Modeling magazines and
the history of Slope Soaring
by Dave Garwood
[email protected]
Frank Bethwaite’s Sailplane Mark 2 set
an RC flight duration record of 7.5 hours
in 1955, a er Frank abandoned powered
models and began flying in slope li .
The lead photo of Dale Willoughby’s article,
“The Majesty of Soaring.” This Scale
Sailplane, built with balsa-rib and open-bay
construction, is ready to be launched from
the top of a coastal cli .
What a rush it is to learn from readers interested in Slope Soaring history who
researched and sent magazine articles documenting the history. This column
presents some of the material sent by readers. More information is available
on a Web blog at RCGroups (see “Sources” for more information). There may be
another Slope Soaring history column in the future.
I’ve selected four of those sent to me to illustrate the types of profound problems
faced, and the solutions invented and implemented by those who preceded us in
Slope Soaring.
“Flexi-Flier”
In this cover and construction article, Frank Kelly
documents Dick Eipper’s Flexi-Flier Rogallo wing for RC,
which is a 1/6-scale version of the original Rogallo wing hang
glider. The RC Slope Soaring model uses controls similar to
those of the full-scale hang glider.
“Your Slope Soaring column in the February 2012 issue
of MA reminded me of the cover article which my father,
Frank Kelly, wrote for the April 1974 issue of American
Aircraft Modeler. It featured a 1/6-scale radio-controlled
hang glider controlled by a robotic cyborg G.I. Joe pilot! It
utilized weight shift for control just like the full-sized hang
gliders of the day.
“The cover shot and in- ight photos were taken on Ocean
Boulevard in Long Beach [California]. The model was
displayed in Tony and Addie Naccarato’s hobby shop for a
while, and has since disappeared.
“By the way, Dad will be 86 in March and he is still ying
RC seaplanes and electrics on a regular basis in Lake Havasu
City, Arizona. I hope you can add this
to your compilation of Slope Soaring
history.
“Sincerely, Matt Kelly.”
“The Long Project”
In 1920, New Zealander Frank
Bethwaite was a boat designer, author,
and former Olympic meteorologist. He
ew for the Royal New Zealand Air
Force at the outbreak of World War II,
serving as a ight instructor, test pilot,
and combat bomber pilot. After the war,
Above, le : RCM cover photo of Mark Smith
flying one of the 15 gulls he built for the movie
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The photo was
taken at the Torrey Pines glider site in LaJolla
CA.
Above, right: RCM article lead photo; Mark
Smith with one of the gulls built and flown for
the mtransmitter without elevon mixing. Frank rotated
his transmitter 45° to achieve aileron and elevator
mixing, something you can duplicate today.
An RCGroups Web blog has been set up as a depository
for these and other historical RC model Slope Soaring articles.
he became a commercial airline pilot and
pushed the envelope as an RC model
designer and pilot.
In roughly 1955, he endeavored to set
a duration record for RC model airplanes.
I thank reader William Perkenton for
sending me an article written by Frank.
We are uncertain of the publication
date because William’s copy is from a
collection of magazine articles published
as a book. The article is posted on the
RCGroups Web blog. Here are excerpts:
“In the spring of 1954, Frank Bethwaite
had been working to y a model airplane
ight duration world record and had met
with problem after problem. ‘Disgusted
beyond measure with the model and all
models generally, I pitched the glider into
a suitable wind off the brink of a sheer
coastal cliff. This was something that
has intrigued me but then I had thought
too much of my models to try it. Result:
two hours of gloriously exhilarating
and certain ight before running out of
daylight, and another world record!’
“Frank returned to powered models
for his record attempt with little success,
and re ected about his experience ying
in slope lift. ‘There were lessons to be
learned from the two-hour ight. It was
sheer, exhilarating fun to be ying a model
from the edge of a cliff, in better lift than
ever before, the model hundreds of feet
up among the gulls and over the sparkling
sea far below.’ He built more gliders.
“Frank describes learning about how
wing utter can destroy an airframe.
