If you go to a hardpoint handle (Ted/Carl unit is my favorite), you just about have to make your own line clips to get the adjustability you need. Most the guys I fly with have their "Ted" handles glued up solid at minimum overhang. Mine, too. Jim Lee (Lee's Machine in the Vendor's section or at VSC) makes the "Derek Moran" clip bender...and sells the stainless wire, too. Highly recommended combination of Kewl Cottage Industry Products! Once you try it, you'll never like a cable handle again. I do suggest making clips from "stock" (Sullivan/Brodak) length to + 3/8" at max. Even I can make my lines equal length within that range, tho I buy most mine from Jim Snelson at CLC. They're closer than I can do, because my yard sucks for tying up lines...not flat enough. Not long enough for F1A towlines, either!
Here's a pic of my simple gluing jig for the TED handle kits. I used a drill press, to drill the pine chunk to a snug push fit for some 8P nails...works perfectly! Where the nails go isn't critical...you just push the laminations into the corner, like a V-block. If the handle gets glued to a nail, twist the nail to break the glue loose. I use thick slow CA for laminating, and finishing epoxy for the finish. Most guys use tennis racket grip tape or fishing rod handle wrap to improve the grip. This is fishing rod stuff, 'cause I fish. 
Steve
Just a couple of comments about "overhang" because it is the least obvious of the characteristics of a handle for flying precision maneuvers. But first a story...
Back in the start of the enlightened age of stunt, Bobby Hunt came to the '74 Nats with his in-flight adjustable handle that had no spacing or overhang adjustment but could have the neutral adjusted in flight with a worm gear arrangement. Helpful, but, obviously, a far try from the variety of adjustments soon made available with the Bob Baron style handle--which was a huge step forward to the ultimate stunt handle (IMHO).
Bobby Hunt's handle was also unique in that the two arms (with roughly four inch spacing...I could go measure mine if I could find it in the mess that used to be my shop) were something like two and half or three inches long. In addition, the arms were angled a number of degrees to allow the infamous "relaxed as in shaking hands" neutral position. The craftsmanship was Bobby Hunt beautiful and the in-flight neutral adjustment seemed like a great idea at the time so a number of us from the Bay Area snapped a few up. This was, literally, the start of my fascination with handles and their impact on the quality of flight trim for stunters.
We went home and promptly went out to fly with our new super handles. Gary McClellan and I were at the field the first day; Gary with his Max .35S Nobler and me with the original Moby Dick. What follows is not made up!
Both of us on our first flights pancaked the airplanes on the inverted pull outs of the first wingovers. Fortunately we were flying over grass and the only significant damage was to the props. We were able to fly again and be more cautious as we entered the new realm of Bobby Hunt handles. After only a couple of complete flights we quickly came to the realization that the feel of these long armed handles was significantly different with much more effort required to input a pitch change and dramatically increased tendency of the system to return to neutral. It only took a little thought to recognize that we should have predicted exactly that response with only a tiny bit of consideration of the physics involved.
I promptly took mine home and shortened the arms (very carefully with a dremel cutter because the were made of some pretty substantial type of plastic)to approximate the Hot Rock I'd been flying with since I was about ten and went out to fly again. Now the response rate was very similar but I ultimately gave up trying to use the handle as the biased neutral was simply too difficult for me to adapt to.
Shortly thereafter the terrific Bob Baron style handle (the bar in front of the grip with adjustable spacing, overhang and neutral) became available sold by Gene Martine. This concept had great merit and I immediately went through another series of flying sessions evaluating it. The adjustability was a no "brainer immediate love affair". This handle, however, had no Hot Rock style "arms" above and below the grip and I found I had great difficulty "massaging" corners to get flat bottoms and appropriate angles to corners. Again, upon going back to my original Hot Rock, the reasons became obvious. The patterns immediately returned to the quality I expected and I now felt the pressures I had been subconsciously applying with my pinky and index fingers to those arms. I then modified the Baron/Martine handle with arms top and bottom so it again felt like a Hot Rock but had all the adjustability of the stock item.
Finally, the pertinence to this discussion. Simply gluing the line attachment clips into the arms into a Fancher handle eliminates one of the tuning mechanisms built into the design; the ability to adjust the overhang (modestly) so as to vary the "feel" of control inputs; i.e. how much effort it takes to initiate a response and how much help the system gives to return that input back to neutral. Some fliers are fingertip types (myself included) and need very little feedback from the system because they use mostly small muscle inputs to achieve the desired response. I believe this to be the best approach to precision flying but others would disagree. The hard point connection makes inputs much more positive and an individual who uses large muscle groups to make inputs might find the combination of short arms and hard point connection feels too sensitive to his personal preference for inputting commands. By moving the attachment clips out further to increase the "overhang" such preferences can be accommodated...a positive version of my negative response to the long arms on the Hunt handle.
The bottom line is that I wouldn't advise users to immediately glue the line clips in place until they've fine tuned the airplane to which a given handle will be dedicated. Overhang variation is a "modest" adjustment feature but one that shouldn't be overlooked as you fine tune your airplane to your preferences. What is important about it however is that the difference in overhang should be as minimal as possible (which is why it is important to tie your lines at consistent lengths so as to minimize the need to have a dozen different length line connectors). If you use overhang differences between the up and down lines to "trim" out turn differentials inside versus outside you're doing the wrong thing. This merely masks an aerodynamic trim issue with the airplane which should be resolved at the airplane. (This goes for varying the up versus down line spacing as well, by the way).
IMHO, biasing the handle in any manner from essentially symmetrical (i.e. you could hook it up upside down and still fly a decent pattern with it) is not in the best interests of your competitive standing. The classic example of a handle set up exactly correctly was demonstrated at last month's Northwest Regionals when Pete Peterson took off with his handle connected backwards. He quickly realized what had happened and switched the handle upside down as the airplane was performing its unexpected loop after launch. After recovering his composure he proceed to fly a very competitive pattern with the handle upside down. The only way you could tell it was upside down was because the safety thong was now attached to the "up" line.
OK, enough pontificating. It's Sunday, go out and enjoy whatever handle you enjoy flying with.
Ted
Topic: Hard Point Handle Question (Read 8209 times)
