ALOFT: AH-100 Build (new title)

[Tmcfarland]

Been going back and forth on the wood fuselage and here is a rough mockup with a new tail too:
View attachment 25109
Went from a big boxy thing to a very minimal fuselage, and now to something sort of in the middle. Enough area under the wing to hold onto when launching, and drops the motor and battery a little lower down for better roll stability. Servos are inverted, and will have a small access hatch from the bottom. The battery will have a traditional top canopy hatch.

Side profile:View attachment 25110

Battery shown is a 3S 850. So lots of room for different battery and motor combos. I'd like her to CG with this small motor and battery shown. Should be plenty of performance, but others can put in larger setups if they like.

The fuselage still has lots of room for triangle stock and plywood doublers to keep her light but strong.

Perhaps Aloft will do it right but the upside down servos with a hatch on the bottom did not work out on my CLM Prime Res 3. The hatch comes off in even the smoothest landings. I have to put lots of tape over it to keep in in place. I notice they changed this in the Prime Q. As well as a lot of other bad ideas they had in the Res 3. Lots of great ideas in your design. Fun to watch the progress.

 

[Wayne]

My thought on the hatch is you cover right over the hatch when you are happy with the servo install. Should you kill a servo, take a knife to the film and pop the hatch. I almost never need access to my servos afterinstall. In my PSS planes it was pretty common to have zero access to the servos after the model was done. And never needed access to them. Set things up right from the start and you should be golden. Servo issues these days are very rare.

I get heat for using Z bends on many of my builds, but reality is I never need to adjust linkages, so why not? Combat planes are the exception, and even then I tend to use z-bends at both ends, I just bend the steel rod to shorten the length. Maybe it is just me being lazy, but I like a clean Z bend.

 

[Tmcfarland]

My thought on the hatch is you cover right over the hatch when you are happy with the servo install. Should you kill a servo, take a knife to the film and pop the hatch. I almost never need access to my servos afterinstall. In my PSS planes it was pretty common to have zero access to the servos after the model was done. And never needed access to them. Set things up right from the start and you should be golden. Servo issues these days are very rare.

I get heat for using Z bends on many of my builds, but reality is I never need to adjust linkages, so why not? Combat planes are the exception, and even then I tend to use z-bends at both ends, I just bend the steel rod to shorten the length. Maybe it is just me being lazy, but I like a clean Z bend.

I like simplicity in pushrods too. I have been using a z bend at one end and an ez connect at the other. But I worry about the ez connect coming loose. How exactly do you shorten the steel rod by bending it? Just twist with needlenose pliers?

 

[Wayne]

For my combat models I usually bend a "V" into the pushrod to act as a spring to save the servo gears, this V can be adjusted to make the rod longer or shorter. I'd only do this on a combat model. I do not use HEAVY wire even on combat models.

 

[G-man]

AH-100 Prototype and Wanderer-99 flown the same day​

---

I've been waiting for the day when we could:
1. Fly the AH-100 wing and one of the old time balsa wings on the same day.
2. Have another 100-inch RC pilot take the controls and compare impressions.
Today we got a February Thaw, and both Steve Wattenberg and I flew the plane at lunchtime.

Steve and I agree:
1. The Aloft AH-100 FLYS WONDERFULLY.
2. Very flat glide, equal or better than the Wanderer-99.
3. Speed range greater - definitely can go faster; seemingly can slow down a little more than the Wanderer-99.
4. Dihedral/polyhedral specifications are PERFECTION. Very precise yaw control with low, medium, and high deflection of OEM Prelude rudder.
(Socked in as the thick overcast was both Steve and I found patches of light air to play in.)
5. Holds a thermal turn as well as any polyhedral glider either of us has ever flown.
6. When trimmed, will fly 30 seconds absent all control input.

RC Groups post:
"https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=54629241&postcount=39"

 

[Wayne]

Great to hear! Will be interesting to see how well the wing angles work with the wood fuselage mid mounted wing position.

 

[Wayne]

New wood fuselage was cut today. Hope to get some time to put her together later today.

 

[Tmcfarland]

New wood fuselage was cut today. Hope to get some time to put her together later today.

