Today (2004-10-24) I took my newly minted, 2 meter Gnome, and currently my only sailplane, out to the Sunday edition of the Silent Wings Soaring Association's fun fly. I guess I officially maidened it yesterday out at the Harbor Soaring Society's site but without the spoilers. So after 3 hours of spoiler rigging hell yesterday :), I must say they seemed to work great despite still not being perfectly rigged. My first flight was 9 minutes right off the bat and an 83 (out of 100) landing. Then I had several launch, make a left or right circuit of the field, not find enough lift, and land flights". I call those flights "landing practice" :D. Yeah... that's it. :D
Nonetheless... one of those landings was 96, and another was an 80, and another a 63. I think they were the standard AMA 25 foot tapes, 100 points. A few landings were, of course, off the tape (stuff happens). I slid past a few better point landings, but also slid into a few good ones. So it evens out. Guess I'll try a skeg... Temps were a comfy 70-75 (21-22C) under blue skies with very light breezes as I wound up the morning with 20 minute speck out. I finally deployed the spoilers to get down as it was getting hard to see. AND of course!... I missed the tape altogether... ain't that just the way! :( Built almost box stock except for carbon in the spar, the Gnome wound up at with an AUW of 35 ounces or roughly 1kg. I used full size Futaba 3003s, a HS-81 size for spoilers, a HiTec 535 DC RX, and a 1800mah AA brick pack. Add a 1/4 ounce of lead. It balances right on the back of the spar. It took forever to build (11 months) as I was injured for a bit, and then moved so everthing was packed away for several months. Thanks to all at SWSA, especially Gene and Dan (and at HSS - thanks Hugh!) for their advise and counsel and to Dan for hauling out the equpiment! Geez its nice to write about flying for change! Best wishes, Jeff ===== --------------------------------------- Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky La Habra Heights, California "Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender. " - W.C. Fields "What wretched scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?" - W.C. Fields RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
