Diceman
Moderator
Oh heck yeah on the slope. For sure. Especially the FMS ASW17, that will rock on the slope! But a lot of slope out here do not allow powered anything, Well at least by me.
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Thermal flying
- Thread starter Diceman
- Start date
purview
Very Strong User
It take some time to get used to slope "flying" conditions, the less u know the better, children are best cuz they don't think about "consequences" they play n've FUN... but only the few who really learned to fly sailplanes "no engine" wind sun and terrain... ?
Thermals are not dependent on human rules, the plane sets only the limitations within the task 'circle'
Thermals are not dependent on human rules, the plane sets only the limitations within the task 'circle'
Diceman
Moderator
I have been slope flying for decades and love it still! My main library of gliders is all slope. LOL. I just recently decided to break down and get some powered gliders for these not so great slope flying days. Thermaling to me is so much more fun off a hill on a very light day VS from flat ground and your neck kills from looking up high so much. LOL.
I love hunting low level thermals with my e-gliders. With my new 3M I have been able to shut off the motor well below tree top and fly for over 10 minutes. Obviously not on every flight but it is a huge rush when I do it.
Diceman
Moderator
That is awesome! I would love to be able to do that. I am sure it would be easier (no offense if that is what you are flying) with a F5J plane than a Lentus for example, but fun regardless! I would love to find a place to has a but of slope wind from a tree line and perform some light DS with my Explorer 1 or a F3J type plane. That would be so cool. Thermaling low level sounds better, but much harder to do for sure. Where I fly there are a parking lot of cars right behind me and lots of people hiking around, so I am too afraid of stalling at low levels (tree top height) and hit someone, so I tend to power up above tree level height for sure.
Jeremy,
I think what you like is what I call Slermal flying. It is Slope + Thermal = Slermal. Basically very light or no slope lift from a hill and flying out to find the thermal pockets. I used to do this a fair amount down in So Cal and loved it as it was very close to my house and a good challenge at times.
Since you love to DS, you can DS any glider!! One of the guys down south would DS everything and do it on just about any slope when the conditions got too weak to fly the front side. Now I will say he was a very gifted pilot that kind of reminds me of a young version of Bruce Tebo, the guy could put any plane anywhere he wanted, he would not think twice about flying a glider through the branches of a tree if he saw an advantage to doing so. To DS light weight gliders all you need is a difference in wind speeds, and this opened up basically every slope to DS for him.
To expand on this, a normal DS slope is a special thing that will allow for some high speeds, but when just trying to maintain minimal flight, just about any wind speed difference will do. Jordan would basically leave the slope face with a bit of energy and make his laps over in the landing area, or over the sidewalk just behind the slope face, etc. He had a 2 meter wood floater that was rudder and elevator, and he would do tight little DS laps about the width of a residential street. He would work that for a few laps, build energy and then fly out and check the front side for lift, may do some acro or go hunt for a thermal, got low, come back and do some more DS laps. Top speed was never very much. He would do the same with basically any plane. I have never seen anyone else do the same on a regular basis like he could. We would struggle to fly the front side with better planes, and he would toss out an old combat wing that could not stay up on the frontside and he could not only keep the plane in the air, but have a lot of fun attacking us as he had energy stored up from the laps.
Thinking back, I used to have this big 3 meter vintage thermal ship that I would take to our Slermal site and I always swore that when the conditions got really weak I could put that plane in a tight high angle bank and crank turns with it and it would build and build energy. I just now realized that I was probably DSing it way back then as I would do that very low to the ground at the top of our gently rounded slope hill. LOL I didn't even know what DSing was back then. I did love that feature of that plane.. I always thought that was some magic power that plane had. Probably the long wingspan allowing me to capture the wind differences a bit better than my smaller gliders that I typically flew.
Makes me wonder if someone could DS at a thermal contest if a slight wind came up and they worked a tree line, small out building, etc.
I think what you like is what I call Slermal flying. It is Slope + Thermal = Slermal. Basically very light or no slope lift from a hill and flying out to find the thermal pockets. I used to do this a fair amount down in So Cal and loved it as it was very close to my house and a good challenge at times.
Since you love to DS, you can DS any glider!! One of the guys down south would DS everything and do it on just about any slope when the conditions got too weak to fly the front side. Now I will say he was a very gifted pilot that kind of reminds me of a young version of Bruce Tebo, the guy could put any plane anywhere he wanted, he would not think twice about flying a glider through the branches of a tree if he saw an advantage to doing so. To DS light weight gliders all you need is a difference in wind speeds, and this opened up basically every slope to DS for him.