Remember that in 1955, he’s ying
with two controls only—rudder and
elevator—with no additional control
channels available for spoilers, aps, or
dive brakes. ‘Two properties showed
up in the ight of the Mk2, which had
never been experienced before. First,
the abrupt discovery that a heavy,
thin glider has so little drag that, given
down-elevator, it can accelerate virtually
without limit in a dive or spiral that
at some speed, thin high-aspect ratio
wings, no matter how stif y contrived
in torsion, will utter with a roar, and
the model will disintegrate about two
seconds after that, shedding wings and
tail all over the sky.’
“Frank built another model and tried
again in slope lift for a world duration
record. With the limitations of his
equipment (twisted rubber-powered
escapements instead of servos), the
model was exhaustingly dif cult to y,
and pilots took turns at 15-minute shifts,
resting in between. Finally the crew
achieved a ight with ‘Total duration: 7
hours, 37 minutes. The model had own
169 miles.’”
“The Majesty of Soaring”
Bill Kluss, from Thousand Oaks,
California, intrigued me with this article.
It is over owing with enthusiasm for
Slope Soaring.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Dale
Willoughby, set two world records for
Sailplane speed (in 1967 and 1969) and
was named the Father of Slope Soaring
in America by RC Modeler. He was the
organizer of the Harbor Slope Soaring
Society in Orange County, California.
In his 1966 article “The Majesty of
Soaring,” the introduction promises, “This
comprehensive look into the types and
techniques of gliding will enable you to
be successful in this phase of the New
Era of R/C.”
Early in the article, Dale explains,
“There are at least ve ways to get the
glider airborne. The old-style towline
(and with elevator control, this is quite
simple, even for 4 to 5 pound gliders);
Hi-Start, where rubber bands are
stretched to do the work of running feet;
Slope Soaring, where mechanical lift,
generated by wind striking the face of a
hill or slope provides the lift; by towing
behind powered models; and by ying
piggyback to a safe altitude and releasing
the glider to hunt for thermals.”
The “New Era of RC” included
elevator control; before that, there was
only rudder control. Think for a minuteovie, and a simple transmitter
about ying with rudder control only.
Make sure your model is trimmed before
you launch or you’re likely to have a
short ight. Remember that back in
1966, multichannel RC radio sets were
expensive and unaffordable for many
modelers.
More from Dale about radios for Slope
Soaring:
“Readers concerned with equipment
can rest assured that simple rudder-only
can be much fun (and still an exciting
challenge) and is recommended for
beginners. Just remember that a rudderonly
glider must be trimmed to y faster
than the speed of the wind over the edge
of the cliff, or it will be blown back.”
Although a comprehensive look at RC
Soaring was envisioned, Dale spent most
of his time on Slope Soaring. All seven
diagrams with the article pertain to Slope
Soaring. Dale knew the thrill of it.
Movie Project
How Mark Smith designed, built, and
ew model gulls for the movie, Jonathan
Livingston Seagull, has to be one of the
most interesting in the history of Slope
Soaring. The movie was made before
common use of computer-generated
graphics in lm; these model gulls had to
be own for the cameras.
The movie company rst tried to
use motorized gulls, but found them
unsuitable. They turned to one of the
Soaring stars of the day, Mark Smith,
from Escondito, California. Mark had
seen success on the Soaring contest
circuit. By this time, Mark and his father,
Rod, were running Marks Models and
were known for the successful Windward
and Windfree glider designs.
Rod Smith related some of the details:
“The motion picture Jonathan
Livingston Seagull was lmed in 1973.
The attached photos were taken by
Dick Tichenor at Torrey Pines [in] San
Diego, California, in 1973, and one was
on the cover of RC Modeler magazine in
November 1973.
“The seagull was hand-carved out
of white foam, and covered with
stick-on lm and painted with Testors
spray-can paint. The yaw stability was
accomplished by attaching 3-inch
diameter clear discs at the wingtips toed
in about 3°.
“This was before computer radios,
so the control system was strange. The
adverse yaw was so bad that the bird
was uncontrollable. So the solution
was to put the left wing aileron on the
rudder stick and the right wing aileron
on the normal aileron stick. This gave us
our mixing. Move both sticks the same
direction and you had normal aileron.
Move one stick out and you had, in
effect, a tip spoiler so the roll was pretty
good. Move both sticks out and both
ailerons went up for up-elevator. When
inverted, move both sticks in and you
could maintain inverted ight. The tail
feathers also acted as elevator, but with
limited effect, but worked well at normal
cruise speed.
