03-01-2016, 09:46 PM
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?
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?