I’ve found my new anti-depressant – Discus Launched Gliders and other RC aircraft

Oh lordy. Angry sertraline thread refers – having just decided to try and kick the mirtazapine having been on it for a good few years I think I have found my replacement antidepressant! Discus Launched Gliders!!

Basically, radio controlled gliders that you launch by spinning your body round like you’re going to throw a discus. The launch angle is flat but given the aerodynamics of the glider it shoots up at 45 degrees + and the really good guys can get to around 75-80m.

You then try and find a thermal or just keep the glider floating for as long as possible. Without a thermal a good flight time is 1 1/2 – 2 mins and even when starting out the feeling of utter joy in finding just a tiny but of lift and keeping afloat for another few seconds is immense.

Yesterday I started out with just a few side launches – the full discus launch can wait – given I was flying on a bit of a slope there was just a little lift to keep my little glider afloat.

Much to learn but utterly addictive. Hoping to get back out again when the Mrs is back from the gym.
Just that bit toward the end of a fight where you’re trying to tease just a few more seconds out of it and find a hair of lift and get rid for another smash circuit. Wonderful stuff.

Entry into the hobby can start cheap – a small glider, all the electrics and a transmitter can be had for £120ish although you will need to build the glider. The competition class ones are engineering works of art though – beautiful moulded carbon with total flying weights around 200-215g for a glider with a 1.5m wingspan. The are unreal 🙂

If you are looking for a hobby that gets you out of the house, gives you something to concentrate on whilst being nice and relaxing and has enough of a challenge to keep it interesting this could be it 🙂

Intro here

My little set up.

I’ve got an elf for the no wind on the hill days.
It’s a pretty good when there are some thermals on a flat field and the birds of pray are playing as well.

The Elf is an excellent little thing. My Pug is basically a kit version of it with a slightly shorter wing.

Tempted by the Spin which is the 4 channel Elf with a Carbon wing but will probably go for a 1.5m carbon glider in due course

And yes, I want to get down to my club field and see if I can catch a thermal and bother the buzzards 🙂

Ah cool my missus has been saying recently that I don’t have enough hobbies to spend time/money on. At least, I think that was the gist of it.

@grum – my stock response when Mrs BG gives me *that* look as I introduce yet another hobby.

‘I can always go out and buy a motorbike…’

One of the sites I look after gets really busy with model glider pilots every so often, especially considering it’s quite a walk.
Turns out it is where the UK dynamic soaring speed records are held, about 360mph last from memory.

@timber. The overall speed record for dynamic soaring is now 548mph! Insane and they are saying that it’s getting to the point where pilot reaction time is limiting it going much higher.

548mph from a toy glider 😀

Never knew such a thing existed.
They do look cool at launch.

Wonder if you can get one with foldable wings. Rucksack and mtb could combine the best of both hobbies, climb a mountain launch glider, lose glider, find glider through GPS (if that’s a thing) ride back down at warp speed following tracker location to find glider.

Rinse and repeat 😀

‘I can always go out and buy a motorbike…’

Hehe nice, might try that. 🙂

@twonks. They all have removable wings and the smaller ones have an 80cm or 1m span and some of the bigger 1.5m ones have a two piece wing option.

They are quite fragile though but with a big with foam cuts outs I can see it being achievable. You don’t need a big space to fly them from really either.

And the idea is you fly them back to you. The good pilots can catch them by the launch peg and send them straight back up. Flying them downhill and retrieving them on a bike could be a new competitive class though!

I used to love slope soaring RC gliders, but never really gave the flat field stuff a go. The small hand launch planes are great though as you can also get lift off the smallest of banks and features with them as well as thermals and have great fun. You certainly need to focus.

Dynamic soaring was just ‘taking off’ the last time I flew. That is some crazy screaming speedy slope stuff.

Didn’t know about these, I’ve just switched onto mirtazapine so that’s my excuse for buying one.

I love building these simple kits, really therapeutic. And it must be easier to fly than the helis which I’m having a rest from.

Don’t know when I’ll get a chance to build or fly it, what with finishing this house, buying the next one, kids, mk2 Golf to restore, bikes…..

@oldnick – this is the kit I recommend. Get the deluxe version so you get the covering.

https://www.angelwingdesigns.co.uk/products/pug-micro-dlg

There is a brilliant series of build videos by Nick Chitty starting with this

A couple of days work is about all it will take.

Yup, that’s the badger 🙂

Just have to see if it goes under the wife’s radar when it arrives…

Blimey, they have already dispatched it, top service!

