The joy of slope

[Phil Cooke]

Tim will most likely give a better description but from what I know Eneloop is just a brand name for a type of NiMH cell developed by Sanyo which has better self discharge rates and more stability than 'normal' NiMH cells.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Phil,

yes it is nice to get back from a flying session not facing 5 hours of Lipo charging. I used less than 5% of my 2200 mah 3s pack yesterday.

i just came across a familiar looking phase 6 on T9hobbysport.com!

[Delta Foxtrot]

Posted by Phil Cooke on 24/06/2014 22:54:03:

Tim will most likely give a better description but from what I know Eneloop is just a brand name for a type of NiMH cell developed by Sanyo which has better self discharge rates and more stability than 'normal' NiMH cells.

Thanks Phil.

[Andy Meade]

The other thing I like about NiMHs is that they are heavy Heavy batteries pushed into the nose are always a better bet than a lipo plus lead I feel. Perhaps there's no tangible difference, but I prefer to have weight doing stuff rather than just along for the ride!

[Tim Mackey]

If its weight you want /need then you could always use a bigger lipo pack ( assuming you have the room ) and then you could fly all week, never mind all weekend LOL.

Eneloops ( and Vapex - another brand ) are what is known as LSD cells - no not that type of LSD Low Self Discharge, meaning that, as with lipo, you can charge 'em today, and not go flying for weeks or even months, and they will still be full(ish). Also there's no dreaded black wire disease as there was with the old nicd cells.

A few notes of caution.......like all nickel based cells they are not happy in cold weather - also, some of the larger capacity packs are not good at delivering high currents, so if I do use them, I stick to the 2000mahr packs as a maximum.

Edited By Tim Mackey on 25/06/2014 16:36:59

[Andy Meade]

I think it would take many LiPo packs to make up the weight of a meaty 2/3rds A 3800mAh pack If current delivery is a problem, then gang 2 sets together - even more capacity then too!

I'm not sure on the lack of potential for black wire disease - the wiring is still on the outside of the battery after all (but happy to be corrected on the root cause of this), but what I definitely do know is that LiPo's are still affected by temperature drops - they are still a chemical battery I definitely notice the capacity drop on my quad in the winter.

I've never seen a plane fire damaged by NiMH pack tho :D

[Delta Foxtrot]

Posted by Tim Mackey on 25/06/2014 16:34:25:

If its weight you want /need then you could always use a bigger lipo pack ( assuming you have the room ) and then you could fly all week, never mind all weekend LOL.

Eneloops ( and Vapex - another brand ) are what is known as LSD cells - no not that type of LSD Low Self Discharge, meaning that, as with lipo, you can charge 'em today, and not go flying for weeks or even months, and they will still be full(ish). Also there's no dreaded black wire disease as there was with the old nicd cells.

A few notes of caution.......like all nickel based cells they are not happy in cold weather - also, some of the larger capacity packs are not good at delivering high currents, so if I do use them, I stick to the 2000mahr packs as a maximum.

Edited By Tim Mackey on 25/06/2014 16:36:59

Thanks for the info Tim

[Delta Foxtrot]

I returned to the cloud this morning for another bash after Mondays debut. Winds less than monday where lift was on tap. I only managed one flight, but it did last for 2 hours so a decent fix to get me through next week.

Edited By david fillingham 1 on 29/06/2014 19:20:53

[Ian Jones]

Doh , nearly came up there myself today. Didn't think it was windy enough but by mid afternoon it was a lot more breezy.

Ian

[Delta Foxtrot]

It wasn't bad for the couple of hours I had up to 12:30 ish, but I was struggling towards the end to find much lift.

i went mainly to get calibrated as to what flying in these lower winds was like as this side of flying us new to me.

Lovely views

[Steve Houghton 1]

I headed up to the VR98 slope at The Bwlch this morning but there was hardly a breath of wind so, I headed to Meio Common, which was on my way home and fared a little better flying the Libelle. I managed to catch onto a few thermals and keep it up in the air for a while.

A little light flying is better than no flying, eh!

Steve

A470soaring.blogspot.co.uk

[Paul Hampshire]

Dream Flight Libelle's floating around on The Wrecker this weekend with Steve Houghton.

We have a new Libelle DLG blog that anyone is welcome to post up on: **LINK**

With more video, pictures and flying reports all focused on this amazing DLG.

[russ d]

"A little light flying is better than no flying"

Havn't been able to get out for a few weeks but yesterday evening managed to get out to the purbecks, my wife took the dogs for a walk while I had 40 mins poodling around with an old easy glider.

What a great hobby for a summer evening !

Fish an chips on the way home as well !

russ.

[Steve Houghton 1]

Funny you should say about stopping for fish & chips on the way home. After my little sortie with Paul Hampshire above, I was heading home through the Rhondda Valley when I felt peckish so stopped off at a great chippie in Ton Pentre called, "A fish called Rhondda". Great name!

[Tim Mackey]

That sounds like a heavenly sort of day Steve....

[Tim Mackey]

Posted by Andy Meade on 25/06/2014 16:48:14:

I think it would take many LiPo packs to make up the weight of a meaty 2/3rds A 3800mAh pack If current delivery is a problem, then gang 2 sets together - even more capacity then too!

I'm not sure on the lack of potential for black wire disease - the wiring is still on the outside of the battery after all (but happy to be corrected on the root cause of this), but what I definitely do know is that LiPo's are still affected by temperature drops - they are still a chemical battery I definitely notice the capacity drop on my quad in the winter.

