CL woes

[andreas johansson]

Hi guys

I´m a member of a club where no one, except me, is flying CL. The active members is mostly in their 30-40:s and have never seen CL in any form before. Their comments on CL is: "this is the coolest thing I have ever seen", everyone of them says something like that. Naturally, my answer is: maybe you should try it yourself? Their respond is: No, I will pass out from dizzyness.... This is something like Catch-22, they think CL is cool but they are to afraid to be dizzy. Ofcourse I have said that the dizzyness will go away after the first few flight, but to no avail...

Andreas

[peabody]

Andreas.....
I would consider building a rock solid trainer, like a Brodak Streak Trainer, and a reliable engine, with a one ounce tank....enough fuel to fly for two minutes or so...
Showing them that they don't get dizzy is fairly easy if you "short tan".
Have fun

[Charlie Pate]

 It is amazing! , the number of people,Young and old, that have never seen a ukie fly;much less
 do an attempt at an AMA pattern.
 I went with my nephew to an RC field to fly his RC and looked around.Not a good place to fly UC,
 but non the less possible.
On the next trip out I asked if it would OK to fly my plane using thier asphalt runway.When I told
 them the type of plane I had there were comments of Oh! a string plane!
 They said would be OK and I promised them I had no desire to Hog" the site .
I got the plane set up fueled the plane and heard a giggle when  I connected the battery to the glow plug after
about fifteen flips on the prop;Obviously they hadn,t heard of fuel aireation.
One flip and off the os went,pulling the Mustunt II through the  pattern.
The majority of the people were very impressed and rather complimentary . It seemed as if they understood we
had somthing in common and this was a plane ,not a toy .
I have expeirenced this since and its about the same every time !
Of course there are a few that will hummp and scoff , but you have the same in control line fliers
observing Radio Fliers Too!

[Garf]

Have a look at my avitar. It is the "Bamboo Bomber". It is a class C trainer made from scraps I had laying around the garage. It weighs a ton, flies like a PT 19 trainer, and has a ST S40 for power.

[taildragger-j3]

That looks like it would go through a tree and come out flying on the other side! I assume it's not highly aerobatic.

[Phil Coopy]

Andreas,
I too came from the same situation.  I am a member of an RC club and having gotten tired of spending all of my time teaching RC, I decided to get back into C/L, which I had left many years ago.  I asked if I could cut a circle at the field and was gratified when most of them helped me lay it out and prepare. After a few times at the field and when I got my legs back, some of the older RC guys decided to give it a try.  Some shrugged their shoulders and some continue to fly C/L.  You are right, dizzyness is a major concern of any prospectuve flyer, and short tanking is the answer. 1/2A's are too fast so I have been experimenting with the rig shown below. If you are into RC electrics, you will recognze it as a GWS Slo-Fly.  I need to use a 250ma 4 cell nicad pack to keep the flights short and slow.  Not a ROG plane unless you have a long piece of cardboard for a runway. Not good in the wind but flies verrrrrry slow.

Phil

[john e. holliday]

Boy that Slow Stick looks like it would make a terrific indoor control line plane.  How did you by pass the radio?  Have fun,  DOC Holliday

[Bradley Walker]

Phil,

that is awesome!!!

i want one.

Talk about a great trainer!!!  that would be a blast in a gym somewhere in the winter.

How did you do the bellcrank?

[Phil Coopy]

Doc,  No speed controller.....I just plug the battery right into the motor.....let her run down....that's why I only use a 250ma pack. I took out all of the dihedral, stiffened the wing with a small carbon fiber spar, and fixed the rudder position.

Brad,  I'll attach a pic of the bellcrank set up.

Phil

[Garf]

That looks like it would go through a tree and come out flying on the other side! I assume it's not highly aerobatic.

You've got that right. I've got a smaller version half built. I haven't decided on a name yet, so I refer to it as "son of bamboo bomber".

[Leo Mehl]

I flew controline demonstration at the RC meet held by the Sky Knights of portaln some time back and most of those people had never seen controline. I took off on thiere runway with me standing in the grass and then moved onto the runway to fly. I scared a whole bunch of people on that end of the runwaybecause they thought it was an RC plane. At the end of the flight I moved back out on the grass. One couple came over and talked to me. They asked me if I had a Throttle on the engine. Nope, it just picks up speed when you point the nose up. It's calla 2-4 4 break. This was great fun an an education for the RC guys.

[Keith Spriggs]

Hi guys

I´m a member of a club where no one, except me, is flying CL.

Andreas

DON'T GIVE UP: About a year ago I went to an RC meet as a spectator. I happen to get to talking to one of the RC fliers and told him I flew C/L about 35 years ago. He told me that he also used to fly C/L. We both decided that it would be fun to try it again. We slowly found others that were interested and here is a picture taken last weekend.