I have a Pug and an Elf.
Pug was my first build, so is a little rough.
Elf is an assembly more than build and is a thing of beauty.
Both slope on light breeze beautifully.
My favourite thing is to fly the Elf in dead air (no wind) think crisp winter mornings. Graceful and gravity defying. People stand and stare.
Very meditative.
I share your joy.

I’ve never flown an RC glifer but have been tempted many times. I think a foam slope soarer woukd be the one to take on a bike ride

I have just ordered a second Pug as my first has a few mistakes in the build and has been pretty much totalled and then superglued back together.

@oldnick – Andy at AWD is a top bloke and it is worth joining the Angel Wing Designs builders group on Facebook – decent folk on there. And yes, I have been trying not to crash helis for longer than I have even been learning to fly powered planks.

@karlp – how does the Elf compare to the Pug? Tempted by one but they look outwardly so similar and I don’t know whether to put the money toward a 1m class full carbon job (the Stiletto Lift would get my cash 🙂 ).

@ampthill – out of stock at the moment but something like this would be just the ticket for you

https://www.hyperflight.co.uk/products.asp?code=DF-ALULA-TREK&name=dream-flight-alula-trek-90cm

Elf is excellent. They come highly recommended and imho well deserved.
Pug is lovely, esp if you can build them properly. Elf is a different class tho.
I’d go Elf then tres expensive full carbon dlg, and probably never fly the full carbon for fear of diminishing it’s beauty.

Stiletto looks lovely.
The Hawks come highly recommended.
Have a chat to Neil at Hyperflight he gives sound advice esp re build capability and plane choice.

Note in my experience when you catch a thermal these planes can quickly gain height and become very small and difficult to track the orientation…baby steps are required!

I used to climb the Skirrid for some DS action. Although I was very timid compared to the pilots with massively overbuilt gliders, lots of spare income and significant cahoonies 🙂 No way I could flat that fast without smashing it into the hill. See also F3F 🙂

For a laugh we used to try and discuss launch SAS wildthings off Garway Hill. It was amusing if not very successful. But I flew my v1 Weasel on some coastal sand dunes. Great fun just hunting out the tiniest bit of lift to keep them in the air.

I must have 20+ slopers of various sizes in the rafters of my shed. Might need to dig a few out this Autumn.

Glad you found it therapeutic. I love standing on a big hills with big views battling against a 30knot wind trying to get a glider away. Best advice I was ever given was ‘take off is optional, landing is not’ 🙂

I’d go Elf then tres expensive full carbon dlg, and probably never fly the full carbon for fear of diminishing it’s beauty.

I have an older 1.5m Highlight SAL which will be ideal for learning more advanced flying on on and I am now beyond the beginner stage of flying RC planes in general so am OK with orientation etc – even at a distance.

I know what you mean about the fear of stuffing a beautiful carbon model. One of the things that appeals to me about the Stiletto is it gets universally good reports of being quite sturdy. The ready built Hawk is also tempting as someone else has wrestled the servos in etc 🙂

I am happy now that I will build the Pug much better this time round. I missed the small piece of wood that sets the wing dihedral last time so guessed the angle and the rudder was not square to the elevator and the elevator not square to the wing so if I get those sorted I’ll be much happier. Even with it how I built it, it is still immense fun and will hopefully be even better.

Oh and I want a proper DLG now 🙂

That looks fun but I guarantee that if I took it up I’d wang the glider 180 degrees in the wrong direction and straight into the face of a small child.

Can someone with no model making experience do the Pug? What do you need for the build? Is it just a case of a craft knife and some glue? I reckon this would be awesome to have a go at.

And if I can be a pain and ask more questions what do you need for flying? Servos and a battery and an RC controller?

@meikle_partans – the Pug is very easy to build. Watch the build videos I linked to above and you’ll see it really is straightforward. A decent craft knife, some sandpaper and some superglue is all that is needed. If you buy the deluxe kit it comes with the covering which, whilst you can get special covering irons a normal household iron will do. Not absolutely ideal but it keeps the cost down. If you have a heat gun you could use that also. Just watch the temperature.

Servos – a couple of these

https://www.4-max.co.uk/servo-4max-4M-045DH-005.html

And then a small 1s lipo battery – something like this when they have stock:

https://www.hyperflight.co.uk/products.asp?code=NTECH-2S-260&name=nanotech-2s-260-mah-lipo-battery-35c

The choice of radio gear is a little more complex as it depends if you think you may go further with RC flying as to what I would recommend. For me, £ for £ the best value transmitter out there is the Radiomaster TX16S but at £150 it is a fair outlay if you just want to dip your toe.

Programming the radio is, if anything, more challenging than building the model. If you progress to the 4 channel gliders where you need different settings for different flight phases etc it can become very complex but the Pug is very simple so not something to unduly worry about.

