Leo

Great stuff, looking at the helicopters, can you translate from German into English?

Happy Holidays
RD

I am into building vintage Freeflight models, Comet, Guillows, Sterling, Peck Polymers. Some RC.
Here is some Guillow kits,

Oh....nice a chance to pay forward...... :D

You got any plans for those HLG? Some of them make EXCELLENT conversion to both rocket and boost gliders. I converted a Maxwell (can't remember the actual one) to a boost glide and watched it thermal off from a separation at only about 25' alitude (boosted on a 1/2A just to check the glide and lost it!)

I built a really simple hand launch glider from plans in the AMA magazine once. I learned more about how planes fly from those few bits of scrap balsa than from all the RC planes I ever built.

I took it to a park early one morning and was lucky enough to get about a 250 yard glide with a maybe 15' launch thanks to some thermals. I was stunned!

Herr Engineering has a lot of neat rubber-power planes: http://www.sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsma...1Manu_02HERR_01


Here's a nice plane in an old Popular Science: http://books.google.com/books?id=VC...d=0_0#PPA168,M1

Reading these old issues is great, but it reminds me of how stupid and lazy most of us are these days. :(

Great looking planes Scigs.

A few years ago, I thought I read that Sig Mfg. had picked up the Comet line. Maybe they were just carrying the kits in their catalog. Did Comet finally go OOP, or can their kits still be found anywhere?

It there anything like a Ye Olde Free Flight for these older plans on the web?

I was thinking the same thing, Don. Especially when the Fat Boy arrived this morning. Many thanks for your kindness.

I have a couple of plans you might be interested in taking a look at from a rocketry standpoint. One in particular, my own design, is called "RPG" as in Rocket Propelled Grenade. It was designed as catapult launch glider with a rather thick wing planform to withstand the stress of a rubber band catapult launch. Scaled it up from its original 13" wingspan to about 15' or 17" should be just about right as long as you don't mind losing a few of them...okay, almost all of them... unless you use some sort of DT (dethermalizing device). The other alternative is to fly early in the day before the thermals start booming or early in the evening after they've subsided.

Let me rummage around in my files to see if I can lay hands on a couple of clean copies of some likely candidates and DT setups. I have zero experience with boost or rocket gliders so this may be a new path of interest for me, too.

In the meantime, check out this link. Don De Loach's 'Pisces' HLG

This was pretty much state of the art back in 2005 with a balsa body, a CF tailboom, polyhedral wing, and a DT setup. A bit more complex than mine.

Scigs, nice work on those scale kits! They are gorgeous. Are you an FAC member?

I remember one of the first scale kits I bought was a Comet P-38 just like yours. Never got around to building that one and I may even still have the original printwood and plans. My best scale flier was a Comet Stinson Reliant SR-7. I sure do miss that one. I ended up leaving the scale modeling arena and became a competition (duration) oriented guy.

Craig, I don't think there is anything like YORP anywhere in any hobby! If you google "FREE FLIGHT PLANS" you find many websites catering to both scale plans as well as competition model plans. The big umbrella organization for flying models is the Academy of Model Aviation or the AMA as it is fondly known. Free flight modelers belong to the AMA but they may also additionally belong to the National Free Flight Society of NFFS (sometimes pronounced "niffus" in jest). Both of these organizations maintain plan services for members but only the AMA has a forum set up at this time. Not sure why but the NFFS forum seems to have either gone away or become a members only thing. One observation I have made is that competitive/international events fliers have a bit of hard edge about them sometimes while the scale fellas seem a lot more friendly and willing to share. Different aspects of the same hobby, I think.

"Flying Models" is the best aeromodeling magazine commonly available here in the US. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the hobby or to find plan sources. It's probably sold in your local hobby shop.

Here's a link to the website... Flying Models Magazine

Same here.