Two questions. Had you considered a carbon boom? What made you go all wood? Second It seems you prefer dihedral wings over polyhedril wings. Is that based on handling? Most of the top 2m F5L gliders use the pod and boom fuse and poly wings.
I have a few 2m rudder / elevator gliders and its amazing to me how different they fly. Some really have a tendency to drop the nose in turns and need lots of up elevator. Good handling in turns is as important than glide ratio and minimum sink. A stable glider that is light, flys slow and turns flat and tight is a winner.
It would be interesting when the AH 100 and Lele and Gentle evo are all flying to take them out on a dead calm morning and fly them back to back. Getting numbers on min sink. I bet there would be surprises. One doing better than you thought. Enjoy watching your progress
Tom

 

[Wayne]

We have flown our gliders with spans from 30" to 157" and so far the best performance I have seen is our Lele wing. I think the top sheeting on that one and the light weight build really pays back nicely.

So far we have only offered polyhedral wings for our kits, except for the Ridge Runt, and some we have not yet shown. We have seen a resurgence in rudder elevator ships recently, it is a niche market for sure, but one we enjoy.

With this said, we are starting to branch out in new directions. We have a pretty good collection of rudder ships now. You can expect to see some aileron based thermal designs, but also some hotter sports models, and most recently seems we are jumping into the Control Line Combat kitting. We have a backlog of designs we need to move into production. That is always the longer slower process. We love prototyping, it is fun, production is a tougher nut for sure.

 

[u2builder]

When I finally got into this hobby I started with Slow Sticks and eventually got into sport flying and some basic 3D stuff. Everything had to have ailerons and rudder. If a plane I liked didn't have ailerons I added them. My first gliders were a Sig Riser and a Chrysalis and I converted the Riser to ailerons and the Chrysalis to full house with flaps.

A few years ago I pretty much "got into" powered gliders and couldn't find a modern kit with ailerons so I decided to build a Sonoran Yellow Jacket, a pod and boom RES glider. What a joy it was was to fly such an easy glider, As an old non competition flyer with much less than great eyesight if I kind of lost orientation I'd could just wait and till I could see it again because it was just happy level itself off. So relaxing. Since then I have built most of the popular pod and boom 2m ships, and have now been going back into the golden years I missed to build many of the 2 and 2.5 meter woodies . I think these big woodies are fun to build, easy to fly, and a lot easier for me to see than my 2m pod and boom gliders with very thin, short cord wings and nearly invisible black boom fuselages.

It is not particularly easy to find decent kits of these old gliders. Short kits are pretty available but it gets expensive purchasing the materials from several different sources. Most of the old kit did not have motors so that needs to be figured out for each model.

It is easy to purchase very complete and very well tested Euro pod and boom glider kits. It is easy (but exoensice) to purchase very well tested full house glider kits and ARFs. But it is difficult to find the type of kits that Aloft is starting to produce: modern versions of those golden age woodies that are easy and fun to build, with laser cut parts that are self aligning in hopefully complete kits and set up to accommodate motors if desired. I think it is a great niche.

 

[G-man]

u2builder,​

Very good summary of why we like these long wing, broad chord, substantial fuselage designs.

> I think it is a great niche.

I agree, and I'm happy beyond happy that Wayne and crew support this niche.

I have been able to find older wood sailplane kits from time to time on RC Groups Sailplane For Sale/Wanted (FS/W) classifieds.

// Dave

.

 

[Tmcfarland]

When I finally got into this hobby I started with Slow Sticks and eventually got into sport flying and some basic 3D stuff. Everything had to have ailerons and rudder. If a plane I liked didn't have ailerons I added them. My first gliders were a Sig Riser and a Chrysalis and I converted the Riser to ailerons and the Chrysalis to full house with flaps.

A few years ago I pretty much "got into" powered gliders and couldn't find a modern kit with ailerons so I decided to build a Sonoran Yellow Jacket, a pod and boom RES glider. What a joy it was was to fly such an easy glider, As an old non competition flyer with much less than great eyesight if I kind of lost orientation I'd could just wait and till I could see it again because it was just happy level itself off. So relaxing. Since then I have built most of the popular pod and boom 2m ships, and have now been going back into the golden years I missed to build many of the 2 and 2.5 meter woodies . I think these big woodies are fun to build, easy to fly, and a lot easier for me to see than my 2m pod and boom gliders with very thin, short cord wings and nearly invisible black boom fuselages.

It is not particularly easy to find decent kits of these old gliders. Short kits are pretty available but it gets expensive purchasing the materials from several different sources. Most of the old kit did not have motors so that needs to be figured out for each model.

