|
1) Sunprobe :- Only a few weeks after the High Sierra had first flown, I spotted an ad in the glider press for a
Sunprobe. I was coping quite well with rudder/elevator only, but wanted to take another eager step. The Sunprobe
has really earnt its prefix of 'good-old' having come through many scrapes. It really was an ideal aileron trainer
and capable of slope soaring in a good range of wind strengths. It is now mostly used as a lift tester, or it can
be quite useful when slope soaring virgin slope sites that are littered with rocks and other potential hazards.
Sadly at the moment the sunprobe is sat with a broken wing tip which I really must epoxy and sheer web together.
That's not to mention re-doing the tailplanes which I hacked off it to make a set of AMT halves for my E-100 on my
last Gt. Orme trip.(See Photo) |
|
2) Ridge Runt :- This was my 3rd Glider. Easy to build and great value. The plan doesn't call
for sheeting the wings from le to the spar to form D boxes, but I did this anyway to add extra
strength, and did not lose that much to weight considerations. Skills learnt: inverted flight, multiple rolls, reversals, 'Stall Turns' - Chandelles, bunts. First Crash - Great Orme I had launched into nothing and missed the contingency area. A crash into the cliff face was unavoidable. 2nd crash - Geoff neatly sliced through one of the wings with his Jibba Jabba whilst we were attempting co-ordinated chandelles on Beamsley Beacon. I was more concerned about his Jibba Jabba than my Ridge Runt. Geoff kindly repaired Ridgy, but it wasn't long before it got crushed in the boot of my car when someone crashed in to the back of me on the A45. |
|
3) Phase-6 :- I was complaining to my friend Harry about my sudden lack of models, when he
told me about this Phase 6 that was being sold by a friend of his in Kilmarnock. I ended up making a
little journey of it. I drove up to Kilmarnock, picked up the model, and went sloping it with Harry.
I remember the wind wasn't quite strong enough. Then I headed off to Edinburgh to go to my cousins
leaving do, which was great fun too. I had planned to stop and try to slope soar the new P-6 on my
way back down south, but I had broken the ply plate that holds the rear wing bolt, and had no way of
fixing it. It also has had it's fair share of smashes and crashes, until eventually two things happened.
(i) The rear bolt became so weak, it was necessary to band the wings on. (ii) The aileron torque rods started binding. It was hard enough trying to move them by hand let alone a std servo. P-6 has recently had a bit of a make-over. The torque rods have been removed and replaced by two wing mounted servos. The wing mounting captive nut has been built into a ply former which has been epoxied in place, and the whole fuselage inner under the wing has been covered with a layer of carbon/kevlar weave and epoxied in place. I have been mostly flying the E-SR, so I have not really given it a thorough test yet. |
|
4) LS-3 :- This is the day I bought the LS-3 from Geoff in 1997. I have only just recently got over my nerves
about flying scale. There were many times when I would lug this model up a hill or drag it along on every trip
only to find the conditions unsuitable for flying it. In fact so much so that it became a bit of a joke with me
and Geoff.
Last summer in 1998 I had a prolonged session on it with Geoff instructing me. After that I slope soared it a
few times by myself, but was not very confident. It's not that I flew it that badly, it was more that I was lacking
the real finesse you need to land the model without stressing weak points in the fuselage. In other words I gradually
broke the repair that Geoff had made on the fuselage boom. One such quick repair saw super glue wicking into the
elevator bowden cable, and that was that. Or so I thought. Pete Weston kindly repaired the tail for me, and its
adventures continued at the Whitesheet Aerotow. The last trip at the Great Orme saw me slicing through the sky
-jpgs below |
|
5) Eliminator Slope Racer or E-SR :- I bought this with the insurance money that was owed to me after the RTA I was
in. I am a big fan of John Stevens kits, having built a few now ! This is my Formula one racer - When it's strong and
lifty at coastal site, screaming aerobatics are order of the day. Good ol' Sunprobe having just been on a lift reccy
is parked by my feet you'll notice. |
|
6) Eliminator 100 (or E-100 Mk1.5.5) :- This was the latest incarnation of my competition E-100. A disaster at
Radioglide saw an old wound on my E-100 wooden fuselage open up. I bought one of John's glass fuselages, because
I knew that however light I could make the repair on the wooden fus, it was always going to mean increasing the
amount of weight in the nose, and this model was already well overweight. So what you see here is the new fus and
old wing. E-100 Crash History May 1998 - ISA Flat Field - Centre Section failed at ping on an centreic winch. Damage to center section (Needed replacing).Tail damaged / fuselage broken at tail. 1st Round of 98/99 - Peterborough Winter Series - Tips broken after crossed frequencies incident. Tips replaced. May 1999 - BARCS 100s Radioglide - Fuselage broken at tailplane. Old break. July 1999 - Interglide - Realise that combination of new tips, new centre section, and new fuselage is slightly warped, buy new wing November 1999 - Completed new wing, so have 2 E-100s ready for battle next season. |
|
7) Unofficial :- Bonus Pic |
|
8) ASH 26 :- This is my newest and biggest model. The wingspan is 6 metres and the all up
weight about 11.5 Kg. It is made by Rienhard Schuler in Germany, and its construction is all fully
moulded glass fibre and the gel coat and epoxy used is very hard. I am indebted to my friend Peter Weston, without his help I am sure the model would still be sat unflown in my house. Pete helped me out with advise on how to fit the batteries and secure the lead in the nose. We guestimated how much lead would be needed to balance it at 110mm behind the wing LE, and used a little bit less because we were not sure how much weight the glass cloth and epoxy would add (Pete's great and thinking through the pitfalls - I probably would have ended up having to chop some lead out again!) The overall plan was to make sure the CG ended up very slightly behind. This was ideal because when we checked it at Lasham I only had to make up a small bag of lead which we could jam between the batteries and tape in place to bring it right on the recommended point. See Lasham for more details of the first flight". Ash 26 Page. |
|
9) Electric Esprit :- More details about Jaro Mueller's Electric Esprit.
Both Fuselages (Glider and Electric version side by side) and shows differences in height of the tail pylon. Image
taken from the Euromodell web site. |
| Home | | | Competition | | | Aerotowing | | | Fly Sites | | | Models | | | About GAW |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contact Details :- |
Get Netscape |