My first sailplane (and first RC plane) was a Hobie Hawk with a Kraft 2 channel brick. My brother bought a Graupner Cirrus at the same time and we went out to fly them without a clue as to how to do it. We had never even seen an RC sailplane fly. Some way, we figured out how to launch on a hi-start and started flying.
After flying for a month without ever catching a thermal, we were really getting discouraged. We had probably flown through hundreds of thermals but didn't know how to recognize them. I told my brother that free flight planes caught thermals all the time and all they did was go up and go into a circle. So...The next flight I launched my Hobie Hawk, trimmed in a little left and a little up to put it into a circle, put my transmitter down on the ground and watched. After a few turns, I remarked to my brother that it didn't seem to be coming down! It centered a nice thermal and started going up. We watched it go higher and higher for 30 minutes without picking up the transmitter. At 30 minutes it disappeared into a cloud and my heart rate doubled in the next 5 seconds. I grabbed the transmitter and dove it back down out of the cloud and brought it in for a safe landing. That was almost 30 years ago and I'm still flying sailplanes! And I still have that Hobie Hawk plus a few more to keep it company. Buddy Roos -----Original Message----- From: Simon Van Leeuwen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 4:40 PM To: 5-Soaring Forum Subject: [RCSE] First Sailplane How many can remember their very first R/C sailplane? Mine was one of the first Oly 650's. Wish I still had it for posterity, but elected to fly another aircraft while a newbie flew my Oly, bad idea... -- Simon Van Leeuwen RADIUS SYSTEMS PnP SYSTEMS - The E-Harness of Choice Cogito Ergo Zooom 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. 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.
