RADIO CONTROL SLOPE SOARING
Dave Garwood, 5 Birch Ln., Scotia NY 12302; E-mail: [email protected]
I'm back from a Slopin' Safari trip to Kansas and California; the big news is the availability of many new slope sailplanes. I'll be writing event-coverage articles of the MWSC (Midwest Slope Challenge) for Model Aviation and the Southern California PSS (Power Scale Soaring) Festival for Model Airplane News, but in this space I'm going to describe 12 new gliders I saw that you may be interested in.
F-5 Tiger
Larry Blevins ([email protected]) of Tennessee is a prolific designer, and this year he brought his new expanded polypropylene (EPP)-foam Northrop F-5 Tiger. It was built using 1.3-pound foam and a minimum of strapping tape to keep it light, making it a rare slope jet—one that flies in light and medium lift. Larry handed me the transmitter, and I'm happy to report that the F-5 flies well. It's stable and balanced in aileron and elevator response and performs quick axial rolls, all the time looking good in the air. The F-5 kit, along with the Cobra One Design Racer (ODR) and 30-inch- and 48-inch-span foamie warbirds, is available from Magnum Models at www.magnum-models.com.
Scale Fox
Mike Bailey ([email protected]) of Kansas flew his very large prototype MDM Fox for several days in light and medium lift. That sailplane sure looks good, and it can take some abuse on landing since it's constructed from EPP foam. There's a particular joy in flying long-span sailplanes on the slope; you can do a lot in light and heavy lift if you have some span, and the big gliders are well suited to the conditions at Wilson Lake, Kansas. Mike makes a foam ODR and promotes F3F races at Midwestern locations. More about the Fox's development is available at www.midwestslope.com.
Swift S-1
Joe Falconer ([email protected]) of Colorado is new on the slope-kit scene, and he flew his Swift S-1 at the Kansas event. It's a good-looking, 60-inch-wingspan EPP-foam sport glider. There's something extra cool about flying a model airplane that looks like an airplane. Joe's Swift and his 60-inch-span Fox are available from Falcon Air RC at www.falconairrc.com.
Patriot and Hellcat
Jack Cooper ([email protected]) of California is another new kit maker and I got to fly his Patriot, which is an exceptionally well-balanced and good-flying nonscale 48-inch EPP-foam combat sailplane. Jack also designed and produces a Grumman F6F Hellcat kit, giving us a new foamie warbird type for combat and 48-inch warbird racing. Jack's Hellcat follows a trend to make the 48-inch foamies look more scale, with fuller and rounder fuselages. Some builders are switching to Solartex covering, from UltraCote, and some are painting and panel lining these foamies to produce a model that approaches a molded-fiberglass sailplane in appearance. The Patriot, Hellcat, and other slope kits are available from Leading Edge Gliders at www.leadingedgegliders.com.
F-20 Tigershark
Robert Cavazos ([email protected]) of California is known for the super-high quality of his molded fuselages. With the introduction of the Cavazos Sailplane Design slope-scale Northrop F-20 Tigershark, the hardcore slope fliers have a replacement for the John Higgins Rodent and F-20 speed machines that are out of production, and the F-20 design pays much more attention to scale appearance. Look for a product review on the F-20 kit in Model Aviation. This and many other slope-scale warbirds are available from Cavazos Sailplane Design at www.rcglider.com.
EPP F-20 Tigershark
Steve Greenfield ([email protected]) of California has been importing the successful Canterbury Sailplanes 29-inch-span EPP F-20 Tigershark kit and has introduced a 1.5-size Monster F-20 Tigershark kit with a 60-inch span. Steve let me fly his new jet at Cajon Summit, and it’s a winner for sure. With medium weight, it handles medium- and high-lift conditions and is highly aerobatic, easily pulling fast axial rolls and graceful loops. I love bounceable slope jets. More information on this and Steve’s other kits is posted on the California Sailplane Designs Web site at www.californiasailplanes.com.
Fast Mustang and Spitfire
Steve Patton ([email protected]) of California—an early designer of EPP-foam World War II warbirds—has been known for getting them to go faster than anyone else can. At last year’s PSS Festival his foam 60-inch-span Focke-Wulf Ta 152 clocked 109 mph on a radar gun. I liked Steve’s slope warbirds, but unfortunately he discontinued making them for a time. Patton Aircraft is back in production. Steve flew his 48-inch-span EPP North American P-51 Mustang and EPP Supermarine Spitfire at Cajon 2003. Patton Aircraft makes 32-, 48-, and 60-inch-span EPP-foam slope gliders of WWII aircraft. More info is available at home.earthlink.net/~pattonacf.
Mini P-40 Warhawk
Jeff Fukushima ([email protected]) of California has designed 11 molded-fiberglass warbirds and slope jets, and most of them are pretty large. Now he’s producing a line of mini warbirds for electric power, but he will also make slope versions of these little beauties. At Cajon 2003 Jeff flew his mini Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, and it looks and flies great. He is painting the fuselages in the mold, making construction and finishing much quicker and making painted fiberglass fuselages available to those builders who don’t use an airbrush yet. More about the slope and electric versions of these sailplanes is on the Vortech Models Web site: www.geocities.com/vortechmodels.
Laird EPP Mustang and Messerschmitt
I’ve saved the best for last. Brian Laird ([email protected]) of California has been a prolific designer of high-performance slope warbirds for nearly 20 years, making kits under the Slope Scale name. Brian, who until now has worked exclusively in molded fiberglass, has applied his talents to carved foam. His design philosophy of “First fly well, then look good” has produced outstanding results on a pair of new EPP-foam warbirds. Brian faired the fuselages, trimmed down the wing chords, and added clear canopies to get the best-looking foamie warbirds yet.
Wings come in two spans: 48-inch for sport flying and 60-inch to carry ballast and compete in the Inland Slope Rebels’ (ISR) new Warbird Air Racing class. Brian’s and other ISR club members’ sailplanes are covered with Solartex iron-on covering and come with Slope Scale balsa-over-foam wings, then are painted. From five feet or more away, you can’t tell that they are foamies.
I flew Brian’s prototype Mustang Reno Racer for an hour. I didn’t give the transmitter back until he warned that receiver battery power might be getting low. The model flies much like the heavy Slope Scales we know and love. In good lift it goes where you point it, rolls are blindingly quick, and it performs stall turns with the rest of the pack in a Slope Scale party (stall-turn formation flying).
The only things missing are the tapping sound when contact is made with other airplanes in flight and an easy way to get to the internal radio gear in case repairs or adjustment are needed. Brian’s working on this for the third design iteration of these way-cool scale warbirds.
The EPP-foam North American P-51 Mustang and Messerschmitt Me 109 kits are available from Leading Edge Gliders. For more information about 60-inch Warbird Air Racing, see the ISR Web site at ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/isr.
The next bimonthly Slope Soaring column will be published in the February 2004 issue since the December Model Aviation will carry Nationals coverage.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
