Electronic Second Wind 90-2

Second Wind 90-2

The Newsletter for soaring gods in a "winged arrow" world

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Introducing the Saber!

We are not alone in our belief that the thermal competition performance of the Lovesong is still unmatched in the industry . . . after reigning supreme and unchallenged for eight years (since 1982) in the forms of the Windsong and then the Lovesong. Our claim is further backed up by the computer generated plots derived from the Princeton wind tunnel test data that show the Lovesong kit to have by far the best maximum L/D and among the lowest (if not the lowest) minimum sink rates of any kit readily available in the US. This includes the latest wave of the so called hi-tech kit entries!

We have been aware for some time, however, that many people are not willing/able to invest the 75 hours of time it takes to get a Mighty Lovesong into the air. Others are not capable of the kind of craftsmanship that it demands. This is now more evident than ever, since more people than ever have been transitioning over to multichannel soaring. The quasi polyhedral transition designs that combine multichannel controls with polyhedral tips up tips have given the timorous of heart the training wheels that they have needed in order to eventually make the jump to serious, straight wing multichannel ships.

Our goal in designing the Saber was to make a Multichannel glider that could match or nearly match the thermal competition performance of the Lovesong in light lift, match or nearly match its maximum L/D of nearly 26 to 1, offer even better performance in the top end and construct in about half the time! This is a tall order to fill and no one has been able to do it after eight years of trying.

The Airfoil:

In order to come close to matching the minimum sinking speed of the Lovesong, our choice of airfoils was very limited. The tripped Eppler 214 is possibly the best airfoil available for carrying weight well and still offering the lowest minimum sinking speed possible. It is also among the best airfoils when it come to offering the best maximum L/D. There is one new airfoil, however, the unheralded SD7037 that nearly matches the minimum sinking speed of the tripped E214 and offers at least as good a maximum L/D. While the reflexible E214 is a versatile airfoil and offers a good speed range, the SD7037 offers even better performance at the high-speed end. In fact, the SD7037 offers high speed performance that nearly matches the faster sinking airfoils designed primarily for high speed performance like the S3021.

Surprisingly, the Princeton tests totally omitted any testing of the SD7037 with TE camber change (opting to extensively test the poorer performing SD7032). From computer projections and from our field experience, it appears that with 2 to 3 degrees of reflex, the SD7037 will match the high-end performance of the thicker and less versatile S3021 and it clearly leaves the SD7032 in the dust. It also appears that with about 2 degrees of positive camber, the SD7037's minimum sinking speed can be improved. Therefore, it seems that the SD7037 soundly outperforms the currant darling of the press the S3021 in minimum sinking speed and in maximum L/D and can match it at the high-speed end. This is just the performance envelope that we were looking for.

The Fuselage and Linkages:

It was decided that to save as much construction time as possible, that a fully-formed and joined fiberglass fuselage was a must. One disadvantage of a fully-formed fiberglass fuselage (as opposed to our standard taco shell approach) is that there is no access into the fuselage to provide pushrod support and to install complex linkages. It was therefore decided that the Saber would be designed for computer radio installation only, with the flap and aileron servos in the wings. This not only eliminates the need for linkage access, it saves construction time in setting up and adjusting the linkages. For those who do not yet own and who do not want to buy a new computer radio like the Airtronics Vision, we recommend the Lovesong, which can still do everything mechanically!

Now, there is still the sticky problem of supporting the elevator and rudder pushrods with no access into the fuselage. The three conventional choices are: 1) Use arrow shaft control rods that do not require support. They work fine but weigh almost an ounce each adding to the dead tail weight. 2) Use flexible cable, carbon or steel rod in a sheath. It also works but it must be secured along the fuselage by elaborate means . . . clearly not a simple solution. 3) Use pull-pull cables or cord. This system can work fine but requires fiddling and I hate to trust elevator control to it. In the Saber, I solved the pushrod problem by inventing a 2-in-1 system. I use an arrow shaft for the elevator pushrod. The rudder pushrod is simply our old reliable 1/16 steel pushrod that slips inside the elevator arrowshaft and its dowel end plugs. Thus the elevator arrowshaft provides its own support and it also supports the rudder pushrod. This is only 1/2 oz. heavier than two supported 1/16 steel pushrods, requires no outside support, installs in minutes and is very reliable and solid. In designing the fiberglass fuselage shape, we wanted the canopy opening and the nose to be extremely strong in both compression and torsion even without any servo tray installation. Thus the canopy starts quite high on the fuselage, and utilizes a unique curved lip inside the canopy opening that provides strength similar to using a solid cone in the nose with no opening. The canopy is carefully fitted into a molded recess to provide a smooth air flow. As with our other kits, the wing saddle portion of the fuselage matches the wing contour, eliminating one entire wing to fuselage intersection and its related drag. The cloth lay-up is carefully graduated for great strength and minimum weight. We engineered the fuselage to be maintenance free, even under consistently hard contest landings. It even has the wood wing support molded in place. The Saber fuselage is strong, the pushrod installation is a snap and the fuselage is complete and ready to prime and paint! Oh yes, as with our other kits, the fuselage and the wing location are designed so that when you have the flaps fully deployed they do not extend down below the bottom of the fuselage. This simple design necessity has totally eluded most of the recent entries into the multichannel glider kit market. Other designers must think that it is reasonable to require you to pull up your flaps every single time before you land or else you will land on your flaps instead of your fuselage. This causes all sorts of problems as you may well know if you have flown one of these half-baked designs.