“The model gull was required to
loop, roll, y inverted to meet the
requirements of the movie, which
featured all these maneuvers, as well
as crashing into cliffs and diving into
the ocean. We used approximately 15
models.
“Control of the model gulls was
an amazing accomplishment back in
the day. I recall that Mark said after
designing, building, testing, re ning, and
ying the model gulls for the movie,
‘Seagulls have 400-channel radios—one
channel for each feather.’”
The Frank Bethwaite, Mark Smith,
and Dale Willoughby articles are on
an RCGroups Web blog, listed in
“Sources.” The Frank Kelly article has its
own Web address. It will be interesting
to see what other magazine articles we
can nd that document the history of
Slope Soaring.
SOURCES:
RCGroups Slope Soaring blog
www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.
php?u=404653
RCGroups Slope Soaring forum
http://www.rcgroups.com/slope-97
Frank Kelly’s Flexi-Flier Rogallo
www.airplanesandrockets.com/airplanes/fl exi-fl ierplans-
apr-1974-AAM.htm
Dale Willoughby
www.modelaircraft.org/fi les/WilloughbyDale.pdf
Frank Bethwaite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bethwaite
Mark Smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Smith_(R/C_
modeling_pioneer)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Livingston_
Seagull_(fi lm)
League of Silent Flig
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/06
Page Numbers: 111,112,113
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/06
Page Numbers: 111,112,113
Modeling magazines and
the history of Slope Soaring
by Dave Garwood
[email protected]
Frank Bethwaite’s Sailplane Mark 2 set
an RC flight duration record of 7.5 hours
in 1955, a er Frank abandoned powered
models and began flying in slope li .
The lead photo of Dale Willoughby’s article,
“The Majesty of Soaring.” This Scale
Sailplane, built with balsa-rib and open-bay
construction, is ready to be launched from
the top of a coastal cli .
What a rush it is to learn from readers interested in Slope Soaring history who
researched and sent magazine articles documenting the history. This column
presents some of the material sent by readers. More information is available
on a Web blog at RCGroups (see “Sources” for more information). There may be
another Slope Soaring history column in the future.
I’ve selected four of those sent to me to illustrate the types of profound problems
faced, and the solutions invented and implemented by those who preceded us in
Slope Soaring.
“Flexi-Flier”
In this cover and construction article, Frank Kelly
documents Dick Eipper’s Flexi-Flier Rogallo wing for RC,
which is a 1/6-scale version of the original Rogallo wing hang
glider. The RC Slope Soaring model uses controls similar to
those of the full-scale hang glider.
“Your Slope Soaring column in the February 2012 issue
of MA reminded me of the cover article which my father,
Frank Kelly, wrote for the April 1974 issue of American
Aircraft Modeler. It featured a 1/6-scale radio-controlled
hang glider controlled by a robotic cyborg G.I. Joe pilot! It
utilized weight shift for control just like the full-sized hang
gliders of the day.
“The cover shot and in- ight photos were taken on Ocean
Boulevard in Long Beach [California]. The model was
displayed in Tony and Addie Naccarato’s hobby shop for a
while, and has since disappeared.
“By the way, Dad will be 86 in March and he is still ying
RC seaplanes and electrics on a regular basis in Lake Havasu
City, Arizona. I hope you can add this
to your compilation of Slope Soaring
history.
“Sincerely, Matt Kelly.”
“The Long Project”
In 1920, New Zealander Frank
Bethwaite was a boat designer, author,
and former Olympic meteorologist. He
ew for the Royal New Zealand Air
Force at the outbreak of World War II,
serving as a ight instructor, test pilot,
and combat bomber pilot. After the war,
Above, le : RCM cover photo of Mark Smith
flying one of the 15 gulls he built for the movie
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The photo was
taken at the Torrey Pines glider site in LaJolla
CA.
Above, right: RCM article lead photo; Mark
Smith with one of the gulls built and flown for
the mtransmitter without elevon mixing. Frank rotated
his transmitter 45° to achieve aileron and elevator
mixing, something you can duplicate today.
An RCGroups Web blog has been set up as a depository
for these and other historical RC model Slope Soaring articles.
he became a commercial airline pilot and
pushed the envelope as an RC model
designer and pilot.
