[Greg Reid]

Mostly 72mhz and at least one on the 50mhz ham radio frequency. Mostly Airtronics radios with one Futaba...maybe two. I've got a number of them.. In fact, I have a ton of stuff from fully built planes to full kits, partial 'short' kits, blueprints, engines from small glow to larger gas stuff...even a couple of converted weedwhacker engines.
A couple more pics I found. The P-47 still sits just like it's pictured. The last plane I was building (from plans) back in 2004 or so. Q-35 gasoline engine. The Bearcat was from an old 'Royal' kit designed in the '70s. Still have it also with an ASP .90 glow engine. That thing is a real stump puller!

Happened on to a '74 Trans Am back in '04 and had been looking to get into another Pontiac for a while. I realized then that I can only afford one un-affordable hobby at a time!

[ramair_bryan]

Dang................well done....................

Builders like you scare the rest of us........
We put them together....fly/crash/repeat....

I have a ton of ''in the seat'' scale vids.
Anybody know how to load them to this forum.
Windows media player. (windows 10).

Everybody loves an airplane.

[Shiny]

That video was fun and impressive on more levels than I can interpret. Nice!

And Greg, your work is equally impressive. You need to get back into it.

I was learning to fly RC sailplanes for a couple years until one of my co-worker/teachers got layed off and I deposited a beater Pontiac in the garage that replaced both my building time and hobby spending.

I never learned to fly gas but did have a Zagi that was fun.

I did build a .40-size trainer but never flew it.... reminds me of my Pontiac...

I still have the sailplane (Sagitta) and the trainer, although both got beat up moving across the country a couple times.

Now that I'm retired I want to revisit both hobbies but the tech shift in RC is now daunting. It's been 15? years since I flew but it was almost spiritual at the time. Catching a thermal and actually having control of the glider was addictive. That day I flew into a power line... not so much

[ramair_bryan]

Talk about power lines...........I have a really bad story that turned out a lot better
than it could have.
(nobody went to jail).....................
When I first started flying 10 years ago, I went out to the local airport and used the flight line since no one was around. (didn't know any better).
Ok....yea I did, but hey......
Flew around a while then crashed right into those 17,500 volt power lines.
No fires, No plane left either..........
So I picked up all my parts , so I thought and went home . A sad day.
Then the next day I realized a part was missing I could use on the next plane.
and went back out there.
Holy smoke....the power co was out there with an officer/inspecter from
the FAA. and another agency I didn't recognize.
Evidently There was a power outage that got traced to that spot.
And the guys up in the bucket know what to look for on the ground.
End of story.
Never was any thing said.
Investagation ended right there as far as I know.

This story was taken from the article: '' Eight ways to escape a felony , and live to tell about it".................................

[Shiny]

I'm almost sorry I mentioned my wire-assisted landing (my plane was fine BTW... just injured my self-esteem that day).

I don't even like reading that story... yikes.

Yes, you may feel both lucky and fortunate at the same time.

[Greg Reid]

Oh, that's a great story..lol
I started out with sailplanes myself. That's how I taught myself to land and acclimated myself to the controls. My goal was always powered flight and all I needed to do when I switched was to learn takeoff under power.
My flying partner at that time had a Sagitta in fact. I had a Gentle Lady and later a Sophisticated Lady.
We had permission to fly on this 5 or 6 acre field in front of a local college and people walking by could not figure out how those planes could fly with no motor...lol What's cool is when you catch a strong thermal and soar with the turkey buzzards.
Yep, sailplanes are about the most relaxing flying you can do without leaving the ground.

[Hikin Mike]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Oh, that's a great story..lol
I started out with sailplanes myself. That's how I taught myself to land and acclimated myself to the controls. My goal was always powered flight and all I needed to do when I switched was to learn takeoff under power.
My flying partner at that time had a Sagitta in fact. I had a Gentle Lady and later a Sophisticated Lady.
We had permission to fly on this 5 or 6 acre field in front of a local college and people walking by could not figure out how those planes could fly with no motor...lol What's cool is when you catch a strong thermal and soar with the turkey buzzards.
Yep, sailplanes are about the most relaxing flying you can do without leaving the ground.

I may have mentioned this before but my dad has been flying RC Airplanes since he was a kid (near 80 now). He has a modified Gentle Lady: http://www.singlestickstuff.com/phot...s/gentle-lady/

[ramair_bryan]

I see where your craftsman ship comes from now.
Dang I wish I had that kind of skill to build.

