I’ve had this glider for a long time, but never really flew it that much. One overcast day recently, Caleb and I put it to the test, and we got the event on camera. And it performed wonderfully.
I was going to draw plans for it, but then I had a better idea. Here are plans for a revised version that flies even better:
All fuse/pod parts are 1/16″ balsa, the boom is a 0.039″ carbon tube, and the flying surfaces are 1/32″ C grain balsa. You can build one of these in under an hour, and they fly great!
And you can get a .pdf of the plan that prints on an 11×17 sheet of paper. Enjoy, and let us know how it flies for you!
Flight video of the old model (new one coming soon!):
you think finding it in those weeds is bad you outta try a 5 acre 7 ft high corn patch!! loads of fun
I had a 1/8 A rocket glider vanish upwards at about a minute. Or, at least, after being distracted for a couple of seconds, I couldn’t focus on it again.. The ground was mowed for 270 yards or so downwind, unless the wind changed. Never found it, even though the wind seemed very light, even at launch height. I may have to build another and take binoculars. Or maybe fly on a day when there are clouds so I can keep my eyes focused at long distances, even if I lose sight of the glider.
Always fun to include the kids on projects like this. It means far more to them than we as adults might realize.
I had a rocket glider about this size that vanished almost straight up in a thermal. Ok, a noise distracted me about a minute in, and I never saw it again after that, but my eyes are pretty good. It was a sliding wing type, so I only had one piece to recover, but I didn’t find it in the hundreds of yards of mowed field in the direction it was last seen drifting in.
One of these days, I should make another one.
IMHO, your boost glider has unnecessary performance that just makes it more likely to be lost. ;-p
Maybe you should develop a 1/4 gram DT!
I’ve been to a few local rocket launches, but it seems to me that most rocket guys don’t do well with gliders. I have a friend who does both, and his RC rocket glider stays up a long time on a D engine. It would stay up longer if it wasn’t overweight, though.
BTW, congratulations on the 1/8 A rocket glider record that you will be setting in 3 weeks. (At least, that’s that the NAR records page shows. 11/27/2022 https://www.nar.org/contest-flying/records/) Something tells me you’ve already done it. 426 seconds is more like the kind of time I’d expect for a small boost glider. It really stands out, compared to most of the other record times.
Did you need binoculars or something to keep track?
I could see rocket gliders with magnetic steering, to keep them pointed upwind, or some kind of GPS device to make them fly back.