Beginners DLG

[Montiey]

I have seen a couple of discuss gliders on some web stores, but what do you recommend as a simple (and preferably small) glider? Im considering trying to scratch-build one.

 

[Stradawhovious]

I'm in the same boat as you. I have zero experience but was considering this as a first DLG.
http://www.mountainmodels.com/product_info.php?products_id=205

I know it doesn't help much, but maybe it will generate some comments.

 

[Craftydan]

Have a buddy who has built and flies:

http://www.mountainmodels.com/product_info.php?products_id=212

He speaks pretty highly of it . . . one more model on my list

 

[Krtismo]

Are the balsa based DLG's a lot more fragile than the all composite DLG's?

 

[crash bandicoot]

My Great Planes Fling DLG is pretty tough. It's taken a stall from 10 ft. The bals is reinforced by CF in the spar so it's pretty tough stuff. The tail feather seems to be slightly tough, but more lucky. But as they have said in the podcast before. It's hard to crash and ruin a tail. It's not like a Porsche 911 and its going to go tail first in a crash.

If you don't like cars skip that last sentence.

I also took a shot at building my own out of some foam, posterboard (wing skins), and some carbon fiber (fuselage rod and wing spar)
It did ok. I built way heavy, and it would only get 20 feet in the air, but it was fun for about 3 days before I broke it in half.

 

[ShaunMartin]

I've had my eye on this as an affordable ($120) first DLG: Dream Flight Libelle

http://dream-flight.com/products/libelle-dlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOWgyQteU8g

 

[Mid7night]

I've had great fun with my scratchbuilt micro-DLG, and I even made it completely out of DTFB!

Details of the latest build in this post: http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?8737-Micro-Scratchbuilds&p=100648&viewfull=1#post100648

And more details with dimensions here in this RCGroups post: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2126896&page=4

 

[Grendel]

If you're considering buying instead of scratch building, i recommend Libelle. I tried HK miniDLG and it was a disaster (in a way). Libelle is a pure joy.

 

[Montiey]

If you're considering buying instead of scratch building, i recommend Libelle. I tried HK miniDLG and it was a disaster (in a way). Libelle is a pure joy.

What happened?
I was looking at the HKDLG for a few minutes but then was distracted by an add for a 200cc Pitts S2B...

 

[meehan]

If you're considering buying instead of scratch building, i recommend Libelle. I tried HK miniDLG and it was a disaster (in a way). Libelle is a pure joy.

Curious what happened with the miniDLG? I had the HK miniDLG and probably got close to 1000 launches out of it until the wing finally ripped off the boom during launch. After that I got a Versus DLG, got disoriented and lawn darted from around 2 meters up and the boom broke off the pod, still working on that repair.