What handle?

[Gary Dowler]

Flying weather is not all that far off. I have a faint hope of flying stunt at the Regionals in may. Need to get my ducks in properly organized rows soon.
Need a better handle that what I have. I see the various ones on the Brodak site, but not sure what a proper choice is. Obviously it should have adjustable line spacing, and preferable an adjustment for length, but beyond that I'm not certain of my ground.
Suggestions please?

Gary

[Dan McEntee]

   Check out Tom Morris' selection. If you want a cabled handle, he has them that are unbiased and slightly angled for your hand, but most advise using an unbiased handle. He also offers a nice hard point handle. They are semi kit form and require fitting to your hand and finishing. Easy work. There is a member here, whose name escaped me right now, that is making the Fancher style hard point handles and they are nice. Spacing is adjustable on both hard point handles, and in addition it's best to have the tool for making line clips of different lengths. These are my favorites and I use both.
    Type at you later,
     Dan McEntee

[john e. holliday]

That would bee Brent Williams making the Fancher handles.  I have several.   I also have the Tom Morris handle as well as Larry Renger's Expo handle.   Depends on which plane I am flying as to what handle I use.   By the way I still use my handle the late Marvin (Bigiron) Denny used to make.

[Steve Helmick]

Many guys in the NW use homemade CF framed handles based on 2mm CF Dragon Plate. Consult with your neighbors in Deer Park and Pullman.  I've heard 18g., but my CF handle is 24 grams without the safety thong, while my "TED Handles" are 60 grams. Some guys use a couple coats of clear dope, but I use Z-Poxy finishing resin and rod handle grip tape. 6 of 1, etc. It's doubtful that I could tell an 18g from a 24g handle in the air. The less your plane pulls, the more important light handle weight is, from my experience.

Randy Smith sells a CF handle (made in Delta, BC), as do the Smith Brothers from Florida (?). The "search" actually worked, which seems like a new thing. Smith Brothers also sell one very similar, from Florida, I think. Ads in SN and SH. Jim Lee Machine makes the Derek Moran line clip benders, too reasonably priced to make one at work!    Steve

[George Truett]

I got a really nice cable type handle from Mike Scott here on the forum.

[Brett Buck]

Flying weather is not all that far off. I have a faint hope of flying stunt at the Regionals in may. Need to get my ducks in properly organized rows soon.
Need a better handle that what I have. I see the various ones on the Brodak site, but not sure what a proper choice is. Obviously it should have adjustable line spacing, and preferable an adjustment for length, but beyond that I'm not certain of my ground.
Suggestions please?

Gary

  Get the Fancher handle from Brent Williams, or the ultralight handle (and a bunch of variable-length clips to adjust it with) from Randy, Al Resinger, or any other sources.

    Brett

[Ted Fancher]

I'm curious primarily because I'm pretty much retired from flying nowadays, but...

I'm finding it hard to understand why, within reason, the weight of a handle of modest fore and aft dimension (no"mass versus grip overhang" of whatever mass is involved) would be a factor when flying a stunt ship of modern proportions, weight and airspeed...the good old Jim Walker U-Reely excluded, of course.  Once such a handle is gripped in a hand and arm that outweigh it by significant multiples it would seem that the additional mass of a handle a couple of ounces or so either way than another could be a significant factor.

I am, however, susceptible to enlightenment from our participants whose math education exceeds my high school basics!

Ted

[Randy Cuberly]

I agree with you Ted.

I use The "Fancher"  handle (I have about 10 of them) and also have a super light carbon handle and frankly I cannot tell the difference on anything I fly!

I fly pretty much just with the fingers gripping the handle and find that the "Fancher Handle" is Ideal for me.

I would mention to Motorman, that in my opinion it's important for consistence of motion that the handle fits your hand top to bottom without a lot of room for the hand or fingers to move around.  I like the handle to just touch the index finger and pinky finger so there is not any room for the fingers to move top to bottom.  If the position of the handle moves so does the bias of the controls in your hand!

Randy Cuberly

[john e. holliday]

Well my self I can tell the difference in weight between a Fancher Handle and a Tom Morris handle until the airplane is air borne.   Even my little mouse race handle is lighter than either of the previous mentioned.   What gets heavy is the arm that is connected to the shoulder when the plane is not pulling enough.

[Larry Renger]

Well, I modestly (yea, sure) think that my low overhang expo handle offers a different feel than any other. It has been commented as being “Power steering”. The effective pivot point is in the middle of your fingers, not outside your knuckles. And instead of reduced line spacing with handle defection, it increases. So you can set up for smooth neutral while retainirg the control power needed for maneuvers.

Once you get used to it, you won’t go back. I sure don’t want to fly with a conventional handle that, if you look at the geometry, has negative exponential and has serious overhang.

If interested, see my classified ad for magic handle.