My R/C flying experience goes a few years back: I bought, many years ago, an Electra kit while saying to myself « sometime...»
In 1993, I met a childhood friend I have not seen in 20 years. Louis, had not ceased his R/C modeling activities since. He was now an expert R/C pilot. Its basement, a true R/C modeler Alibaba's cavern: almost everywhere there was R/C planes bits and pieces, many engines ( L ), tons of hardware, piles of modeling magazines and a solitary glider...
I decided therefore to construct and fly my Electra under Louis' expert supervision. Louis reassured me that I would not have problems like crashes, etc. I confess that I had great doubts. While shopping for a replacement wing for my Electra (just in case), I realized that I could obtain a Sophisticated Lady kit for almost for the same price. The SL used the same wing as the Electra, so I bought a SL and I built the wing, convinced that I would need it since I would break the wing of my Electra on first flights. Louis was right: after some flights under his supervision, I became autonomous and I flew my Electra all summer without even scratching it. Being alone interested by R/C glider in my region it was tough to maintain my conviction that it was possible to thermal fly in Quebec. « there are no thermal in Quebec» some R/C pilots told me, «it is a type of flying that one can make only in the southwest American, there it is possible to thermal !». My conviction was all the more shaken by the facts that the field where I flew was not very thermal prone and my Electra was particularly heavy. Even so, I succeeded to scratch some thermals, nothing spectacular but it lifted... a bit!
The elegant fuselage of the SL slept in its box in detached parts « what a pity! » I thought. So, just for fun I built it. From then on, the next logical step was to make it fly. I did not have a Hi-start, it was mid-September, fall winds had begun to blow, the flying season was almost at it's end. Do or die, I decided to use the SL in slope flying. At worst, I would have to rebuild it but since winter was near I would have plenty of time to do so. I knew that, near my home, there were sandpits that could be flyable: about a twenty meters high, perpendicular to dominant winds and easy access. It is from this small hill that I received my first slope flying adrenaline shot. The first impression was that the wind blew too much. I did not have a windmeter then but I think that the speed of the wind is a bit greater near the top of a slope than anywhere else. Anyway, when you stand on the ledge, wind seems worst than it is. I made sure my cap was secure, my transmitter «on», my receiver «on», rudder and elevator function properly... I threw the SL by pointing it's nose down (by chance I had read a bit about slope flying ) and... ecstatic moment: several interminable minutes of a graceful and well controlled flying, the plane flying very near, only a few meters in front of me. No difficulty to land I relaunch, same ecstasy, same landing.
I have of course flown several times there with my SL but I had visions of a true glider, of flying a -real- slope glider, a fast machine with ailerons. I have therefore built this type machine from a R/C Modeler plan, a Skorpion that I have slightly modified : initially a low wing, I made it a high wing thinking that rather than having to land on the wing, it would land on the fuselage which is more resistant than the wing. I learnt to build wings of Styrofoam covered with balsa. Tests flights of this plane (54 in. wing span and 28 ounces for 9 ounces/sq. ft. wing loading, Eppler 374) have been clearly less fruitful than my flights with the SL. It took me several attempts to understand that, perhaps, my small slope did not generate sufficient lift for this plane. I have then built a slope training plane to explore new slopes, a simple glider built out of Styrofoam that I named Foamy : high wing, Eppler 374, 48 inches wing span, 432 square inches, 20 ounces for 6.6 on./sq. ft..
I did not had much success with it near my home but as we had planned a family trip to Magdalena Islands I did not loose hope. How to transport the three family members, and their baggage, and our two large dogs in our small Subaru? Excellent opportunity to rent a Grand Caravan. I was then able to pack my two gliders easily...The Islands, they are beautiful but they are far away. Are they more beautiful than far? We still dont despite that this same question originated many debates. But, at these Islands it is always windy and, as these are islands, there is therefore always a slope facing the wind. First, I was disappointed because I hoped to find slopes similar to Torrey Pines: heart stopping cliffs; but the only ones approaching this description were at the other end of the island. So I had to revise my slope specifications and to experiment a bit to discover a nice slope about 5 minutes away from our cottage. At first, the slope was disappointing, it was even lower than my sand pit but it generated more than enough lift. Even better, the air that met this slope probably did not meet any obstacle since Europe (I hardly exaggerate!). This air was wonderfully smooth, no turbulence at all. To top it all, the landing space was HUGE, no fences, no cows, no nothing, only soft hay : despite my poor landing skills, I did not have to use all of it. I learned to fly slope there. My teachers: conciliatory gulls that authorized me to fly with them and who described me the subtleties of the lift band. There I also learned that when the wind blows harder, a plane flies better when ballasted. Even if I knew it because I read it, I did not think I would have to ballast my gliders so soon, that is why I had no ballast in my luggage. I had to find lead strips. That is how I made my way in a Harley Davidson shop, alone with my stunned intellectual look of a lost tourist, amidst an indescribable group of motorcyclists - arm -tattooed - long- hair -crested- jackets -marijuana-snipe -in- the - corner -the- mouth-inquisitive - suspicious- eyes. I lived, at this moment, an emotions flow somehow like what a chicken going in foxes' convention would have felt. For sure I wanted the lead, I had the lead, but I clearly felt that this was neither the moment nor the place to explain what I would use it for.
In winds that did not allow me to keep my cap my the head, even well squeezed and set backwards, winds that wanted to tear off the wing of my glider at any time prior the launch, I discovered that, ballasted with eight ounces of lead, my Styrofoam glider flew well again. Suddenly, it no longer flew like a Styrofoam glider but like a real plane. I only regret one thing : not being courageous enough to try my Skorpion there. Now, that I have flew this plane with great pleasure ski resort like Le Relais and Mont Ste-Anne as well as Leclercville, I regret it because I realize that I was a good enough pilot then to fly it without breaking it in small pieces.
Magdalena Islands, they are beautiful but they are far away, there are very nice slopes for R/C flying and the wind is guaranteed. Perhaps some day...
©, Louis Cimon
97-09-15
