Electronic Second Wind 89-1
Second Wind 89-1
The Newsletter for soaring gods in a "winged arrow" world
________________________________________________________________________________
Introduction:
Hello fellow multichannel glider guiders! This is our first newsletter and as such is somewhat of a milestone for us at Dodgson Designs. We hope to have a new newsletter available twice a year, for one dollar per copy. In the beginning, our ads and our catalog will announce when a new issue is available. We want this newsletter to serve as a link between us, at Dodgson Designs, and you flyers and between yourselves. We welcome tips for the Titillating Tips section, that fellow flyers could find useful. If you have a good anecdote for the Multichannel Misfits section or an article, of interest to Dodgson Designs glider flyers, please send it to us for possible publication in this newsletter. For those tips, anecdotes, or articles that we select to use, we will send the author a 25% off gift certificate. I (Bob Dodgson) will be the judge of what will go into Second Wind and am solely responsible for its content.
We even want to help bring collectors of our gliders together so that buyers and sellers can interact to their mutual benefit, with our reader's exchange section. Ads, sized as shown in this issue, are $3.00 each. Second Wind has a circulation of over 500 Dodgson Designs glider enthusiasts.
We have had a very enthusiastic response to the LOVESONG kit, which has replaced the Mighty Windsong. Everyone who has built and flown both ships, seem to agree wholeheartedly that the Lovesong is a significant improvement, even over the Windsong. In our ongoing effort to keep our gliders at the leading edge of thermal competition performance, we have incorporated the Lovesong wing technology into the Camano and Pixy kits (see the Camano/Pixy Update section).
All of our kits now feature, Lovesong-type computer drawn plans, even the new Orbiter! These plans are drawn in AutoCad and are plotted in ink with a multi-pen high resolution plotter. They are the best plans in the industry today.
The ORBITER looks like a real winner. I have been flying a flapped version myself and have been having a ball. At the field, last Sunday, there were about 10 polyhedral floaters, flying off hi-starts. The lift was weak and spotty, to none at all. During the hour that I was at the field, none of the polyhedral ships were able to climb out, even with hi-start launches. With the Orbiter, I climbed out from one of my marginal hand launches and was able to put on quite an aerobatic display for ground-bound polyhedral parachute pundits. The Orbiter is really a fun, nimble, high performance little ship. They are selling so fast that we are already on our third production run and we only released them three weeks ago! I am finally getting used to using the TE reflex feature on the launch and it seems to help. Even my wimpy arm is giving me enough launch height to be respectable.
All of our current fiberglass fuselages are being made out of POLYESTER resin and glass cloth. This is a more versatile material than is epoxyglass as far as being able to bond to it with a variety of adhesives. We found that most of our customers prefer polyester. Adcock's Soaring Specialties (ASS) is doing most of our fuselages at the present time. You will have a chance to give O. L. Adcock your personal input, on his work, at the 1989 NATS (he can run . . . but he can't hide!)
________________________________________________________________________________
WINCH DRUMS:
We stumbled onto a box of Metler winch drums, that we used to sell in the mid seventies. We have six of them left and we will sell them to the first six people who order them. The cost is the same as it was 12 years ago . . . $40.00 each plus $2.00 shipping. These winch drums fit the long shaft Ford starting motors and have a set-screw that locks into the existing hole in the shaft. The end plates are 1/8 tempered aluminum, 6 in diameter, with welded steel end caps. The center is 1-1/2 in diameter and is made of steel. The inside clear width, between the end plates, is 3-5/8.
________________________________________________________________________________
TITILLATING TIPS:
Tips Sent in From Fellow Dodgson Designs Glider Flyers
BALLAST MADE EASY
from Rich Kardian - MO:
Rich has discovered that the 1/2 diameter iron rod, that you can find in most hardware stores, weighs nearly an ounce per inch. Therefore, you can cut ballast slugs that are 2 and 4 long and be able to put any amount of ballast in your Lovesong, Camano or Pixy that the situation demands . . . up to about 15 ounces in the 16 total ballast tube length. Lead ballast of the same length will weigh about 20 ounces. Most flyers will never need to add more than 15 ounces of weight to their Dodgson Designs glider anyway so this offers a quick and easy solution to making ballast slugs.
VACUUM BAGGED WINGS
from Al Doig - CA:
Al has found that when he uses the Sucker Kit vacuum bag system ($59.95), after applying the balsa sheeting to his wings with transfer tape, that the ultimate adhesion is increased. Since the wing is bagged after it is fully sheeted, the bag is exerting force on both the upper and lower surfaces at the same time. The wings are left in the vacuum bag overnight. Al says that this procedure totally eliminates any sheeting lifting problems, along the LE during construction. It therefore follows that the process really helps set the tapes adhesion, giving an even better bond than normal. Al has written an article for RCM on his findings. It should be out real soon. Al also has an article just out in RCM on the new Airtronics Vision, computerized glider radio, which he is flying in his new Lovesong. By the way, Al strayed into the abyss of sin for a while, seduced by the siren's voice calling him to try the latest entrant into the thermal duration kit world. Yes, sad to say it is true . . . Al built and flew an Ultima. Being a man of purpose and insight, however, Al was able to break free of and to put this de-Schuemannizing experience behind him. He is now a contented and fulfilled Lovesong flyer. In fact, Al is so happy with his Lovesong that he is nearing a state of total collapse . . . staying up nights and losing sleep, while toiling in vain to devise things that he can improve on it. In a lucid moment, brought on by exhaustion, Al even went as far as to say that with the Lovesong we finally got it right!
WING TO FUSELAGE ALIGNMENT
from Walt Voldhard - WA:
Walt has come up with a truly easy way to align the wings so that they are perpendicular to the center line of the fuselage. You simply center the fuselage on a crack line in your tile floor and then slide the fuselage along the line until either the wing-tip TE or LE is over a perpendicular tile crack line. When both wing-tips are symmetrical about the line, the wings are perpendicular to the fuselage. Naturally, you must have the wing rod receiver holes, in the fuselage sides, a little over size during this process. Use 5 minute epoxy to lock the wing rod receiver in position. Since our 5/16 and 11/32 wing rods are not perfectly straight, you should substitute brass a tube for the rod during the alignment process.
