When i was a little boy back in the seventies i built small gliders withour r/c, but with big enthusiasm. Living in the middle of a small town i couldn't reach the big slopes around the town. So at the weekends my dad drove with my brother and me to these magical places. Wow, there were radio-controlled ailplanes. I started dreaming. Once, i would be the proud owner of such a plane :-). The next kick came from a family vacation in the austrian alps. There's a mountain named Gerlitzen. The top is about 2000 metres above see level. That was my paradise, because at this place a number of model pilots were soaring for hours and up to heights, that i never had seen before. At that day the following picture had been taken. I'am the little boy left and the man in the middle with the seventies afrolook was my hero that day. Have fun!
Click the following link to see a nice page with my dream soarplanes of these years. Graupner- Raritäten. A few years later, when i was proud owner of my first rc-unit, a Simprop SSM, i had as first plane a Graupner Amigo. Not a bad choice as the first success came fast, when my Amigo came back higher to the slope than before. Many kits from Krick, Simprop, Multiplex followed. Then i started building own designs. I came back to the Gerlitzen. My enthusiasm for soaring, for the fight for each metre or for the relaxed gliding in the evening lift is still there. But in the region, that i live in, flying electric brings much more airtime. Anyway, a few gliders are always ready in my workshop. Let me show you a few of them.
Algebra-1000 is a british design from the eighties. This
plane is very good in the thermals and has a very low sinking-rate. When the thermals disappear and it comes to pure
gliding, in most cases the Algebra-1000 is the last plane to land. On the other hand, under good circumstances, it is
a little bit boring to fly her, there is no potential for flying faster or doing aerobatics. We do not have such good
circumstances very often here, so Algebra-1000 fits my needs. Weight is 1700 gramms and span is 330 centimetre. The Fiesta from Multiplex is a good soarer with a nice design.
This is the only sailplane, that i ever lost in the clouds. Hmm, obviously i was a little bit too high :-). I could escape
from that cloud with full elevator down and airbrakes set full. A few years later i was not so lucky, when the switch decided
to get rid of the innards and my Fiesta flew uncontrolled a huge circle, ending in a rock face. Pictures show the reconstructed
modell. I was looking for a smaller plane with moulded wings and found
Whisper at ebay. No one else was interested and i got her for a very reasonable price. This is a good model for thermal flying,
but not so easy to fly. Clean turns require syncronized use of rudder and ailerons. Not my problem, but beginners will not be
very lucky with that. The moulded wing brings better results, compared with a wing built with ribs and iron-on cover. Soarmaster is my best soarer. She is a model for the F3J-
glider class, but cannot compete anymore due to weight and technique. Soarmasters wings are made from foam and wooden cover
and actual models are completely moulded glass or carbon. But, for me as an average hobbypilot Soarmaster is still a fantastic
plane. Since 2003 i have a variometer in it, very usefull in bad thermal conditions. FluFlu is a real big pure Horten-wing, designed by Stefan Dolch.
Made for thermal flight, she is a eyecatcher, when she cruises high in the sky. Not much to say about her, just one thing:
Never try to fly Horten wings with a center of gravity too much backward. Guess, how i know... FluFlu spent a few hours in the
workshop after that experience. Now she is reconstructed and fit for new adventures. After reading a book about the theory of thermal flying and
study of many reports in the internet i couldn't resist and bought 2003 a variometer. My first experiences were not so good,
because i tried to follow each little beeep. After a few attempts i decided to follow only longer lasting signals and the
success came. On this special day the conditions were really bad. No one else at the site tried to soar and even the electric
planes had short flighttimes. I ended with a 40 minutes flight, which wouldn't had happened without the variometer. Max height
was 106 metres and it was 40 minutes of fight for each of this metre, pure fun. Try it, it's amazing to hear the thermals
in your earplug.
