GuyB Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 21 minutes ago, StraightEdge said: Guy, I meant to reply to this earlier: why not set your TX timer to give a voice-readout every minute? Jon Hi I use an Aurora 9 which I love and am invested in re receivers etc. It does not have voice but beeps every minute. I quickly lose count of the beeps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Maybe the solution then is, instead of glancing down at the TX, bring it up to your eye-level and point it at the model - then a very quick glance at the screen and back again at the tiny spec in the sky!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuyB Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 hour ago, StraightEdge said: Maybe the solution then is, instead of glancing down at the TX, bring it up to your eye-level and point it at the model - then a very quick glance at the screen and back again at the tiny spec in the sky!? Funny how the most obvious solutions sometimes need pointing out. Good idea. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Griffiths Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 On 19/04/2021 at 12:29, Pete in Northiam said: That's a fascinating learning point for me. I watched a full-size glider for ten minutes on Friday while hiking in the North Downs. It was at about 3000 feet judging from the cumulus cloud base, climbing strongly under one cloud, sprinting to the next then climbing again. I was struck by how large its (clearly very effective) circles were. I would guess they were at least five wing spans diameter, so maybe 100m if not more. I would expect thermals to widen as they rise, but at our typical 60m startubg altitude, any thoughts on how wide we can assume lift to be? Or what determines the size? Had a poor day yesterday in any case. No significant lift found and bust an elevator with a heavy cross-wind landing after not realising it was shifting all over the place. Back to the board for repairs today. At least my rx antenna are fixed! Hi Pete. I used to fly a fair bit of full size gliding, you are right, thermals get wider and easier to work the higher you get. When you fly a site regular you will tend to notice certain areas around the site sink while others are the hot spots for thermals. The trigger is something on the ground which heats up more than the surrounding ground thus heats the air above it triggering a thermal. Size of theramls depends on a huge amount of factors and it is a case of simple flying the. watching the model close to see where in the circle the glider climbs most, try tightening the turn in this area etc. Practice Practice Practice. Lower down it is a balance between angle of bank and and staying in the stronger lift- higher angle of bank the less efficiant you are as a glider but if it keeps you in stronger lift you can climb faster. As you get higher thermals become huge. you can almost drift about in the general area and go up like a homesick angle and spec out! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 Great to see so much activity on this thread and some impressive flights! Last week was incredible, I can't remember the last time we had 7 consecutive days of sun and light winds. I had the week off but sadly didn't have access to my RES model. Thankfully I was able to get some DLG practice in. Having flown nothing but DLG for the last 6 years, these F3RES models have been a great distraction and revelation. User input is reduced and the dihedral/polyhedral sometimes feels like auto pilot. I've been amazed at the performance of these models in the right conditions - they are such fun to fly. Tuesday was the only day I got with the RES. My high start was out of action and a small puncture in the wing covering meant I initially took up the hand launch challenge. I record all my flights with a head cam (battery permitting). If anyone is in any doubt as to the performance of these models, check out the below video I put together. Flying at great height can certainly get the heart racing, but low-level thermals are what fuel my flying addiction. Being able to see the model up close, how it reacts to your inputs and the air is magic, especially when it starts to climb. You just don't get that when thermalling up high. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 That is extremely impressive! Thanks for sharing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 Fantastic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuyB Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 1 hour ago, cirrusRC said: Great to see so much activity on this thread and some impressive flights! Last week was incredible, I can't remember the last time we had 7 consecutive days of sun and light winds. I had the week off but sadly didn't have access to my RES model. Thankfully I was able to get some DLG practice in. Having flown nothing but DLG for the last 6 years, these F3RES models have been a great distraction and revelation. User input is reduced and the dihedral/polyhedral sometimes feels like auto pilot. I've been amazed at the performance of these models in the right conditions - they are such fun to fly. Tuesday was the only day I got with the RES. My high start was out of action and a small puncture in the wing covering meant I initially took up the hand launch challenge. I record all my flights with a head cam (battery permitting). If anyone is in any doubt as to the performance of these models, check out the below video I put together. Flying at great height can certainly get the heart racing, but low-level thermals are what fuel my flying addiction. Being able to see the model up close, how it reacts to your inputs and the air is magic, especially when it starts to climb. You just don't get that when thermalling up high. Superb set of films. I 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martynk Posted April 21, 2021 Author Share Posted April 21, 2021 I was flying my electric bubble dancer on Saturday. Duff battery so it only got to about 20m after 30 seconds. Brought it back to land and spotted the air was a little bouncy. For the next 7 minutes, the model never got higher than 20 feet altitude and no more more than 30 feet away from me. Incredible flight. Only landed because I got a bit greedy trying to find the limit of the little bubble. That really was a fun flight. Much more entertaining than a boomer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martynk Posted April 21, 2021 Author Share Posted April 21, 2021 That's a superb video. Well done 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Northiam Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 Wow, @cirrusRC! That is some amazing flying and your video and commentary are really instructive and encouraging in so many aspects. I have already seen at least four ways I can improve. Many thanks! (Of course, that means I hope to beat you at this some time ) I hope you won't mind me sharing the YouTube link on the Facebook group too. On a separate note - the tubing and other bits for more 2m Challenge bungees arrived today. I have orders for six but should have sufficient tubing for four more so if anyone else here wants one, please let me know. Details earlier in this thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 Thanks all for the kind comments. Hope it helps. Pete, I forwarded your details to someone from another glider club, I guess they already contacted you regarding the high starts. I've not had chance to try mine yet, waiting for some more calm weather! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Northiam Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 A note to anyone who bought one of my most recent batch of bungees with the blue heatshrink ends One user reported the ring-eye and plug pulled out on first use. Subsequently, my batch test piece (same materials) also failed a re-test. Other users, however, have reported flying with them without issue so far. The failure seems to stem from the blue heatshrink used in the batch re-softening and hence reducing the compression of the silicone tubing onto the plastic plug. I have emailed everyone who owns a bungee from that batch with a proposed fix at no cost. Please check your junk mail folder or contact me directly if you haven't seen it. Either return the bungee to me for upgrade and a refund of postage or let me know and I will post you the upgraded heatshrink (a heavier gauge and adhesive lined) along with detailed instructions if you want to repair it yourself. You will need a hot-air gun at 140C to conduct the repair. This only applies to the batch with blue ends (serial numbers NDB#5 to NDB#14). I have no reports of failures in the original batches using a dark orange heatshrink. Repeated testing of batch samples for that batch, and the forthcoming batch using the upgraded heatshrink, show them to be good. Please do let me know if you hit any problems so I can help solve it and help others avoid it. Sorry for any hassle! --Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martynk Posted April 27, 2021 Author Share Posted April 27, 2021 Graham Lorimer won this one but I am really pleased and many thanks to you all for taking part. Lets hope we can keep this momentum up through the year. The 3rd Challenge starts today. New post to be raised in a few minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 Well done Graham! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Lorimer Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 1 hour ago, StraightEdge said: Well done Graham! Thanks, now we start all over again, looking for the not too windy days, some spare time and the elusive lift. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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