QUICK, CLOSE-CENTERING AILERONS
from Dave Banks - WA:
If you are using mechanical linkages and want really tight, fast and close-centering aileron control, use a Futaba FP31-S or equal. This all ball bearing servo is fast, its resolution is tight and it has nearly 70 in-oz of torque. You will notice the difference in how quickly your glider responds to turn commands. You will also probably find that your flight batteries will last longer because the servo will not be overloaded.
AUTOMATIC A.F.A.R.T.
from Gary Brokaw - WA:
Gary has devised a relatively simple way to equip most simple 4-7 channel transmitters with a switch that will allow the flyer to instantaneously switch between normal cruise mode and full-span trailing edge reflex. He even allows for automatic elevator compensation. Gary has a version for the 4 servo Lovesong and the 3 servo Pixy/Camano/Lovesong installation. I will have Gary explain it in his own words as follows: I enjoyed flying for the last year with the A.F.A.R.T. but I did not enjoying its mode of activation. I use an inexpensive Futaba Conquest radio that works very well, but doesn't have any of the accessory switches like the more expensive ACE Silver Seven radio or the Artronics Vision.
So . . . every time I want to trim the trailing edge up, I have to find the flap trim lever with my thumb, while keeping my eyes on the glider. This is not the worlds easiest thing to do, by any means. (I use the three servo A.R.A.R.T. arrangement. The four servo one would require even more dexterity.)
After a little thought and very little work, I have solved the whole problem. Installing a toggle switch and a 20k variable resister across the flap trim pot, I was able to electrically move the trim lever without physically touching it. I still, however, needed to push a little down in to the elevator to get the plane to move out. So I changed the single pole switch to a double pole switch and added another 20k variable resistor across the elevator trim pot. Now when I activate the toggle switch, the entire trailing edge comes up 6 degrees and the elevator gives me just the right amount of down. I just hit the switch and away it goes. If you are using the four servo set-up, on the Lovesong, you can purchase a three pole switch and another 20k variable resistor (making a total of three of each) which will allow you to adjust all three servo's at once (the flap servo, the aileron trim servo and the elevator servo). Although I made this modification to a conquest radio, I believe it can be accomplished on almost any inexpensive four channel radio. You just need the space to mount the switch and resistors. First remove the back of the Futaba radio and the three screws holding the circuit boards in place. Now mount the switch in the hole Futaba uses for its D/R elevator switch on their six channel radio. Mount the variable resistors with a little CA glue under the holes on the top of the case. There are four holes, two on each side of the top. The black metal cover plates will just pop off with a little help from an Xacto knife. Be sure and don't get any glue inside your resistor or it won't be variable any longer. Use some 24 gage wire to hook-up your new parts as per the drawing of the configuration you choose. When hooking the wires to the trim pots, hook one wire to the center lug and the other to either the top or the bottom lug. To determine the correct lug, just look at the front of your radio . . . if you need to move the trim lever up to get the desired results, then hook the second wire to the top lug on the trim pot. Hook it to the bottom lug, if the opposite is true.
When reinstalling the circuit board, check to make sure it doesn't hit any of the resistor leads. I had to trim some of the board away with a sharp knife to clear one of the resistors. I also wrapped some electrical tape around the corner of the circuit board to be safe.
All that is left to do now is to adjust the 20k variable resistors so that when the switch is activated, the appropriate control surfaces throw the desired amount.
If you feel uneasy about any of this, you had better find someone to help you out. The parts list is as follows:
Resistors, spectrol #64W203 20k variable resistor
2 pole switch, Radio Shack #275-636 or 637
3 pole switch, Radio Shack #275-661
If you have a problem finding these parts write to me, Gary Brokaw, at 2615 South Cherry, Spokane, WA 99216. I can supply them from our local electronics store Radar Electric for the following price:
2-pole switch + 2-resistors . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00
3-pole switch + 3-resistors . . . . . . . . . . . $13.00
On the two pole switch, they come either spring loaded or regular toggle. if you order them from me, state which kind of switch action you want. Good luck and good flying!
________________________________________________________________________________
Multichannel Misfits:
SEMPER FI
by Bob Dodgson
The brothers, Steve and Larry Nuss were an inspiration to all Seattle slope flyers in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Larry soon became very proficient at flying my early multichannel Todi prototypes.) They were always together and always had a harmonious relationship. Moreover, they both shared an unquenchable enthusiasm for glider flying. There was one time though when the hobby nearly ended their happy filial relationship. You see, Larry owned a radio control system but he took it out of his own plane so that Steve could use it to try to fly his new scale SB7, with ailerons, which he had been building on for about a year. When it came time for the maiden flight of the SB7 the question arose who should fly it? The guy who owned and built the plane or the guy who owned the expensive radio and who had the most flight experience?. Unfortunately, this question was still unresolved when the glider was launched. It is a sight that I will never forget, the SB7 flying in a stall-diving pattern as it was disappearing out over a big warehouse complex, ever lower, toward a thick clump of trees. Meanwhile, Steve and Larry were both tugging and hauling on the transmitter amid shouts of give it here, it is my plane. I should be able to crash it myself. Well, it is my radio. If it gets ruined in a crash, I want it to be me flying. Well, the plane finally landed itself in a small clearing and was fine, in spite of the lack of piloting. However, The brothers Nuss were never quite the harmonious duo that they were before that memorable flight.
Always marching to his own drummer, Larry Nuss did not limit himself to conventional solutions to problems. On one occasion, he was experiencing an intermittent range problem with his radio system. He concluded that the problem was alleviated if someone held his transmitter antennae in a flexed position. This worked fine, until his brother Steve got tired of spending his afternoons at the slope, holding Larry's antenna. Logically then, Larry reasoned, all that he had to do was to tie a heavy weight on the end of his antenna to keep it flexed as he flew. A heavy lead sinker on the end of a string, tied to the antenna was just the ticket, for Larry. Since he put boundless amounts of body language into his flying, this made soaring with Larry quite an exciting experience. As you might well imagine, no one was safe within a 25 foot radius. Larry would swing that implement of destruction as if he were a Ninja with a giant knumchuck, singing as it sliced the air, creating a circle of total devastation. It is true that Larry had many flying buddies . . . but he had no close flying buddies while he had his transmitter in hand!
