Polaris Settings

A more active discussion can be found here.

The post below is simply a reproduction of the thread linked to above. I have placed it here in my blog for easy access and reference.
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Step 1: Shaping and reinforcing the blade

The first step is to shape the blade the blade for comfort by rounding off the square edges. I use my dremel tool with a sanding wheel to knock off the edges. I then take 100grit sandpaper to smooth down the blade further. I finish off with 220grit. There is no need to go further with sandpaper since you will be covering the naked carbon with reinforcements. Make sure to sand the entire blade and take off the “shine” so that you create a better surface for adherence.

After shaping, it is time to reinforce the blade. The main failure mechanism is delamination of the carbon fabric layers due to a shear force. On launch, if one finger releases before the other, torque is placed on the blade and the layers see a large shear force. It is therefore necessary to counter this by wrapping the blade. This method is akin to wrapping a spar in order to combat shear forces.

I use 1510-denier Kevlar tow to wrap my blades. I know others using Spiderwire with excellent results. I opt for the tow because it lays down flatter and doesn’t build up the thickness of the blade as much. I can also get a smoother finish on the blade, which is important for my comfort.

I begin by cutting off ~2’ length of tow. I tack...Continue Reading

SOLD

Selling my I2 I received just a few months ago. I just have too much happening right now, and dont see myself flying it much or even getting around to building it anytime soon.

The plane has glass tips, carbon center section and the built up tails. It should built out around 70oz! The top is dark blue on orange, although it looks a little red in the pics. The bottom is dark blue with white stripes.

I am asking $2000 shipped CONUS. I am firm on the price. I am not strapped for cash, just dont want to hold this for six months before I can get around to building it. If I dont get my asking price, I will just keep it, build it, and fly it. No big deal.
Thanks for looking,
Paul

This B3 sustained damage when it got into a fight with a tree during the JEM last year. I cut out the damaged skin and replaced it with a piece of foam. I then sanded the foam to shape and glassed over with a layer of light glass (1.5oz I believe.) I have flown it hard since then and I cant tell a difference in performance. The wing is strong. The wing also has a few dings and dents from the escapade in the jungle, but again, there is no measurable loss in performance. The plane weighs 9.8-9.75oz.

I added some teflon tubing to the carbon pushrods that run to the ailerons as a proactive measure to reduce flutter. I have NEVER been able to flutter this model and I have flown it in some heavy winds before. I changed the aileron pushrod hook-up as well from the original setup. I originally had plastic clevises but they broke after a dozen times of removing the wing.

The original blade delaminated so I replaced it with a new one, reinforced the skin with a carbon patch, and wrapped the blade with some kevlar tow and soaked it in CA so it would never delam again. Its strong now.

Other than that, it is still the same as it was when I built a while back. More info on the build can be found here.

If you have any questions, send me a PM.

Thanks
...Continue Reading

i am posting this for reference as a few people have asked how i program my EVO for DLGs. here it is:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...6&postcount=17

This is competition carbon light supra pro (#616) i bought from Rairwalk in this ad. it is exactly as he has described except the following modifications:
-pulled out the wing wiring harness and made a light-weight one following the guidelines of Bob McGowan who routinely builds supra in the mid 50oz range.
-made an autoconnector wiring harness for the wing
-replaced the tip servos with ATX 809s.
-removed the white vinyl stripes on the bottom of the wing.
-replaced the SS wing pushrods with 0.070" carbon rods.

these mods pulled out about 2.5-3oz from the AUW.

this plane is not a 10 out of 10. i would rate it an 8.5 out of 10 only because it has seen the top of a tree. i treed it this past winter not realizing it wasnt a DLG. i thought it was A LOT closer than it really was. the plane underwent no structural damage, only cosmetic. i put a chink in the LE of the right tip. i filled it with some thickened epoxy and it has been just fine since. the wing also got a few dents in it from the tree. i have tried to take pictures of them, as best i can. the vertical got a few dents as well, that i have also tried to photograph. the center panel was fine. it is carbon and VERY stout and ding-resistant. the h-stab was unscathed.

another imperfection is a small crack in the gel-coat under the wing saddle on the wing pylon. i noticed this last october at the fall fest. it could have come this way from the factory. there are also two small holes on the side of the pod...Continue Reading

Here are some pics of the Xplorer I am selling. It weighs 75.25oz. It got into a fight with the ground on the first day out and lost pretty badly. I needed to amputate the tips and put a cast on the fuse. I replaced the tips with fully functional prosthetic tips (Xplorer tips were an extra set I bought from a friend) and the fuse healed nicely. I call this the "Patchwork-quilt Xploder."

