Hey Guy's,
Anyone else signing up for the Handlaunch contest in sudbury MA on July 18th?
they are holding the Rudder, Elevator, spoiler Two-meter on Saturday and the Hanlaunch sportsman and expert classes on sunday.

I just sent my e-mail to Mark Drela to sign me up for the sportsman class.
It should be a great experiance, and help me learn the ropes for next years competition schedual.

And yes I will be flying a couple of modified Boomers at the event.
So, Who's going? or are you guys afraid to get beat by a flying wing.
Yes, I am loony as they come to compete with a wing, but I bet I dont come in last.
Who's Rooting for me!

Mike Baker

I'm rooting for you, Mike...to come in just behind me. ;-)

Seriously, though, I preregistered with Mark earlier this week, so I look forward to meeting you there, if not sooner.

You'll love the experience. I learned so much at the Polecat Challenge last week. (Unfortunately, the learning occured upon reflection, after the contest ended.)

Thermals,

Marc

Thats my main goal is to learn the ropes and get used to the goings on.
Now I have the problem of choosing a new radio per discussion with wife tonight
(go ahead and get one) I am looking at the new futaba 7 channel the flash 5
or somthing else, to many to choose from but I would like it to be easy to program.
and I hope to be flying an Encore next year for contests.
for now I will be happy beatin up on you guys with the Boomer.

Mike

Why dont you and Allan wright meet me in Clifton Ppark New York next weekend its right in the middle and has some awsome airspace to fly. Dave Garwood And his crew are known to fly at the high school, I here. Then I will get Bill Briggs to show too, and we can have a time for ourselves.

If I can get my new Taboo built in time I'll be there. I'll have the Gambler there, but only as a 3rd backup plane.

Al

I'm rooting to see a flying wing kick some 1.5m butt!

On radio note - I was very happy with my Flash 5x for the price. It has a lot of little features that the big radios have, and does decently well with a DLG. I think if I had stayed with it I would have moved a switch to aid in presets and releases. For DLG, it would not be my first choice because of switch locations and such, but I'm spoiled now. I certainly didn't mind it while I had it.

I know at one point Dr. Drela was flying with an Airtronics RD-6000, and I think they can be had for a very good price. Also I've heard a lot of mention and praise of the JR 8103, but know nothing about it.

Mike,

Obviously, the killer radio is the synthesized (works on all channels) Multiplex Royal Evo 9, but on our budgets I'm looking at the Airtronics RD8000 (will work with any brand receiver), the new JR6102 (for JR and Airtronics receivers--and Bergs will work with any TX), the new Futaba 7C you mentioned (for Futaba receivers, and the Bergs, of course), or a used Futaba 8 channel (recommended by Phil Barnes) or JR8103.

The Futaba 8 (not sure the suffix) and Futaba 9C (Phil says get the Helo version for better switch locations.) have a stopwatch that can be triggered with your launch mode switch, making it a little easier to time yourself. (Not sure the 7C can do that.) For some reason, I really want that feature, but all my receivers are JRs, so I'm not sure what I'm going to buy.

Marc

PS, Mike: I'll get you those photos soon.

Thanks Marc,
Allan, you better show up for it.
even if you fly the Gambler.

Mike

Stocker, what airfoil does the boomer use?

Is it a reflexed airfoil or do you use the elevons for the reflex?

I want to build a hand launch flying wing and would appreciate any help on an airfoil choice.
Thanks, Rob

He he , unfortunately there is no "supergee" equivelent in the tailess hlg world. The AMA shgould give Mr Drella an award for his gratious gift of the AG series. That being said Mike is a great guy and has really put a lot of work into the Boomer and follow on customer service.
I also intend to design a tailess dlg, and bought a boomer because I found it hard to come up with an original design for a low aspect ratio tailess dlg that did not converge on the boomer planform and airfoil criteria. Being the generous guy that he is, Mike even walked me through the design process he took and identified the design compromises involved (without actualy giving away his airfoil plots). Eventual I felt like the only thing to do was to buy a Boomer because I did not want a sub par knockoff and there are only so many ways to do a foam low aspect ratio dlg that works. That being said there may still be room for a tailess dlg design in the form of a high aspect ratio thermal plank or mixed delta plank like the saber,bluto, bat slope wings. There is an excellent thread going on in the slope forum about plank airfoils optimisation for DS and inverted performance. The design criterias for a DLG are different but the airfoil analysis techniques are the same. . The problem with the planks is how do you balance them and still maintain a good wing loading. A plank wing design has issues in terms of cg and trim weight required creating the necessity for a fuse or delta section, which in turn pushes one towards a design with higher aspect ratios to get the desired loading. Plank wings seem to do well as thermal birds in europe, but it may require composite construction or a strong carbon/balsa built up design to get to the aspect ratios and strength required for DLG and good cl/cd criteria at the reynolds numbers typical for thermal soaring.

Anybody up for starting a group project to design a dlg plank tailess sort of like how the little nipper/ seeker evolved as a yahoo groups based project? I think both Alan and Mike have mentioned leaning towards a full size/tailed design for their next "kit" planes. Maybe they would like to also participate in the plank project and then one of them could become the "kitter" the same way Scoobie Pulcher did for the nipper/seeker. I personaly have no aspirations to kit anything and think the community design aspects would be great fun. It works for open source software engineering, why not model sailplane design? Thoughts anyone?

Mike, bring all your Boomers, and use the one with the wing loading appropriate for the conditions. Unless it's windy, you'll want a really light wingloading to compete with the composite ships. After the contest ends, there's always time to fly casualy, we can do some Boomer/Gambler+ head to head flying!

Bring some kits - Saber too if you have them by then!

Al

ThE Sabers are in, I am kitting the first 2 for ship on monday.
Then I got to calm down a bit and git with the family for some fun.
Then I will adverise it on the website and such. the first ten will go the RC Groups guys

Mike

Hey Rob, here is the meat of the situation.
I cant tell you the airfoil I use. But for $60+ S&H I can send you one to study.:-)
All kidding aside, I will help you out and yes most flying wings have a reflexed airfoil.
First thing I can tell you is do a Google search on, Flying Wing Airfoils. and start reading. Its where we all start. then move on from there. I wont tell you how to build it, but I will tell you if it wont work. OK? Now start reading.

Mike

Mike a couple of years ago I researched flying wings and built a tiny e- powered flying wing glider. I used a EH 2.0/10.0 with built up construction. It climbed good under power and thermaled good too. But I dont know If this airfoil would be good for a hand launch.
Have you seen these airfoils before ? If so, what do you think?