________________________________________________________________________________
A FIERY PASSION FOR SOARING
by Bob Dodgson
Randy and Dan Vermullem were resourceful, young brothers who, with their Maestros, flew up a storm in the mid 1970s. Randy needed an hour-long thermal flight for LSF level III, but he had a busy work schedule, on the family dairy farm, and did not have much opportunity to pick his times to fly. On one occasion though, Randy saw his opportunity and seized the moment. He noticed that his neighbor's barn had caught on fire and that people were running to help battle the blaze. Well, Randy was on the move also . . . to grab his Maestro for a quick launch over the burning barn. Yes, Randy got his hour LSF flight and he even had the aplomb to get two of the firemen to sign his LSF form, as witnesses to his flight. He just said what the heck, the barn was a goner anyway.
________________________________________________________________________________
The ORBITER Kit Is Here Now!
price - $65.00 (quantity discounts apply)
designed by Eric (Dr. J. Bamboo) Jackson
and as seen in RCSD The Orbiter is the glider that is destined to set handlaunch competition on its ear! It is a no compromise multichannel handlaunch competition glider that has won 9 out of the 10 contests entered by Eric Jackson in 1988. Built-up construction is featured throughout and the Selig 4061 airfoil is used. Two channels are required and a third servo is optional if flaps are desired. A modified mini A.F.A.R.T. (the Min.F.A.R.T.) is used to allow both the flaps and ailerons to reflex during launch and for doing aerobatics. Anyone who flys larger Dodgson Design gliders will need this mini performance powerhouse (it can be set up with controls just the same as on the big ships!) In spite of its conventional built-up construction, due to the control sophistication, construction time and skill demands and the extraordinary level of performance available, we do not recommend the Orbiter kit for the beginner or for the novice builder or flyer. This little plane demands top construction and multichannel flying skill to take advantage of its performance potential.
SPECIFICATIONS
FUSELAGE LENGTH (less rudder): 32-1/4 FUSELAGE WIDTH: 1-5/16 max. FUSELAGE CONSTRUCTION: Lite-Ply Plywood sides, balsa top and bottom WING SPAN: one piece 59 wing WING AREA: 432 sq in. ASPECT RATIO: 8 to 1 WING LOADING: 5.9 oz. per sq ft. AIRFOIL: Selig 4061 WING CONSTRUCTION: Joined, bolt-on one piece built-up wing with: 1/16 balsa ribs, 3/32 x 1/4 spruce spars top and bottom with shear webs between, 1/32 balsa sheeting on flaps/ailerons and on the LE D tube. STAB/ELEVATOR & RUDDER/FIN CONSTRUCTION: Built-up from 1/8 balsa members and glued permanently to the fuselage HARDWARE: Complete with all linkages, links, push-rods and even the Min.F.A.R.T. wing TE reflex mixer. TOTAL FLYING WEIGHT: 17-18 oz. RADIO REQUIREMENTS: Mini 2-4 channel receiver, 2-3 micro servos such as Futaba S33 or S133, 275 MAH battery pack. CONTROLS: Elevator, ailerons 12-1/2 long, rudder coupled to ailerons and optional flaps 15-3/4 long. The flaps and ailerons can even be reflexed up 6 degrees for high speed flight, when performing aerobatics, when coming home from down wind thermals and best of all during the hand launch toss for the contest advantage of increased throw height. Since hand-launch competition does not involve spot landing in its scoring and since the fuselage space is so limited, the Orbiter does not have mechanical flap-elevator compensation during flap deployment as do our larger ships. You may wish to add this feature electronically with your transmitter if you have the option.
PERFORMANCE
At last, there is a serious handlaunch competition glider that offers a real performance edge over the competition. The orbiter is to polyhedral handlaunch gliders what the Windsong/Lovesong is to open class polyhedral competition gliders . . . their worst nightmare! A Lovesong, Camano or Pixy flyer will truly delight in having the same control and performance level available in handlaunch competition as they have in the other classes. The Orbiter is also a most versatile slope performer and it is a real 2-meter contender when flown from a winch or hi-start. It can thermal out in any lift and bore right up through the competition as they flail around trying to max on dying dreams. The turning ability of the Orbiter is so amazing that Barry Kurath coined the term bat turn to describe a special near stall turn that the Orbiter can perform allowing it to instantly and with nearly no altitude loss change directions 180 degrees. This maneuver must be seen to be believed! In spite of its one piece wing and non detachable tail feathers, due to its tiny size, the Orbiter can easily be carried around ready to fly in the back end of most cars.
________________________________________________________________________________
The Elevator and the Rotating Wing:
You may have seen mention of this control system in ads or in magazine articles. It has been called elevons, pitcherons etc. Our first Pivot prototypes used this control system. The concept is really neat. The Pivot would have no controls going to the tail at all. The turning and elevator effect would all be done with the rotating wings. Our prototypes flew reasonably well on the slope. However, we soon learned that the control system was simply not viable on a thermal ship.
When turning with a thermal ship, you are usually almost at stall speed. Since you use up elevator to hold the nose up in the turn, the wing incidence is increased to give the needed up elevator, instantly increasing the angle of attack on the wing. The result is a violent and instantaneous stall. When a conventional elevator is used, the angle of attack on the wing is changed gradually, as the whole glider must rotate longitudinally, allowing for corrections to be made in airspeed etc. so you can abort a stall before it happens. Not so with the elevator in the wings.
Needless to say, we aborted the pitcheron approach as a bad and inefficient way to control a high performance thermal glider. Slope ships can get away with it. After all, anything can fly on a good slope. We feel that it is safe to say that pitcheron etc. control is not as efficient a way to control a sailplane as is the conventional elevator. Even using rotating wings as ailerons only, on thermal gliders, as we do in the Pivot, can lead to problems with tip stall etc. if they are not overcome through careful trimming and control adjustment. I would not use rotating wings on a serious contest glider, where performance and handling must be uncompromised. ________________________________________________________________________________
New Computerized Transmitters:
With the advent of the ATRACS radio system for gliders and now the Airtronics Vision system, more of you will be choosing to utilize electronic mixing and coupling systems on your Dodgson Designs gliders. Ace is coming out with a new computerized system soon too.
It is important to avoid the pitfalls when going all electronic. First of all, you must decide whether to put the aileron servos in the wings or whether to keep them in the fuselage (don't even consider putting the flap servos in the wings).
