Who says flying thermal soarers is boring?

[FilmBuff]

[Shaun Walsh]

Of course thermal soaring can be fun, hours of pleasure can be had looking for them after the overambitious use of a strong thermal

[FilmBuff]

Posted by Shaun Walsh on 17/07/2019 13:32:05:

Of course thermal soaring can be fun, hours of pleasure can be had looking for them after the overambitious use of a strong thermal

Agreed. Still my favourite aspect of model flying. Love powered scale and aerobatics etc - but picking up lift at low level and working it up is just the best.

[KiwiKid]

It's a very entertaining part of the hobby to participate in, but for the viewing public - not so much I fear.

[Steve Houghton 1]

It can be very challenging, not to mention skillful on less thermic days trying to keep that glider in the air. Other days, when there is lots of thermal activity the challenge can be getting the damned thing back down on the ground.

[Speedster]

Not boring

Arthobby Silent 3,4m

Cheers

Soren

[FilmBuff]

Posted by Speedster on 19/07/2019 09:19:18:

Not boring

Arthobby Silent 3,4m

Cheers

Soren

I Love watching your videos - especially the ones flying from the sand dunes on the beach

[Peter Jenkins]

FilmBuff - the heading says thermal soarers and yet you have a hot liner in your video. Rather different don't you think? Don't get me wrong, I used to fly full size thermal soarers and it was a fantastic sport but have yet to fly model ones.

[Nigel Dell]

Peter

where is the hotliner in the video?😳

that is an Xplorer 3 F5j thermal soarer I guess a 3.8 m model, a hotliner is a completely different animal, I have an Xplorer 2 and at 1.9kg flying weight is just as spritely but the 3 is sub 1.5kgs.

[Martyn K]

Thermal soaring is IMHO, one of the most challenging and enjoyable aspects of model flying. It doesn't have to be expensive, the vids show moulded carbon models, way out of my price range. Older wooden gliders can be picked up for buttons or you can still build your own. Have a look at F3-RES class which is very popular in the USA and on the continent. A 2m wingspan limit with technology restrictions. Must be mainly wood.

Martyn

[David Hall 9]

Many years ago, I built a 100 inch thermal "Chieftain" just to have a go. This 2 channel model was great fun trying to contact thermals. As a bungee or tow-man was needed, it seemed to be too much effort to fly regularly. Now, after my return to model flying, I was very interested to see that esoaring is thriving. I went along to a comp meeting to see what was involved and was hooked (although it doesn't make an exciting spectator sport).

Typical models as used are molded CF jobs with fittings that cost more than I wanted to spend in total. One or two were flying 2m gliders, which are more affordable. I've now entered a couple of seasons in the 2m class and learned a lot, yet have much more to learn. The 2m class is considered to be the "starter" class, but competing in the same slots and scoring on the same scale, it sure feels to be even more difficult to stay aloft for the full slot time.

Now considering a step up to Open with the model that Soren posted about above.. Does it make a good F5J model?

 

 

Edited By David Hall 9 on 20/07/2019 11:25:27

[FilmBuff]

Posted by Peter Jenkins on 20/07/2019 00:09:51:

FilmBuff - the heading says thermal soarers and yet you have a hot liner in your video. Rather different don't you think? Don't get me wrong, I used to fly full size thermal soarers and it was a fantastic sport but have yet to fly model ones.

Yep - as the others have said - no hotliners used in the making of this thread!

[FilmBuff]

Take a look at this F5J comp. As you lose points for altitude via the motor - you try and launch as low as possible to make the maximum time in 10 min slot.

Edited By FilmBuff on 20/07/2019 12:07:19

[Dickw]

The videos so far definitely show F5J thermal soarers.

If you want to see a hotliner have a look at a video of the first part of an F5B comp flight (the second part of the flight is basically a 10 minute thermal duration). F5B planes are basically high powered 2m soarers.

Some F5B videos here.

Dick

[Speedster]

Flying my Arthobby 2,7m thermal glider at the beach

Soren

[Speedster]

Arthobby Silent 3,4m

Grass hill

Soren

[robert chamberlain]

Hello, I built a "high start" out of 100 feet of 7/16 OD surgical tubing and 400 feet of light kite string. Easily launches my 3 meter BOT (bird of time) and, with care, smaller ships. Of course the BOT is not all that heavy. Any thoughts out there on just how heavy a ship I could go for on my next build? I live in the flat lands of Kansas with limited aero tows so it is always going to be a High Start. Thanks in advance,-------Regards, Bob Chamberlain

[Peter Miller]

While most of my models tend to be sports aerobatic some of my most memorable flights have been with thermal soarers

[Tim Kearsley]

While watching a thermal soarer as a spectator could be dull I suppose, anyone who finds flying a thermal soarer boring hasn't understood the point I think! There's nothing more absorbing than trying to find and stay in thermal lift. It's a calm, relaxing antidote to high-adrenaline aerobatic activity!

Tim.

[Bob Burton]

Flying thermal soarers is not boring, but when you put a motor in a glider it is no longer a glider

[Simon Chaddock]

I rather enjoy the exercise of trying to get an 'ordinary' but light plane to thermal.

