Beginer Thermal Plane???

[brud]

Hi.

Im looking at getting into thermaling and waas looking for some help on picking a good 2- 3m glider . I come from slope soring background so can fly at an intermediate leval.

I am looking for a plane that has Alerions. flaps rudder and evavator.
Should i swap the flaps fro spoilers??

Also im not sure if i should get a vtail or x - tail

all you input and expertese is welcome

brad

[thelocust]

If you've never flown a full-house ship, I'd recommend the Spirit Elite ARF from Great Planes (http://www.towerhobbies.com/products/greatplanes/gpma1047.html). For $120 you can't beat it. With some hop-ups you can easily get this plane down under 40 oz, and the wing is nice and stiff and the fuselage is good as well. I've been flying mine for 2 years and I've learned quite a bit about full-house flying with it!

Some hop-ups for this kit are here: http://rcgroups.com/links/index.php?sid=137034917&t=article&cat=251&id=4102

[Peytr]

If you want to start thermal flying and already can fly a glider, why not start the simple way and get yourself a 2 m RE. You want to start to learn thermal flying and you want max attention to plane behaviour in thermals etc. A full house glider is nice, of course, but if you have no thermal flying experience you won't need the speed to outrun sink etc. because you won't be able to determine this too well when starting. Futhermore a 3 m, like the elite, will give a lot of flying time without thermal infuence, a 2m simple plane will force you into using all upwind you can get which results in a steeper learning curve, I think.
A 2 m RE plane will learn you all about thermal flying and you can switch to a 3 meter+, full house (perhaps molded) later on.

[thelocust]

Another good plane (also from GReat Planes) is the Bird of Time ARF kit. It is $150 or so, is a three-meter plane, and is rudder-elevator-spoiler (RES) only. It really is the best bang-for-buck ARF plane I've ever seen. The president of my club placed 3rd at the NATs RES last year with a BoT ARF -- so, despite the age of it's design, it is a great plane.

(BTW - the Spirit Elite is a 2 meter)

[fhhuber506771]

hard to beat a Gentle Lady for 2 meter RE only lazy thermaling. (compares well with the Spirit... but the Spirit is a little faster)

There are dozens of 2 channel 2 meter models in kit form... Sig Rizer... I forgot who makes the "Wanderer"

You will find all of the 2 meter rudder-elevator "thermal-catcher" models are very similar to each other in planform... construction varies a lot.

[fprintf]

Saw a newbie come out to the field with a Gentle Lady this weekend. Man, there is a reason these planes were (are) so popular - easy flying, nice and light and so much slower to fly than a Spirit. A Gentle Lady would be my recommendation, and if you like building from a kit they are only $50 or so.

What a sweet plane. I want one.

[John Gallagher]

A compromise between RE and full house would be the JKThermic from Arthobby.
http://www.arthobby.com/gliders.html
There's a large construction thread here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=315316

If you do consider the BOT ARF, be aware that there have been wing strength problems. You have to be very careful launching this glider.

[Sparky Paul]

The GL ARF isn't all that expensive.. adding the covering etc to build from the kit, it's about the same.
And everyone has to have a GL.

[fprintf]

The GL ARF isn't all that expensive.. adding the covering etc to build from the kit, it's about the same.
And everyone has to have a GL.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXELP0&P=7

$90 plus shipping is not too bad. It is right in the price point with the Spirit ARF ($95) as well - no wonder folks have a tough time choosing!

[Sparky Paul]

The Spirit and Spirit Elite are better performers in wind, but the ARFs weights I've seen are way out of bed with what mine weigh, from the kits.

[WGH]

I bought a Spirit Elite ARF last year and flew it one weekend, now it sets on a shelf in the garage gutted of all radio equipment, it flew ok but its just to heavy. I've flown the regular Spirit ARF and while they are a little on the hefty side as well they really amaze me at how well they work light lift and the dead air flight times aren't bad either. I've built 3 Sig Risers and have enjoyed all 3, first 2 were built according to the plans, the 3rd was modified, I narrowed the fuse 1/2 an inch and chopped it 1/2 an inch and went with a V-Tail its my favorite floater on light lift days.

My favorite all around glider is my Art Hobby JK Thermic 2.5 meter, its very light and quite fast it works light lift like a hand launched glider it also handles wind very well. I added flaps to mine which is a bit of a pain but does add to the flying fun.

[fly1milehi]

Brad
I would second the Art Hobby Thermic with a v-tail ..V-tail is working better for me because of my landing area having taller weeds and grass.. if it was the cross tail I would have torn the tail off of it by now. If you can fly slope you will not have any issues "flying" the thermic. Learing to find lift will be the challenge.