The center panel got a small skin buckle right before the spar. The stab was undamaged. The plane has been flown hard for over a year now and launched in some nasty conditions. The plane is completely structurally sound, just ugly.

It has JR DS3421s on F/E, ATX 761s on A, and JR DS368 on rudder. There is a 2s LiFe (A123) pack in the fuse.
Paul

Here is a comparison of the tailfeathers by "obi" here on RCG and the Swindell tailfeathers

Also some pictures of a new horizontal pylon by "Traian" here on RCG.

Here some pictures of the another B2 I am selling. It was built as the same time as the previous one. It has the same gear. This one has less flight time then the previous green one. It has very small dents in the wing fro handling and flying but nothing that would bother me...and I am very fastidious! Its a sold 9.9 out of 10.

This one weighs about 11.6oz, have top-drive wing servos (ATX 802's) with added subribs and blocking to eliminate any soft-slop. I have not been able to flutter this mode even in heavy wind. As for E/R there are two 0.030" SS pushrods driven by DS290 (E) and DS285 (R). There is NO slop in the linkages.

This ship is a sweet ride and a solid performer, but I have a bunch of ships so I need more room.

The battery is a 500mAh 2s LiFe. The nominal voltage is 6.6V so no need for a regulator. The wing has an autoconnector so its simple plug-n-play setup. The futaba rx stays with me.

The boom has been shortened by about 2" and the rudder was shortened in chord. The smaller rudder helps launch dramatically.

Price is $475 shipped CONUS or $425 LPU. The airframe alone is $425 before shipping. This is a steal.
...Continue Reading

here are the pics of the B2 i am...Continue Reading

So, I have been feverishly getting my DLGs together. So far I have built both the Twisters and the Sirius. The LS is on the table next but I need a little break...my fingers can't handle being glued to each other again, and again, and again.

So the first plane to be finished was the orange Twister. Wow! This plane rocks compared to my well-loved LH VI. When I threw the Twister for the first time all I could think was, "this plane feels like one piece." My LH was getting soft over time and I could really feel the difference on launch. The Twister launches much higher, flies faster, but can float ALMOST as well as the LH. I love the Twister! The first time out with it I felt like I had been flying it for years. It has no bad tendencies, and behaves really well. It climbs out nicely and ranges really well. I was amazed at how many more options opened up when I could launch higher and run faster.

The bad news: The orange Twister had a midair in its first contest and on the second round. The good news: A little but of CA and it is strong as new again. It still flies great and I can throw it as hard as I want.

The green Twister was finished second but was delayed just a bit due to a minor delam on the TE of the aileron. The first time out it was just like the orange Twister. Flew great and launched great! Absolutely NO complaints from me.

The Orange Twister did have some flutter issues on launch, but once I sealed the hinge gap on the wing, it...Continue Reading

If you dont know Merrill Brady, you may you know about the Marauder. It might be one of the strongest and best engineered woody out there. I know it can take a full-pedal launch with barely a bend of the wings. A glass Supra has more wing-bend than a well made Marauder. But what I really like about Merrill is that he fills niches that nobody would bother with...in comes his new 2.4 aerial.

Moving to 2.4GHz is great. No channel conflicts, digital data coding, etc. But there is one thing 72MHz still has over 2.4; you have a long antenna to put a streamer on to read wind shifts. If you are a powered pilot, you likely have little use for this, but if you are a dedicated soaring pilot, we all know a streamer is a must-have instrument in competition and even for sport-flying. Well, MM Glider Tech found a solution to that as well!

The mount is fashioned from PU and has a removable fiberglass aerial. The aerial, being fiberglass is the exactly what we want. Having a conductive material around the antenna is never a good idea We all know 2.4 and carbon dont mix well. And the icing on the cake? Its $10! I would much rather buy one than have to fashion my own, any day! On top of that, any mount that I would make would surely not have the bling-factor this one does. I love it Merrill! Keep it coming!

You can find his mount on his website: www.mmglidertech.com
The part number is MM-108 or MM-109. The 108 the standard version and the 109 is the stream-lined version in the pictures. It is under the "accessories" tab. If you are flying 2.4, you need one of these. They will give you the ability to have a streamer again, giving back that precious data of wind direction that we all need. Check out more on this thread
Cheers
Paul

This is the only place I dont mind bragging and showing off...so here it goes. After a very fun summer full of contests (thermal and DLG) I ended up selling pretty much everything powered that I had. I have two foamies, and micro heli to my name in the way of powered. I have fallen down the rabbit-hole and nothing is bringing me out! All my powered buddies call me a hippie now I love thermal-flying! Flying hasnt been this rewarding in a long time...maybe as far back as the first RC flight where I didnt crash

Well here is the line-up for the coming 2010 DLG season. My winter is going to be busy!

