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What I have been up to...


dcairns

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Some of you have noticed that I have been a little scarce around here lately. Well, I have been busy with my other hobby, model airplanes. I have been pushing real hard to get this plane done for a contest, and now that is over, I can get back to "normal" a bit. Still not finished with it yet, but the deadline of the contest is passed, so I can go at a more leisurely pace to finish up the details.

It is a B-52 D glider. It weighs 25 lbs and has an 11 ft wing span. Still have not flown it yet, the wind was rather light the day of the contest :(

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That is absolutely awesome! Wish I had the patience for something like that. How far will something like that fly? Hate to sound stupid but, doesn't it get wrecked when it lands? :confused:

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This is what you call a slope soaring glider. It uses the lift produced by the wind being forced up a hill or cliff. The lift can be quite stong and support rather heavy planes. My B-52 is actually just a middle weight in terms of weight per wing area. You can fly them as far as you can see what you are doing with it. I have flown more normal sized planes till they are a spec in the sky above. Of course, the hill that you are flying on determines how far in each direction you can go.

Sometimes they wreck when they land, but they are radio controlled, so that is up to the pilot's skill :rolleyes: They do not have landing gear, just belly flopping on the brush and rocks :eek:

You can get an idea what the flying is like with this video. The planes shown in the video are made of a durable foam, so they are having fun doing intentional crashes. Out here in SoCal, we don't have many trees to contend with, just rocks, brush and rattlesnakes :jester:

http://www.berkshire.net/~blivsey/Musicvideo.wmv

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Very cool video. Must take a while to get the hang of that. Closest thing to a mountain we have here in southeast Michigan is the RenCen (tall building in downtown Detroit). Considering the mood of the country, our proximity to the Canadian border and the number of Arabs in this area, if you threw one of those off the RenCen the USAF would probably launch 2 f-14's to intercept them. :jester:

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Cool Dave!!

 

I just got my F5B glider going. Man is that thing FAST!!! Climb to altitude, straight up, and dive to a high speed pass, power off, over the flight line, up into some rolls and a cuban 8. Great Fun!! My Helis have kept me busy this spring. The SS makes a great transporter. Most of the helis fit behind the seat, and the bed is just big enough for the glider, and my 1/3 scale pitts.

 

We must get together if I ever get some time in LA. Most of my CA time is in Napa.

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