Goldberg Gentle Lady Build

[speedbirdted]

This is something I shoulda done ages ago. I've had this lying around for a long, long time. Bought it at a swap meet probably like 2 years ago and it's been sitting in my cabinet of kits I'll build one day collecting dust and broken promises to build it ever since. I miss flying gliders though, and was about to go buy a box of dtfb until I remembered I have it...

It's like 10% done. Not sure why the guy built the v/h stabs and rudder first, I always build the wing first since having something nice to look at usually helps me keep motivated to finishing it. As for the kit itself material wise it's probably 95% complete, the bag of hardware that is supposed to come with it was nowhere to be found so I had to supply all that myself, and the birch pushrods have gone AWOL, another thing easily compensated for. However a lot of the diecut parts that have been removed were not done so in a clean manner and as a result a lot of the plywood parts like the dihedral braces and fuselage formers have gigantic gouges taken out of them, and will probably have to be scratchbuilt. The plan and build manual were also missing but I found both of them online so that's not a problem. The construction that was already done was quite messy - the glue joints are very sloppy and excessive and it seems that epoxy was used instead of CA which I'm gonna avoid as much as I can. Epoxy is heavy and gliders don't like to be heavy.

A list for me of things I need to do/buy, will get crossed off as I do/buy said things -

• Receiver, I need to keep a stock of these but I don't for some dumb reason
• Servos, since the plane is a trillion years old it uses standard servos but I think 9 grams will cut it. I have a ton of 9 grams already but not sure how many I have free? A lot are tied up already
• Reciever battery, either 2s life or 2s lipo with SBEC
• ^ Figure out where to put all this crap in the airplane
• Probably will need more CA because I'm running low
• Go to Mr. Copy and get the plans and manual
• Buy more parchment paper to prevent permanently attaching the plan to the airplane
• Buy monokote. I already have enough to cover the whole plane but I want the transparent stuff, so I can have the bones on display at all times However, I'm not sure about the color scheme. I'm thinking silver for the fuselage and all opaque parts while the wings and tail will either be transparent yellow or blue. Maybe blue with purple wingtips. Three colors is the max I want to do, since I don't want to spend a crapload of money on rolls of covering I'm only going to use 2 feet of. Feel free to give your own suggestions for color schemes, all opinion is welcome.

Proposed modifications to the plan:

• Detachable empennage. My car is small. I want this thing to be as disassembleable as possible. not needed
• Revised servo tray to fit 9 grams - I have a few ideas on how to do this. Since there's no engine, vibration dampening is less important so it shouldn't be too hard.
• Possible bolted wing mounting, since I have an irrational hatred for rubber bands not needed

Yo we done 🔥🔥🔥

Stay tuned...

 

[speedbirdted]

 

[Turbojoe]

Subscribed! I built a Gentle Lady in the 80's for a friend. I flew it once or twice but I was more into glow power at the time. Now I'd like to find a Sophisticated Lady kit for cheap. I love Tee tails.

Joe

 

[speedbirdted]

Subscribed! I built a Gentle Lady in the 80's for a friend. I flew it once or twice but I was more into glow power at the time. Now I'd like to find a Sophisticated Lady kit for cheap. I love Tee tails.

Joe

I was thinking about putting an 049 in the nose so I don't have to rely on a friend whenever I want to fly the thing but to save myself from dealing with fuelproofing it to any measure I'm going to leave it off.

 

[Turbojoe]

The guy I built the Gentle Lady for later gave me a Wanderer 99 because it was a pain to haul around in his tiny Mazda. I still wasn't into gliders so I hung an old glow .15 in the nose and added tricycle gear. It did amazing touch and goes! RX battery died while flying at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Last I saw it was headed out to sea.

He loved that Gentle lady and flew it for years even after getting other birds it was always his favorite. I love building Goldberg kits so I was happy to do it for free for him.

Joe

 

[The Hangar]

Hmmm....

 

[The Hangar]

Hmmm.... View attachment 156527

She’s been collecting dust for a while. A lot of the parts are missing (I think) but I have a bit of balsa that the guy gave me along with this kit. Maybe I should build it now...

