I have seen a 7m RC glider. Not legal for competition, of course. The
guy was able to launch to 200 or 300 feet with one of those creaky old
Davey Systems belt drive winches, which I was able to bog down with the
2M plane I was flying at the time. A low pass, right over your head,
really catches ones attention. Scale pilot would probably be a 3 month
old baby. The glider had its own trailer, just like the ones you ride
inside. This was at the Tidewater Nats
wind flying:
You need to practice a lot to know just how far downwind you can chase
those thermals and get back. Otherwise, the somewhat aggressive,
calculated risk taking attitude you need won't be calculated and will
put you in the tallest downwind tree for sure. So, if it's going to be
windy today, leave work now and have a flying session. Don't be too
afraid of a bit of down elevator. Don't go too heavy on ballast unless
you've practiced with it. Do NOT land downwind. (I once had a t tail
detach and flip high into the air on a windy downwind landing that
looked otherwise perfect.) If you ignore this and land downwind, forget
about your points and just try to save the plane. DON'T try to slow it
down if it looks too fast, unless you have it out of trim. So your best
bet is to bail out and come back just a bit sooner than you otherwise
would. Learn to keep a bit more altitude and then approach a bit more
steeply, and slightly hotter, and plant that nose. Especially in RES,
where a nice soft landing often turns into a graceful pivoting sweep
followed by a ground bound wingover, inversion, and 0 points. Evaluate
the field. Unless your competitors are all stellar, you may do better by
not screwing up than by pushing very hard. Windy contests are often
survival contests.
Caveat: Perhaps competitive soaring has changed in the last few years,
but I bet the above still applies.
P.S. Flying my Chrysalis unballasted the other day was fun until the
wind got above 15mph or so, at least according to NOAA.
finding the knife:
Make sure the handle is round and doesn't have anything like a little
stick taped to it. Then, every time you lose track of it, you will FEEL
where it is. Just be sure to wear blood colored pants.
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