Radio Controlled Sailplane Guide. R/C Sailplanes are small to large models made from a variety of materials from balsa wood to carbon fiber and epoxy. Sailplanes don't have or need engines to keep them flying, although many use electric motors or gas engines powering propellers to 'tow' the sailplanes to a decent altitude. As in real (human piloted) gliders, R/C sailplanes rely on the same mechanism for gaining and keeping altitude: Thermals and slope lift. Some people think that you can just toss a sailplane into the wind and the plane will just rise, like a kite, into the air. Instead, a sailplane that has no power towing it is always descending or falling down through the air. If the air below the plane is rising faster than the plane is falling, the plane will rise upwards, and the real fun begins... One of the best things about sailplanes is that they're noiseless, don't produce exhaust or get a coat of 'slime' over every exposed surface of the airframe after being flown. Sailplanes have the distinct advantage of powered planes, either gas or electric, in that they can, in the right conditions, stay up for an hour or longer. You don't just launch your sailplane and then glide down to the ground. The goal is to stay aloft and that means 'looking' for thermals or flying off of a slope which gives the sailplane lift. Once your sailplane is airborne, regardless of how high, the sailplane may only remain in the air for a couple of minutes or less. If there is lift or the pilot has gained a reasonable amount of experience, the sailplane can remain in the air, for 15 minutes or even longer. My longest thermal driven flight lasted more than 1-1/2 hours! Once you're in the 'lift', you rise or stay at the same altitude. There is something very special about launching a handlaunch glider in a small field, groping around for lift, finding some and then 'specking' it (making the sailplane go so high that it is a 'speck' in the sky). Once you've done this with a sailplane, you will be hooked into this hobby for the rest of your life. Choose your hobbies carefully. Some sailplanes can be launched merely by throwing to get altitude, known to the 'purest' as Hand Launch Gliders or HLG, or by using a towing mechanism from the ground such as a long rubber band known as a hi-start or with an electric winch. Hi-starts are usually constructed of several hundred feet of surgical rubber tubing connected to an even longer piece of line (twice as long, typically) either braided nylon cord or a single strand of monofilament (fishing line). To get the sailplane to a high altitude means attaching your sailplane the line end of the hi-start with a ring on the hi-start and 'tow hook' on the bottom of the plane (near the plane's center of gravity) and staking the rubber end into the ground. Start by stretching the rubber downwind and when there's enough tension (depends on the weight of the sailplane) releasing (or sometimes throwing) your sailplane up and into the wind. The hi-start will cause the plane to rise quite quickly depending on the weight of the sailplane, the tension on the hi-start, and the amount of wind that is blowing. Launches can be as high as the hi-start is long or even longer under good conditions. Winch launches can be higher than hi-start launches, and certainly are more convenient, but can also destroy a sailplane if too much force is applied to the sailplane during launch. Typically, there is a foot pedal that allows the pilot of the sailplane control over how much 'winching' occurs during a launch. Tapping the foot pedal can then control the force by turning on and off the winch. Launching sailplanes from a slope is easy. You don't need a hi-start or winch, you just give the glider a good throw into the wind. The air rising as it touches a slope provides the lift to keep the sailplane aloft. Keep the plane in the lift and the plane will continue to stay at the same altitude or rise. On good days, the only limitation of duration is the amount of available daylight or battery power for the radio equipment.
All classes of sailplanes will work well on in a slope environment. The only potential problem about flying, say a handlaunch sailplane, on a slope is the amount of available lift can be too much for a sailplane designed for extracting every breath of lift available. I.E. You can't get the plane down! For a slope, you can sacrifice lightness of construction and other efficiency in the airframe for a plane designed for speed and strength. It is not uncommon for some slope gliders to fly at speeds in excess of 100 mph as long as the conditions permit this. Thermal sailplanes typically fall into one of four categories: - · Handlaunch (HLG) - sailplanes with a wing span up to 1.5 meters (59-60").
- · Two Meter - sailplanes with a wingspan up to 2 meters (78").
- · Standard Class - sailplanes with a wingspan up to 100".
- · Open Class - sailplanes that have wingspans greater than 100".
Slope sailplanes are in two categories: - · Slope - sailplanes designed for high performance on the slope.
- · Combat - sailplanes designed for combat on the slope.
Of course, each of the planes in all the categories can sometimes be used in different places and in different ways. I like to fly my handlaunch planes on the slope when the wind is light and I fly some of my thermal duration planes there too. I even tape hooks on the bottom of my combat wings and shoot them into the air for a quick combat session, when I'm not on the slope. Here's a checklist of the things you need to do to get started in the R/C Sailplane hobby: Find a good starter sailplane kit or ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) kit. Good choices for a beginner's sailplane are planes that have 2 meter or shorter wing spans and use only rudder and elevator for controls. Really, for a beginner, there really is only one way to go when choosing your first sailplane and that is to choose a plane made mostly of Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) foam. You just can't break them, even if you dive them vertically into the ground (they just bounce!). This gives you the chance to learn from your mistakes without having to constantly re-build your plane after each flying session.
If you would rather build a more traditional kit out of balsa, there are several planes that have been teaching beginners over the years. Some of the most popular for beginners have been the Goldberg Gentle Lady, Great Planes Spirit, or the Dynaflite Wanderer.
Don't go wild and purchase a Scale sailplane as your first sailplane, i.e. one that has ailerons, flaps, etc. and requires a computer radio to fly. It is ALWAYS better to buy a beginner sailplane and learn to fly before crashing a beautiful, carbon-fiber, £500 investment into the hard ground. It is good (and more fun) to have more than one plane anyway. ARF planes have been, in the recent past, heavier and harder to repair than a built up wood kit. Recently there is a rash of new ARFs that have been manufactured in Taiwan or other places, with cheap labor, that are better built, but tend to be more expensive. My choice for a beginner is to still build the plane yourself. By doing this you will know more about how it is built and what it takes to repair it if it does crash or you run over it with the car. The better kits have parts that are laser cut to a high degree of accuracy and usually go together a bit easier. I also prefer kits that have 'all hardware included' on the side of the box. For a beginner, this helps the builder understand what things like 'clevis' and 'pushrods' are and you don't go on these shopping sprees at your local hobby store, buying everything in site that you 'think' you might need. A typical investment for a training glider in kit form is about £80 including the sailplane kit, covering, and other things, like glue, that you'll need to finish the plane. Two meter gliders usually accommodate the standard size radio equipment, which usually has a lower cost as well. | 