To expand on this, a normal DS slope is a special thing that will allow for some high speeds, but when just trying to maintain minimal flight, just about any wind speed difference will do. Jordan would basically leave the slope face with a bit of energy and make his laps over in the landing area, or over the sidewalk just behind the slope face, etc. He had a 2 meter wood floater that was rudder and elevator, and he would do tight little DS laps about the width of a residential street. He would work that for a few laps, build energy and then fly out and check the front side for lift, may do some acro or go hunt for a thermal, got low, come back and do some more DS laps. Top speed was never very much. He would do the same with basically any plane. I have never seen anyone else do the same on a regular basis like he could. We would struggle to fly the front side with better planes, and he would toss out an old combat wing that could not stay up on the frontside and he could not only keep the plane in the air, but have a lot of fun attacking us as he had energy stored up from the laps.
Thinking back, I used to have this big 3 meter vintage thermal ship that I would take to our Slermal site and I always swore that when the conditions got really weak I could put that plane in a tight high angle bank and crank turns with it and it would build and build energy. I just now realized that I was probably DSing it way back then as I would do that very low to the ground at the top of our gently rounded slope hill. LOL I didn't even know what DSing was back then. I did love that feature of that plane.. I always thought that was some magic power that plane had. Probably the long wingspan allowing me to capture the wind differences a bit better than my smaller gliders that I typically flew.
Makes me wonder if someone could DS at a thermal contest if a slight wind came up and they worked a tree line, small out building, etc.
I am flying a 3m plane I designed and it is a pure bred thermal model so it makes this kind of flying more possible. It's not a guarantee but knowing the plane can climb out in light lift increases confidence. Increased confidence makes the pilot more relaxed and more relaxed means smoother on the sticks. That is the key to this kind of flying, stalls or bumpy flying kills energy. Energy management is the key to flying in light lift.
Here is a video of me playing in some late evening light air.
That field is 5 minutes up the road from my house. I also fly at huge soccer complex when the fields aren't in use.
Funny Story: Down the hill to the left from where I am flying in the video is a small shopping center. My daughter explained that one evening she was going in to the grocery store when she noticed what she thought was a huge bird flying over the parking lot. Then she remembered I was flying..... Pretty funny
Funny Story: Down the hill to the left from where I am flying in the video is a small shopping center. My daughter explained that one evening she was going in to the grocery store when she noticed what she thought was a huge bird flying over the parking lot. Then she remembered I was flying..... Pretty funny
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Konrad
Very Strong User
Nothing new there. I recall Mark Smith winning a few thermal contests (Nats) by sloping the tree line with his Windfree. This was in the early 70's.Yes, I have heard of slermaling and you are correct, I do like to fly that way as well.
I have heard of someone thermaling a tree in a DLG contest, but I think it was later put in the rule book you could not do that any longer? LOL.
This thread got me to dig out my grand old lady the Multiplex Cularis. This bird is over 15 years old. There is still no molded foam glider in the market place that can out perform her, that doesn't come from the Multiplex stable. The FMS ASW 17 is close but as delivered still falls rather short, both on the slope and in the thermal. The 2.6 meter Cularis has antiquated carbon rods as wing spars. Not the rectangular aluminum and carbon spars of the Heron and Lentus. The airfoil is lacking the aft cusp and is rather a thick semi-symmetrical cross section.
As to the durability of the servos you can see that I'm using both the real Multiplex servo and the red cased Hitec servo. The only real upgrade to this Multiplex glider is the addition of a rear bearing motor support. This is to add the much needed support to eliminate the cantilevered design. This is done to control the forces we see with that 13" aeronaut prop.
So to Wayne's question there are foam gliders and then there are Multiplex foam gliders. It is best not to confuse them.
All the best,
Konrad
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Konrad
Very Strong User
Yep. It taught me a lot about sailplane programing and that Spektrum wasn't the radio for me. (This still has the Spektrum radio attached to it. I worked too long and hard to throw it [the program] away). Other than the tail boom being a bit short it does thermal and even slope. But the smaller Heron is the better foamy glider.
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Diceman
Moderator
I had a great time flying/thermaling my ASW-17 and my 4m Ikura at Los Banos on Sunday! In the morning winds were real light and I had out the ASW-17 and found the thermals and would just sky out. I was up high for so long it started hurting my neck and had to come down, but when coming down it was hard to tell how steep a dive I was in and the right wing flap started fluttering and I had to come down much slower. LOL. Now, Mehrdad had warned me that this might happen when going into a steeper dive with this particular plane (thank you Mehrdad) but other than that this plane flies great!.
After 2:30pm the winds came up to about 12-14mph and I threw out the 4m Ikura and Orlando his 4m Avante and we skied out those planes so high I had a hard time seeing them. LOL. Great 40 minute session of being up in the clouds! Great day!
After 2:30pm the winds came up to about 12-14mph and I threw out the 4m Ikura and Orlando his 4m Avante and we skied out those planes so high I had a hard time seeing them. LOL. Great 40 minute session of being up in the clouds! Great day!
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