Thermaling indoors? w00t?

[oracle_9]

Hello,
I am curious to whether anyone have thermalled indoors. We hear always stories of sailplanes thermalling outdoors and small electric flyers fly outside and inside, but no thermals.

I see where someone would say "you crazy man, there is no thermals inside"

Just a humorous idea.....but has anyone tried to thermal those "MICRO/MOSQUITO" class thermal sailplanes (those 39inch spans ones) indoors over ....lets say... a hot plastic extruder or injection machines.....or why not at a metal pouring plant....but not to close to the melted metal of course.....hehe.

Well, this is what I get when snow and winds come in and flying session for me ends. Or does it?

[compuatic]

how about laying some electrical blankets all over a gym floor and turning them on ?

[mhmitchell]

actually there has been some "thermaling done indoors . There was a small scale all wood sailplane maybe 28 inch span that could thermal over small floor fans placed on hanger floor pointing upwards.

I saw a blimp hanger in Massachussets that had weather inside, fog, drizzle rain they used to fly small hand launch mylar civered hlg there.

[Majortomski]

The armory used for indoor rubber flying here in OKC has a large bank of windows on the south roof line. On sunny days those windows let the sunshine heat up the concrete floor at that end of the high bay such that there were little thermals that woud keep the easy b's up just a little longer. Then there were the micro light gliders in one of the e-mags that you slope soar off the ridge lift off the front of your body as you walk under and behind them.

Don't know why it coudn't be done with a gentle enough heater and a light enough model.

[John Gallagher]

A few years ago some members of my club went to the lakehearst blimp hangar. The hangar has a series of stairways that lead up to just beneath the ceiling of the hangar. Two of us had small free flight gliders. The other guy is an old hand at indoor and regularly wins national contests and his gliders were excellant examples of workmanship. I slapped together some balsa gliders that looked like they were slapped together. After that very long trip to the top, we both chucked our gliders off the side of the catwalk. My glider lost the first 100 feet quickly and then suddenly I saw the glider lean into a nice low bank circle. At first it didn't loose altitude. Then it actually started slowly gaining altitude. The craftsman's glider slowly lost altitude until it was down to the same altitude as my glider, only about 50 feet away. It continued to loose altitude while my piece of crap just barely stayed at the same altitude makeing wide circles. In the end my glider stayed up about 30 seconds longer. Beginners luck.

[11b2c]

At Northern AZ U. in Flagstaff, there is a covered athletic field with a ventilation outlet in the center of the dome. I used to fly a rubber-powered model in the column of lift in the center of the field, caused by heated air escaping through the center of the dome above. I'd like to see how long you could stay in that semipermanent thermal with a handlaunch or equivalent.

[TLyttle]

We used to fly at a facility in Vancouver that had a bank of lightsin the center, aimed at the middle of the floor. After the lights had been on for awhile, it became obvious that there was lift under the lights! Done right, near-record flights were possible...

[pkrska]

What about using a sauna oven? Plenty of heat production. Perhaps too much?

[Spekd'out]

Two things to watch for with the sauna oven, the big extension chord and those naked Finns throwing water on the rocks! Mita hitto!

[TLyttle]

Depending on how big the space is, and how cool the air temp is, any heat source would generate thermal acivity. If I was looking a a hangar or something, I would likely set up a few heat lamps and point them DOWN at a black surface that would radiate the heat back up. If the lamps are spaced right, and the surface is big enough, you could generate various intensities and sizes of thermals. I, however, take no responsibility for the power bill for running any of the stuff...

[AustinTatious]

I thought somthig that would work good is a couple of waterbed heating elements.. They are basically LARGE heating pads.... You could put two of them in the middle of a gym with protection under them to preven tburns to the floor and Have a ball.. You could get some altitude and then do whtever, when you get low, come back over the pad!

Ive wanted to do something like this for a LONG time. It would be cool if someone woudl produce a sub .5 oz glider with about a 20 inch wingspan! I suspect it could be that injection molded foam. and instead of rudder only.. howabout elevator and Wingerons! ( hard to make small ailerons)

[kepople]

Bob Wilder has that ultralight glider he was launching from a balloon at Big Spring. You can see it in the "big spring highlights" video on my site;
http://kepople.rchomepage.com

Could you not just take about 4 box fans, lay them flat on some blocks, set them on a low setting and go to town?

I had concidered using carpet blowers exhausting against folding tables layed on thier sides to create a mini slope. Just line up 3 blowers and about 6 tables and see what happens.

Kirby

[TLyttle]

Biggest difficulty with both those ideasis turbulence generated by the fans, which is why the hotspot on the floor, or heating pads would be better; they give the thermal with far less turbulence, making it easier to fly. By the time the air got 40-50' above the fans the air would be less turbulent, but I think that the lack of HEAT would even limit the effectiveness of the air column. Just my opinion, having never tried any of this...