In roughly 1955, he endeavored to set
a duration record for RC model airplanes.
I thank reader William Perkenton for
sending me an article written by Frank.
We are uncertain of the publication
date because William’s copy is from a
collection of magazine articles published
as a book. The article is posted on the
RCGroups Web blog. Here are excerpts:
“In the spring of 1954, Frank Bethwaite
had been working to y a model airplane
ight duration world record and had met
with problem after problem. ‘Disgusted
beyond measure with the model and all
models generally, I pitched the glider into
a suitable wind off the brink of a sheer
coastal cliff. This was something that
has intrigued me but then I had thought
too much of my models to try it. Result:
two hours of gloriously exhilarating
and certain ight before running out of
daylight, and another world record!’
“Frank returned to powered models
for his record attempt with little success,
and re ected about his experience ying
in slope lift. ‘There were lessons to be
learned from the two-hour ight. It was
sheer, exhilarating fun to be ying a model
from the edge of a cliff, in better lift than
ever before, the model hundreds of feet
up among the gulls and over the sparkling
sea far below.’ He built more gliders.
“Frank describes learning about how
wing utter can destroy an airframe.
Remember that in 1955, he’s ying
with two controls only—rudder and
elevator—with no additional control
channels available for spoilers, aps, or
dive brakes. ‘Two properties showed
up in the ight of the Mk2, which had
never been experienced before. First,
the abrupt discovery that a heavy,
thin glider has so little drag that, given
down-elevator, it can accelerate virtually
without limit in a dive or spiral that
at some speed, thin high-aspect ratio
wings, no matter how stif y contrived
in torsion, will utter with a roar, and
the model will disintegrate about two
seconds after that, shedding wings and
tail all over the sky.’
“Frank built another model and tried
again in slope lift for a world duration
record. With the limitations of his
equipment (twisted rubber-powered
escapements instead of servos), the
model was exhaustingly dif cult to y,
and pilots took turns at 15-minute shifts,
resting in between. Finally the crew
achieved a ight with ‘Total duration: 7
hours, 37 minutes. The model had own
169 miles.’”
“The Majesty of Soaring”
Bill Kluss, from Thousand Oaks,
California, intrigued me with this article.
It is over owing with enthusiasm for
Slope Soaring.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Dale
Willoughby, set two world records for
Sailplane speed (in 1967 and 1969) and
was named the Father of Slope Soaring
in America by RC Modeler. He was the
organizer of the Harbor Slope Soaring
Society in Orange County, California.
In his 1966 article “The Majesty of
Soaring,” the introduction promises, “This
comprehensive look into the types and
techniques of gliding will enable you to
be successful in this phase of the New
Era of R/C.”
Early in the article, Dale explains,
“There are at least ve ways to get the
glider airborne. The old-style towline
(and with elevator control, this is quite
simple, even for 4 to 5 pound gliders);
Hi-Start, where rubber bands are
stretched to do the work of running feet;
Slope Soaring, where mechanical lift,
generated by wind striking the face of a
hill or slope provides the lift; by towing
behind powered models; and by ying
piggyback to a safe altitude and releasing
the glider to hunt for thermals.”
The “New Era of RC” included
elevator control; before that, there was
only rudder control. Think for a minuteovie, and a simple transmitter
about ying with rudder control only.
Make sure your model is trimmed before
you launch or you’re likely to have a
short ight. Remember that back in
1966, multichannel RC radio sets were
expensive and unaffordable for many
modelers.
More from Dale about radios for Slope
Soaring:
“Readers concerned with equipment
can rest assured that simple rudder-only
can be much fun (and still an exciting
challenge) and is recommended for
beginners. Just remember that a rudderonly
glider must be trimmed to y faster
than the speed of the wind over the edge
of the cliff, or it will be blown back.”
Although a comprehensive look at RC
Soaring was envisioned, Dale spent most
of his time on Slope Soaring. All seven
diagrams with the article pertain to Slope
Soaring. Dale knew the thrill of it.
Movie Project
How Mark Smith designed, built, and
ew model gulls for the movie, Jonathan
Livingston Seagull, has to be one of the
most interesting in the history of Slope
Soaring. The movie was made before
common use of computer-generated
graphics in lm; these model gulls had to
be own for the cameras.
