slope soaring

mayan

Legendary member
I had a low battery issue on the camera and did not get much footage as I thought!

Spitfire walk of shame
Hybrid maiden and demise
Was that you rolling the Spit? Sorry to see your other plane come back in pieces :(. Although it seems like you had fun all in all :).

What are they mainly made of ? Definitely not balsa it they are in combat bashing them around. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Probably dense foam, like the chuck gliders :).

here are my new friends doing some cliff combat! :D

Amazing!
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
I had a low battery issue on the camera and did not get much footage as I thought!

Spitfire walk of shame
Hybrid maiden and demise
Beautiful! I'm glad to see you out there and flying. Did you recover the Spit? It's hard to watch your plane's crash that way, but it's the only way to learn it. Especially for slope soaring. Not a lot of margin for error, there. :)
 

bracesport

Legendary member
@buzzbomb - Yip it is always great to be out there and there is certainly no room for error (without casualties) - I climbed down the cliff and retrieved the Spitfire undamaged - thankfully, Jono took over the controls down there and landed it safely! I got 6 flights in across the different gliders - one flight on the hotliner which was awesome after 15 years on the wall (perfect CG too)! :D

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mayan

Legendary member
@buzzbomb - Yip it is always great to be out there and there is certainly no room for error (without casualties) - I climbed down the cliff and retrieved the Spitfire undamaged - thankfully, Jono took over the controls down there and landed it safely! I got 6 flights in across the different gliders - one flight on the hotliner which was awesome after 15 years on the wall (perfect CG too)! :D

View attachment 151246
WOW man happy that your getting that practice. You also going to tried powered flight?
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
Since John Woodfield on Youtube convinced me to get serious about slope soaring I figured I'd make my debut on this thread. I apologize in advance for the long post.
My first experience with slope soaring was a last October. I built my own FB glider loosely based on the Simple Soarer, but larger. I more or less just threw it together and didn't really care how it looked, I just wanted something that would fly and I wanted it fast. I knew of a great spot for slope soaring by my house so I took it there. Conditions were perfect and it flew great, it was my first successful design. I was able to get a few great flights in before noticing that the wing had significantly more dihedral than I built it with, so I packed up and went home. I tried to fly it again at a different location with a drones class I was taking at the time, the location was horrible and I spent nearly two hours wading through bushes taller than I was (I'm 6' exactly) to find it. I've never really gotten around to flying it since, I guess I got busy with school and I've been focusing my efforts on building a successful powered plane.
The other day I stumbled across John Woodfield's RC Gliders channel on Youtube, and I felt encouraged to really get into slope soaring. So I took my "prototype" glider and started making it something worth presenting. I'm not quite finished yet, I've built a new nose, shortened the fuselage, and I still have to make new wings and tail feathers.

Here's the original version of my glider, the Petrel I:
IMG_20191015_182205.jpg


This was my third and last flight, and the most successful:

Toward the end you can see my brother using the Force to keep it in the air.
If anyone lives in the LA area this is at Elephant Hill in Pomona, just Northeast of the 60/57 interchange.

I'm rebuilding the glider as a 2-channel, the ailerons didn't seem to be doing anything for me other than taking up servos I could've used in a flying wing. I guess this is the Petrel 1 1/2, that's the old wing and tail feathers. The Petrel II will be closer to a Minimoa. The fuselage has been shortened to increase elevator authority, and ballast has been added. The nose has been redesigned to be a little easier on the eyes. It runs on a 2300 4s, the extra power is unnecessary but the extra weight is great for wind penetration.
IMG_20200115_212618.jpg
 
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bracesport

Legendary member
@Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes - I do not fly as much as I would like at the moment, but I am loving the slope soaring - your plane looks great by the way! - I have noticed with my foam wings that the dihedral does take a hammering especially if you are ballasted up for penetration - I have been flying in 40k winds which is super exhilarating (other than try to land)! slopers work well with full-width ailerons and elevator! I am currently building a pitcheron, which I first saw on John Woodbridge's channel! :D
 

mayan

Legendary member
Since John Woodfield on Youtube convinced me to get serious about slope soaring I figured I'd make my debut on this thread. I apologize in advance for the long post.
My first experience with slope soaring was a last October. I built my own FB glider loosely based on the Simple Soarer, but larger. I more or less just threw it together and didn't really care how it looked, I just wanted something that would fly and I wanted it fast. I knew of a great spot for slope soaring by my house so I took it there. Conditions were perfect and it flew great, it was my first successful design. I was able to get a few great flights in before noticing that the wing had significantly more dihedral than I built it with, so I packed up and went home. I tried to fly it again at a different location with a drones class I was taking at the time, the location was horrible and I spent nearly two hours wading through bushes taller than I was (I'm 6' exactly) to find it. I've never really gotten around to flying it since, I guess I got busy with school and I've been focusing my efforts on building a successful powered plane.
The other day I stumbled across John Woodfield's RC Gliders channel on Youtube, and I felt encouraged to really get into slope soaring. So I took my "prototype" glider and started making it something worth presenting. I'm not quite finished yet, I've built a new nose, shortened the fuselage, and I still have to make new wings and tail feathers.

Here's the original version of my glider, the Petrel I:
View attachment 154790

This was my third and last flight, and the most successful:

Toward the end you can see my brother using the Force to keep it in the air.
If anyone lives in the LA area this is at Elephant Hill in Pomona, just Northeast of the 60/57 interchange.

I'm rebuilding the glider as a 2-channel, the ailerons didn't seem to be doing anything for me other than taking up servos I could've used in a flying wing. I guess this is the Petrel 1 1/2, that's the old wing and tail feathers. The Petrel II will be closer to a Minimoa. The fuselage has been shortened to increase elevator authority, and ballast has been added. The nose has been redesigned to be a little easier on the eyes. It runs on a 2300 4s, the extra power is unnecessary but the extra weight is great for wind penetration.
View attachment 154793
I love the look of it I have to admit. You should trying doubling the spar to avoid the wings from flexing up, just my 2 cents.
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
@Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes - I do not fly as much as I would like at the moment, but I am loving the slope soaring - your plane looks great by the way! - I have noticed with my foam wings that the dihedral does take a hammering especially if you are ballasted up for penetration - I have been flying in 40k winds which is super exhilarating (other than try to land)! slopers work well with full-width ailerons and elevator! I am currently building a pitcheron, which I first saw on John Woodbridge's channel! :D
40 kts does sound exhilerating! The trick with gliders is to build a wing that will bend without folding, hence my plywood spar idea. As for ailerons my problem wasn't so much that they weren't working, it was just that I wasn't using them. Although once the wing started to go they really weren't doing much...