My first balsa build - the Gentle Lady!

L Edge

Master member
To build a glider:
1) Build super light.
2) When covering, do not put any twist into the wings.
3) Helpfull if you put a strip of reflective(rainbow effect) on a wing so you don' lose sight or direction of the model.

Problems flying gliders:
To fly a glider you need to recognize thermals or learn how to soar with wind. A beginer needs to get as high as he can so it gives then max time. Chuck it, use a bungy, best you can get it is a couple of hundred feet. Watch a beginner (no wind or thermal) or has low winds , he be on the ground in a couple of minutes until he learns. So, what is the best way to start, put a motor/folding prop and when you get low, power up, climb and start again. Besides, pain to set up and launch over and over(Clubfield) where motor, just push throttle. Starting at say 400ft, gives you much more time to learn(can't yank and bank in this game).

Landing: That is usually the problem area. The L/D ratio is much higher than a plane so it floats so much they can"t put it down and they run out of field and (no motor) and a crash happens. What about a gust of wind or a good breeze and they crash before the get to the field. The motor is the answer.

Besides, the higher you go, the more constant and higher winds so you can soar when there is no thermals. Before FAA stuff, I usually shoot for about 1000 ft. Works very nice when the club field is crowded, take to soaring.
 

L Edge

Master member
Except for washout, right?

Yup. My first glider was a Sportavia with a TD .049 back in the 70's. That was a handful, never could get it above 50 ft or so. Tried bungee, a small electric motor, hand throw. Built a Gentle Lady later on and had good success. Dropped it due to investigating pattern, pylon, heli's and then went back to gliders and chose the Radian(no ailerons) and bought an electronic altimeter. Highest I ever recorded was 2706 ft due to thermals. Use a lawn chair were 3 points keep it in site. Use the eye, slumped down with 1 knee proped up in lawn chair and the bird as the third point to keep from losing it. I tend to get bored usually after 40 min and best way I use to get it down without tearing wings off is roll it inverted and circle down.
 

Wildthing

Legendary member
Still sitting on my desk... I’ve been trying to finish the giant ultra stick project first and just haven’t gotten to this one yet. It’s next after the ultra stick, unless I break down and buy a Willy Nillies kit first... :sneaky:
I thought you would have it done by now , slacker . :sleep::sleep::sleep::unsure:
 
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BoredGuy

Active member
Just a thought, everybody seems to be building matchstick planes now. But have you thought taking a moderately sized cheap toy heli’s motor? For a glider, it might actually work-try running it on 2s for a while, running it on the minuscule 1s lipo feels like it puts out at least 100-150g of thrust.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Ok, so a quick little update! I was at my friend’s hangar and was looking at some balsa add he had lying on a table, and I recognized a gentle lady fuselage and wing. I mentioned it, and he said I could have them as a gift if I’d like. So now I have a gentle lady that I’ll be restoring and using as a guide for the scratch build one, which will help me out a ton. It looks like the previous builder modified the front of the fuselage to overlap the wing.
B9FF3361-0F8C-44E4-83C3-EEE80100DF57.jpeg
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Alright, I went ahead and cleaned off my desk for a video, and now I have a clean work area to work on! Tomorrow I should be able to start on the gentle ladies. I’m thinking about stripping the covering from the wings, fixing them, and then using them as a reference for building the new wings.