The movie company rst tried to
use motorized gulls, but found them
unsuitable. They turned to one of the
Soaring stars of the day, Mark Smith,
from Escondito, California. Mark had
seen success on the Soaring contest
circuit. By this time, Mark and his father,
Rod, were running Marks Models and
were known for the successful Windward
and Windfree glider designs.
Rod Smith related some of the details:
“The motion picture Jonathan
Livingston Seagull was lmed in 1973.
The attached photos were taken by
Dick Tichenor at Torrey Pines [in] San
Diego, California, in 1973, and one was
on the cover of RC Modeler magazine in
November 1973.
“The seagull was hand-carved out
of white foam, and covered with
stick-on lm and painted with Testors
spray-can paint. The yaw stability was
accomplished by attaching 3-inch
diameter clear discs at the wingtips toed
in about 3°.
“This was before computer radios,
so the control system was strange. The
adverse yaw was so bad that the bird
was uncontrollable. So the solution
was to put the left wing aileron on the
rudder stick and the right wing aileron
on the normal aileron stick. This gave us
our mixing. Move both sticks the same
direction and you had normal aileron.
Move one stick out and you had, in
effect, a tip spoiler so the roll was pretty
good. Move both sticks out and both
ailerons went up for up-elevator. When
inverted, move both sticks in and you
could maintain inverted ight. The tail
feathers also acted as elevator, but with
limited effect, but worked well at normal
cruise speed.
“The model gull was required to
loop, roll, y inverted to meet the
requirements of the movie, which
featured all these maneuvers, as well
as crashing into cliffs and diving into
the ocean. We used approximately 15
models.
“Control of the model gulls was
an amazing accomplishment back in
the day. I recall that Mark said after
designing, building, testing, re ning, and
ying the model gulls for the movie,
‘Seagulls have 400-channel radios—one
channel for each feather.’”
The Frank Bethwaite, Mark Smith,
and Dale Willoughby articles are on
an RCGroups Web blog, listed in
“Sources.” The Frank Kelly article has its
own Web address. It will be interesting
to see what other magazine articles we
can nd that document the history of
Slope Soaring.
SOURCES:
RCGroups Slope Soaring blog
www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.
php?u=404653
RCGroups Slope Soaring forum
http://www.rcgroups.com/slope-97
Frank Kelly’s Flexi-Flier Rogallo
www.airplanesandrockets.com/airplanes/fl exi-fl ierplans-
apr-1974-AAM.htm
Dale Willoughby
www.modelaircraft.org/fi les/WilloughbyDale.pdf
Frank Bethwaite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bethwaite
Mark Smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Smith_(R/C_
modeling_pioneer)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Livingston_
Seagull_(fi lm)
League of Silent Flig
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/06
Page Numbers: 111,112,113
Modeling magazines and
the history of Slope Soaring
by Dave Garwood
[email protected]
Frank Bethwaite’s Sailplane Mark 2 set
an RC flight duration record of 7.5 hours
in 1955, a er Frank abandoned powered
models and began flying in slope li .
The lead photo of Dale Willoughby’s article,
“The Majesty of Soaring.” This Scale
Sailplane, built with balsa-rib and open-bay
construction, is ready to be launched from
the top of a coastal cli .
What a rush it is to learn from readers interested in Slope Soaring history who
researched and sent magazine articles documenting the history. This column
presents some of the material sent by readers. More information is available
on a Web blog at RCGroups (see “Sources” for more information). There may be
another Slope Soaring history column in the future.
I’ve selected four of those sent to me to illustrate the types of profound problems
faced, and the solutions invented and implemented by those who preceded us in
Slope Soaring.
“Flexi-Flier”
In this cover and construction article, Frank Kelly
documents Dick Eipper’s Flexi-Flier Rogallo wing for RC,
which is a 1/6-scale version of the original Rogallo wing hang
glider. The RC Slope Soaring model uses controls similar to
those of the full-scale hang glider.
“Your Slope Soaring column in the February 2012 issue
of MA reminded me of the cover article which my father,
Frank Kelly, wrote for the April 1974 issue of American
Aircraft Modeler. It featured a 1/6-scale radio-controlled
hang glider controlled by a robotic cyborg G.I. Joe pilot! It
utilized weight shift for control just like the full-sized hang
gliders of the day.