The Wings:

The entire wing can be built very quickly using UFO CA glues (they don't attack foam!), 5 minute epoxy and sheeting transfer tape or epoxy. The UFO is really a boon to foam wing construction! Since the SD7037 airfoil is very thin (9.2 percent thick) we have had to employ carbon fiber in the spar in order to achieve the kind of strength that we wanted. We have, however, utilized it in such a way that it becomes an integral part of the spar, is easy to apply and does not complicate construction significantly. We provide accurately cut foam cores with the spar slots precut. For speed and ease of construction, we have eliminated sheeting splicing by providing Obechi sheeting that can be applied full size and in one piece to each side of each wing panel. The sheeting can be applied either with the transfer tape method as with our other kits or it can be applied with epoxy. These wings do not require that you mess around with vacuum bagging or other tedious building processes, but you can vacuum bag them if you want to. The TE is so straight and trouble-free with the Obeche sheeting that no further reinforcing is required, simplifying construction even further.

Surprisingly, the finished wing panels with servos installed weigh only about 16 oz. each! The Saber has a total wing area of about 1030 square inches, a span of 121 and a total flying weight of 70 ounces. It carries 20 oz. of ballast with ease. The wing planform is similar to that of our old Maestro Megan and Maestro Caliente multichannel gliders that we kitted in the 1970s. This planform has since become known as a modified Schumann planform. We employed it in the Saber for the same reason that we used it in the Megan and Calente, to get the Center of Gravity more rearward on the fuselage to minimize the amount of nose weight required to balance the plane. Many Schumann and modified Schumann winged gliders have had serious tip stall problems and require performance eating tip washout. I am happy to report that the design of the Saber eliminates any tip stall tendency and any need for tip washout.

The Stab/Rudder:

The stab and rudder utilize quick and easy foam core construction and full obechi sheeting. They can be built in a flash, are light-weight and extremely strong and flutter free. The stab employs the new SD8020 airfoil.

The Controls:

Include Flaps, Ailerons, Crow, Full TE camber both positive and negative, Rudder and Elevator. A computer radio is required. The plans show an Airtronics Vision radio installation.

The Performance:

Light-lift low altitude thermaling ability is similar to the Lovesong . . . the best in the business. The maximum L/D is nearly as high as that of a Lovesong (over 25 to 1 as compared to the tips up gaggle of gliders with a max L/D of only about 22 to 1. In reflex, it has a top end similar to the faster sinking gliders using the S3021 airfoil. In short, the Saber combines an unmatched performance blend of minimum sinking speed, max L/D and high-speed performance.

Price: $295.00, Plus $15.00 for Shipping/Boxing (The Saber must be sent UPS in 3 separate boxes, so that is why the shipping is more than for our other kits). NOTE: Unexpired gift certificates can be used toward the purchase of a Saber. The following quantity discounts apply to Saber purchases where no other discounts are being taken. If you order 2 kits at one time, from Dodgson Designs, you can deduct 5% from the $295.00 price of the Saber, if you order 3 kits at one time, you can deduct 10% from the $295.00 price of the Saber or if you order 4 or more kits at one time, from Dodgson Designs, you can deduct 15% from the $295.00 price of the Saber. ________________________________________________________________________________

Oxygen Deprivation:

There appears to be a major misunderstanding concerning one of the most important aspects of glider performance among many soaring pilots and particularly among many of those who write for the model press and club newsletters. You know that something is out of whack when ships are heralded as the designs of the decade when they offer the following: no new control innovations, a drop in max L/D of from 26 to 1 to 22 to 1 as compared to the existing performance leaders and offer a minimum sinking speed of about 1/8th of a second faster. They offer sketchy plans that are at best vague in crucial areas and they offer no building instructions. To top it off, these amazing media breakthrough designs have you landing on your flaps rather than on your fuselage if you forget to pull up the flaps before you land. What is it that they offer that has the press agog? Sky covering ability! is the enthused response from the true believers.

I heard this mystical term, once again, a short time ago when I received a phone call from Byron Blakeslee. He had heard that I was coming out with the Saber and wanted to find out more about it. He was really pleased to learn that I was coming out with a plane that had real sky covering ability. I was surprised to hear that even Byron had fallen victim to the sky covering ability myth. The following figures are used in the relative sense rather than the absolute sense. They are meant for comparison purposes only. If you had two gliders, one that had a maximum L/D of 26 to 1 and another that had a maximum L/D of 22 to one, which glider do you think would be able to cover the most sky from a given altitude? What if the glider that had the 26 to 1 max L/D also had a minimum sinking speed of 1/8 of a second slower? If there were minimal winds, without a doubt the 26 to 1 glider would have the best sky covering ability. For every 1,000 feet of altitude it could fly 4,000 feet farther or about 3/4 of a mile farther. On top of this, the 26 to 1 glider has a lower sink rate by 1/8 of a second so for every 1,000 feet of altitude it would be airborne for 17 minutes in a straight glide in neutral air, while the other glider would be up about 2 minutes less. Being up longer, not only gives you more points for air-time but it can also give you the few more seconds that it may take for you to find that new thermal that is just cycling through. The faster sink rate of the other plane could have caused him to sink out a few seconds too soon, spelling the difference between a 3 minute flight and a ten minute flight. If the wind comes up, the 26 to 1 glider can ballast up to improve its high-end performance. For example a Lovesong with 20 oz of ballast has better performance in both minimum sinking speed and in high-speed L/D than does an empty Falcon, yet the ballast does not hurt the 26 to 1 max L/D. So even in a moderate wind, you would be hard pressed to back up a position stating that the 22 to 1 glider had more sky covering ability. Sure, you can ballast up the 22 to 1 glider and get an advantage in speeds over 40 or 50 mph, but how often do you need to travel that fast in a thermal contest? Of course, this ballast in the 22 to 1 glider really messes up its minimum sinking speed even further, since the high speed airfoils do not carry weight as efficiently as do the higher lift airfoils. These performance figures are based on the Princeton data and are not exact in the real world but they should accurately yield a relative comparison. In fact, while the 26 to 1 glider (the Lovesong) may take a little longer to do it, what is clear is that the 26 to 1 glider truly has considerably more sky covering ability than does the faster sinking 22 to 1 glider (the Falcon 880, etc.). Therefore it amazes me that experts in the field are a party to the myth that a plane like the Falcon has great sky covering ability and a truly efficient ship like the Lovesong does not! Maybe it is the lack of oxygen in Colorado but the most preposterous claims that I have seen came from the The Spoiler the Journal of the Pikes Peak Soaring Society February, 1990. An article by Randy Reynolds states: The resident danger represented by Sailplane CAD stems from the willingness to accept any data from a computer as fact without taking the time to understand if the fact was calculated from assumption or out of context. When spreadsheets were developed in the business world, many wrong decisions were made from flawed data. In our future, there will be those who use CAD data to prove a position. An example of this is the advertisement by Dodgson Designs in a recent model publication. Bob Dodgson is a well known admirer of the Windsong/Lovesong and the Eppler 214 airfoil and with good reason since the combination is right at the top of the competition heap in thermal competition. In this instance, Bob used the David Fraser Sailplane Design program (which incorporates the Princeton data) to compare the Lovesong to its competitors. Dodgson has made creative use of computer CAD. It is therefore fair to use the same program to present other possibilities. (See Fig 2 & 3). Figure no. 2 illustrates what happens when we compare Bob's tripped E214 with the RG 15 in the Windsong polar. As can be seen, the RG15 would outperform the E214 T20 by a comfortable margin in all flight regimes. (Note: this is Randy's first error in reading the polars.