Not so impossible using E power to get you right into the thermal core (and to get you back home!) but still rewarding to see a prop plane go 'up' with the motor off.

You can definitely thermal a sub 250 g Super Cub.

Edited By Simon Chaddock on 07/02/2020 09:04:44

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Cuban8]

I was quite active back in the 80s with thermal soaring and even had a go at some of the more local BARCS competitions. When (as I saw it) the fun element of competition was very much being pushed into the background and I witnessed several quite unpleasant incidents between flyers, sometimes between friends,  who were getting much too worked up over something or other to do with the rules, I gradually allowed my interest to lapse. Last year I had a go on a friend's 3M glider with a small motor to get it up to a decent height and enjoyed the experience very much indeed. A bit like riding a bike, you never really forget, but to get good times one needs to practice and get to know the model's characteristics over many flights and in a variety of conditions.

Those who have flown thermal will know that the gilder is constantly 'talking to you' (albeit visually, if you know what I mean) and by understanding its 'language' and subtle actions, the difference between flying through small areas of good or rising air without capitalising on them is so easy to do. Blundering into a boomer of a thermal and screwing up to altitude is easy, getting out of it is often a different and sometimes terrifying experience. Maintaining your altitude in marginal conditions and moving quickly to avoid sink is where the skill is. And then of course there is landing a large model that wants to keep flying and you want to put it down on 'the spot' without dropping short or usually overshooting (even by a small amount) is another skill that needs to be mastered - some never do......my weakness I'm afraid.

Been promising myself a nice 'Bird of Time' with a motor up front for the good thermalling days or when a change from all the other models is required. I've had my fill of bungees, tow lines and winches, a few seconds on electric power gives you a tremendous launch to as high as you like for sport flying, messing about with all the other paraphernalia is no longer a viable option for me. As for boring.....no way. Often less really is more.

Edited By Cuban8 on 07/02/2020 10:27:47

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by Bob Burton on 07/02/2020 08:59:10:

Flying thermal soarers is not boring, but when you put a motor in a glider it is no longer a glider

That's quite correct - it becomes a self launching motor glider.

When I was involved in full size gliding, motor gliders were a compromise and in the minds of many, a different "animal" to a pure glider and most popular as a 2 seat trainer with the capability to operate autonomously or teach field selection. There were self sustaining motor gliders [capable of just about climbing from and maintaining level flight for an extended time and requiring a conventional aerotow or winch/cable launch] which had fold-out engines that were designed to get you home which slightly detracted from thermalling performance but had no impact on lift/drag ratios i.e. distance you could fly from a given height. As there was the psychological benefit of the probability of getting away from a low point, these were regarded by many as a form of cheating over doing the same flight in a "pure" glider even if the engine had not been used.

With a typical 2000' launch, you had a range of several miles to sniff out a thermal in your "proper" glider- or perhaps pull off lower down if you encountered good lift on tow. Decent thermals tend to get going above about 600' or so and below this tend to be bitty and disorganised. At a hill site, there was often the option of hill soaring until getting established in a good thermal.

Contrast this with the typical flat model flying site - the range of search is limited by line of sight and in many cases, no fly zones behind the pilots. While very low wing loading gliders can soar on tiny bumps low down, a reasonable sized scale glider is much harder work to keep airborne until at a fair height for a model.

In these cases, the use of an electric motor is a practical way to utilise the ballast, which normally simulates the pilot's weight, to launch - tugs aren't necessarily as available as at a full size site - and give second chances to find lift within the small operating area available.

While the motor is not being used and the propeller is folded, the aircraft is to all intents and purposes, a model glider with a similar wing loading to the same one without a motor fitted.

Boring? Well I rarely feel the desire to fly more than 15 minutes - and typically 10 minutes - per flight with my main hobby of power/scale models but I have often flown for 30 minutes to an hour or more with a powered glider with less than 3 minutes of this under power.

Edited By Martin Harris on 07/02/2020 10:42:57

[FilmBuff]

Agree with @Martin Harris. Gliders have to be launched by something - so why not a small electric motor?

I do slope soar with "pure" gliders - but even there I resort to EP ones in very light conditions. Saves landing out! I do try and use power just for safely getting back to ridge height and landings. Honest.

It is strange that my most memorable flights are all lengthy flat field or slope flights - not the ones when wringing out an aerobatic power model.

Thermal flight? 4th Sept 1981. Windless day and the model sagged off the bungee at around 100 feet. Slid to a landing at my feet 90 mins later for my first ever flat field hour plus flight. Used multiple thermals with several scary descents to start again before it was at limit of LOS. So ingrained that I can even remember the exact day!

Slope flight? Too many really! One was a few years ago in autumn, when the slope was shrouded in mist apart from a gap that started about 50 feet above slope face and continued to about 100 feet before more mist. Imagine a large, clear slot above the slope. Launching into the light wind was tricky - as the glider dipped into the murk. A slow climbing turn got it into the clear slot. The trick was to then continuously fly within that area. It required lots of concentration to do this for around an hour. So much so that I was unaware that the sun was starting to burn of the mist during that time. Then suddenly - it was as if the mist disappeared in a moment - and the whole view of the valley appeared in front of the glider. It was magical!