[Hikin Mike]

Originally Posted by ramair_bryan

I see where your craftsman ship comes from now.
Dang I wish I had that kind of skill to build.

[Greg Reid]

That Gentle Lady is fine. He did an excellent job and I noticed the altered fin profile and the addition of flaps right away. I have fond memories of mine and I flew it for a long time. What does he use to launch? We were using the surgical tubing method called a 'hi start'.

[ramair_bryan]

hey...........
I watch a lot of high start vids on youtube, But what's the chute for?
It is amazing how they launch those..................

[Shiny]

I still have my hi-start. I suspect the rubber is rotten after the 15 or more yrs I've had it .

I never really thought about the chute...just had one. Now that I think back on it, you are always launching into the wind so I think the chute helps bring the tow ring back to you and saves some steps when you need to launch again.

I built a "Big Bird" and used to launch it with the hi-start. It didn't fly as well as the Sagitta and one day I crashed it. I don't remember what I did with that plane.

My teachers were big-time (still are I think) competitive sailplane people (F3J?) and they had a winch that we used. We worked together and were able to run off at lunch and fly for an hour. That was fun and I miss it. If I get back into this, I think I'd get an electric sailplane but the winch was pretty amazing.

[Hikin Mike]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

That Gentle Lady is fine. He did an excellent job and I noticed the altered fin profile and the addition of flaps right away. I have fond memories of mine and I flew it for a long time. What does he use to launch? We were using the surgical tubing method called a 'hi start'.

I'm going to have to ask him for sure, but I think they use some type of electric winch. When I was there last (2010) they had a "Glider Golf" event (http://www.singlestickstuff.com/phot...lf-event-2010/). I have a poor picture of the guy setting it up:

In the old days I remember him using a "power pod", usually a gas engine attached to the top of the fuselage/wing area to get the sailplane up.

[Hikin Mike]

You can see it in action here:

[Greg Reid]

I don't see a link or photo Mike? I have a power pod here right now. Home made with a Cox .049 engine on a pylon.
Looks like your Dad and his buddies have a dedicated sailplane group so they probably do have a winch type starter. Same principle but less walking...lol. Pull it forward fast enough to generate lift and nose it down to release from the tether.
Looks like they may have even been using a tow plane as some clubs do.

[Shiny]

The winch my friends used for their competition planes would easily rip the wings off mine. They taught me to "modulate" the winch and helped me set up the plane to avoid that.

Here is an example of a winch launch for an F3J competition I found on the web that will give you an idea of the launch energy and strength of these planes. The competitors let a LOT of elastic tension build in the line after starting the winch and when they let go of the plane it rips!

https://youtu.be/S0dekvAUQDw

The winch got my plane up at least a 100' higher than the hi-start and once I got used to it, wasn't too stressful. I also had an .049 pod on one of my planes but never warmed up to it. I wasn't much of a pilot so the drag and weight of that pod would take minutes off my airtime if I failed to hook up with a big thermal.... which was more times than not. But catching a thermal is magic. I remember calling my friend over for help one day because I was too stupid to get my plane out of the thermal and was about to lose it. He ran over, put it in a spin, and saved it! Lesson learned... maybe...

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, that's a more serious competition sailplane there. I think that's a carbon fiber fuselage and maybe a carbon fiber main spar for superior strength. The Gentle Lady is almost a toy compared to that.

[242177P]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I don't see a link or photo Mike?

[ramair_bryan]

Long ago There was a youtube vid guys made at one of their winch meets.
One had another take over his sail plane (trainer mode) and landed it in
the parking lot.

The one guy kept acting like he still has a plane in the air..................
People would come up to look at his plane and just can't find it in the air.
That went on for 45 min he said.

Some would say ''oh, I see it" (didn't want to be stupid).
Finally after the meet was all over, and awards were about to be dished out,
His buddies walk up with his plane.....and everybody cracks up that they were
fooled.

A good club of guys................

Therefore, second place on down won

. P.S.

Funny too....Others insisted they really did see it at the 40 min mark................

[Greg Reid]

LOL... Yeah, I can say that i met some really great folks in the RC aircraft hobby. That is the hobby that introduced me to discussion forums like this one actually.
Found some more old scanned photos from the '90s. This was not my best looking plane but it was sooo much fun to fly with a converted 28cc weedeater engine. It had a 6ft wingspan. It was heavy and underpowered so it flew exactly scale. Big and slow and had to dive into a loop in order to build up enough speed to finish over the top.
Engine went dead, low, slow and inverted. Rest in pieces....