Figure 2

The unballasted Lovesong is the solid line. The ballasted/unballasted RG15 are shown by the two dotted lines.

Figure 3

The plot to the right depicts the Icon. The plot to the left depicts the unballasted Lovesong. The polars show both airfoils to have the same 26 to 1 max. L/D. While it shows the RG15 to be clearly superior in the high speed end, it shows the tripped E214 to be superior in minimum sinking speed. These are two great airfoils but no responsible person could read the polars and say that the RG15 out-performed the E214 in all regimes!.) Randy goes on to say: Figure no. 3 compares the Windsong loaded to conventional thermal wing loadings (9.1 oz./sq. ft.) versus the Icon, a club MTS design by the Pikes Peak Soaring Society. The Icon uses the RG15 and is loaded to 13.3 oz./sq. ft. In a sense, this is the heavy metal argument and it clearly shows that the Icon would be extremely competitive to the Windsong design philosophy. The Icon would give away some in still air time, but in the real world of thermal duration competition, the Icon design concept will provide a much more valuable virtue . . . it will cover a minimum of 25% more air and a great deal more than that if the wind is present. Range translates to success in thermal competition. (Well this is where the thin air really got to Randy. In looking at the polars, again the max L/D is about the same. On the other hand, the minimum sinking speed is about 5/8 of a foot per second slower for the Lovesong giving it 6 more minutes of air time from 1,000 feet of altitude! Therefore in relatively, calm air, the Lovesong could cover the exact same distance as could the Icon but, from 1,000 feet for example, it would take six more minutes to do it and chances are another thermal would cycle through in that extra six minutes. Which ship would you rather be thermaling? If the wind came up, you could ballast the Lovesong and still be competitive with the Icon in all but gale force winds! It is true Randy, that if you do not understand the data that the computer presents you with, it can cause all sorts of erroneous conclusions. Your point is well illustrated. I really am tired of hearing the term sky covering ability continually being misused by soaring oracles who should know better. These over enthused pundits of speed confuse sky covering ability with raw speed. Logic dictates that a Lovesong flying at 20 mph with at an L/D of 26 to 1 ideally covers 26,000 feet or 4.9 miles from 1,000 feet of altitude. An Icon as described above, (ballasted to 13.3 oz./sq. ft.) zinging along at 50 mph only has an L/D of about 12 to 1 covering only 12,000 ft or 2.3 miles from the same 1,000 feet of altitude. The speed pundits would look at the two planes flying and say that the Icon is really covering sky in comparison to the Lovesong and yet the Lovesong is quietly covering over twice the distance! Raw speed in itself is of little value in thermal competition, while great L/D and great minimum sinking speed are everything! If you can have these, along with good ballasted performance up to reasonable flying speeds such as 30 to 40 mph, you have a real winner. I believe that a glider with the versatility of the Lovesong is more a multitask plane than is one that is weighted heavily towards speed. The Lovesong can really cover sky, it can work the lightest lift from handlaunch altitude and it has good enough ballasted performance to handle nearly any wind situation that it would be asked to fly in. Who says that multitask is flying a bullet back and forth on an FAI course! By that definition, a control line speed plane would be the ultimate multitask glider! I have considered every thermal competition glider that I have designed since the TODI, in 1972, to be a multitask glider in the true sense. They have all been great aerobatic ships, good slope ships, wide speed range thermal ships and great light lift gliders. If that is not multitask glider design, I don't know what is.

Surprise, Lovesongs Kick Butt in 30 MPH Winds!

As an interesting windy condition contest note: September 15th and 16th, 1990 the Northwest Soaring Society held its annual Championship Tournament. Wind ground speeds were measured at over 30 MPH. Many contestants refused to fly, due to the hurricane force winds. There were several noted flyers in attendance from California. They were all flying Falcon 880s except for Steve Callop who was flying his Lovesong. If ever the Falcons were going to shine it would be in this kind of wind, right? Wrong! Eight of the 10 flyers who made it into the fly-offs were flying Windsong/Lovesongs. The only California flyer to make it into the finals was Steve Callop and his Lovesong. No Falcons even made the fly-offs. Lovesong flyers: Dave Johnson won again this year, Dave Banks was second and O.L. Adcock was fourth. The Falcons were flat-out sinking faster than the Lovesongs were! What little periodic lift appeared was in the form of a wave. The Lovesongs could float on it. This is yet another example of what true multitask performance is all about.

