Gentle Lady Glider

[kdobson83]

A friend of mine was given a Gentle Lady glider and some SUPER old RC gear to get into the hobby. The guy who gave him this stuff had good intentions but this stuff was not aimed at beginners if you ask me. The plane is balsa and appears to be mono coat. It's completely built and set up for high starts. My friend told me the guy was teaching him how to launch it with a big rubber band (high start?). Needless to say my friend and his grandson decided it was too much for them and passed on the gear to me.
Now, I'm not beginner by any means, I have loads of FT planes and a few store bought, but I've never dabbled in balsa and I sure as heck haven't had any experience with 72mhz (I think, old Crystal style transmitter) Here's a picture of the transmitter and receiver.

Now, i have zero intentions on using the transmitter and receiver. That being said, does anyone know what this is worth? Anything? I know its ancient but some people like buying and using the old retro stuff. It appears to work just fine, transmitter has some sort of internal battery that works, on the charger as we speak, the transmitter is really heavy, almost all metal, the antenna is in good shape (no crinks) and the receiver is in good shape as well. Would any of you all be interested before I throw it up on ebay? The glider also had a 4.8v 600mah battery shoved into the nose that i will be including with the transmitter/receiver if anyone wants it. Here's a pic of the battery.

The servos installed appear to be pretty old as well. I tried to plug them into one of my spare receivers on my Jumper radio but they wouldnt power on. I assume the wiring in modern servos is different than these older ones. The plugs are a bit larger. Receivers today power in the middle with ground and signal on the ends. Does anyone know anything about these older servos? Would i be able to cut off the old connector and solder on a modern one to fit my new style receiver? Or would it be better to switch out these servos with modern ones? These servos appear to be pretty beefy, like double the size of a traditional 9gram. Heres a pic of the servos.

I don't really want to take these out and would like to save the time and headache of replacing them so hopefully a connector swap is doable.

My plan is to convert this Gentle Lady over to a powered glider. Maybe FT Radial C pack motor or equivalent swinging a 10-12" folding prop. I really would like to hide the motor in the fuselage and have a spinner on the front, make it as clean as possible. If anyone has experience with this please let me know so i can pick your brain in the future. My ultimate goal is to have this glider converted to modern electronics, motor, and modern TX so I can give it back to my friend and his grandson, show them how to fly it and get them going in the hobby, finish what his friend started. Ill make another post about the glider upgrade once figure out how to go about it so you guys can see the conversion in action. lol
Thanks for the help guys!!!

 

[quorneng]

I you are not going to use the 72 mHz gear I would definitely replace the servos as well. Not withstanding any plug connection issues old servos can give trouble too.
Modern servos are much lighter for the same power and will of course fit the new 2.4 receiver.

 

[sprzout]

I have that exact plane, a Gentle Lady, that i have re-covered the tail after it was given to me. It has some Hi-Tec servos in it that are just as large as those Airtronics; it flies great, but you need to be as gentle as possible when bringing it in for a landing so you don't shatter it into splinters.

Test the servos. Hook them up to a servo tester and see if they go through full range of motion, and how responsive they are. If they move and there's no short, KEEP THEM IN. Even if they ARE heavier, you still want to use them, for several reasons:

1) Those bigger servos are needed for the better response with the winds you will experience gliding. You will need to throw them to full stops sometimes to get them to dive or climb, or turn.

2) Gliders, contrary to popular belief, can need ballast to help keep the nose down when getting lift. True gliders don't have thrust to pull the plane through the air, and can need ballast to fight the lift, especially if you are slope/ridge soaring. Those servos will give you some of that ballast.

3) The bigger servos will be needed to push the longer pushrods. It's actually one of the problems I've found with the Simple Soarer - the 9g plastic Emax servos just don't quite cut it with the power to push the rudder and elevator over the length of the fuselage. I mean, they'll move the surfaces, but the last bit, it doesn't quite have the oomph. I've actually stripped a servo out, and when I went to a metal gear servo, it was better. Still not great, but better than the plastic gear servo for the accuracy.

