stunthanger.com
General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Chuck Feldman on April 05, 2006, 09:01:20 AM
-
WWWARBIRD says there is not enough posts. So I am going to write a post about something.
Number one is that this is the best Forum and I believe the leaders are doing a good job.
Heres a question for you boys.
Did any of you play with swing gliders as a kid?
Whats a swing glider? It is a balsa glider with a washer on one wing tip and a string on the other. Now you would just swing it around. It was a good toy, was fun to make and it was cheap to make. They where good wind fliers.
-
Never did anything quite like that, but I did go through a short phase involving Peck ROG's... Nothing quite like flying an ROG outside. Got to retrieve it off of at least three different roofs. Also I put together a small extremely overweight glider out of scrap balsa. With about 2oz of lead in the nose it would really sail if you got some momentum in the launch. Think I gave up on that one the first time it sailed head-on into the side of the garage. I'll never forget the sound of 2oz of lead hitting siding. I goofed around with a lot of stuff in the backyard growing up.
-
There is an article in an old MAN , Threadit, about making a CL swing airplane flown on a loop of thread. The thread goes through lead tubes on the wing and back to a toothpick piece stuck through the elevator for a pull-pull. Make the loop about the length to the floor with you hand above your head. No handle , just hold the end of the loop around your hand and do figure 8's, loops and inverted. I have accumulated various dime-store gliders with the idea of making threadit's out of them, but they are still NIP ::). I think this would be a fine way for a new CL flier to learn how to do various maneuvers real cheap.
-
When I was young, all we could afford was the washer and a piece of string. Neither glides very well and hurt like he!! when my sister took it from me and hit me me with it.
Long ago I had a toy helicopter similar to a vertibird but a bit more elaborate. It was made by Marx or Hasbro. It was tethered by a counter balanced rod. The Pilot controlled its up, down, forward, or reverse motion by two control sticks (collective & cyclic). It even had an operable hoist for those emergency rescues.
I have never seen one since except the cheaper Vertibird. I believe this toy caused my interest in flying which led me to control line, Hueys in the Army, and now back to control line.
Thomas
-
Chuck,
I have occasionally flown some whip-powered models - which are just a bit more complicated than what you describe.
Might have been AJ once offered a whip-control model. There've been plans for these in magazines. I think there's an F84 semi-scale plan at Dave Fritzkie's site.
With a short dowel (24-36" with a line guide) to extend 'reach', these can be flown on surprisingly long lines, and with elevator control, can be purt-near fully aerobatic.
-
Blackhawk Models has several whip control kits. I have one ready to go. DOC Hollliday
-
Yes I have made a few swing gliders. But we call them whip-its.
Both my boys had them also. I think I saw one laying in the garage the other day, still on the fishing pole.