You didnt say if you wanted to build it or ARF, so if building is more you choice take a look at the majestic from Laserartco.com, the model from isthmusmodels.com, and skybench.com

greg

[fhhuber506771]

The ARF versions of the Spirit and Gentle Lady are heavier due to the glues used int he ARF factory. Hevy hot-melt type glues that set up in seconds... but its not like the glue gun stuff.. these glues penetrate the wood so it is stronger than the glue gun stuff... but just as heavy if not heavier.

The Gentle Lady or Spirit built with care using yellow glue can be very light. Then using the lighter servos we have now (instead of the Futaba S-48's I used on all my Gentle Lady's) you can devote all the ballast to battery pack. (and I hollowed the nose blocks to shove the batteries further forward... ended up with very thin walled balsa fiberglass coated noses.) If you want to get REALLY intense about weight saving... you can carve all kinds of "lightening holes" in ribs and the fuselage. Econocoat cover the upper surface of the wings, all of the tailplanes and the fuselage. (the lower surface of the wing needs the strength of Monokote) The reduced weight covering at the tail REALLY reduces the need for nose weight. Then... there's lighter pushrod systems than the balsa and wire rods... (but, you end up with no penetration in any wind if you go too far lightening them up...)

[John Gallagher]

My GL weighed under 24 ounces. I didn't cover the fuse and used lightweight covering on the tail to reduce the need for ballast. Used HS-80 servos and a hitec 555 receiver with a then standard 600 mah NICD.

http://rcphotos.freeservers.com/gentlady.html

[fprintf]

Hi john,
When you say you didn't cover the fuse, did you do anything to the wood to treat it from absorbing moisture? I am thinking of leaving my new plane bare but am concerned that the balsa wood needs some kind of covering both for durability and to avoid absorbing early morning dew from the grass.

[WGH]

I like a nice smooth shiny covered fuselage, it adds strength, it protects the wood and the 4 narrow strips of covering material it takes to cover it weight very little, if you go with bare wood you still need to seal the wood with a sealer so your weight savings isn't that much.

By the way thats one nice looking G-Lady. :)

[aeajr]

Hi.

Im looking at getting into thermaling and waas looking for some help on picking a good 2- 3m glider . I come from slope soring background so can fly at an intermediate leval.

I am looking for a plane that has Alerions. flaps rudder and evavator.
Should i swap the flaps fro spoilers??

Also im not sure if i should get a vtail or x - tail

all you input and expertese is welcome

brad

A few questions if I may.

Why a full house? Are you accostumed to this for slope?

What do you fly on the slope today?

Will you hi-start or winch launch the plane?

Do you have some thermal flying friends to help you learn to look for thermals?

X tail ( conventional I presume ) or V tail not really critical. Both work well.

What is your budget?

What radio will you use to fly it?

[Sparky Paul]

Don't have dew out here in the desert, but I've tried paint only, and covering,.. I prefer covering.
MonoKote is very shiny, much more so than a few sprays of paint.

[WGH]

I think it really comes down to personal preference on gliders like the G-Lady, Sig Riser and so on. After all at their performance level a couple of ounce doesn't seem to make that much difference, in fact my first Riser used the big old s48 futaba servos and big RX and pack, it flew just as good as my second Riser with Hitec HS-81's and 555 RX.

To get back on topic, the Art Hobby Sierra 2.5 meter might be what Brad is looking for, its listed as a sloper but they thermal great too.

[aeajr]

I started my glider flying with a Spirit Select, RTF package. Shortly after I got the basics down I opened up the spoilers in the wings to help with spot landings.

Really like the plane and would recommend it to anyone.

If you get the ARF or the kit, use mini servos and push them up front to reduce the amount of balance weight needed. I reduced weight by about 3 ounces that way.

[John Gallagher]

Hi john,
When you say you didn't cover the fuse, did you do anything to the wood to treat it from absorbing moisture? I am thinking of leaving my new plane bare but am concerned that the balsa wood needs some kind of covering both for durability and to avoid absorbing early morning dew from the grass.

Actually I did something I don't recommend. The fuse was treated with CA. Put a few drops of CA on, then spread it with wax paper - repeat 'till covered. Don't do this. This much CA vapor is dangerous. I'd use Minwax polycrylic to seal the wood. I really like the look of the wood.

[WGH]

I've used thin CA to glass fuslages on WWII scale fighters it works good but you have to do it outside with a 30 mph wind blowing :) if you don't you'll look like this when your done :eek:

[John Gallagher]

I've used thin CA to glass fuslages on WWII scale fighters it works good but you have to do it outside with a 30 mph wind blowing :) if you don't you'll look like this when your done :eek:

Actually I looked like that before I used the CA.