Some flyers, like Al Doig, prefer to have the aileron servos in the wings because, they claim that they get truer centering on the ailerons and that it is easier to plug in two servo connectors, when installing the wing, than it is to snap on two kwik-links. They can also drive the ailerons from a point closer to their center of area as opposed to driving them at the root. On the other hand, many flyers, such as Jim Thomas, Brad Clasen and Shawn Lenci, prefer to have the aileron servos in the fuselage for the following reasons: 1)To keep as much weight ahead of the C.G. as possible so that less nose weight, if any, will have to be used. 2)There is less chance of radio problems if you do not have long servo leads. 3)You do not have to weaken the wing by making a cut-out in the foam and sheeting for the servo. 4)You have ready access to your servos and you can use more powerful, closer centering, better quality servos to yield very precise aileron and aileron spoiler control. When the servos are all in the fuselage, you would normally have the two aileron servos in front, the rudder servo going crosswise, in the middle, and the elevator and flap servos in the back. Jim Thomas has the forward servos raised above the tray with 5/16 plywood shims. He has the rudder servo in the middle raised with 1/8 plywood shims and the back servos mounted directly on the servo tray. This stair stepping allows for straight pushrod runs that clear the servo arms from the servos behind making a neat and tight installation. Flap servos in the wing do not work well with our kits because of the laced flap hinging system used. The laced hinge system works great. It is clean, light-weight and provides an air seal. The flap linkage provided in our kits, provides and up and down force on the flaps to actuate them. This provides for a slop-free and flutter-free flap drive and hinge combination. On the other hand, if you drive the flaps from servos in the wings, the servo pushrod provides a push-pull force against the hinge-line, rather than an up and down force. As a result, the flap can move in and out a little on the hinges, providing slop and possible flutter problems. Furthermore, flap servos in the wings, weaken the wings where the servo cut-outs in the sheeting are located. This occurs in a high-stress area of the wing structure. Since flap servos in the wings require the weight of an extra servo too, there are no good reasons for putting the flap servos in the wings. ________________________________________________________________________________
Camano and Pixy Update:
Both the Camano and Pixy kits feature new computer drawn plans and incorporate the Lovesong TE technology. This yields a truer wing that is flutter free, improving top end performance. If you have an older kit with hand drawn plans, you may wish to order a new set of plans and building instructions, so that you can build the latest version of these great gliders. With their improved high-speed performance, these kits and yes even the Lovesong should be seriously considered if you are looking for an entry level F3B ship (should you dare be so inclined after reading my maniacal musings).
________________________________________________________________________________
Win/Love Conversion Kits:
We are still offering, for a limited time, the full conversion kits which allow you to change a Windsong kit into a true Lovesong, if you have not yet started construction. The kits contain everything you need, including new plans/building instructions, heavy duty flap linkage, new spars and shear webs, ballast tubes, new wing rod and tube, etc. We offer these as a courtesy to our customers, but we will not carry them much longer.
________________________________________________________________________________
OUT TO LAUNCH:
F3B . . . Another point of view
by Bob Dodgson
Are you as tired as I am of hearing the wailing and chest thumping in the model press about how we, in the US are so far behind Europe in glider design. Have you ever questioned the often quoted truism that the advances that we are enjoying in soaring today were a direct result of F3B glider development and that they were European in origin? My experience has been that the Europeans are not great design innovators but rather that they are great worshipers of hi-tech and that many times in their quest for even higher technology, they may even miss the point of good glider design.
A prime example of this technological trap was exhibited at the FAI world championships in Sacramento CA in the early eighties. The design that caught the eye of the model press and that became the subject of outpourings of adulation, the likes of which the soaring world had never seen before, was the Swiss team's Sparticus glider. It was beautifully crafted. It had hollow core fiberglass wing construction. All the parts were produced in metal machined molds so that a whole fleet of planes would come out exactly the same. The most highly touted innovation of all, however, was the fact that the Sparticus did not carry ballast. Instead, it had a servo operated C.G. shifting mechanism, consisting of a weight at the C.G. which could be moved forward or backward in precise increments by servo, even in flight. A special team member was responsible for calculating the best C.G. position for each task and for the flying conditions at that moment. The pilots set the C.G. accordingly. The technology was so brilliant, that the worshipful press and fellow modelers could not see where the Swiss team had gone wrong.
Being a little different (as in not normal), I saw their error at once and chuckled as the modeling world swooned. This wonderful technology was based on a flawed design premise. In serious contest flying, the last thing that you want to be doing is messing around with the C.G. location, because this alters how the plane flys and how it handles. In effect, the Swiss team members had to learn to fly a new airplane every time they went up on a flight. Not surprising to me (but a great surprise to the press) was the fact that the Sparticus did not place high at the contest. In fact the contest was won by Dwight Holley, flying a much lower tech glider but one that was based on well chosen design parameters. Another thing that surprised me about the FAI Championships that year, was how the Europeans were still clinging to flapperon control in their wings, rather than progressing to separate flap and aileron control as had been proven superior in this country for several years. Europe was also slow to figure out that they did not need to use archaic spoilers. They were so fascinated with building machined spoiler mechanisms etc. that they failed to analyze the basic premise. To be sure some avant-garde flyers were using pop-up-canopies to little avail. They were so ineffectual that it was humorous to behold them being proudly shown off by the flyers as their gliders went sailing off into the sunset 100 yards from the landing circle, with their canopies erect. Hopefully, at this point, you are asking yourself, just what great design innovations has Europe and F3B really brought to US soaring? Hollow core fiberglass wing construction, the latest European innovation?
Wrong! in 1969-1972 or thereabouts, Jerry Nelson (if I recall the name correctly) developed and produced ready-to-fly scale Ka6 gliders with about a 12 foot wing span. These exquisite gliders pioneered hollow-core fiberglass wing construction. The wings were laid up in molds with fiberglass against the mold, then a thin layer of rigid foam (about 1/8 thick) and then another layer of fiberglass put over the foam with some kind of integrated spar system. When the top and bottom halves were joined, the wing was hollow and it was strong!
The Nelson Ka6 was a great performer, both on the slope and as a thermal ship. The major problem with it as a thermal ship was that the contest winches used then did not have the power to launch this 10lb airplane. The Ka6 even had an ingenious aileron hook-up system that was automatically activated when the wings were installed onto the wing mounting tongue. It flew, looked and sounded just like the real thing! This ship was a good 15 years ahead of its time! Vacuum bag fiberglass and foam wings?