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Soar and Heard:

Walt Voldhard - Briar, WA.

Walt Voldhard a Lovesong/Orbiter/Saber flyer of note, planed a trip to Ocean Shores with his wife Jean, a few months ago. He was all excited because he was taking his Orbiter to fly on the hills and dunes along the coast. Upon his return, when asked how the flying went he mumbled some inaudible sounds under his breath. After screening out the expletives, it was learned that Walt had hauled the Orbiter, his charger and tool box in the car but he had left the transmitter at home! Walt was so inconsolable that Jean had to end up buying him an aerobatic kite just to salvage the remainder of the vacation!

Buddy Roos - Woodstock, GA.

Buddy has one of the original Dodgson Designs video tapes from 1983 or 1984. He says that he keeps it and plays it quite often for the music on the sound track. This works out fine, according to Buddy, but for one little side affect. He contends that the tape must have subliminal messages embedded in it because he periodically wakes up and finds himself on the phone to Dodgson Designs ordering another kit. As much as he likes the music, his wife has had to confiscate the tape and lock it up in her private safe. She now only allows him to listen to it on his birthday!

Charlie Fager - Lewisberry, PA

Charlie decided to try something novel for his LSF III Cross Country task. He figured that anybody with a good glider and a chase car could get it in the usual manner. Being a little quirky, Charlie decided to do it with his Lovesong while walking the course on foot! Well, he did it! He walked the entire course while flying his Lovesong. It took him 1-1/2 hours. Charlie says that Lovesongs are too good to waste on thermal duration contests.

Geoff Almvig - Anacortes, WA.

This past summer, Geoff flew his Orbiter to a 3 hour flight from a handlaunch. On several other occasions, Geoff and his Orbiter had 30 to 40 minute flights slope soaring off of barns (barn soaring) in the Skagit Valley. Geoff says that the barns were only small to medium size. They were not even huge barns!

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The State of Sportsman Multi-Crash Soaring:

After observing F3B flying at the 1989 Nationals, Gary Brokaw's keen eye and quick mind discovered the great truth behind F3B flying that has totally eluded the soaring community up to this point. Gary observed that the great truth lay hidden in the name, F3B. As a formula, F3B reads 1F3B or 1 minute of Flying for 3 minutes of Bitching. The Peeing and Moaning that goes on at F3B competitions, the rules, the challenges to the rules, the loop-holes to rules, etc. are the antitheses of what attracted most of us to the beautiful sport of soaring.

When I asked Jack Sile, the visiting BARCS newsletter editor from England, how many people were really interested in flying F3B in England, he said maybe five in the entire country. I figure that we may have 3 times that many in this country. We all know that the US model press has tried to cram F3B flying down everyone's throats from Dan Pruss to the present crop of writers who have been hyping Sportsman Multitask as the vehicle to revise interest in the dying F3B guided missile approach to soaring. In all of the miles of print that we have seen in the last couple of years promoting Sportsman Multitask Soaring (S3B) I have not seen a single new idea. Everything they advocated was tried in the 1970s. It was not until recently that I stumbled across what may be the real problem with F3B and MTS flying. F3B/S3B flying is not really multitask flying at all! It is so heavily weighted toward speed, that the true soaring aspects of the sport have been all but eliminated. Why is there a 6 minute cap on the duration task and yet no cap on speed? Imagine how different the multitask designs would be if there were a 30 second cap on speed and a ten minute cap on duration! This would be a much better balance of multitask capabilities and would yield true multitask gliders like the Lovesong, Saber, etc., rather than guided missiles that have a sub standard max L/D and that have a minimum sinking speed that is highly compromised for raw speed. My further observation as a participant, CD and observer of S3B and F3B competitions since the early 1970s, is that the distance event is a waste of time. A glider that is outstanding at thermal duration flying will have a good maximum L/D so that it can cover as much sky as possible in the thermal search. A glider that can put in respectable times in the speed run, will necessarily have a good L/D at the higher speeds. Therefore, for a glider to excel at both duration and speed, it would be a design that would do well at distance also. Distance performance is a false leg of the multitask triangle, since the same performance requirements are inherent in the duration and speed events. It should never have been made a part of F3B or S3B competition. It is, after all, the distance event that really bogs down a contest and takes forever to complete. Worse yet, distance is largely a luck event. The plane that wins distance is the plane that has lift on the distance course. In effect, much more would be gained by flying two rounds of 10 minute duration in the same length of time it takes to fly one round of distance. Rather than sticking it out with proven failures, stock S3B or F3B events, why don't we try flying real multitask gliders and events. We should use a cap on speed. The cap can be adjustable, depending on the wishes of the club or regional governing body that controls the contest. I would suggest a cap of around 30 seconds. This is a realistic time that a smooth flyer can achieve on a well executed speed run, flying an efficient soaring machine. This would be balanced off by ten minute duration flights with a rigid flight order and no sandbagging tolerated. These events could be run quickly, would be fun and challenging to fly and would promote the continued development of true multitask soaring gliders rather than gliders designed for just one event . . . the non capped speed event. In short, the real problem with S3B and F3B is that they are weighted so that they are not multitask events at all. They are the soaring equivalent of control line speed. All we need to do, is put a cap on speed and incorporate speed into our duration contests and true multitask will bloom like a rose in the desert over the unmarked graves of F3B and its weak sister, S3B. ________________________________________________________________________________

The High Price of Free Flight:

Bill Hanson has shed doubt on the long held belief that Dodgson Design gliders require constant pilot input to keep them flying efficiently and out of trouble. As most of us have done, at one time, Bill launched his beautifully flying Camano on the winch without turning the receiver on. Near the top of tow, Bill realized that the plane was not responding. He first checked his transmitter and saw that it was off. Please God, he whispered as he turned it on, let the receiver be on. Alas God was no exception, he didn't listen to Bill either. He chose rather to toy with Bill. That Camano actually centered in a thermal. Those observers who did not know that the receiver was off started congratulating Bill on his great flying! Four minutes and half a mile later, the Camano landed with only minor damage. Some consider this Bill's most successful flight to date! I am not one of them, however, because just a couple days before Bill's free flight adventure, I lost a hard-fought bet to him while betting on flights and landings. He also has the unique history of winning the overall high score at the recent Portland contest, with his Camano, while flying in the competitor class, beating out all the experts.