It is easy to purchase very complete and very well tested Euro pod and boom glider kits. It is easy (but exoensice) to purchase very well tested full house glider kits and ARFs. But it is difficult to find the type of kits that Aloft is starting to produce: modern versions of those golden age woodies that are easy and fun to build, with laser cut parts that are self aligning in hopefully complete kits and set up to accommodate motors if desired. I think it is a great niche.

Mr. U2 builder. I agree with all your points. You are not the only one whos eyes are no longer 25 years old. Honestly I find it the most fun to fly and soar with a height limit of 350 feet. In my experience that means a lot of motor relights. I think it takes about a 3 meter span to easily carry a powerful motor to climb fast. My go to glider is a Hollien Introduction (see photo). Its a 2.9 meter R/S floater. Great kit and a very relaxed flyer. Not sold by Aloft but hoping Wayne does not ban me from the forum for mentioning it. I don’t know if the AH will be on the market in a month, 6 months or longer. None of us are getting younger so I hope its soon.

 

[u2builder]

Tmcfarland,

I am in a similar boat, old, building and flying for fun, getting hard to see em at 350 feet but cataract surgery in May hopefully will help. We have a poor site for thermals so I also power up. glide down, repeat . I also have an Introduction which is great, and have recently built a 3m Paragon, Spirit 100, and Peter Goldsmith Diamond 99" this past fall and winter, and a Wanderer 99 and Windrifter 100" a while ago ......while waiting for the AH-100. Running out of space and time.

 

[G-man]

>cataract surgery in May hopefully will help.

I've had cataract surgery.
Wife has had cataract surgery.
It's all to the good. Those surgeons know what they're doing.
Remarkable improvement in visual acuity and thus RC flying confidence.

 

[Wayne]

LOL - Sorry guys! Glad we are all enjoying similar style models! Sorry the AH has never been given top focus. But it is up there now!

Here is a little update on the wood fuselage from last night. Happy to report no changes were needed for the prototype of this new fuselage.

What do you think of the new wings? To small? That is the wing for the Gentle Lady Prototype.

The tail is just for a quick prototype. Flight testing will tell me what needs to be fine tuned on the tail before I lock into the final layout.

One of the guys is out sick, so I need to go jump into shipping.

 

[G-man]

Best of luck on the flight testing.

 

[Cryoflyer]

Wayne, I appears that there a lot more people interested in this model than you might appreciate. I suggest you keep it at the top of your ‘production’ schedule.

I concur with those who don’t want to flip their fuselage over to get at motor, battery and servos. From your Feb. 9 photos it would seem possible to have the hatch on top. Who says the pushrods have to be straight all the way to the empennage?

And, BTW, I turned 85 on Feb. 9, so please get going!

Jim

 

[Wayne]

Message received.

 

[Wayne]

More work on the prototype last night. Spent the majority of my time playing with the servo linkage with an eye towards ease of build. Time spent here will save trouble for everyone else in the build. Not much to see, but here is the servo tray from the bottom of the fuselage:

During the build one of the first things the builder will do is install the servos into the tray, then after the fuselages sides are attached, the pushrods will be installed, then the triangle stock and top and bottom decking will be added. This will make things pretty easy. Adjustable clevis at the tail, and nice simple Z bends at the servo. The servo on the left side will be getting flipped so the output is on the other side. We are at the length limits of a 1 meter pushrod. I knew it was close, and exactly why the servos are placed where they are. But turns out the usable length is about 20mm shorter than I expected.

Once that was worked out it all went pretty fast. Looking good:

It is funny to sit the 70% of scale Gentle Lady fuselage on top:

The Gentle Lady is wider at the wing saddle.

So far very pleased. Great canopy fit, everything is going smoothly. She is strong, stiff and straight and easy to build.

 

[Wayne]

For the record I really like this fuselage. Nice tight fitting canopy, and the nose cone doughnuts work great.

The sanding process went very smoothly, about 10 minutes and the nose was rough shaped. (kits will be quicker as we had left some extra wood on the "doughnuts". The full sanding was under an hour.

Started at the nose with fresh 60 grit.

Rough sanded everything with the 60 grit.

Then jumped to 220.

Probably a little too nice for a prototype we will heavily abuse.

Just remembered I need to go sand the tail. Very pleased with how this has gone together. Only small changes for production if flight testing looks good.