I have one LightSpeed VII from RC Builder. If you havent owned a plane made by Aradhana, you are missing out. He makes impeccably clean planes!

I ordered two Twisters from Alex over in the Netherlands. This ship won the most recent German Open, so I am sure it is contest-worthy. A word of wisdom, wait until the US dollar rebounds before getting one. The dollar/euro exchange rate almost required me to sell a kidney

I also got a Momentum Models kevlar-disser Sirius. The wing is nice and torsionally stiff and weighs right in at 140gr, naked. Not too bad. The boom is as stiff as they come. I wish everyone made booms the way MMT does. You might notice the vertical is not the standard MMT vertical. I am using one of Richard Swindel's verticals (he goes by Richard S here on RCG.) He makes some really nice tail feathers. The Sirius vertical is shaped balsa bagged with carbon...Continue Reading

Well, I have been flying my alula every time I am out at the flying field waiting for my batteries to recharge for my powered planes. It wasn't until a couple months ago that the thermals started really kicking, summer is coming! I got a How-high altimeter from Winged Shadow for Christmas from an adoring and very understanding girlfriend and have been measuring my launch heights and peak thermal altitudes since. The How-high is great for getting your launch technique tuned and also for experimenting with trim settings for launch. My average launch ranges from the high 70's to low 80's in feet. And so far my highest altitude from a thermal is 632ft and a flight time of 8:36. These were not from the same flight. My longest flight (8:36) reached only a 628ft mark

At first my record was somewhere in the 200ft region, then it went to 300ft, and rested at 400ft for a few weeks. Just lately, the thermals have been cranking and a 400ft plus flight is common. I think that the 600ft mark is going to be the limit because any higher and I really can't see the pitch of the glider.

That's it for now. Just wanted to chronicle the performance of the DLG Alula. I will try to get some pics of it high up in a thermal and post them here just in case you don't believe me Stay tuned.

Here are a couple pics of the how-high installed in the alula. The how-high is nothing bigger than a postage stamp so I merely carved out a little rectangular bit of foam a couple...Continue Reading

here's some video of some evening flights with the new DLG Alula. i still dont have an accurate idea on launch height but i think it is >60ft. i need some better resolution, still images to accurately judge.

i was flying at dusk so there was negligable thermal activity. i got many 40 second plus flights. the longest was 48sec not including launch. nothing too impressive since my first alula which used just packing tape consistently had flights in the 45sec region and i dont think it was launching this high; it also had an AUW of 3.85oz.

i got some .56oz FG the other day and will be using this on my next alula to try to keep the weight down. i used 3/4oz FG on this one. i think i will be a little more sparing on the FG'ed areas as well. once i get lighter materials and other build ideas, i will start.

for now, enjoy the video.

link to the video:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...mentid=1548045

I never really have too much to offer RCG. I usually just log on to pick all the wonderfully intelligent members' brains for info and build techniques. But this time, I actually think I have something to give back or rather share. I must first say that this is not a novel idea. Many people, I am sure, have glassed an Alula, fixed a launch peg, and done many other modifications. I know Doug Montgomery made a nice scratch-built, bagged Alula-like plane. He used his own airfoils but I think his work was inspired by the Alula planform. Additionally, without the help of many members I couldn’t have put this plane together. I have started threads, asked stupid questions, bothered people about build techniques and the like; and the end result came out to be a nice sturdy DLG Alula.

Moreover, I must thank Michael Richter at Dream-Flight for offering such an amazing plane. If you have never checked out his website it is: www.dream-flight.com. He offers two planes, both of which are some of the best light-lift planes available and some of my personal favorites!

Construction:

Wings: I didn’t want to use tape for this plane but rather use some 3/4oz FG for rigidity. In order to keep weight to a minimum I used the FG only in select locations. I used one layer at bias around the LE back to ~25% chord line and around the entire tip, and back to the TE. I then applied one more piece at bias of 3/4oz FG over the tips of both wings, top and bottom, to really stiffen the...Continue Reading

here are some videos i made of me flying my SHP and R3d-mini. sorry the resolution isnt great and the limited footage i had to work with. i will try to get more filming done but it is tougher than you think to find a decent cameraman or camerawoman in my case. got the girlfriend out to the flying field to film for me. what a gal!

editted the videos myself on iMovie. gotta love the mac!

SHP video
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...mentid=1536849

R3D-mini video
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...mentid=1536848

here is the link to the thread where they are a posted
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=760908