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Titillating Tips:

Sheeting Alignment.

Bill Murray - Seattle, WA.

Like many people, Bill Murray was concerned about getting the sheeting properly aligned with the transfer taped surface of the foam core before the two are touched together in that irreversible step that forever bonds the sheeting to the foam. Bill came up with an idea that was new to me. He uses two or three bricks, standing on end, on top of his work surface. Next you stand the foam core up on edge, leaning against the bricks, with the LE pointed

down. Put a strip of 1/4 thick balsa, spruce, or foam, etc. under the LE to raise it 1/4 off the building surface. Use masking tape to tape the foam cores against the bricks. Trim one edge of the pre-spliced balsa sheeting to make sure that it is straight and stand the sheeting up on edge with the straight edge facing down. With the sheeting standing straight up, carefully slide it over close to the foam core. Slide the sheeting root up so it is nearly touching the core and align it so that the root end of the core is aligned with the root end of the sheeting. Touch the two together at the root first and then push them together along the spar-line from the root to the tip. Take the cores and sheeting down from the brick supports and lay them into the foam cradles as usual and finish pressing the sheeting down onto the core over the entire wing surface. This procedure works for both the top and bottom sheeting.

Flap Linkage Alignment.

Bill Hanson - Lynnwood, WA

One of the best and easiest ways of aligning the flap linkage for and during the soldering process is to not install the flap linkage until the wings and fuselage are completed. You mount the wings on the fuselage, using the wing rod and alignment pin. Insert the flap drive pin into the tube in the flap root of each wing. Tape the flaps in the exact neutral position. Now, solder the flap linkage together as per instructions. This alignment method insures that the flap alignment is perfect the first time.

Don't Come Unhinged Over a Little Flutter.

Bob Dodgson - Bothell, WA.

If you are flying a Lovesong, have tight laced hinges and tight linkages but you are still experiencing some high-speed flutter when zooming off of tow or when flying very fast, the cure is very simple. In a retrofit situation, you simply tape or hold the flap at a 3 degree reflex angle (up 3 degrees) while you run a 1/2 wide strip of covering (like Monokote) along the bottom of the hingeline to seal the hingeline and to force the flaps to pivot off the bottom corner of the hingeline.

If you have not yet covered your wings, sand in a 3 degree angle into the flap LE so that it can reflex 3 degrees naturally when hinged from the bottom. Since you will be using the continuous strip of covering along the bottom, you do not need to use the continuous laced hinges shown on the plans. Instead, you can simply use a series of 3 laced hinges at each end of the flaps and a series of 3 laced hinges in the center or at the third points. The laced hinges keep the flaps aligned with the wing TE. Seal the bottom of the hingeline with the 1/2 wide strip of covering material as above. Use this same system on the ailerons but sand a 30 degree angle, as shown on the plans, into the aileron LE. Hinge the aileron from the top corner of the hingeline with the strip of covering material. This hinging system is basically what the plans already show for the ailerons. This hinging system has proven itself on the Saber. It is highly recommended that you use this system on all of our kits but most especially when you plan to power the flaps via servos in the wings. If everything else is properly installed in your Lovesong, you will not be able to get it to flutter!

Pin Hole Filler.

Mike Dooley - Mercer Island, WA.

For those of you who have had a nightmare filling the pinholes in fiberglass fuselages, Mike Dooley has the answer. Evidently the little problems in this area that glider flyers have had with their sleek and slender fuselages, the power boys have had a hundred times worse. Mike's solution is to use Bob Violett Models Pin Hole Filler #1925 by Magnalite Composite Materials. It costs about $5.00 for enough to do many glider fuselages.

Mike says to rub the filler onto the fuselage with your finger. Let it dry for 10 minutes and then wipe the excess off with a towel. There is no irksome sanding involved whatsoever! This material is not a panacea for all filling problems, however. It is only good for filling pin holes. Other materials, such as Hobby Poxy P.F.C. should be used for filling larger areas.

At Last! A Cure for the Bent Rod Syndrome!

Michael Frederic - Kent, WA.

Michael Frederic is a machinist by trade. For those who want to have the absolute Cadillac of wing rods, Michael has the source . . . ejector pins. Many machine shops carry an assortment of them in inventory. Ejector pins are used in plastics molding and die casting operations. They come in most diameters and in lengths as long as 14 or more. These pins are true for dimensional accuracy, concentricity and straightness. We are talking tolerances of .002 and better. The only down side is that they come with a head on them that you must cut off. The outside surface is nitrided to a hardness of 65-74 Rc, and liquid honed. In other words, the pins are very hard on the outside surface to give the least possible amount of flexing and yet they are softer in the core so that if they are over stressed they will not break off.

Don't Take a Bath With Obechi!

Al Doig - Escondido, CA.

Al Doig is building a Saber for an RCM kit review. He is using a Vision radio and is painstakingly trying to follow the plans and building instructions so he can give an accurate assessment of the kit and plane when it is built as per manufacturer specs. If you remember Al's insatiable urge to modify the Windsong while he was Soaring Editor for RCM, you can imagine how Al is chaffing at the bit trying to build a stock Saber! Well, he finally could not stand it any longer and decided to make one small departure from the instructions. On the Saber we reinforce the servo well cut out area with 2 layers of 3/4 oz. fiberglass cloth. The bottom layer is 3.5 square and the top layer is 4 square. They are applied to the outside of the bottom obechi skin with epoxy before the well is cut into the skin. This not only strengthens the cut out area but it also keeps the obechi from splitting when the well is cut.

