Recommendations for a relaxing electric glider

[Stackem Evs]

Hi, Changed jobs and now head home at a reasonable time, passing Chobham Common and questioning why I'm not stopping for an hour or two to finish the day off. Flown for some years, various planes including a Twinstar, Zagi, Acromaster (beautiful plane, prop hanged without any help from me). But like a lot of guys have had about five years out due to Children, Wife, Busy job (usual excuses). Now fancy a nice easy flying electric glider which can spend the day in my car ready to be pulled out, turned on and thrown when I get the chance. "Sorry darling working late again tonight", should work for a while! Quick looks have brought up things such as the E-flight Ascent, Parkzone Radian Pro, although with ailerons and flaps, bit more than I'm looking for. JP Pretty looks good, again ailerons, something I'm not really bothered about. I have an old Futaba 2.4 in the garage, and a couple of 3 cell lipos although I don't know how good they'll be. Other one which looked great was the Century Art Tech, but at £180 was more than I want to spend. Suggestions and recommendations from your experiences much appreciated. Cheers.

[Frank Skilbeck]

Several cheaper foamy gliders at our field, on what i've seen the best value for your buck is the Hype Relax **LINK**

or for more money the Multiplex Solius is a further step up.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

The Phoenix P2000 is very popular - all the mod team have them. Lots of threads on here - just search on "Phoenix". Relaxing? Yes, I think you could could describe it that way. Cheap? Certainly, mine was £56 including everything except flap servos and Rx. The wing halves would separate - but not very conveniently - and 2m is a lot to fit in the car out of sight!

One thing I did see the other day that might interest you was the Multiplex Merlin. This little electric glider completely disassembles - including tail plane etc., and all fits in a well-padded, dedicated, canvas-style carrying case about 18" long and 9" square. The bag even includes locations for two batteries. Really a very practical "fly any time" portable model. I was impressed - it flew well too. Being Multiplex it wasn't cheap - but not crazy expensive either for the quality.

BEB

PS Checking I see its available with and without the carry bag - for ultimate portability I'd recommend the bag! But with the power pack it does bump the price up quite a bit!

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 17/07/2013 11:25:54

[michael cawood]

how about this one e-fair i bought one last year for £34 at a show fitted a 28mm brushless inrunner from g.s.2s lipo and 30 a esc with a 6x4 folding prop 30mm spinner. flies great. lives in the boot of car. only problem is it floats so well it needs a bit of space to land mike

[FilmBuff]

Try the trusty Multiplex Easy Glider Electric. The Pro version has a brushless motor.

I've just come back from a session at my local Parish playing fields. Three or four 30 second climb outs gave me an hours flight utilising gentle lift that was still around.

There's lots of clones and similar 2M jobs around - and they all seem to tick the boxes you are after.

[Trots]

I recently purchased the Sky Scout which is an Easy Star Mk2 completed by Hytec and just needs a Rx and battery . Servos are HS55 s on rudder and elevator only , ailerons can be enabled if desired ( the hardware is included) , the tailplane can be easily removed and the whole thing fits back in its box for transport , plus it's a great flyer!

[Andy Green]

I have the Bird of Time on my list to build one day.

It has been convereted to electric many times here is a thread on this forum, or just google it.

Andy

[Ernie]

Hi All, I've got a Boddo A train, which fills the bill perfectly ernie

[Flite08]

Posted by FilmBuff on 17/07/2013 18:59:51:

Try the trusty Multiplex Easy Glider Electric. The Pro version has a brushless motor.

I've just come back from a session at my local Parish playing fields. Three or four 30 second climb outs gave me an hours flight utilising gentle lift that was still around.

There's lots of clones and similar 2M jobs around - and they all seem to tick the boxes you are after.

Easy Glider Pro for me as well ..Cheap & Cheerful !!

[Stackem Evs]

Had a quick call to my local shop, they have four in the shop which generally fill the bill: Diamond 2500 RC Glider PNP £180, Dynam Sonic ARTF at £115. Parkzone Radian Pro, price is £119, don't know if thats classed as an ARTF or PNP version. And an ST Blaze at £110. So going for a good prod around at them, and if feel happy will be leaving the shop with one. Any likes / dislikes towards them? More important (there again maybe not, my 'enter' key doesn't work when typing in, so can't add blank lines, anyone know why???? . ..

[Mart49]

There's a lot of user info on electric sailplanes here (is this OK mods?)

[Pete B]

No problem, Mart - I browse RCG at lot myself, although you have to wade through an awful lot of dross to get to the useful info, sometimes....besides, the forumites will always come back here for the oasis of calm and rationality we present...

Stackem, if you're using IE, the 'Compatibility' button tends to solve most posting issues with the forum As far as relaxing soarers go, there's nowt wrong with a good old R/E jobbie - I've had my old Ripmax Nebula to over 1500ft this afternoon

Pete

[Terry Walters]

Posted by Pete B - Moderator on 19/07/2013 18:29:48:

As far as relaxing soarers go, there's nowt wrong with a good old R/E jobbie - I've had my old Ripmax Nebula to over 1500ft this afternoon

Pete

Yes folks I can verify that and even have the graph that shows it! A 28 second motor run to 600ft AGL then a 20min thermalling flight up to 1525ft AGL. Two old RC blokes had about enough visual acuity between them to keep tabs on it.

Lovely! Well done Pete!

