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

Fair enough, all I’d say is don’t rush to the Yak though. 50cc of aerobat demands a certain amount of experience and reflexes to be baked in through repeated practice. And the kit onboard is another level to typical ‘just passed solo’ sort of stuff (acrowot or riot or whatever). I’m sure I’m not telling you anything your club won’t already have.

No worries there – I know my limits and capabilities plus I don’t want to stuff it in the ground any time soon. We have a couple of excellent 3D pilots who fly the really big stuff (one has a 126″ 200cc Slick for example) and they have offered to help me out as and when I am ready so will have someone very capable at my side.

I am in no hurry to get it flown either – yes I want to see her up in the air but not at the expense of doing something stupid :). At the moment it is just all baout getting stick time as and when I can.

I am just happy that, having wanted to learn to fly since I was 12 or 13 so over 30 years now, I have finally got round to doing it and it is as much fun as I thought it would be. My club is also letting me teach my little boy on my little electric trainer too and he is enjoying it as well.

Watching the first vid of them throwing them into the air really surprised me guessed they’d spin but didnt understand how quickly that went to flight. Hope you enjoy your new hobby 😀 Looks pretty amazing.
Can we expect vids of your discus exploits ?.

With my Frisbee history I’d likely fling it into the nearest tree.

@dyna-ti. I will try and get someone to film me. Yes the launch is very rapid. Due to angular velocity the glider is doing a fair whack on launch and the upward trajectory is not as a result of any control input, rather the aerodynamics of the glider.

The modern wings are very advanced with huge amounts of R&D going into the foil design. Ultra lightweight too and there is not a great deal of room to work with fitting the radio gear etc as everything is packaged as tightly as possible.

Really good fun though…

Good stuff, sounds like you have exactly the right kind of help 🙂

My last glider purchase a full.on DS Needle 100.

Made a start on the Pug. All the ribs cut out, cleaned up and started gluing them to the left wing spar.

Really well thought out kit this, goes together very nicely 🙂

Is the frame made of balsa wood ?.

@dyna-ti dannybgoode posted a picture on p1. Most everything looks like balsa. Carbon tube used for fuselage boom and wing spar. Front of the wing looks like a really thin carbon rod too. Gliders love carbon, tremendous strength for the material weight.

Balsa is really good where you need to carve a complex shape from a block, say, back edge of wing or the wing tips. Foam is ok for the premade airframes, but difficult to work it in the same way as wood, or get the same surface finish from it.

@dyna-ti – yes this one is mainly balsa wood with a little bit of carbon and the odd piece of ply in the fuselage for strength where the boom goes and the wings attach.

I have another DLG coming which is all carbon and impossibly light for its size. They are more specialist though and expensive 🙂

Pre-manufactured foam models are really common now but they can mould them. As @mrmonkfinger says it is harder to work with at home but some people are very good with it.

There are even people that make their own full carbon DLGs at home but that is way beyond what I can do at the moment 🙂

Following – not because I’m particularly interested in getting into a new hobby, I just like seeing the enthusiasm and camaraderie, oh and the skill in building them on these kinds of threads. I follow the RC Cars and Airfix model threads for the same reason.

Great stuff gents, another excellent display of the benefits of STW forums to be found outside the humongous argumentathons.

My last glider purchase a full.on DS Needle 100.

Oh Blimey. That’s a heck of a lot of airframe 🙂

make their own full carbon DLGs at home

Yeah that’s quite a skillset to build up! Plus carbon is hard to work, and the dust is really not good for you at all.

As a construction material balsa has the distinct advantage of only needing a very small set of tools to do most jobs, about half of which are sandpaper or sandpaper stuck to a shaped block or wrapped around a tube or something like that.

RC Cars and Airfix

There’s some proper skill on show in there, and in the ‘last thing you made’ thread.

