[disoriented]

I had one of those rare and precious RC epiphanies yesterday afternoon - my first thermal gliding! It was a lot of fun

The Phoenix 2000 had been hanging from my study ceiling for around 3 years. I'd put it together, encountered problems with the stock drive system, caught the 3D bug at around the same time, and ignored it ever since. Inspired by seeing Elton's (sportier) version with the 1.6m wingspan, I finally chucked it into the air again yesterday afternoon.

After a bit of fiddling to configure "crow" and "camber" via the side sliders on the Taranis, I found myself beginning to enjoy the task of maximizing the glide slope, but it was still all down, direction-wise.

Around 5pm it was already rather cloudy and windy, but I had one more 3S 2200mAh lipo. This time, I realized that I could get the glider to climb without power as long as the turns were wide and flat (steer with the rudder, use ailerons only to keep the wing level, "harrier" style), and as long as it was over the eastern edge of the field, near the driveway. If I let it slip westward, down near Grace, there was no lift at all.

In the end, I managed a 17 minute flight with the pack still relatively full, down to ~4.05V/cell. I believe half an hour might have been achievable, given more practice and perhaps a smaller and lighter pack.

That was my one and only experience of thermaling so far, but I'm now quite interested in getting better at it. Was there something special about conditions yesterday, or are thermals quite common over our field?

[BOB]

HI, Andre. You should talk to Peter he’s also done a bit gliding and like you he said the best results were around at the ramp.

[Kedumba]

I've found in the past, especially on warm days, that there is generally a really good thermal that seems to hang around the eastern end of the field over the driveway and above the factories. I've had endless fun gliding my Bixler around those thermals. It is kinda addictive, trying to see how long you can go without having to apply power to keep your plane flying.

If the conditions are right I've also had thermals south of the Grace building, almost above the creek area but those are rarer
Mick

[robbo]

Andre,
You and i had the same epiphany within weeks. I have a 2m glider which i took out about 3 -4wks ago... was actually thinking id sell it cause wasnt really enjoying it... the whole gliding bit was missing me, i seemed to be fighting it all the time... power climb... glide down, few tip stalls along the way... power back up = short flying time and frustration.

Like you i then stopped using the ailerons except to level wings... did all/most turning with rudder. I stopped trying to fly it like a plane! It became much more friendly and i was able to stretch the glide. At one point it must have been about 7 mins between powerclimbs! Thanks partly to a fair easterly wind to point into and climb.

Need lots more practice but i might not sell it just yet!!

[secant0give]

If the conditions are right you can get some super lift at McCoy park.

When I was there on Saturday I could see the heat haze almost straight out from the pilot area slightly to the right just on the far side of the reeds. It's only fairly subtle but when you see that and the wind sock begins to swing and point towards it you know the hot air is going up and the air at ground level is flowing in to take it's place.

The conditions you need are a warm to hot day with just a little bit of breeze the stagnant air heats up and sticks to the ground until it gets just hot enough to break away and it all goes up like a bubble. If you could see it. I imagine it would look like a bit like a giant lava lamp. with blobs of hot air breaking away and going up from time to time.

Sometimes you get a really good one off to the left over the driveway which im sure is generated by a mas of air being trapped and heated up in the concrete area of the weir and when it gets going good it seems to work for about 15 or 20 mins.

SRL and Towelly have done a lot of Discus launch gliding, I watched them fly for around that time off a single launch no motor at all, one afternoon.

Gliding is brilliant fun especially with no motor. What would be good would be just to have a tow plane to get the gliders up there and then float around and hunt for the rising air.