Terry

[Stackem Evs]

Posted by Pete B - Moderator on 19/07/2013 18:29:48:

there's nowt wrong with a good old R/E jobbie - I've had my old Ripmax Nebula to over 1500ft this afternoon

Pete

Flew a friends one many years ago. Sunny evening and the thing didn't want to come down. Concern on the wings folding the way he was having to throw it around to lose height...

[Frank Skilbeck]

Many years ago i snapped one of the wings off my Multiplex Alpha H spiralling down out of a monster thermal, it came down then

Had my Easy Glider to 320m off a bungy launch before common sense said you are going to lose sight of this soon.

[Pete B]

...and here's the altimeter graph. I abandoned the first thermal as it was getting a little way downwind, so headed back upwind and found another....

Terry had to leave and it would have been rude to not see him off, so I pulled the plug on the flight. I came down on just forward trim alone - didn't dare put the stick forward - it was motoring fast enough as it was!

Pete

[Old Geezer]

EasyGlider Pro - plenty of firms have tried to copy/improve on this model - none of them have got anywhere near.

Get an EGPro (I'm on my second) and then get a Solius, which is the logical and aesthetically superior development.

[stevejet66]

East pigeon glider, Virtually built, Its flys superb,

[Stackem Evs]

Had a good search round my local shop today, took most of the morning. Came out with a Parkzone Radian Pro wrapped under my arm.

Looks good (so did the rest though to be honest). Only immediate thougth, after a quick look on getting home, is about how easy getting the wings on and off, too big to sit in my car with them on.

When have a chance will look at possibility of using extension leads on the cables to make feeding through and connecting less hassle out af the field.

Put experience up when got somewhere (unfortunately family commitments will mean probably a week or two (just not fair!).

[Robin Kearney]

Glad you picked up a Radian, I've always had a soft spot for them.

I think the wing halves attach with a single screw after being slid onto the joiner bar, it's been a while since I rigged one though. If you have two servos on each panel you'll have a total of four servos to plug into the receiver, one common solution to this is to wire both servos from one wing panel into a 6 way plug, like the multiplex connector for example. Then you only have two big and easy to handle plugs rather than four small ones.

Have fun.

r

[Stackem Evs]

Posted by Robin Kearney on 20/07/2013 22:53:17:

one common solution to this is to wire both servos from one wing panel into a 6 way plug, like the multiplex connector for example. Then you only have two big and easy to handle plugs rather than four small ones.

Thanks, I've not seen them before, I'll go have a look. Initial thought was going to go stick an extension lead on each just to make it easier to feed them through

[Phil Green]

One benefit of Multiplex type foamies is that you can leave them in the car in all weathers including the baking heat we've been enjoying of late. After a few hours in an exposed car, a film-covered open-frame wing will sag and distort in the heat, whereas a foamy doesnt even feel hot to the touch.

Cheers

Phil

[Stackem Evs]

MAIDEN FLIGHT:

Out at 7, O,Clock this morning, forecast was going to get blustery later in the morning. Quick check everything plugged in and turning the correct way (no flaps set up). Half power flew straight out the hand with a small throw, no trimming required probably a first ever.

Few beautify, didn't need more than half power for climbing, nice smooth turns, wanted to climb slightly when levelling out, slight touch on the sticks to stop it (so probably picking up a bit of speed in the turn, blame the pilot not the glider). First flight 20 mins never needing to go over half power, and a good half of the time plus with no power. Landing needed a big slow circuit to get it to come down. Checked the battery, 1800 3 cell, down from 88% to 65%. So straight back up for a further 20 minutes.

Red colouring on top tips of wings and black stripes under the wings make for excellent vision. The only thing my friend could say (repeatedly) was such a beautiful presence she had in the sky.

Plusses:

Flies perfect out the box

Easy to launch, easy to fly, flies beautifully,

Warm afternoon should stay up indefinitely.

Minus and only very small points.:

Rx and its wires are in with the two rear servos which I'm not happy about. But I've got an 1800 battery in there which it don't need. Going to buy a couple of 1300s, which will give more space, move the rx into the front hatch with extension cables running through.

Found fitting the wires through the holes and tightening up the screws while in the car park a bit fiddly. But sure after a few times will wonder what the problem was.

Two wings and plastic tube to fit through, could forget the tube (I know stupid to do so), so will look at getting some form of bag to carry them in.

To do:

Have a look at the flap options, be interesting to see how well she flies slow with them and the ailerons down, and the effect for bringing her down as breaks.

Recommendations:

To anyone who wants an easy flying glider straight out of the box. Need the space, feels bigger than the 2 metres she is (so not really a first plane). Made great and flies great, excellent purchase.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

**Post contents deleted by moderator - poster using thread to sell his own products**

 

Edited By David Ashby - RCME on 31/08/2013 21:22:29

Edited By David Ashby - RCME on 31/08/2013 21:23:10

[Dave Bran]

That poor old Stormtrooper has lost his legs!

Glad you put "glider" in speech marks......................... VERY fast flying compared to other similar models.

PS, to a lot of people MIA means "Missing in Action", possibly not an auspicious name then?

Having back to back flown a number of powered electric gliders, the original Radian is pretty good, the Radian Pro is less thermal and more slope orientated, and the best cheap thermal electric glider is the Easyglider Pro.

I know someone who takes great delight in entering full on thermal comps with one, and often thrashes some MUCH more expensive beasts.

Given the conditions nearly anything of decent area will thermal, as proven the other day with a very long flight I was forced to end, with a ST Models "Blaze"!!