As a construction material balsa has the distinct advantage of only needing a very small set of tools to do most jobs,

Agree. I have a couple of powered kits to get working on as well. Both are relatively simple but both will require me to cut balsa sheeting to fit a plan. Not as intricate as some models but enough to keep it interesting. And yes, a razor saw, razor plane and a scalpel is pretty much all you need 🙂

Been sowly getting there with this little Pug. The fuselage is now finishing and covered. Note the covering is a type of heat shrink film. You cut it loosely to shape, tack it on with an iron at a lowsih heat (you can just use a household iron but it is quick clunky doing that or you can get a modeling iron designed for the job) and then whack the temperature up and go over it again and it shrinks nice and tight to the model.

I’ve also finished the wing. one of the hardest and most time consuming parts of this build is shaping the wingtips. They start off as just a stack of 3 balsa sheets which have the outline of the wingtip already cut but then you need to sand that block down to match the curve of the wing ribs and then taper it down at the edges.

Makes a bit of a mess with sawdust etc!

I think, if I have a bit of spare time over the weekend I will get it finished. Not a massive amount left to do.

Oh, and my competition class full carbon glider arrived to day. That is a work of art – I’ll post some pictures of that once I start putting it together. Not much actual building for that, it is more about squeezing the radio gear in and carefully cutting slots in very expensive carbon parts…

Really piqued my interest this thread for many reasons.

@dannybgoode
Any reason the glider could not be built before the transmitter/receiver options are considered/bought?

Thanks!

@poopscoop – for this particular model you can fully build it before needing any of the electrics.

It isn’t always the case as sometimes the servos in particular are built in at a certain part of the process but not in this case.

Any questions at all just fire away

So this was a bit of fun. When you launch a DLG, given the rotation, the glider tends to want to head off slightly in the direction of launch. So, if you are right handed you’ll spin counter-clockwise and the gliders will want to veer left.

Particularly when you’re learning you also tend to hook the launch a bit and exacerbate this.

But, for maximum aero efficiency you want the glider to be heading as straight as possible.

So, on the carbon jobs the rudder is moulded so it produces a small amount of lift in the opposite direction thus countering the turn. On a balsa fin you have to shape it yourself through careful sanding.

Shaping balsa for me just happens. I try not to think about anything but the end shape I want and just try and make it happen. Hard to explain and perhaps not useful to others wanting to try but it’s the best way I can put it.

Anyway here’s my vertical stabiliser and rudder (the vertical stab is the part of the tail fin that doesn’t move, the rudder the part that does).

I want the lift on the right hand side of the tail so I’ve shaped the left hand side.

Thanks mods for updating the thread title. Just getting down the club field and chewing the cue whilst talking bollocks – mainly about RC aircraft but other stuff as well – has been really good for my mental health so opening the thread up to all RC flying.

So any fellow pilots feel free to join in, post pictures of your models, exchange tips and tricks etc. Anyone interested in the hobby with any questions fire away 🙂

Note though it’s the DLGs that have really put a smile on my face 🙂

So, on the carbon jobs the rudder is moulded so it produces a small amount of lift in the opposite direction thus countering the turn

Interesting that this is built in simply for a couple of seconds at launch.
So, once launched, if you want to fly straight there has to always be a little bit of left rudder to counteract the built in right rudder?
Surely this would add a little extra drag to what needs to be a minimum drag design.

Not saying it’s wrong (I know nothing about RC planes) but it seems odd to do this.

@dannybgoode me and my dD used to build gliders with a dethermalizer when i was much younger.

I have a brilliant local venue for somethink like the Pug, but only have quadcopter rc gear. Its an FrSky Taranis tx in heli mode, but um guess in i could just use the RH stick for elevator and rudder?
If so, shat rx and servos do i need?