I've never seen a plane fire damaged by NiMH pack tho :D

I meant lipos dont exhibit black wire disease, but have to say, in my experience, never seen any of it with the eneloops either. Sure Lithium packs are affected by the cold, but the extra headroom on voltage means its not as noticeable as with nickel.

[Speedster]

Slope fun with my Arthobby Odyssey 2,7 M

Cheers

Soren

[Steve Houghton 1]

I was looking for a foamie aerobat, the like of a Le Fish, but without the expensive delivery charges from the US, so I bought the Tracuer from Modelbau Joost in Germany.

This is a very similar model to the Le Fish and comes with just about everything you need to build it except glue for about €60 plus delivery.

This isn't your usual foamie model that you can build in an evening or two as you basically get two fuselage halves, two wings, tailplane and fin. It's up to you to decide where you put all the electronics and router out the foam to accept everything. I ended up looking like Frosty the snowman with bits of foam clinging to me.

Anyway, she is complete now and I was hoping to maiden her at the weekend but there wasn't enough wind. I only managed a flight long enough to to give it a basic trim ready to chuck off the big slope.

I haven't built this light like other VTPR type models as most of the slopes I fly are big air slopes of 1000ft or more and so mine weighs in at 1lb 14oz, so should be good at least up to a 20 mph breeze.

There are more pictures on my blog.

a470soaring.blogspot.co.uk

[Mark Kettle 1]

Steve nice model, what's the size of Tracuer, span and length?

[Steve Houghton 1]

It's 1.5m span, not sure about the length. Here is the web site Mark.

[Jamie sawyer]

I was sloping today to. Nice steady 10 mph westerly. It was South west which is good for my normal slope but when I went up and let the glider off the side of the hill the wind had swing to a full Westerly...

My Girlfriend had come up for the walk with the lab and we were at about 300 meters above the car park. So I had been eying up a hill behind the one I normally fly off since months and it is facing perfectly for a westerly....but quite a long walk through deep heather and elevated to about 800 meters above the car park.....

Conclusion was well I have the day off so we proceeded to walk up to the shoulder of the hill which as it turns out was slightly further away and higher than originally assumed. After dragging our sorry souls up the shoulder and onto a Plato about 100 meters from the top of this hill which felt like a mountain by this point we poured ourselves a cup of tea and sat down to lap up the view and what a view it was!!!...I will take a few pictures when I'm up there next ( Later in the week hopefully ) Scottish Highland at its best.

I got the trusty Seagull 2.2 meters thermal put together and turned to the steady westerly and up she went holding solid in the lift and the lift was endless.....the dog was very intrigued by this strange thing in the air to continually following it back and forth across the edge of the Plato we were perched on, with a small bark of curiosity every now and then....quite funny really. So after a good while of flying and doing circuits round the shoulder and back into the lift of this new play ground that I had discovered we packed up and had a nice slow but much more easier walk back to the car. All in all a very good outing and that's me got a brilliant south facing ridge and a very strong but long walk westerly...

Hope my story doesn't ramble on to much lol just thought I could share my adventure to you all in detail. Slope soaring is highly addictive and it has a very different discipline compared to flat flying with Ic planes etc

Edited By Jamie sawyer on 08/09/2014 18:36:26

[Jamie sawyer]

So I was out today ad took some pictured of where I fly for a westerly which it is today at about 15 mph.

This is us up to the top of a very steep climb. Up at about 300 meters as the above post states.

This is me up at the platou that I was flying from the other weekend. The pictures don't do it justice to be honest and its hard to get a feel for the climb. The sunny patch down below is where the other picture was taken at the top of the post.

And now I have reached the very top. The walk back to the car park is down where the green grass is. A good 1.5 miles at a guess. The view is awsome at the top ....

[Phil May]

Well today my 17 year old son Josh will take his first step into the black art of slope soaring.

 

He was ready to go solo with i.c models about 5 years ago before the dragon...sorry I mean my ex, put a stop to it so I hope he picks it up realitivly quickly.

Winds forecast are 10 mph NE so ideal for Fochriw (just hope the pillow cases stay away )

Chosen model for today is my Spook foamie, a right GTI on high rates but quite docile on low.

Fingers crossed for a successful day with photos and a report of the day later.

 

 

Edited By Phil May on 21/09/2014 07:56:39

Edited By Phil May on 21/09/2014 07:57:18

[Phil May]

The lad did well 😊

I took Josh up to Fochriw today for his first sloping session and it went well, very well infact.

When we arrived it was blowing I guess 15 mph, I set my flyingwings.co Spook on low rates and carried out a few lazy 8's circuits, at height, to demonstrate what was required before handing the tx ovet ( no buddy lead)
Well he took to it well with no need for me to panic and take the tx back....ok he has flown I.c about 5 years ago ... but I was chuffed.

He had half a dozen or so flights including a brief go of my Libelle when the wind was low with out incident.

All in all a good day.

[Paul Millard 1]

Hi Everyone

I am fully in love with sloping .I have never done it or seen it done but but I must.I live where it it flat from horizon to Horizon so now I shall have to steal? buy a car. Up to now I have been power mad , all my forty 's carried a ninety and my ninety,s a one twenty but now I don't care to see a motor for ages.

Marvelous