If you decide to go with replacing the servos, do not just swap them out for cheap, 9g servos. You'll regret it. Get something appropriate, like a Hitec HS-81 servo. They're drop-in replacements for the Airtronics that are currently in there now, and have the standard servo connectors like what you're used to.

 

[kdobson83]

I have that exact plane, a Gentle Lady, that i have re-covered the tail after it was given to me. It has some Hi-Tec servos in it that are just as large as those Airtronics; it flies great, but you need to be as gentle as possible when bringing it in for a landing so you don't shatter it into splinters.

Test the servos. Hook them up to a servo tester and see if they go through full range of motion, and how responsive they are. If they move and there's no short, KEEP THEM IN. Even if they ARE heavier, you still want to use them, for several reasons:

1) Those bigger servos are needed for the better response with the winds you will experience gliding. You will need to throw them to full stops sometimes to get them to dive or climb, or turn.

2) Gliders, contrary to popular belief, can need ballast to help keep the nose down when getting lift. True gliders don't have thrust to pull the plane through the air, and can need ballast to fight the lift, especially if you are slope/ridge soaring. Those servos will give you some of that ballast.

3) The bigger servos will be needed to push the longer pushrods. It's actually one of the problems I've found with the Simple Soarer - the 9g plastic Emax servos just don't quite cut it with the power to push the rudder and elevator over the length of the fuselage. I mean, they'll move the surfaces, but the last bit, it doesn't quite have the oomph. I've actually stripped a servo out, and when I went to a metal gear servo, it was better. Still not great, but better than the plastic gear servo for the accuracy.

If you decide to go with replacing the servos, do not just swap them out for cheap, 9g servos. You'll regret it. Get something appropriate, like a Hitec HS-81 servo. They're drop-in replacements for the Airtronics that are currently in there now, and have the standard servo connectors like what you're used to.

My only real issue with these servos is they appear to be wired a little differently and the plugs are a tad bigger than today's standard. I can plug one in but can't plug two next to each other on the receiver because they are too fat. I tried 1 at a time they didn't work. I'm assuming the wiring isn't the same either. Could I just cut and solder on new style plugs and if so, which wire is what? They are listed as 1 2 3 instead of s + -.

 

[danskis]

disclaimer - I'm not an expert. I was given a gentle lady by the local glider group provided I join the group and fly with them. I put a small 2812 motor on it. It is easy to fly and tons of fun. You're a lucky guy. There are quite a few guys in the group that use 72mhz often. I'd give the gear a try. Check the connections (solder if needed) and do a range test. If it looks good use it. Its probably not worth much, if anything, as there is plenty of the old gear lying around. If you want pics let me know.

 

[FL_Engineer]

You have good friends; the last time I flew with a friend I went home with fewer planes, not more.

 

[varg]

Information about servo pinouts: http://fatlion.com/sailplanes/servos.html
Agreed about not replacing them with 9g servos, these old guys have twice the torque.

As for the 72mHz gear; unfortunately probably not worth much as the transmitter isn't rare or high end. There are plenty of old timers with piles of unused 72mHz gear in this hobby at swap meets, there's a lot more supply than demand. Personally I like the aesthetic of it and I'd clean it up and put it on a shelf as decoration. The Gentle Lady is a good beginner plane by my experience, as long as buddy boxing is involved to avoid splintering balsa, it's a forgiving and slow plane.

Be sure to weigh it as it was when you got it when deciding on what motor/esc combo to put in it so as to not go overkill. If it's in the recommended flying weight range: 623-709g, keep it there. Extra weight will make it less of a slow floaty glider, and you can always stick some lead weights in there if you need more weight but it's harder to lighten it if the power combo is too heavy. A shallow pitch prop in the size range you're talking about is perfect, but a C pack might actually be on the large size since it doesn't need a 1.5:1 thrust to weight ratio and you might be able to save a little weight by going with something lighter with a lower KV to swing that shallow pitch 10-12" folder.