On our other kits, we apply fiberglass reinforcing directly to the foam with diluted aliphatic resin glue. Since the foam is so porous, epoxy would be very heavy in this application. Water based glue works great because after the excess water evaporates, the finished product is quite light in weight. Well you guessed it, Al decided to apply the cloth to the obechi on the Saber with diluted aliphatic resin glue rather than with epoxy. It was a nightmare! When the water based glue hit the obechi it began to wrinkle it up and to pull it away from the foam. Al removed the glue as quickly as he could and was able to get the wrinkles to pretty much disappear and thus through quick reacting and vigorous work he salvaged his wing. The lesson learned by Al was use no water based products on obechi! Do not allow any water to drip onto your uncovered wing and do not crash your Saber into a lake or other body of water. If you are planning to do battle in open class competition next season with your new Saber, keep your powder (and obechi) dry and watch for Al's Saber kit review in an upcoming issue of RC Modeler Magazine. By the way, we sold and shipped over 30 Saber kits before our first ad even hit the presses in mid September! The word of mouth soaring network is unbelievable and the Saber is really an exciting performer! ________________________________________________________________________________

The Orbiter is a Fallen Star:

With the introduction of the Saber, we found that we had to reduce the number of kits we offered to make room for the new bird. Due to the high kit parts count and other factors we decided to wind it down for the Orbiter. We now offer plans and building instructions for the Orbiter for $10 plus $3 ship/handling. We no longer offer any Orbiter kits. We thank Eric Jackson for designing this fine ship and we thank those of you who took advantage of the offering while it was available.

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The Stab Lock Crock:

When Miles Moran, noted glider flyer, CD and playboy, was in the Seattle area a while back, he expressed horror at the fact that the Saber used the basic stab pivot location with the forward alignment pin mechanism that the Lovesong utilizes. Evidently, in the inner circle of knowledge, in parts of California this stab lock theory has taken on immense proportions. The theory is: if your glider reaches fast enough speeds and you have the pivot point behind the alignment pin, the stab will mysteriously lock up and you cannot achieve up elevator control.

In fact, the only possible draw-back that a pivot point behind the alignment pin produces is that it makes the up elevator control a push force on the pushrod rather than a pull force. This means that if you have a high-speed glider, you had better have a good elevator pushrod system that will not deflect under heavy load. When designing a full flying stab, like our Pixy, Camano, Lovesong and Saber have, the location of the pivot point is critical. If it is not properly located you can experience stab flutter or excessive loads on the stab at high speed. Due to the swept LE on our stabs, we have the pivot point exactly where it should be. whether the alignment pin is behind or in front of the pivot is trivial. The stab is operating as a unit and it does not know where alignment pin is located. It only knows where the pivot point is located. The wide-eyed folks who dreamed up the stab lock myth obviously either had the pivot point too far back on their stab or else had it powered by a compressible pushrod installation or both. Inherently when nylon is used as the stab bellcrank, as it is in our kits, it can become softened in intense heat and become somewhat flexible. At the speeds that most of our kits fly, this has not caused any serious problems. However, on the saber we wanted to make sure that no matter how fast you flew it (even in heavily ballasted speed runs) the stab bellcrank would have no flex, even in blazing hot weather. That is why we use a steel triangulation member between the two legs. This could be used as insurance on the Lovesong also but is not needed under any reasonable circumstances. As a point of clarification, the use of the steel brace has nothing to do with whether the pivot point is ahead of or behind the alignment pin. It has to do solely with the effects of heat on nylon. ________________________________________________________________________________

The NATS Rain Supreme:

I received a call from Jim Thomas a few weeks ago, telling about the 1990 NATS. Jim was so excited that he was stuttering more than I was. It seems that he won several trophies. Regretably, Jim is a backslider from Dodgson Designs gliders who fell easy prey to the media glitz and hype. Alas, his flying has gone from good to tips up.

Unfortunately, it seems that the people who went to the NATS to fly in Open Class were really skewered. Evidently, a storm came through during the second round of flying and flying was temporarily halted. The CD got the bright idea that he would call the weather service who told him there would be a break and that he could finish round two but that a worse storm was right behind it. With unquestioning faith in the weather service, the CD announced that after round two, they would pack it in. The national champion would be determined on two rounds of flying rather than the usual 6 or more rounds! Well, the weather service was wrong (big surprise) and by the time round two was completed, the weather was great and stayed great the rest of the day. Due, however, to the premature announcement by the CD, they could not continue flying. When you consider that many flyers spent well over $1,000 to attend and fly in Open Class at the NATS, this fiasco was a tragedy of great magnitude. Choosing a national champion on the basis of 2 or even 4 rounds of flying is absurd! In the early 1980s (before the Reno debacle) at the Nationals, every frequency slot was full as it is now so the number of flyers was about the same as it is now. They tried to fly (and usually succeeded in flying) 3 rounds per class per day over 3 or 4 days. Each class was determined on 8 or 9 flights, not on just 2 to 4 flights. Something has got to be done. Maybe it is time that the Nationals limit itself to just 2 classes, 2-meter and Open, just as the rest of the soaring world has been doing for many years. They should then have at least 4 days of soaring and require at least eight 8 rounds be flown in each class. This would put some meaning back into the soaring aspect of the Nationals. I am afraid that the only reason the AMA clings to the Standard Class, as a third class at the Nationals, is so that they can collect an extra $25 from each soaring contestant for the additional event. I am surprised that they don't fly six classes of gliders and have only one round in each class. That way they could collect about $32,000 from the gullible glider entrants rather than the paltry $16,000 they now collect. By far, glider flyers pay more money into the Nationals and get less support in the way of good fields, enough contest time, enough paid support people etc. than any other group of participants. This needs to change. ________________________________________________________________________________

A Little LOVE(song) Will Go a Long Way:

--or Don't Cross LeBarre with LeMouth!

