Is this a bit heavy

[LYKA]

Still fairly new to slope soaring. I have just built my first slope soarer and it is ready for it's maiden flight. I have had to put 3/4lbs of lead in the nose to get the c/g right and the total weight of the glider is 5lbs it has wing span of 2.6 m. Does this seem heavy or is this going to be OK. Only ever flew foam gliders before which weigh next to nothing, mind you , they have there disadvantages when the wind get up a bit

[Bernie]

Not being a glider person I'm not sure what sort of wight you should put in you'rs but having built ic models I can say it sounds a tad heavy but don't take my word as gospel .if you go on the glider threads I am sure somebody will know .

[Dickw]

Its wing loading that counts rather than overall weight, so although it is heavier than the foam gliders that may not be a problem if it is much bigger.

I have several 2m electric gliders (not slope soarers but for the F5B competiton class) that weigh just under 4lb, so I don't think there is anything wrong with yours for a slope soarer as its wing loading is probably quite a bit less than mine.

Like mine it will fly faster than your average foam glider, but that is good on windy days, and even mine thermal OK given reasonable lift.

Landings may be faster than with your foam gliders, so a bit of help and moral support from an experienced pilot on the maiden flight is always a good idea with something new.

Dick

Edited By Dickw on 26/11/2014 17:25:04

Edited By Dickw on 26/11/2014 17:25:49

[Frank Skilbeck]

2.6m with say a 10" wing cord, gives a wing loading of around 12 ozs per square ft, if you are going out on a windy day you might want to consider adding some ballast

[PatMc]

LYKA, I have a 1980's era 100" glider that weighs 5lbs (14oz/sq ft) I used to fly from a bungee, electric & hand tow from the flat as well as the slope. I now only fly it from the slope as I've given up on flat field bungee & tow launches but it will stay up in the lightest breeze without any problems.
It doesn't compare with the modern mouldies of course but most times the weight was an advantage as it was/is flyable in fairly breezy conditions. It does have wing tubes for a couple of pounds of ballast but I haven't used them for a long time.

On your glider 3/4lb of nose weight seems a bit drastic to achieve the cg - is it one of the Flyfly scale range by any chance ?

[LYKA]

Funny you should say that ,yes it is the" Fly Fly ASK21 Cadet glider.Is there something I should know about the Fly Fly kits ( the kit was not the best I have seen , it was quite bad ,wing bolts did not line up , most of the hard wear pack was missing ,I just hope it fly OK does not give confident with a kit that bad ,hope they have got the C/G right at 65mm from leading edge everything else in the kit was wrong!!!)

[russ d]

Hi, there is a thread on RCG about these, it seems your nose weight and problems with the kit are not unusual !

russ

[Tomtom39]

Hello Lyka,

To answer your question re FlyFly. I had to send my first one back (ASK 21) as there were various issues with the Kit. It's very much a "budget" sailplane . I ended up converting this to electric and ended up with a 600Watt motor on a 4 s 4000Mah battery as far forward as I could get it . Flew ok. The DG1000 in the same range seemed to fly much better but still needed 290g's of lead up front.

Best of luck on the slopes!