CLG plans/hints?

[RC_AV8R_181]

Hi,
I'm in a program at school called TSA (Technical Student Association if anyone's interested). It involves lots of competitions at the regional, state, and national level, and one of the contests i'm in is the catapult launch glider. I've made a bunch of different planes from plans on the internet, and got one to work well (climb, trans. glide) but not very well or reliably. Does anyone have any good plans for these things, or hints to trimming them? the wingspan must be under 300 mm and the fuselage is the same, tail can be pretty big.

Thanks in advance,
Ben

[T. Lyttle]

... one hint: themodels that you have built already, how much NOISE did they make upon release? I had an old Wisper that I flew to an old age, and as it got older it got noisier on launch, due to the usual dings and knocks it got from use. And, incidentally, it lost performance, so it would seem that the cleaner it is, the less noise, the better it flies.

The Wisper was about the sizes your rules require, simple dihedral, basic hlg airfoil, rock-hard balsa with many coats of dope sanded in between, waxed finish. Trimming was a bit of a problem, as there was very little warpage possible; I suggest getting the trim right before doping, then finish out. When it leaves the rubber, there should be NO SOUND once the thing is 10' out.

Consistent launch is just as important as configuration; you can destroy a perfectly flyable model with one bad launch. Follow hlg launch procedures, ie, proper release angle (usually wing vertical to the ground, 45deg up fuse angle, left/left launch/glide. This has to do with spiralling up (~ 1 turn)on rudder offset, left glide.

Lots of luck!

[Bob Chiang]

Hi Ben,

Good for you building and flying gliders. Here are some internet sources of plans and information about HLGs and CLGs.

http://www.mindspring.com/~thayer5/ffpages/tips/hlgtips.html

http://home.swipnet.se/mfk_slandan/hlg/hlg.htm

http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/whipperwhiz/whipperwhiz_hopups.htm

http://www.modelresearchlabs.com/hand_launch_glider_airfoils.htm

http://website.lineone.net/~triggerfish/hand.htm

http://www.ilmailuliitto.fi/lennokki/fftf/f1a_link.htm#perinteinen

http://www.algonet.se/%7Efriflyg/index_eng.htm

Have fun and good luck.

[billystiltner]

Hey
I drew up some plans for a variation on the whipperwhiz.
http://www.geocities.com/billy8601/whipperwhiz.html
Also have redrawn Easymini will post soon and give link.
Thanks for the links
Billy

[FatJeff]

Ben,

If you're not already on the Free Flight Modeler's List (FFML), you may want to subscribe by sending an email to ffml-request@airage.com, and including the words "subscribe" in the message body. There's a really good discussion going on right now about and launched and catapult lainched gliders.

Note that the above command will default to sending you individual emails. Because the list sees a lot of activity, this tends to clutter your inbox, so you may want to opt for the digest version, where you'll get groups of posts in one email. You do this by specifying "subscribe digest" in the message body.

Good luck and enjoy!

Fat Jeff

[billystiltner]

New plans for 6" CLG
get them here.
http://www.geocities.com/billy8601/mygliders.html

[CAFplanekid]

Hi. Why not try building one from your own design? At school (im in 10th grade) i bulit a HLG in a couple days from my own plans, and with a good throw it would fly for a couple minutes (untill it got into a fight with an I-Beam and lost). Just look around at plans, and make your own with the features you like. My teacher built a plane based on a graupner HLG, and it flew up and out of sight, we lost sight of it at about 4 minutes. These things arent that hard to make

[T. Lyttle]

Out of the thousands of hlg and catapult plans out there, no one model is The Best. With your attitude, we can expect some good, innovative designs from you in the future! :D