FAI-F1D
Free Flight Indoorist
After encountering a few issues with my Filip V that are going to require some time to work out, I decided to do the smart thing and go build something. I've seen a lot about the "Bug" over the years, but had no idea until recently that it was designed by my old flying buddy Carl Dowdy. Carl is a master craftsman at models, both FF and R/C. I've watched him clean out his entire stock of beautiful FF gliders in a single contest. Once, he required three gliders just to get in three official flights. All three went OOS. Then he showed up with a FF DLG, a "Spin Up" that he looked on with strong doubt and didn't install a DT timer. It flew perfectly from the start, and on the third or fourth test flight, wandered off into oblivion.
I've never flown an RC DLG, but have built my share of FF ones. My last one was based on Stan Buddenbohm's "Dino Mite", but with tweaks so that it could be built on the cheap. It was my first good DLG, and wandered away during trimming for the indoor nats (indoor gliders are trimmed outdoors because there are no girders to hit when you do dumb things).
Anyway, after some careful planning, I printed out the plans for the X-tail Bug tonight and started building. Here's where we are after the first building session:
It's coming out nice and light. Should be around 3 Oz or less. I don't expect to need too much nose weight since that's good 6 lb C-grain on the tail surfaces. I had doubts about the pod, but it seems pretty strong now.
Stay tuned for the next installment.
I've never flown an RC DLG, but have built my share of FF ones. My last one was based on Stan Buddenbohm's "Dino Mite", but with tweaks so that it could be built on the cheap. It was my first good DLG, and wandered away during trimming for the indoor nats (indoor gliders are trimmed outdoors because there are no girders to hit when you do dumb things).
Anyway, after some careful planning, I printed out the plans for the X-tail Bug tonight and started building. Here's where we are after the first building session:
It's coming out nice and light. Should be around 3 Oz or less. I don't expect to need too much nose weight since that's good 6 lb C-grain on the tail surfaces. I had doubts about the pod, but it seems pretty strong now.
Stay tuned for the next installment.