Wrong! For example, around 1972, a full sized glider flyer and boeing engineer named Earl Pace produced a limited run of gorgeous scale Labelle glider kits using blue foam, fiberglass and the vacuum bag process, every bit as sophisticated as people are using today. His gliders were immaculate in design and workmanship and flew superbly too.
Sophisticated multichannel control systems?
Wrong! The Nelson Ka6 was one of the first R/C gliders in the world to use ailerons successfully. My Todi kit, introduced in 1972, was the first successful thermal competition glider kit to use ailerons and the first kit in the world to utilize flapperon control. Half of my sales of the Todi and Maestro gliders (from 1972 to 1976) were to Europe, England and Australia where they were hailed as the wave of the future. Unfortunately, the Europeans stuck way too long with flapperon control. It took them until a year or 2 ago to figure out what we have known for many years, that separate flaps and ailerons with a full trimable TE is far better in every way than is flapperon control. They were so involved perfecting technology that they missed the boat on some major design considerations.
F3B ships gave the world the crow landing configuration?
Wrong again. To my knowledge, the Windsong which was first kitted in 1982 was the first kit to utilize what has since become known as crow landing capability. We more accurately describe it as aileron spoilers that can be used alone or used in conjunction with flaps. We had this as a standard feature on our Windsong kits for 5 years before the F3B ships discovered it. What is more, we have found that the 90 degrees of flap throw is much more useful for landing than is the aileron reflex. The spoiling action of the ailerons is only marginally useful and is more effective as a visual show stopper than it is as a serious competition landing aid. It causes you to give up considerable turn control. With 90 degree flaps, proven to be so effective as a landing device, I am still amazed at how many high-tech designs still employ draggy and obsolete conventional spoilers in the wings!
Even the sophisticated electronic mixing functions that have now become standard fair on F3B planes have been used on our gliders, by some flyers, who preferred to bypass our mechanical systems, since the late seventies (when the Maestro was king). Bob Baugher is a name that comes to mind. He won the Nationals with an electronically operated maestro. THEN, JUST WHAT IMPROVEMENTS TO OUR SPORT, IN TRUTH, HAVE COME ABOUT THROUGH F3B?
The removable nose cone was first used on F3B ships.
This nose treatment, in theory, is to reduce aerodynamic drag, around the fuselage nose to the minimum, keeping the airflow as laminer as possible, while still allowing access to the radio gear. In practice, it requires a structural keel in the fuselage to be the primary structure in the forward section. Structurally, this is a much less efficient design, than utilizing a structural shell type fuselage. To be as strong, it must be heavier and the drag savings by not having an access hatch is probably negligible at the speeds normally flown by multitask thermal gliders. In fact, the removable nose cone may well be more of a structural hindrance than it is an aerodynamic boon. If the fit is not immaculate, the nose cone may even be hurting the aerodynamics.
It is amusing to see all of the me too hi-tech gliders where witless designers are blindly copying the form of hi-tech without really understanding why. Blind followers will never be innovators and Buzzword materials, do not necessarily a good design make. The Schuemann wing planform was first made popular in the R/C soaring world by F3B ships.
This is true. We do not know yet if this is just a fad or if in fact, the Schuemann wing planform is really a performance booster. I suspect that it could be beneficial on low aspect ratio designs, such as 2-meter and maybe even standard class gliders. I would be surprise, however if this planform has much to offer the high aspect ratio open class designs. It has not rocked the real soaring world. The big open class full sized gliders that are the highest performers have not employed the Schuemann planform. The Discus has not been that successful in competition. The added construction and kitting complexity of this multi-panel wing planform may well more than offset any slight advantage that this planform has to offer in all but special cases, like the low aspect ratio Orbiter. Needless to say, as a designer, we must keep and open mind and several of our kits with the Schuemann planform have been built. We are evaluating their performance.
Faster airfoils and more use of space age materials are a legacy of F3B.
However, the fast airfoils seem to be of little use in our multitask competition and therefore are not widely used in this country. Space aged materials have been widely used and mostly abused in this country. They are totally wasted on most designs and if improperly used they offer a structurally unsound glider. Good structural design eliminates the need for most of those materials on multitask thermal competition gliders. It is only world class F3B type gliders that really need to use them to be competitive. Good structural design cannot be over emphasized.
I, for one, think that the importance of F3B on our hobby is highly over rated and is given way too much credit for innovations that have already been made by multitask thermal glider designers and by creative individual flyers. When the F3B world finally stumbles upon these ideas (recreating the wheel), they are hailed as being revolutionary ideas! Get real! Now, there is a movement afoot, to start an entry level one design F3B standard in this country to try to give the corpse of F3B a shot in the arm. It needs more than a shot in the arm, it need a resurrection! Some folks feel that the one design concept is too restrictive and will never fly. Some of these heavy thinkers have offered alternatives such as: limiting the wing span, not allowing camber changing devices, such as flaps etc. I remember when the Todi was not allowed to fly in standard class because it had flapperons! This is the kind of thinking that is supposed enhance soaring and push glider design forward. Are we taking a step back to the dark ages or what? It seems to me that any approach that restricts design innovation is no friend to our sport of soaring. We are told that there is no interest in F3B soaring because there are no entry level F3B glider kits available for around $150.00 and yet, anyone can see that there are many such kits to choose from, our new, stronger Camano is just one example. I postulate that not many people in this country fly F3B because it is really not that much fun, the contests are slow and laborious to put on and it crashes good airplanes. THe real question is why would any body want to fly F3B? Most US flyers are attracted to soaring because it is an individual sport, where you can challenge and harness the very powers of nature itself. Where thermal flying is concerned, you can continue to hone your skills for a lifetime and still be improving. If we wanted to fly bullets, we would be flying control line speed or hot R/C pylon racers. Alas most US glider flyers do not want to have a corporation backing them and a team to accompany them when they go to the field to fly. If they wanted this, they would be flying full sized gliders. Most R/C glider flyers just want to grab their gliders and their Hi-starts and head out to a remote field and fly with a few good flying buddies in an independent fashion. Many of us have tried F3B at the local and/or national level and have found the experience to be a big turn-off . . . so much so that many of my friends even dropped out of the sport of soaring as a result of serious participation in F3B. I say, Europe has it. They are stuck with it. Let them continue to flail around in the Techy tar pits and let us keep the fun and the grandeur in soaring. I also say, let those who want to fly F3B go ahead and that's great. I do not think, however, that F3B has contributed much to our hobby in the way of innovations and it has cost us dearly in the loss of many great flyers who have burnt out on F3B. Let F3B launch itself into orbit and fly around the world in an hour! I would rather climb out in a week thermal from handlaunch altitude, on a warm day with some friends, do amazing aerobatics, maybe even thermal inverted for a while, lose the altitude and then try to climb out again more skillfully than before. Also I want to continue to participate in true glider design innovations. Innovations that have a practical application to the sport as it is enjoyed by the creative, fun loving individualist type flyers that we have in America. After all, the US has the best thermal competition gliders in the world right now and we have had for the last 17 years! Why, then are we always trying to apologize for ourselves and our glider designs? Well, it beats the hell out of me! Ask the model press, who has been trying to skewer us on the alter of F3B for over a decade now. ________________________________________________________________________________
AIRBORNE ARCHITECT:
(Reproduced from April 1983 Northwest Soaring Society Newsletter)
A special feature of the Windsong is the use of separate, camber-changing flaps and independent ailerons, which are meant to be used as speed brakes by raising them both simultaneously about 30 degrees. Superior landing control is obtained by simultaneously deploying the flaps 80+ degrees down and using the ailerons in their speed-brake mode.
