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View Full Version : New Guy to Thermaling


ol boy
Mar 09, 2005, 02:15 PM
I read the stickys that are posted for this thread. Just woundering where in central Tx do people fly? Is there a speical field or will any RC flying field do? I'm currently flying out at this field on the back side of Still House Lake near Killeen, Tx.

I had my ABC out there 3 weekends ago and got a 35 minute flight out of it. I got the plane up to about 200 feet and pulled it back to half throtle and just ran some circles and the thing just kept getting smaller and smaller. My face hurt from smilling so much because the gas guys kept looking at me looking up into the blank blue sky. Earlier in the day one of the guys mention that a electric wouldn't be a good beginner because of it's limited flight times. I have no idea when the battery volts fell down low enough to kick the motor off, but normaly I only get about 12 minutes of flying at tree top level at half throtle. After that great flight I had an idea for the ABC. The wife and I went down to Discount Hobbies in Georgetown to see what kind of stuff that the had. 60 bucks later I picked up two of the ABC wings and a bunch of other stuff with the idea of cutting a wing tip off of both wings and connecting them together. So now I have a 60 inch wingspan ABC. My test flights in the field behind the Taco Bell didn't work out very well. With the larger wing I need more control surface out of the V tail in back. I got it stuck in a tree :( Once I got that figured out it flew much better. Now the forward air speed is low enough that the prop will stop spinning when I have the slider on the Tx all the way down. With the smaller wing it had to fly faster which was enough to cause the propto free wheel and cause a large amount of drag which caused the end of my flght 3 weeks ago. I was going to be happy with crusing around until the Tx started beeping at me for low battery power before bringing the plane down. Oh well.... I realy like the idea of long duration flying. Any susgestions would be great thanks.

DFW_HLG_TG
Mar 09, 2005, 09:35 PM
Sounds like you hooked a nice thermal and the bug bit you. Fishing for thermals is fun. With a cheap plane you can fly hours. One of my longest was over 3 hours with a Gentle Lady. There are a few ARF gliders out there that fly nice. Just stay out of wind over 10mph.

I am a member of the SLNT. Most of our members are in DFW. We have two contests a month and some drive a great distance to fly. There is also a club in Austin and one in Houston. Vist our site at www.SLNT.org

wingsnapper
Mar 10, 2005, 02:25 PM
New to thermal.. I would suggest putting a norvel .061 pod on a spirit or better yet a skybench 2M Little Bird. The pod will give you a good launch plus the added ability to search for lift on the way up. I did this when I began and it helped me tremendously. Not only does this give you more time to find some lift it also gives you the ability to stike off in any direction on the way up. The overall performance of the plane will suffer though from the added drag.
Still there is nothing like seeing people who know what they are doing fly. Since being a good glow pilot doesn't amount to much when you are trying to learn thermal, I'd suggest a weekend trip to a SLNT competition. Good luck learning. JS

aeajr
Mar 18, 2005, 09:57 PM
I had my ABC out there 3 weekends ago and got a 35 minute flight out of it. I got the plane up to about 200 feet and pulled it back to half throtle and just ran some circles and the thing just kept getting smaller and smaller. My face hurt from smilling so much because the gas guys kept looking at me looking up into the blank blue sky. Earlier in the day one of the guys mention that a electric wouldn't be a good beginner because of it's limited flight times. .

There are a lot of people out there that have very wrong/old ideas about electics. I have the original Aerobird as well as the AB Challenger. Love them! I thermal mine often AND I have taken them both Slope Soaring. The challenger does very well on the slope.

BTW, I also fly 2M, 3M and larger sailplanes as well as slope gliders and discus launched gliders.

All started with an Aerobird! :D

Welcome to flying! :p

equest
Mar 19, 2005, 12:26 PM
:) Ol Boy

You are more than welcome to come fly with us. This field is soley dedicated to Silent flight and Electrics. The field is just a hop and skip away from George Town, actual location is in Pflugerville. The club site has directions on how to get there. Follow this link: http://www.austinsilentflyers.org/template/

Equest

ol boy
Mar 20, 2005, 11:45 AM
Thanks.. I'll have to check it out once I get back to Tx. I'm out in Tucson Az right now on 4 weeks of leave. I tossed up my modified ABC yesterday and got a small thermal for a short time. It's not warming up enough here yet to get realy good up drafts. Maybe in a few more weeks..