Dick Lebarre, a man from Escondido, CA with the reputation for building exquisite gliders, sent me some photos of his latest one. It was a Pixy. It looked just as beautiful as his Lovesong. Then I looked more closely. It had a name under the canopy. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled out the magnifying light. Dick had named his Pixy Shrunksong!

Dick was one of the first to order our new Saber. When he called, he asked me if Saber was spelled Sabre or Saber. Without thinking, I glibly commenced to tell him that I didn't want to use the French spelling because I was still Pee Owed at the French for not letting our planes fly over their airspace during the raid on Libia. About half way into my statement I remembered that Dick's last name was Lebarre. There was no gracefull way for me to extract my foot from my mouth. Fortunaltely, Dick is a forgiving soul who understands human frailties. I say that for Dick, he can darn well go ahead and spell his Saber Sabre if he wants! ________________________________________________________________________________

Well, I finally got the Vision!

Since the Saber is designed strictly to be used with computer radios, I had no choice, I had to get my hands on a computer radio. The delemna was which one should I go with. The Futaba 1024 transmitter is very heavy and expensive. It is optimized for power flying and all the symbls and names are for power flying. It is not user switchable between Mode I and Mode II. In fact the only way that you can get a Mode I tranmitter is to order it directly from Futaba and pay full bore! I waited with great anticipation for the first JR 3-4-7 systems to hit the stores. From the ads this looked like it might be a good system for glider flyers, since it had a dedicated glider mode. What if it were as good as the Airtronics Vision for gliders and it cost a little less?

Walt Voldhard had decided that he needed a transmitter so exciting that he could not possibly forget to take it with him on his next trip to the coast. From the promise of the ads, he chose the 3-4-7. In spite of the delivery date being postponed a month or so, Walt patiently waited. Every once in a while he would weaken however, and say: Gee for a few bucks more, I could have a Vision right now, but he held out. Finally the 3-4-7's arrived at the local hobby shop. Walt shot over, as soon as he heard, to claim his long awaited dream radio. About an hour later Walt was at my door. I was eager to see this new toy. Alas, Walt was empty handed and shouting fervently: I am ordering a Vision! Slowly the story unfolded. When Walt saw his dream radio and looked over the manual, his dream quickly turned into a nightmare! The JR people had put spoilers on the flap/throttle stick and had put the flaps on a rotary knob atop the transmitter! Now this set-up is fine for a Gentle Lady, but no serious glider flyer even has spoilers on his plane. The people who need a computer radio have planes with flaps as the primary landing device, not spoilers. A call to the factory did not help much. They said that it was possible to program the system by calling everything the wrong names so that you could use the flap stick for flaps. We should not have been surprised that the 3-4-7 was optimized for simple polyhedral type gliders, the man on the phone said that Larry Jolly was their Soaring consultant. While a good flyer, Larry is a polyhedral man at heart. Why a large company like JR would apparently base a system design on the quirks of a single flyer is beyond me. Unfortunately, when you do the necessary control switcheroo on the 3-4-7, there is no easy and logical way to get camber changing on a switch. You have to use the rotary nob for camber changing. Pretty precise, huh? Also Walt was further insensed because like many of the top contest flyers, he flies Mode I. The ads said that the 3-4-7 was user switchable between Mode I and Mode II but the production models are not user switchable. Added to all of these disappointments, the manual was a bit less than illuminating. Walt had already seen a Vision manual, which was easy to understand. The die was cast, he sent for the Vision radio. When it came, Walt was a happy man. The Vision was user switchable between modes, it had everything arranged for serious sailplane flying and it offered options that would meet any future need. Walt kindly allowed me to test my new prototype Saber with his new Vision radio. I was really impressed with this great act of generosity. Walt, to my surprise, did not want my gratitude. Instead, he wanted a good price on a Saber kit, plus he wanted me to burn in his new radio at no risk to his stable of gliders. Needless to say, the Vision worked flawlessly and the programing power was mind boggling, yet easy to harness. Thus, I decided to get the Vision first-hand rather than obtaining it vicariously through Walt. I am now the proud owner of my own Vision system and I recommend it highly for anyone who is a multichannel glider flyer and who is looking for a computer radio. It is one radio that can actually live up to its promises! ________________________________________________________________________________

Letter Rip

September 10, 1990

Dear Bob, almost a year ago today, I ordered a Lovesong kit from you. I thought you might enjoy these pictures of the finished product. I finally completed it in June 1990. You can say That I am rather proud of it and it flies well. While I am not a contest pilot, I have built a lot of R/C airplanes in my day. Isn't she a real beauty?

You will recall that I talked to you on the phone last October and asked if anyone had ever built a retractable gear in your big bird. I believe you said at that time that you had not heard about anyone attempting it but it could be done if the gear system could be squeezed in front of the AFART system. Well, you were correct, because I did it. Used a modified mechanical retract for a nose gear made by Robart and an additional small S133 Servo by Futaba to accomplish the job. You can see from the picture of the servo layout that all I did was mount the servo over the radio receiver and run the push rod at an angle through the servo tray to the mechanical retract mounted upside down on the same level as the servo tray. Wheel weight of .5 ounce plus servo weight S133 of .6 ounce plus one ounce for Robart retract adds practically no flying weight. Gear doors were cut precisely out of the belly of your fiberglass fuselage. I think it makes the Lovesong look like a model of a full scale open class sailplane and I have finished it to look that way. --Gene Sprague - San Antonio, TX.