Thus reads a description of Bob Dodgson's latest creation in a series of multi-channel sailplane designs that originated more than a decade ago in a 400-square-foot houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle. Back in 1972, the Todi was the first high-performance, multichannel glider kit in the world. It featured flapperons mixed with the Dodgson Coupler and a built-in elevator trim bar so that the elevator compensated automatically for changes in flap settings. The Todi had a full-flying stabilizer and featured the high-performance Eppler 387 airfoil on its high-aspect ratio 100-inch wings. The kit also came stock with a semi-symmetrical airfoil. Anyone who has attended a contest in the Pacific Northwest probably has encountered a Dodgson designed sailplane -- the Todi, the Maestro line, the Megan, the K-Minnow, the Camano and now the 134-inch Saratoga Windsong. But not everyone knows the story of how a farm boy turned architect ended up designing and kitting model sailplanes. Bob was invited to tell the story about how he and his wife, Sandy, took an unexpected route to an avocation and business that has spread the Dodgson name around the world. Bob's response appears in this issue of the newsletter. --Dean Rea, Editor
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A DREAM
by Bob Dodgson
As a youth, I was enamored with model airplanes. Many a 50 cents was spent on stick and tissue kits that were laboriously assembled with varying degrees of success. The bulkheads were not die cut and had millions of stringer notches that had to be meticulously hand cut. Growing up in the country caused its share of hardships to the eager hobbiest, namely that when I ran out of glue or some essential building item, the operation was out of business until the next weekly trip to town (16 miles away). Naturally this difficult situation had one good thing about it. It definitely promoted innovation and unconventional attempts to circumvent the need for the out of stock item. On one occasion, I was so disparate to finish my latest plane that I glued the tissue covering on with paste, since I had no glue. The model was a bit on the heavy side. Even with the rubber motor fully wound, the plane had a glide ratio of about 3 to 1 (I never said that all of my innovations worked).
I could never determine why my models never would climb under rubber power and why they never really flew . . . until I was about 15 years old. I didn't have much spending money and I didn't put fancy color schemes on my planes. In fact, I did not even spend money on dope for the tissue. Finally I discovered that when the tissue was sealed with dope, things worked a lot better. My next rubber power plane flew great! As most of you know, I have a stuttering problem. My dad noticed that when I worked on model airplanes, my stuttering appeared to get worse. So he, at various times, forbade me to build model airplanes. Naturally, my being perverse by nature, this putting model airplanes in the forbidden fruit category only heightened my enthusiasm for the hobby that otherwise may have simply died a slow, natural death. I started college in 1960 and had to start thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up (I still haven't figured that one out). I went the gamut from psychology to engineering and finally to architecture as a last resort. I felt architecture offered a unique blend of art and technology. I was about to become the Renaissance man of the 20th century. After working my buns off getting through the School of Architecture at the University of Washington, I learned that my romanticized picture of the cavalier architect was not the same picture that awaited me as I stepped into the cruel world. I discovered that I was working as a draftsman eight hours a day and for not much more than a minimum wage. Where did I go wrong? During my college days I had developed a great interest in full-scale soaring. I joined the Soaring Society of America and the Seattle Area Soaring Society, and I joined the Experimental Aircraft Association. I yearned to soar with the Joe Lincolns and the Moffets, but alas, I was being put through college in part by my part-time working and mostly by my young wife Sandy's full-time job, so my limited funds left me with limited options. (Sandy was under the impression that I was going to grow up to be an architect.) Because there were no ultra-lights and no hang gliders at the time, my cheapest option was to construct a kit like the wood BG12, which cost about $2,500 or to purchase an old 1-26 or something. At that time I could not join the Boeing gliding club to get my soaring license as I was not a Boeing employee and there was no other such club in western Washington. This meant that just to get a soaring license would cost me a couple thousand dollars in instruction and rental time. In the middle of my frustration over the high cost of getting into soaring, I read an article by Dale Willoughby in the Soaring Society of America magazine entitled, Soaring With Both Feet on the Ground, which was about the new burgeoning hobby of radio control soaring. This idea so excited me that I bought a single-channel rubberband escapement system by World Engines (I couldn't afford the $300 to $600 that the new digital systems cost) and a $16 Graupner Weihe 50 kit with about a 72-inch wingspan. I all but forgot full-size soaring. Most of my flights were disasters because in order to save weight, I had ignored the recommended c.g. position. After all, how can making a glider heavier make it fly better? My flights off a slope were a terminal series of ever-expanding oscillations that ended only when the glider's nose was laid to rest 6 inches into the hillside. I was a loner and knew no one to turn to for help. Finally, in desperation I decided to put a handful of rocks in the nose to move the c.g. closer to the point shown on the plans. Once again, I fearfully heaved the battered little plane off the slope, and to my total amazement it flew straight out over the Issaquah Valley as if it were on rails. Not long after my initial amazement began to subside, it was renewed when I discovered that the radio link between me and the glider was missing. While I was standing there helplessly watching my dreams and aspirations quietly glide off into the sunset, the little plane slowly turned in a giant arc and came back and landed on the slope. Soon I became frustrated with the rubber-band escapement system and after much work, I convinced Sandy that I needed (and it wouldn't cost much) a pulser conversion on my transmitter and a galloping ghost rudder/elevator servo for the plane. With this system, the rudder is always flopping back and forth and the elevator is always flopping up and down. For up elevator effect, the pulse is speeded up and the elevator spends more time up than down. For down elevator, the reverse is true. Rudder control is achieved by the on pulse being either longer or shorter than the off pulse. If it is longer, the rudder spends more time on one side than on the other. If it is shorter, the rudder spends more time on the other side. This galloping ghost system allowed me to achieve my first sustained controlled slope flights. The year was about 1968. It wasn't long before I wanted a new glider and so I designed and scratch built a ship of about the 2-meter size with standard box fuselage and constant cord