Gliders > Slope Soaring
Retroplane 2011
rogallo:
Ah now gentlemen you forgot that I also mentioned experience. Ger made two attempts to fly the K13 while there was little wind but a good chance of lift. Now the K13 is not light but yes it is a reasonable lightweight when it comes to scale vintage gliders.
Alan what I am saying is that the K8 (your one ) is probably as lightweight(see keiths def) as vintage gliders get and I think that learning to scratch is what you need to practice ( Oh no another scolding coming here methinks!)
Alan_Perse:
Actual Ralph. Me and Ger compared the weights of our gliders and despite his been slightly bigger than mine (4m wingspan compared to my 3.75m) mine was heavier than his (thus heavier wing loading). So if Ger could not keep his K13 up I would have had no chance in keeping my K8 up. But I think you are right I do need practice scratching in light lift.
woodstock:
At the end of the day wing loading is, in my humble opinion, a bit overrated when it comes to light conditions. Sure, you don't want HEAVY, but efficiency of the airframe and, as Ralph says, experience may be more important. You will see less experienced pilots sometimes hang too much on their "up" elevators and slow the models down a bit too much, in the belief that "floating" is the way to fly in very light conditions. It does depend on the plane of course, but generally a glider likes to be trimmed for a good speed, this lets it "run" to get a good flow of air over the lifting surfaces of the wings (particularly when searching for lift). But (as Ralph also said), it can require over-sized cahoonas to do that with a big scalie you have invested years of your time building...
Alan_Perse:
I agree about having an efficient airframe. No point in having a light wing loading if you have a draggy airframe.
Fred:
Another great Retroplane!
And a good Irish representation :clap:
A quick photo with Les, Ralph, Ger, Kevin, myself and a few machines we brought to the event.
Base camp, with the Irish colours!
And more to come! :D
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