Gliders > Slope Soaring
Multiplex Alpina 4mtr
gerryb:
hi keith,
re ail. diff.....well worth putting in, very effective on gliders with long wingspans especially when travelling at low air speeds.
re ye olde englishe grammer/spellings.....
i'm just wondering if you've been trying a lot of that medicine yourself!!! 'flu' is what richard is suffering from, it being a shortened version of 'influenza'. 'flue' is a device, usually tubular in cross-section, used for evacuating smoke, steam etc. from internall to externall of a building, structure,engine ect.
if you get flying tomorrow, have a great time and wrap up well. we don't want you getting all 'flued' up over new year!!
Happy Days:
--- Quote from: "gerryb" ---
re ye olde englishe grammer/spellings.....
i'm just wondering if you've been trying a lot of that medicine yourself!!! 'flu' is what richard is suffering from, it being a shortened version of 'influenza'. 'flue' is a device, usually tubular in cross-section, used for evacuating smoke, steam etc. from internall to externall of a building, structure,engine ect.
--- End quote ---
:lol: :lol: Oh, I laughed when I read that Ger! Nothing like being caught out at you own game !!!! Well done. :clap: :clap:
I must concede one point to Mr. Buckley :wink:
keith
Brian:
Keith,
Yes, your troubles might only be beginning after the launch.
It's the first few landings that I'd worry about - until you have some feel for it and get the crow set up good.
In strong conditions you have to have it for Mt L lz's.
Brian
Happy Days:
I stood on the west ridge of big L today, Alpina balanced in one hand, tx in the other.
I’d set out a plan of action for myself.
Provided the model was stable and controllable I’ll just float her around the skies for ten minutes, keeping her in low rate, and get the ‘feel’ of this plane. Then bring her in for a gentle landing. That was my plan.
What do that say about, 'Best made plans?'
It took about three minutes before the desire to try a loop became overwhelming.!
Up to a good height, steep dive, gently back on the stick and hold it there. The wings flexed somewhat coming out of the loop but all was well. She exited the loop with quite a bit of speed so I thought of repeating that manoeuvre and adding a roll after the loop.
This experiment didn’t work quite so well. The loop was fine but the roll rate was very slow. In fact she didn’t complete the roll before I cancelled it after only 90 degrees, because she rolled so slowly.
I thought to myself, “This can’t be right. The Alpina is supposed to be an aerobatic model.” (I switched over to high rate control.)
I let the plane cruise around the sky a little while longer before switching in the aileron / flap mix and took her up high again. Didn’t bother with a loop this time, just put her into a dive, levelled out and pushed the stick hard over.
I was rewarded with the sight of a graceful 360 degree roll, and she still maintained a fair bit of speed having only lost a couple of meters of height.
I could feel a smile creeping across my face as I knew I’d now combine the two manoeuvres.
Up, up she went. I put her into a dive, then changed my mind. Instead of a loop first, I levelled her off. Rolled her 180 degrees. Pulled back on the stick. Completed one & half loops. Levelled off at the bottom of the half loop. Pushed the stick hard over, and heard a voice shout “Yes”. I turned and looked behind myself, saw nobody was there, and concluded it must have been me that had shouted.
And so to the landing;
My first attempt was a complete cock-up. Far too high on the approach and far too fast. Out into the lift she went to go round for another try. Round she came again onto her final approach, much lower this time but still quite fast. I put in some crow, and she ballooned upwards. I pushed forward on the stick and increased the crow. She slowed up surprisingly quickly, but just kept gaining height. Out and round she went again.
“Okay, this is it,” I said to myself, “third time lucky.”
I brought her in low, started applying crow braking, compensated for ballooning with forward pressure, suddenly she dropped out of the air, (my bowels became very loose.) I reduced the crow, maintained a little forward pressure and prayed she wouldn’t hit the deck. She didn’t, and once again she flew out into the lift.
By this time my lips had gone dry and I noticed a very unsavoury aroma, which I put down to the numerous sheep shits that were laying around the landing area. Although I could be wrong about that.
I thought to myself, “I’ve got to get this girl on the ground. May be I’m trying too hard, perhaps I should give up on landing and just fly her around for a bit, and then try later………….No, you’re procrastinating Keith,…land her now!”
This is what happened.
The turn onto the final approach was a very low, the wing tip nearly clipped the ground.
I levelled her off and applied the crow too soon. Plane lost a lot of speed and would not have made it to the landing area. I eased off the crow. As the plane got closer to the landing area I re-applied crow, pushed forward on stick, put in a little aileron to keep wings level & rudder to keep her facing the wind,….and she sat down on top of the heather. Perfect!
I enjoyed myself on Mt Lienster today, I learnt a lot, and that’s what I like.
Keith
JohnPearson:
Way to go Keith! once you get a few more flights under your belt, you will be flying rolls along the slope face in no time. I made it onto the slope today also, for an hour at a small slope 10mins from my house. i haven't flew for weeks so a little slow on the sticks to start with. I flew the extreme and another small ME 109 which I purchased from HK before Xmas.
ME 109 PSS model converted from electric.
The model was a little tail heavy, however after I added a little down trim she flew great, however this model is not for the faint hearted, she is fast and will tip stall if you let the speed drop off on the turns, It was designed for high speed pylon racing!
My local slope at Glenanne, the lift is fair with a west wind blowing.
It was nice to get out today and fly, looking forward to seeing your new 4m glider in the air keith.
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