 

[Bricks]

This Gentile Lady is pretty advanced the first one I ever flew had rubber band powered escapements and push button transmitter, yours has proportional controls. If it was me I would change it over to a modern radio system. The servos can be used may have to search for the wires control what as I cannot remember which was + - S, remember pluging in the servos wrong can friye them as + is not in the center. You most certainly can solder on or make crimp on connections to fit modern receivers. These old servos were made to run on a less then 5 volts I have fried a few going to a 2 cell LIFE battery, some can handle it some cannot.

Fun project.

 

[Aireal Anarchist]

Gentle lady was my first rc plane I mounted a baby bee motor on it and would fly it at the dry lake bed ....send it up with the bee and catch thermals....easy plane to fly ................you will have fun

 

[kdobson83]

Information about servo pinouts: http://fatlion.com/sailplanes/servos.html
Agreed about not replacing them with 9g servos, these old guys have twice the torque.

As for the 72mHz gear; unfortunately probably not worth much as the transmitter isn't rare or high end. There are plenty of old timers with piles of unused 72mHz gear in this hobby at swap meets, there's a lot more supply than demand. Personally I like the aesthetic of it and I'd clean it up and put it on a shelf as decoration. The Gentle Lady is a good beginner plane by my experience, as long as buddy boxing is involved to avoid splintering balsa, it's a forgiving and slow plane.

Be sure to weigh it as it was when you got it when deciding on what motor/esc combo to put in it so as to not go overkill. If it's in the recommended flying weight range: 623-709g, keep it there. Extra weight will make it less of a slow floaty glider, and you can always stick some lead weights in there if you need more weight but it's harder to lighten it if the power combo is too heavy. A shallow pitch prop in the size range you're talking about is perfect, but a C pack might actually be on the large size since it doesn't need a 1.5:1 thrust to weight ratio and you might be able to save a little weight by going with something lighter with a lower KV to swing that shallow pitch 10-12" folder.

This info for the servos was exactly what i was looking for. I was able to de-pin the old servo plugs and plug directly into the new style plug, zero soldering. Both servos seem to work just fine, although they seem pretty slow. Guess i'm just use to the new style servos. Thanks for the information!!

I chopped off the nose, the guy who made it had glued in about 60 grams of lead fishing weights in the nose. weighing the motor, prop, battery and ESC im looking at just over 230 grams, so an extra 170 grams. Hopefully it'll balance without much tail weight. I may or may not be putting in the old school FT C-pack motor in it... I got a 10x8 folding prop for it as well. And yes, this combo will be a bit over powered, maybe too much prop for that motor but I don't plan on flying it hard. Plan on running a 1300 3s as well. I picked this motor as i can install it with the motor in the fuselage with only the motor shaft that everyone complains about poking holes in their batteries sticking out the front. should look real clean with the folding prop and metal nose cone. I'm using Tinkercad.com to design a motor mount now and should have it ready for flight sometime this weekend if my wife/kids give me enough free time. lol

Anyway, thanks for all the advice!!! Will post pictures as soon as i'm done.

 

[danskis]

Just an FYI - I'm flying a powered gentle lady with a non branded motor about a 2812 with a 700mah 3S battery and a 9 inch prop and no extra nose weight. I did bolt the motor to the front of the firewall so if yours goes behind it you may need the 1300 battery. Goes almost straight up and the battery lasts for 5 or 6 power runs.

It did hurt sawing off the beautiful hand sanded nose cone that came with it.

 

[kdobson83]

Here's some quick photos of the Gentle Lady with the electric conversion. Looks pretty good. Seems to balance out nicely. Haven't tested yet as the kids/wife/weather haven't allowed me to go...
Onto the next improvement. Attaching the wing with 3-4 rubber bands seems to work better than expected. But is kind of a pain. Does anyone here have any ideas how to not use rubber bands? Maybe some sort of ratchet straps or push pin system? I have a 3D printer so options are unlimited.

 

[SlingShot]

When you ground-loop it, you might be liking those rubber bands