Bob Cotsford

You could always have a ply, tufnol or aluminium rib in the aileron with a cut-out around it to allow a quicklink or ball-link to attach to the rib on it's centreline. That's the way it's done on a lot of full-size. On the Jungmeister the 'rib' also extends forward into the wing to allow a second link ahead of the aileron for a pull-pull drive.

I've been flying models for more years than I care to admit to, but took a break after the wife passed on, then got into bikes and somehow never got back to the models until this year. I rejoined my old club, but have found it totaly cack - they fly from a farmer's field, but the grass is 2 feet high so it's hand launch only. I want to get my Acrowot up, but it's impossible from this site, so I'm looking at two other clubs in the area. Both clubs ask for 'A' certs to fly solo, so I guess it's a matter of swallowing my pride and accepting supervision until I get the green light to go solo. With the weather we've had lately, I've not yet visited the sites to meet my prospective clubmates, but I do find the proliferation of rules and requirements intimidating. Maybe I should just get the slope soarers out and head off to Burton Dassett -hmm, "mad as a box of frogs", I should fit right in there.

I used to use those Swann-Morton orange handles, but I kept snapping them. I've dug out my old X-Acto handles (they used to come in a set of three handles with a selection of blades). Poundland were selling some nasty chinese clones at £1 for 3 different handles and a dozen assorted blades - I ended up throwing the handles away, but the blades were worth the pound! Davids miniplane , razor saw and a coping saw are what I regard as essential extras, but the Dremel comes pretty close.

"I had one person who had a Sid Miller (no relation)) Rhoma. A 50s single channel R/C model high wing auto stable model. He had three channels in it. He never crashed once and we didn't have buddy box in those days. Send to friend" I had a Rhoma when I was about 15, ED Hunter deisel and home made cingle chanel radio -flew itinto the school craft block. The models in those days were pretty much guided free flight, not so much radio control as radio interference. The whole learning curve was much more gentle.

as I said in a previous post, my Flair Hooligan's flight characteristics argue that pendulum effect doesn't exist, and riding a motorcycle also supports what you say about centripetal force changing the effects of gravity - until you slow down! I still think that pendulum effect exists, but that it's influence on model behaviour varies with airspeed and model weight, hence it was of more concern in the days of tissue covered freeflight and single chanel models with comparatively low power.

Ok - lets take the cofg as being along the fuselage centreline and the centre of lift along the wings chord line and span centreline. I'm visualising the model in a bank as requested. With a high wing model I think I see the centre of gravity now held out to the outside of the turn and the centre of lift on the inside. Whether you take the centre of lift or the centre of gravity as the fulcrum point, there has to be a self righting moment, which is reversed for a low winger with cog on the inside and cofl on the outside of the turn. Of course all this ignores things like drag and sideslip, but these ideas were bred when models generally flew slowly and drag was less ofg a concern. I don't claim to be an aerodynamacist, but it seems to make sense to me. Of course the faster your model flies, the more drag factors will have an effect on the handling, but I'd have thought that the pendulum effect has to exist and influence stability to a degree. I wonder if this is why a lot of aerobatic machines seem to get the CofG, CofL and CofD close together? Mid wing should result in perfect neutral stability and handling.

"Why is it that a high winger needs less dihedral to achieve the same stability as a low winger? " pendulum effect ;)

I've got a Flair Hooligan, which is high-wing and most definitely has neutral (if any!) stability. I had a low winger some years ago called a Peashooter, from an american kit. I could almost take off, feed in a little rudder trim, put the transmitter down and walk away for the tankful. Only lack of faith stopped me doing so on calm days. As for typo's, depends how close the boss is watching and thus how much of a hurry I'm in to change screens!

years ago all plans includedd a list of materials required, often including what grades of balsa and where to use them. Why can't they be included - free plans I can accept that there's often not enough space on the pull-out, and no real incentive for the designer or publisher to go that extra step.

how did we end up with the wing on top? Easy, the simplest way to build it. Since trainers used to have flat bottom wings, it was easier to build a box with a flat top and strap the wing on, low-wingers needed a cutout to suit the wing section. That became the accepted norm for trainers. Possibly the high wing also helped when flying from uncut fields (as ours is at the moment) so high wings were less likely to get puncture on landing. Then there is the fact that low wingers are harder to hand launch as you have to hold them behind the CG. As for being as stable, possibly, but I seem to remember high wingers being easier to set up on rudder only. Pendulum effect is a fantasy? You live and learn.

does anyone know where to get this stuff these days - Google can find a few trade suppliers, but they tend to list 100m rolls and are wholesale only. I've seen cotton covered ready-to-go bungees listed by Perkins a, Ripmax and the like, but I'd rather have a tubular or even solid one. It's a long time since I made up a bungee, does 3/8 od 1/4 id sound about right? May be a case of using what I can find, of course.

the only other Veron glider model I can remember is the Impala -wasn't that about 60"?

Typhoon Stuka Magister