Thanks

Ian

@sharkbait – good observation. Apparently (and bearing in mind the designers of the competition class glilders do wind tunnel testing and advanced CFD on their designs) it is only at launch speeds the rudder gives any lift. The launches are around 60-90mph and the usual flying speeds much lower than this so no right trim is required. I just take their word for this as there are some properly clever people who have very advanced knowledge of aerodynamics etc who work this stuff out 🙂

The aerodynamics are interesting and advanced and you use the ailerons like flaps and spoilers as well so they are known as flaperons. So to give a slow flight wiht some lift at the expense of drag you apply a bit of down camber to both ailerons (just 1-2mm) and for fast flight and particularly the launch you put in some up camber to basically kill any lift (and therefore drag) the wing may give. You don’t need wing lift at take-off, just launch velocity.

Then when you put in a little down camber the glider wants to pitch up slightly and again this is less aerodymanically efficient so you mix in a tiny bit of down elevator to keep it flying level. The small extra drag is worth it for a level aircraft.

Setting them up properly can take a long time and lots of experience but something like the Pug is much more basic and does not require the same level of transmitter programming. And even a full carbon one will fly without the fancy flight modes programmed but for longer flights you do need them.

@breninbeener – Your Taranis would be ideal and it would be up to you how you set the channels. I fly Mode 2 so throttle and rudder on the left stick, ailerons and elevator on the right. GIven the Pug is only 2ch I could put Rudder and elevator on the right but as I fly 4ch planes as well I want the muscle memory of rudder always being on the left.

You can easily make the Taranis suitable for planes, helis and quads. The programming of the 4ch DLGs as alluded to above is complex and I’ve spent the last few nights trying to get my head around it however for the Pug it is very easy

I’ve always likes the idea of a RC glider and had never heard of DLGs.
So I could fly this anywhere?
As it happens I have a 4 acre paddock that is quite exposed (i.e.nkt surrounded by trees) so it would be great to fly from my doorstep.

@sharkbait – sounds ideal. Get like the Pug or the Elf as a first glider. They are not overly easy to fly but they are not beyond most people’s capabilities to learn either – just takes time to understand how they respond to control inputs etc.

The big thing to remember is unlike a car you do not keep giving input. So steering, you nudge the rudder or aileron (usually aileron but on the Pug and Elf they only have rudder) and once the glider is turning you return the stick to centre.

Then to stop the turn you put in the opposite control and back to centre. Same with elevator. If you kept holding the elevator you would, assuming you have enough airspeed, do a loop for example. So you get the nose up and then back to centre etc.

Look up PicaSim. There is even an ios and android version but with a PC you can plug your transmitter in for more of a real feel.

vertical stabiliser and rudder

fin, dear boy, fin and rudder, we are not american 🙂

post pictures of your models

Few pay grades below your Yak…

Own design twin scratch build project from a couple of years ago. Couple of old OS 40 size glows for power.

Aeromaster (1966 design), last years project, 80 size four stroke up front.

Both are (give or take) all balsa and covered in heatshrink.

I have a few more in the quivver but those are the Sunday best. I mostly go for 60 size IC (circa 3kg), or electrics at 300 or 400W size (big electrics scare me).

FrSky Taranis tx in heli mode

I’m pretty sure you can just add a slot/memory for a glider and set it to ‘fixed wing’.

@mrmonkfinger – I like the twin in particular. Has a look of the DH88 about the fuse and cockpit in particular. Likewise I enjoy models around the more ‘normal’ size but wanted at least one big plane hence the Yak. It was on for a price that I simply couldn’t refuse and it nicely fits in the boot of my Golf Estate with the seats down/

I’ll get some pics together of my hanger. I have a few interesting models for next year once I’ve have got some more stick time down with my Boomerang trainer and Spacewalker 🙂

The Pug DLG is about finished as well and I am just waiting for the wing bolts to arrive (they were missing from the kit but AngelWings did let me know at the time of dispatch and have sent them on separately 🙂 ).

And yes, you can set any model in the memory to be fixed wing etc…

Original SAS Wildthing. Had a few. The almost-impossible-to-destroy model that taught me to fly

2nd hand Middle phase. First non foam thing. Had a couple of phase 6s as well

SimProp L33 – 3.2m wingspan. Loved flying this. Still in the rafters about 8 years since I last did

2nd hand Vector bought to teach me to fly proper aerobatics. Not with that much success 🙂

Bird 60 bought off @eddiebaby

That’s had a very hard life but still going. My go to model once I’ve warmed up my thumbs.

