool...thax for the description....
Now i might just have to put it on my GL...it looks way cooller than the origional!!

[e-sailpilot86]

No problema! ;)