“The cover shot and in- ight photos were taken on Ocean
Boulevard in Long Beach [California]. The model was
displayed in Tony and Addie Naccarato’s hobby shop for a
while, and has since disappeared.
“By the way, Dad will be 86 in March and he is still ying
RC seaplanes and electrics on a regular basis in Lake Havasu
City, Arizona. I hope you can add this
to your compilation of Slope Soaring
history.
“Sincerely, Matt Kelly.”
“The Long Project”
In 1920, New Zealander Frank
Bethwaite was a boat designer, author,
and former Olympic meteorologist. He
ew for the Royal New Zealand Air
Force at the outbreak of World War II,
serving as a ight instructor, test pilot,
and combat bomber pilot. After the war,
Above, le : RCM cover photo of Mark Smith
flying one of the 15 gulls he built for the movie
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The photo was
taken at the Torrey Pines glider site in LaJolla
CA.
Above, right: RCM article lead photo; Mark
Smith with one of the gulls built and flown for
the mtransmitter without elevon mixing. Frank rotated
his transmitter 45° to achieve aileron and elevator
mixing, something you can duplicate today.
An RCGroups Web blog has been set up as a depository
for these and other historical RC model Slope Soaring articles.
he became a commercial airline pilot and
pushed the envelope as an RC model
designer and pilot.
In roughly 1955, he endeavored to set
a duration record for RC model airplanes.
I thank reader William Perkenton for
sending me an article written by Frank.
We are uncertain of the publication
date because William’s copy is from a
collection of magazine articles published
as a book. The article is posted on the
RCGroups Web blog. Here are excerpts:
“In the spring of 1954, Frank Bethwaite
had been working to y a model airplane
ight duration world record and had met
with problem after problem. ‘Disgusted
beyond measure with the model and all
models generally, I pitched the glider into
a suitable wind off the brink of a sheer
coastal cliff. This was something that
has intrigued me but then I had thought
too much of my models to try it. Result:
two hours of gloriously exhilarating
and certain ight before running out of
daylight, and another world record!’
“Frank returned to powered models
for his record attempt with little success,
and re ected about his experience ying
in slope lift. ‘There were lessons to be
learned from the two-hour ight. It was
sheer, exhilarating fun to be ying a model
from the edge of a cliff, in better lift than
ever before, the model hundreds of feet
up among the gulls and over the sparkling
sea far below.’ He built more gliders.
“Frank describes learning about how
wing utter can destroy an airframe.
Remember that in 1955, he’s ying
with two controls only—rudder and
elevator—with no additional control
channels available for spoilers, aps, or
dive brakes. ‘Two properties showed
up in the ight of the Mk2, which had
never been experienced before. First,
the abrupt discovery that a heavy,
thin glider has so little drag that, given
down-elevator, it can accelerate virtually
without limit in a dive or spiral that
at some speed, thin high-aspect ratio
wings, no matter how stif y contrived
in torsion, will utter with a roar, and
the model will disintegrate about two
seconds after that, shedding wings and
tail all over the sky.’
“Frank built another model and tried
again in slope lift for a world duration
record. With the limitations of his
equipment (twisted rubber-powered
escapements instead of servos), the
model was exhaustingly dif cult to y,
and pilots took turns at 15-minute shifts,
resting in between. Finally the crew
achieved a ight with ‘Total duration: 7
hours, 37 minutes. The model had own
169 miles.’”
“The Majesty of Soaring”
Bill Kluss, from Thousand Oaks,
California, intrigued me with this article.
It is over owing with enthusiasm for
Slope Soaring.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Dale
Willoughby, set two world records for
Sailplane speed (in 1967 and 1969) and
was named the Father of Slope Soaring
in America by RC Modeler. He was the
organizer of the Harbor Slope Soaring
Society in Orange County, California.
In his 1966 article “The Majesty of
Soaring,” the introduction promises, “This
comprehensive look into the types and
techniques of gliding will enable you to
be successful in this phase of the New
Era of R/C.”