The end of my IC flying! Mid Air with instructor at the controls!

Have about 15 gliders in the rafters. Really should get round to cycling some batteries.

So here’s a few of mine – the ones I am currently flying at the moment as well as the Yak again (not yet good enough to fly the Yak 🙂 ).

FBG has taken ownership of the Tundra so he can learn to fly. Great plane this – highly recommend as a first model. No bad habits at all and very easy to fly.

The orange and silver one is a re-covered Seagull Boomerang. Again, if you want I learn IC models I can’t rate this highly enough. Docile if you want it to be but can do all the basic aerobatics with easy.

The sleek looking yellow, orange and red one is my Chris Foss Acrowot – the plane I wanted when I was 14 and now I have one. Currently needs some minor repairs following a heavy landing

And then the yellow and red one is my Seagull Spacewalker. Flies similar to the Acrowot but is a little more nimble. Like it a lot and it’s an ideal first low wing plane…

Mid Air with instructor at the controls!

That’ll buff out.

Love the Wildthing and Vector.

The Tundras is cool.

Found a couple more

Not me, Alan old fella in 2011 so may not still be with us! Made the most amazing scale gliders of 40s/50s/60s. And carried them all the way up Garway Hill (which is a climb even if you’re fit).

Not one of mine, Pilatus B4 maybe

WT combat!

Hawk, Great Orme, don’t land out 🙂

@mrmonkfinger – I did rebuild it but had started sloping so it’s say 95% rebuilt in the loft, probably a nest for spiders now!

You guys certainly travel to find slopes, that’s for sure.

Is Garway your local?

Yep. About 30 mins drive to Galway. About an hour to “North Hill” in South Wales (when we needed a North facing slope). Bwlch and Ebbw Vale also about the same. Flew off Pole Cottage on the Mynd a few times – far easier walk in than Galway!

Only went to the Orme once but it was awesome. Really smooth lift and lots of it. Launching required significant commitment if you didn’t want the glider to disappear behind you to be retrieved in a black bag!

@Alex that Bird60 should survive, I think it was the double carbon with the added carbon in the cockpit area that I sold you. I had so many (5?) That can’t remember.
Loved those Birds.
If you like the Orme then you need to try the West cliffs on Portland…

Finished the Pug. Now just to wait for a suitable gap in the weather to trim it out and get some flights in 🙂

When the wings are joined, due to the dihedral there is a gap so I used my stoma paste to fill it. Perfect filler that stuff 🙂

The covered the wings. Covering takes a bit of practise and I’m still not brilliant at it but happy enough.

Then just had to squeeze the electrics is and job done.

Crikey, that was quick. Fair play. Looks great!

It’s a very quick build to be fair and I’ve built one before so didn’t take too much work.

The most time consuming part of the build is sanding the wingtips to shape.

FVT-3 Prandtl flying wing next and then maybe my big Moth Minor 🙂

The most time consuming part of the build is sanding the wingtips to shape

Shaping is one of those satisfying activities that you can zone out / focus on.

Well it’s here. One of my dream RC aircraft – a proper competition class F3L DLG glider.

Almost entirely carbon fibre and in my eye, a work of beautiful engineering art. Once put together (there is a bit of work installing the electrics, cutting slots in the fuselage for pushrod etc) it will have a flying weight of around 225g. 225g for a glider with a 1.5m wingspan. Bonkers 🙂

And if you think roadies are weight weenies wait until you see what someone came up with to save around 5g to replace the pushrod for the rudder and elevator. I’ll post full details later when I build it.

Very nice looking, almost looks born of evolution rather than invention.

Incredible to think something that big can weigh a gnats fart too!

@dannybgoode
May I ask what sort of budget transmitter/ receiver options (just ballpark ideas) id be looking at for the Pug?

Thanks again.