 

[speedbirdted]

Hmmm.... View attachment 156527

DO IT

IMMEDIATELY

THAT IS A THREAT

In other news, it turns out Mr. Copy was open late today:

I also got all the wing ribs cut out and sanded to my liking, which was neither fun nor quick since the quality of the die-cutting on this kit is quite awful, a problem that it seems like every 1980s-era kit I've ever had experience with shares...

 

[The Hangar]

I’ve never ever done a balsa build before, so I’ll need a lot of guidance. But I’m in!

 

[TooJung2Die]

Man, I want a Carl Goldberg Gentle Lady. So much so I might build one from plans and cut it by hand. Don't be stingy with the photos. I wanna watch.

Hmmm....

Want to sell it?!?

 

[speedbirdted]

I’ve never ever done a balsa build before, so I’ll need a lot of guidance. But I’m in!

Good for you, this is a pretty easy kit to figure out. I would still do as much looking around as you can in terms of balsa workmanship, and if your flying club (if you are a member of one) is filled with old guys (which it should be) they will probably be more than happy to relay knowledge onto you since there was no foamboard in their day. That's how I learned, alongside just practicing, though it can get pricey if you don't learn fast because balsa is not exactly cheap. There's also a lot of good books out there on the subject, my personal favorite being David Boddington's Building and Flying Model Aircraft, because it was written in the 1970s and touches on how the hobby was back then, when everything was made of balsa and powered by fuel (which is still my favorite way to do it) - and if you can build airplanes that work with the crappy electronics that were around in those days, they'll certainly work with the stuff we have now.

 

[speedbirdted]

Don't be stingy with the photos. I wanna watch.

Perhaps I should be, given that I have the magical combination of a terrible camera and terrible garage lighting

 

[The Hangar]

Want to sell it?!?

You should have asked me a week earlier...

 

[Jackson T]

She’s been collecting dust for a while. A lot of the parts are missing (I think) but I have a bit of balsa that the guy gave me along with this kit. Maybe I should build it now...

Do it!

 

[TooJung2Die]

If you can build airplanes that work with the crappy electronics that were around in those days, they'll certainly work with the stuff we have now.

Crappy and expensive electronics. I built and flew control line and free flight back then because I couldn't afford the radio gear. I got back into the hobby after a 40 year hiatus because of Flite Test. Foam board airplanes are cheap and the radio gear is affordable. After learning to fly RC on foamies for a few years I'm back to building with balsa wood. Foam is fun but balsa flies better.

You should have asked me a week earlier...

Darn! Missed another one...

 

[speedbirdted]

Crappy and expensive electronics. I built and flew control line and free flight back then because I couldn't afford the radio gear.

My grandpa did exactly that back in the 50s through to the 1970s when my dad was born and he had to stop, simply because radio gear was astronomically expensive to the average hobbyist. Even a basic single channel escapement system was in at least the hundred dollar range, a decent reeds system was going to be five times that and a fully proportional 4 channel system like the original ye olde Kraft radios ran you something like $5,000 in today's money (but there was not really anything else to buy)

 

[The Hangar]

Once I’ve finished the foam board builds I’m working on, I’m gonna take a break from foam (it’s great but I got foam fever...) so I’ll try my hand at balsa. Of course, I’ll start with this!

 

[dutchmonkey]

I have a gentle lady i built some 16 years ago and about 5 years ago i ripped out the old servos and cut the nose off. Now it has a brushless outrunner with folding prop, 3s 1000mah pack, 20 amp esc and 2 9gr servos. With this combo it weights 18oz so its a feather weight. If you are trying to use 9g servos you will need to keep it light but it is possible. So far my longest flight was 1:43:27 and i still had 75% of my battery left.

 

[The Hangar]

I have a gentle lady i built some 16 years ago and about 5 years ago i ripped out the old servos and cut the nose off. Now it has a brushless outrunner with folding prop, 3s 1000mah pack, 20 amp esc and 2 9gr servos. With this combo it weights 18oz so its a feather weight. If you are trying to use 9g servos you will need to keep it light but it is possible. So far my longest flight was 1:43:27 and i still had 75% of my battery left.

That sounds like the exact same setup I’ll be using.

 

[dutchmonkey]

Here is a couple of pics those flames are hand cut monokote