wings with dihedral, utilizing the same wing construction that the Weihe 50 had used. The plane flew great. I had heard about a group of Seattle fliers who flew gliders off Badger Mountain, by Wenatchee, Wash., one weekend a year, and I went over to showcase my new-found skills. It was no fair. These people all had digital radios, and the speed capabilities of some of the planes took my breath away. The well-publicized designer Harley Michaelis was there with his Tri-belle and breathtaking Misqueet. Ralph Brooks were there with his huge, gorgeous scale-like Nelson KA6. Ralph White, who later bought the Flight Glass Company, was flying his Phoebus. The Graupner Fokas, Claus, and other imported ships and many original designs were flown. This was heaven to me, but I had never before flown off such a colossal slope into such winds. It was all that my little, quivering, slow glider could do to stand still into the wind. The amount of down elevator available was very small. Finally, I made it out away from the cliff and into a giant thermal. Wow! I was right up there with the big digital birds. Everyone was amazed at seeing this pulsating aberration doing so well. More that one person remarked as they watched the tail surfaces vigorously flapping: Look, even his glider stutters. My enthusiasm was enormous in this moment of triumph, but so was my fear. How was I going to get the ship down? I was holding full down elevator just to get it to move forward. Finally, I put full down and full turn into the plane and it started a spiral descent, slowly at first and then gradually steepening. As the speed increased, the pulsing tail surfaces began to make the entire fuselage oscillate like the body of a powerful fish running at full speed. Then came the ego-shattering snap as the combined effort of all the forces caused a wing panel to give way and brought an abrupt and untimely end to my brief moment of glory. It wasn't long until I ordered a digital Control-Air, 4-channel radio kit from World Engines with a single stick transmitter configuration. To complement the new radio, I needed the greatest glider in the world, and I couldn't afford the $35 for a Phoebus of Foka kit. Besides, I wanted more scale-like controls in the model than the simple rudder-elevator controls offered in stock kits. I designed a 4-channel glider with a rounded and shaped balsa fuselage covered by fiberglass. It had a high-aspect ratio, 100-inch wing with the Eppler 387 airfoil. The plane had flapperons, coupled rudder and ailerons and elevator. My first flights were very short, ending in an underground probing mission. The difference in control between the slow, gentle galloping ghost system and the quick, precise response of the digital system was more than I could handle. I was too proud to let any of the more experienced Seattle fliers help me. I didn't even know what the problem was. I thought the plane was just uncontrollable. After many crashes and after moving the c.g. very far forward, I got a handle on the plane. It flew just great and I was king of the slope. I never did experiment with moving the c.g. back where it belonged, after I learned to fly the plane. Flaperons were achieved in this plane with a sliding servo. The next year when I went to Wenatchee, I had a plane to be proud of. By this time I was growing restless as an architectural draftsman and I had lost my zeal for taking the state boards to obtain my own architect's license. I found I was spending every spare moment on the job designing a new glider or working out some new control linkage, etc. My heart was with my hobby. In 1970, Sandy and I quit our jobs, rented out our houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle, piled our 6-month-old daughter Heather (Todi) in our VW camper and headed out for a six-month tour of the United States, on a very limited budget. I had sold my first 4-channel plane to Larry Nuss before I left, and I had designed a new glider to take with me. The new glider had the same control system but two sets of wings. The long set had a span of about 120 inches and an NACA 4412 airfoil. The short set of wings (100 inches) had a semi-symmetrical airfoil. They were interchangeable on the fuselage as it had no fillet and was flat at the point the wing root contacted the fuselage sides, as on the later Todi and Maestro gliders. The flaps and ailerons were mixed with the forerunner of the Dodgson Coupler, which was devised, in part, by an innovative Seattle flier and mechanical engineer Sandy McAusland from my own sliding bellcrank platform. This mixer has since been copied extensively in the United States and in Europe. The Dodgson Coupler was to become the first 2-control mixer available to the model airplane industry. Our trip was plagued by radio problems. However, I did get some good flying at Torrey Pines, Calif., where I met some notables like Fritz Bien and Kelly Pike. After six months of being cooped up in our camper with a young child, Sandy and I were hardly speaking to each other on our return to Seattle. Needless to say, I had no desire to resume work as an architectural draftsman, so I put in for unemployment compenstaion while I cogitated on the alternatives. I discovered that while my planes were as good in light slope lift as any before my trip, that upon my return the Monterey had been introduced and it was superb as a light-life slope machine. I also discovered that Larry Nuss, who was now flying my original 4-channel glider with the Eppler 387 airfoel, was out-flying my new gliders and he was getting performance from the ship that had eluded me. His secret, come to find out, was that he lost the lead nose ballast I had in it and was inadvertently flying with a much further aft c.g. Don Burt, who had been brought to the United States from Scotland by Boeing as an aerodynamics engineer, played a prominent part in my life at this time. He also had designed several gliders with multichannel control. The Boss T had polyhedral wings, but it had flaps and it had ailerons that were coupled to the flaps so that they moved about half as far as the flaps moved. Don Burt's T2 had 2-channel control and polyhedral, but it had flaps coupled to elevator and ailerons coupled to rudder, so it got a lot of mileage out of those 2 channels. Don had all the design books by Horner, etc., and had been a well-known free-flight competitor in Scotland. We spent many hours discussing the merits of different design concepts, wing tips, control systems, etc. In the end, we had several basic differences of opinion as to the configuration of the best high-performance glider. Don decided that he would kit his T2 and Boss T in a small kit run. The idea seemed totally outlandish to me, but I started thinking that if Don Burt could do it, why couldn't I? My latest design after the six-month sojourn was a winner. It could hold with the Montereys in light slope lift and yet it could move out, was fully aerobatic and had two sets of wings with flaperons. It was to became the Todi. The original fuselage was of shaped balsa, covered with Monocoat. (I still have it.) I had no fiberglass experience but wanted to make the pod of fiberglass. I wanted to make the tailboom of balsa but couldn't figure out a good way to do so. Ralph White, who now owned Flight Glass Models, generously and kindly instructed me on how to make molds and fiberglass fuselage shells. Don Burt