April 20, 1990. Issue Number 90-1 of Second Wind definitely breaks new ground for Dodgson Designs. The offering of Lovesong Coffee Mugs introduces vast new areas of possibilities on really flying with Bob: Specialized trip tape of exactly the right dimensions to correctly trick your wing into staying aloft long after it should have had the sense to give up and come home. Bob Dodgson look-alike pilot scaled exactly to fit your Pixy, Camano, or Lovesong. Wearing that black leather jacket with the wide lapels. Casio altitude/barometer watches with custom dial faces. Choose from the Dodgson Designs logo, a color portrait of Bob, or a Pivot which spirals as the second hand sweeps. A Flap Reflex Template. Don't settle for cutting out the doily included in the building instructions, then gluing it to a tasteless piece of plywood. Instead, order one made either of sterling silver or 14 carat gold. These make not only very durable gauges, but also fine jewelry. Hang it around your neck to let the world know just how committed you are to really flying with Bob. Better yet, order two and let your girl friend use them as earrings. Guys, you can get by with only one; just be sure you hang it off the right ear. Stress Reduction cassette tape, designed to be played as you build your Dodgson Designs plane. These tapes contain soothing words from the Master himself as he discusses the problems you are undoubtedly having, all couched in a typical West Coast philosophy combining the thoughts of Lindbergh, Buddha and Shirley Maclaine. Don't break down. Chill out, dude. 100 pound bag of pinto beans. To be used by you and your soaring buddies as a methane gas production kit. Even though your tripped 214 doesn't really need it, we all like to have some insurance, for those days when the sky really is falling. Instructions are printed on each bag detailing pounds per person, optimum times for consumption and use, and formations best assumed by you and your soaring buddies as you stand next to each other at the field. Prices upon request --J. J. Johnson - Georgetown, TX. February 4, 1990 Dear Bob, you may not remember me, but I have been flying your designs since 1973. In the 70's I flew three TODIs (I believe in having identical backup ships). One is still flying, by the way, after 17 years. I don't know if I told you, but in 38 local contests I entered back then, the TODIs took 34 firsts, and placed in the other 4. I have often pointed to your designs as epitomizing good aerodynamics combined with good engineering. You may have been reading my diatribes in Slope Soaring News, so you might expect me ask the following question: Do you plan on designing a small (say, one meter) three-channel precision aerobatic model that handles the same whether inverted or upright? In a future SSN I will be presenting (with Charlie) a proposed set of rules for contests featuring such planes, and I'd love to see what your particular brand of excellence would come up with in this line. I have enclosed a copy of an article (in progress) on aerobatic gliders, and -- if you have time -- would very much appreciate any comments you might have. Yours Truly, Jeff Raskin - Pacifica, CA. ________________________________________________________________________________

The CREEK of AIR:

by Thorn Daveburg

As told to Al Doig How many of you have launched, looking for the River of Air and been disappointed? Spend a few minutes with me and you will never be disappointed again. I'm here to tell of the CREEK OF AIR !! With my secrets in hand, every time you launch, you will be up a Creek.

Thorn Davebird, himself --as rendered by Al Doig!

My first experience with the Creek of Air came at a contest in Visalia California. Four flyers had launched in a man-on-man event. I was one of those flyers. We all followed Fred Beaver, the area hot rock. It soon became painfully evident that we were all flying in sink, so everyone scattered. I went out to the left all alone. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a curious sight. A person was standing on the ground waving a canoe paddle. He then dashed over to me breathlessly shouting Go over there, that is where the Creek is. I was almost on the ground, but decided to take a chance on losing the landing. I put the nose of the Lovesong down, reflexed the flaps and scooted over to the spot where the person had been waving the canoe paddle. As I approached the spot, sho nuff, the Lovesong's tail rose and fell. I had gone through a narrow thermal. A ribbon thermal, I thought. I cranked the ship around and located the rising air. Up on one wing tip we went in a tight turn, and up went the Lovesong. As soon as I had maxed, sinking the other three flyers, I looked around for the paddle waver. I found him under a tree drinking wine from a bottle. I introduced myself. Otto Schmidtt here, he said, extending his hand. He spoke with a queer accent. How did you know there was a thermal in that spot?, I asked. There was none, I developed it for you., he said. Schmidtt took another drag from the wine bottle and continued.  You may have been to free flight contests and witnessed teams of helpers holding corners of blankets and billowing them up and down, hoping to break loose a bubble. Another swig and he continued; At best they can only generate a small, ill defined thermal. With my paddle I can generate a longer thermal every time. I call it a Creek thermal. Others have called them Ribbon Thermals. Well, thanks, I said. I really appreciate your help; I won the round because of you. Any time, he replied. During the next round there was booming lift and almost everyone maxed. The third round started late with cooling air and very sparse lift. As our group walked out to the winches for the last round, I asked my buddy Ray Kenmond to go find Dave Schmidtt and have him develop another Creek thermal for me. By the time we were hooked up, Ray was back. Bad news! Dave Scmidtt is out like a light under a tree. Well, you go find the paddle and get out there and wave it, like Scmidtt did Off went Ray for the paddle. I was in deep trouble when Ray panted up Can't find the paddle. Well, go out in the field and wave your arms - do something - I'm sinking. Soon, I saw Ray out in the middle of a field, wildly waving his arms. OK, Creek, here we come, I said as I lowered the nose of the Lovesong. I passed over Ray without a twitch. I turned and came back. Now I was only about 20 feet off the tarmac. As I went round and round, I screwed the Lovesong right into the grass, off the field, out of the landing area, and out of points. As Ray Kenmond brought back the Lovesong he remarked, over his shoulder, I guess you shouldn't try to go up Scmidtt's Creek without a paddle.; thereby inventing a famous colloquial expression. HOWZAT! ________________________________________________________________________________

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