Early in the article, Dale explains,
“There are at least ve ways to get the
glider airborne. The old-style towline
(and with elevator control, this is quite
simple, even for 4 to 5 pound gliders);
Hi-Start, where rubber bands are
stretched to do the work of running feet;
Slope Soaring, where mechanical lift,
generated by wind striking the face of a
hill or slope provides the lift; by towing
behind powered models; and by ying
piggyback to a safe altitude and releasing
the glider to hunt for thermals.”
The “New Era of RC” included
elevator control; before that, there was
only rudder control. Think for a minuteovie, and a simple transmitter
about ying with rudder control only.
Make sure your model is trimmed before
you launch or you’re likely to have a
short ight. Remember that back in
1966, multichannel RC radio sets were
expensive and unaffordable for many
modelers.
More from Dale about radios for Slope
Soaring:
“Readers concerned with equipment
can rest assured that simple rudder-only
can be much fun (and still an exciting
challenge) and is recommended for
beginners. Just remember that a rudderonly
glider must be trimmed to y faster
than the speed of the wind over the edge
of the cliff, or it will be blown back.”
Although a comprehensive look at RC
Soaring was envisioned, Dale spent most
of his time on Slope Soaring. All seven
diagrams with the article pertain to Slope
Soaring. Dale knew the thrill of it.
Movie Project
How Mark Smith designed, built, and
ew model gulls for the movie, Jonathan
Livingston Seagull, has to be one of the
most interesting in the history of Slope
Soaring. The movie was made before
common use of computer-generated
graphics in lm; these model gulls had to
be own for the cameras.
The movie company rst tried to
use motorized gulls, but found them
unsuitable. They turned to one of the
Soaring stars of the day, Mark Smith,
from Escondito, California. Mark had
seen success on the Soaring contest
circuit. By this time, Mark and his father,
Rod, were running Marks Models and
were known for the successful Windward
and Windfree glider designs.
Rod Smith related some of the details:
“The motion picture Jonathan
Livingston Seagull was lmed in 1973.
The attached photos were taken by
Dick Tichenor at Torrey Pines [in] San
Diego, California, in 1973, and one was
on the cover of RC Modeler magazine in
November 1973.
“The seagull was hand-carved out
of white foam, and covered with
stick-on lm and painted with Testors
spray-can paint. The yaw stability was
accomplished by attaching 3-inch
diameter clear discs at the wingtips toed
in about 3°.
“This was before computer radios,
so the control system was strange. The
adverse yaw was so bad that the bird
was uncontrollable. So the solution
was to put the left wing aileron on the
rudder stick and the right wing aileron
on the normal aileron stick. This gave us
our mixing. Move both sticks the same
direction and you had normal aileron.
Move one stick out and you had, in
effect, a tip spoiler so the roll was pretty
good. Move both sticks out and both
ailerons went up for up-elevator. When
inverted, move both sticks in and you
could maintain inverted ight. The tail
feathers also acted as elevator, but with
limited effect, but worked well at normal
cruise speed.
“The model gull was required to
loop, roll, y inverted to meet the
requirements of the movie, which
featured all these maneuvers, as well
as crashing into cliffs and diving into
the ocean. We used approximately 15
models.
“Control of the model gulls was
an amazing accomplishment back in
the day. I recall that Mark said after
designing, building, testing, re ning, and
ying the model gulls for the movie,
‘Seagulls have 400-channel radios—one
channel for each feather.’”
The Frank Bethwaite, Mark Smith,
and Dale Willoughby articles are on
an RCGroups Web blog, listed in
“Sources.” The Frank Kelly article has its
own Web address. It will be interesting
to see what other magazine articles we
can nd that document the history of
Slope Soaring.
SOURCES:
RCGroups Slope Soaring blog
www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.
php?u=404653
RCGroups Slope Soaring forum
http://www.rcgroups.com/slope-97
Frank Kelly’s Flexi-Flier Rogallo
www.airplanesandrockets.com/airplanes/fl exi-fl ierplans-
apr-1974-AAM.htm
Dale Willoughby
www.modelaircraft.org/fi les/WilloughbyDale.pdf
Frank Bethwaite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bethwaite
Mark Smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Smith_(R/C_
modeling_pioneer)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Livingston_
Seagull_(fi lm)
League of Silent Flig