gave me the basic idea of rolling the balsa tailboom, but it took many frustrating experiences before I developed the hardware to do the job. It took several weeks of work, but I finally got my first Todi kit together, plans and all. I placed a tiny 1/12 page ad in RCM, for about $50.00 and started getting catalog requests. Soon, orders started to trickle in. For the first two years, 1972 to 1974, we made our kits where we lived -- on a 400-square-foot houseboat on Lake Union. The fiberglassing and the sawing were done on the covered portion of the deck while the materials were stored inside. All parts and the kit assembly were done inside the tiny houseboat. The first Todi had been ordered by John Davis, one of my slope-flying friends. He constructed it and when the great day for the test-flight arrived, he called me and we went to the slope. This was the moment for which my ego had been waiting . . . the day when I would see my creation, built and flown by someone else, soar to glory! John threw it out over the slope with a steady hand. It was a success. But wait. Suddenly the glider went into a series of gyrations and crashed. John said it was the squirliest glider he'd ever seen. After several similar attempts, John gave the glider to me in disgust. I was totally crestfallen. This was 1972. I took John's Todi home, put my radio in it and flew the glider. It flew great. I told John, and he didn't believe it. I had to conjure up several witnesses. Finally, John took the Todi back and somehow discovered that his antenna wire in his transmitter had broken. The problem resolved, John's Todi flew fine. In fact, at the 1983 model show in Puyallup, Wash., I heard from John Davis that he was still flying the No. 1 Todi kit from 1972. The Todi was born on the slope but it had all the necessary ingredients to be a thermal champion. I now wanted to put the Todi to the test in serious thermal competition but I had had little experience with winch tows and no contest experience. My early winch tow memories still give me nightmares! The concept of the turn-a-round had not yet been born . . . so the winch box was placed at the far end of the field with a highly trusted person left there to operate it. You hooked your plane on the line, waved to the winch operator, watched the line tighten and then off the plane would go full bore to the top of the line, if you were lucky. Steve and Larry Nuss were the first boys in the Seattle area with one of these marvelous winches. It was only their constant enthusiasm that enticed me out, Todi in hand, to observe winch launching first hand. Larry had a Dandy 2-meter glider with which he was going to show me how easy and safe this launching technique really was. Steve was running the winch. Finally the moment came when Larry signaled the winch man that he was ready. With a surge of power, the Dandy sprung to life. It catapulted about 20 feet into the air and then did a snap roll on tow. Unshaken, Larry calmly continued on up the line to get a reasonable tow. There, see how easy it is! said Larry looking over at a quivering mass of humanity, holding a Todi that immediately went, unflown, back into my car. At the annual slope flying bash, the second for me, on Badger Mountain (near Wenatchee), I heard that there was to be a thermal contest in Spokane as a part of the Spokane Internationals, a well known power contest at that time. This, I thought, would be the golden opportunity to showcase my new Todi. I would simply breeze in with my wonderful multichannel bird, win a decisive victory, impress the hell out of everyone and get great material for my advertising. Sandy, my supportive wife and I, drove for six hours and got to Spokane only to find that no one knew anything about the contest. Finally, we found out that we were two weeks too early. As luck would have it, the Spokane Barons were holding a glider contest that weekend anyway, to sharpen their flying skills in preparation for the big contest. We decided to stay and fly in this local contest, since we were already there and had nothing else going at the time. At the field, on the morning of the contest, I was chuckling to myself upon seeing the sorry assortment of gliders represented. Some flyers were even entering converted power planes, with the engines removed. There were a few Cirruses around though and they were good planes. Also the first Airtronics kits were represented. They were the original Olympic 88 and 99. Harley Michaelis was there with one of his beautiful, published designs. The first flight was a 3 min. precision which I figured would be a snap. I got a terrible launch and it was readily apparent that I was having a radio range problem which demanded that I not stray very far away. Even so, I had no trouble getting the 3 minutes. In fact, I did so well that I got about 4 minutes and couldn't understand why I got zero flight points for this heroic effort. Finally it sunk in what a precision flight was all about. My first flight was probably my best of the contest. I came off tow a few times, the winches were down at the other end of the field operated as described earlier, and I was having every problem known to a green contest flyer. To compound my problems, most of the early Spokane Contests required that the launch be rise off the ground rather than throwing the plane from the hand. This type of launch was fostered by the LSF nationally and was used in their big annual California contests. Many articles were written in the magazines telling how much safer this R.O.G. launch was than the hand-held launch. My own observations were that you were lucky to get 3 successful launches out of 4 with the R.O.G. system. It was scary, you couldn't get as high and anything could happen in the first few feet while the plane was getting up to flying speed. Eventually both Spokane and LSF abandoned the R.O.G. launch, much to my relief. At the end of the contest I had finished 15th out of 16 entrants. Even the converted power planes had beaten me. Either Harley Michaelis or Randy Holzapple won the contest as I recall. I went home a broken man. No one was impressed with either me or my amazing glider. I knew that my design could out perform the other planes at the contest, but no one else could have seen the potential from my dismal showing. Alas this was to be my fate on many more occasions over the next 15 years. I knew that I had to go back and fly in the Spokane Internats, to redeem myself, so two weeks later we returned. There were about 40 entered in the glider portion of the contest. Several flyers were there from the Portland area, and 5 flyers of note from California. This contest was a different story. I wasn't having any radio trouble at this field and I knew what a precision flight was. I had also been practicing landings. At the end of the first day I was in the lead. My glider was a hit, even George Steiner and Greg Allen from CA. were going to buy kits. By the end of the contest, however, I had managed to drop to 3rd place, the first 2 places going to the Allen boys from CA. So ends the saga of Dodgson Designs . . . the beginning.
________________________________________________________________________________
Back to Dodgson Designs Home Page.
This page was created by Bob Dodgson of:
Dodgson Designs
21230 Damson Road Bothell, WA 98021
________________________________________________________________________________