But, if you think you may go further in the hobby it is the only radio you’ll need. I would pair it with a LemonRX DSMX compatible receiver – something like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133739428736?hash=item1f237dbb80:g:n0cAAOSwbYRgg8D5

Awesome thank you I’ll have a look at all that.

First time I’ve heard of this! The speed those guys launch their birds is incredible, and watching the bloke timing it so he’s catching the wingtip to get a perfect spin and release was seriously cool! Turning one into a lawn dart is fine on the sort of soft ground in an average park, but not so much fun on an average hill-top, thin soil on rock – encourages the catch-spin-release technique, though… 😁

548mph from a toy glider

Not much toy left in it when they’re doing 548mph…

Not much toy left in it when they’re doing 548mph…

They are not overly special in their construction compared to other gliders. It is all in the technique of Dynamic Soaring which is something i do not fully understand but it is about using the dead air to accelerate through.

From memory is was almost an accidental discovery that huge speeds could be achieved this way.

birds of pray are playing as well.

Nuns?

Always wanted to have a glider, this thread isn’t helping!

@Shackleton – I am just in the process of finalising the purchase of a beauty. I will post pictures just to put you off doing the same 🙂

It is all in the technique of Dynamic Soaring which is something i do not fully understand but it is about using the dead air to accelerate through.

Cool animation on wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_soaring

If you can achieve 548mph, my comment about the toy content was that the aerodynamics and construction have to be engineered to the job. i.e. not just a clark-y foam wing plank on a wood box with some flat tail bits.

Nearest I got a DLG was my Alula. A lovely little thing that lived in a drawer at work for luchtime playing around the trading estate catching thermals of the hot buildings or ‘sloping’ off the the lift from some of the weirder shaped ones.

my comment about the toy content was that the aerodynamics and construction have to be engineered to the job

Ah I see. Yes I just meant toy as that is what some people outside the hobby see them as. I have a ‘toy’ Yak 54 but with an 8′ wingspan and a 50CC two stroke petrol engine in it :D. Yes the engineering of some of the competition class gliders is very very impressive.

@eddiebaby – now there is an idea. Not sure I would get away with sloping off (pun intending) for an hour or so though to have a fly. Would be a nice way to break the day up though.

If I get into sloping properly though this is the glider I want – the Shinto. Fully spec’d out you’re looking at around £2500 though so that’ll have to wait!

As an aside ther4e is an excellent, free RC glider sim which, assuming you have a transmitter, you can hook up to your PC with a cheap dongle. Gives a pretty good feel for how DLG’s and other gliders handle to be fair

http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/PicaSim/

Yak 54 but with an 8′ wingspan and a 50CC two stroke petrol engine in it 😀

That’s a whole different kettle of shrimp… 15cc is about the limit of my pay grade.

What’s the gear setup in it?

That’s a whole different kettle of shrimp… 15cc is about the limit of my pay grade.

What’s the gear setup in it?

It is an older model, someone sponsored a pilot and basically the way it worked was they would buy the plane, have it professionally built and then the sponsored pilot would use it for a season and then give it back to the donor. So I did not build it but at least I know it has been done right 🙂

Engine is a Desert Aircraft DA50 – about as good as RC petrol engines get, JR digital servos (x2) on the elevator. Hitec digital (x1) on the rudder and Futaba digital (x2) on the ailerons. The airframe is a Quique Somenzini design.

Child for scale…

In other news my new Pug kit turned up today as well. Will clear down my modeling area and get this built.

Nice. Much lighter loaded than many of Quique’s, IIRC. You into 3d then? I’ve got only small foamies for that kind of thing (well, had – recently ditched my thoroughly knackered HK MX-2 and haven’t yet replaced it)… wallet couldn’t stand the >25% kit.

@mrmonkfinger – I am pretty new to the game. Only got passed out solo at my club a couple of months ago so still very much learning. The Yak was being sold by the original owner though as they are moving abroad and it was at a price I couldn’t turn down. I could part it out for a fair bit more than I paid for it but it is what I wanted for next year together with a couple of really nice scale biplanes I have (a stunning Tiger Moth and an equally as nice Hawker Tomtit).

As for flying style – not so much the full-on really fast and twitchy 3D. I prefer the slower and more ‘controlled’ IMAC style of aerobatics and that is what I am ultimately aiming to be able to do.

And of course the gliders. Competitive F3K is appealing and I can see myself entering a couple of rounds just for the fun and experience. Want to get out on the slopes too.

And then there is my lengthy battle of learning not to crash helis. Been trying to do that for far longer than the planks but I do that in fits and starts with planks being my main focus at the moment.