Cumulus
The Cumulus, a half-size model (48-inch span) of a 1937 design by Ben Shereshaw, excels in both competition and casual flying, featuring simple construction and stable flight characteristics.
How To Do It: "Here--Hold This."
As are many hobbies, modeling is
generally a solitary activity—particularly
during construction and neverending
maintenance. We often wish there
was someone standing nearby, so we could
say “Here—hold this” while we performed
an operation on a piece.
We have gotten around the absence of
such a genie by acquiring every clip, clamp,
and vise imaginable; yet, like many modelers,
I needed another kind of vise and I couldn’t
quite decide what it would look like.
Finally, I started making sketches on the
workbench notepad. For each operation for
which I didn’t have the holding device I needed,
I made a change in the sketch to satisfy the need.
I thought I would eventually recognize the
type of vise I needed and buy it. After many
frustrating operations, I realized that I needed to
convert the sketch to something I could build.
Electric Endurance Trends
ELECTRIC ENDURANCE is one of the "crossover" events that appears from time to time, and with good reason. The interest in this event is partially driven by necessity. These models permit Sailplane pilots who do not have suitable sites for winches to still "work" lift and keep their flights silent (or at least unobtrusively quiet). Wet-power fliers, who may also be experiencing site difficulties, are enjoying this new dimension to their modeling activities. And many modelers are just trying something new and broadening their interests from the more-traditional airframes and power plants.
Spoilers and Air Brakes for Sailplanes
A couple of decades ago, Frank Zaic gave me such good advice about spoilers that I put it on a placard for my model shop: "Don't go too high if you want to come down in a hurry." Getting models back down is easy but it is disconcerting to maintain visual contact by the sun reflecting from fluttering wings. Yes, getting them down is easy; but to do it without stress is sometimes difficult. Spoilers and air-brakes permit models to come down in a hurry - safely. Just as significant, they allow us to cruise way up there, just below "frantic" altitude. Adding spoilers to a model during construction isn't difficult, but what about the already-built model - the real good one that you almost lost last Sunday? When I started working on the League for Electric Soaring's Flight Achievement Program, I was flying my Goldberg Electra too high again, so I decided that it needed spoilers, and I might as well add air-brakes. I have used this configuration on many of my sailplanes.
Electrolith
The 400-series Electric motors have become increasingly popular for powering everything from Pylon racers to multiengine Scale models. Since my primary interest is duration flying, I wanted to develop a sailplane for 400-series Limited Motor Run competition. I also wanted a model that would be rugged enough for sport flying-even in a wind that might ground similarly sized models. The Electrolith ("electric rock") is the result of that development effort. It is based on the Aerolith original design I have flown for several years. Electrolith is sturdy, tolerates wind well, and is a delight to fly. Here in Deep South competition, the motor run times are 90 seconds, with eight-minute flight times. At a recent windy contest, for a 400-Series All-Up-Last-Down event, I managed to shoehorn a pack of seven 1,000 mAh cells into the model; it won.
