Aerotow Trainer Sailplanes

[ARUP]

Now that's a cool idea!

[JoeN]

I built a L'Bird and a SkyBird with the polyhedral. The inner wing panel trailing edges were modified to allow for ailerons and flaps. Both planes were set up for aerotowing. The ailerons mix works great on towing and the flap mix is fantastic for glide path control on landing. This modification allowed me to keep the original glider and allow for aerotowing. Should work for the riser as well.

[ARUP]

Those Telemasters look great! It sure is fun putt-putting through the sky with those floaters!

Dustin- I eliminated the outer panel dihedral but kept the stock center wing joiner/dihedral angle. They really don't need the dihedral except to keep the models from catching a tip at take-off or landing. Also, I cut strip ailerons from the kit stock TE. They work just fine. I was lazy and 'didn't' but do put spoilers on that Gentle Lady! I was flying last Spring(or was it Summer?) and got caught in a boomer. It ended up being a 78' flight but at times it was at my limit of vision at '400 feet'. With a rubber band-on wing I couldn't do too much and was afraid of overspeeding if inverted to lose altitude.


Memory isn't good. I reduced some of the dihedral in the center by cutting the wing joiner a little.

[DustinI]

ARUP You got me thinking about my Gentle Lady. It would be real simple to build an aerotow wing for it. Reading your descriptions and looking at the pictures, you eliminated the polyhedral and decreased the dihedral. Is this correct? How much dihedral do they have?

[DustinI]

JimD Those pictures are probably just what I'll need to figure out the tow release on my Tele40.

[JimD]

This sure brings back memories...While you are mainly concentrating on the sailplane side, I was working more on the tow plane side. Here are two of the Telemaster 40 tow planes I built between 2007 and 2012:



The one in the rear was built in 2007 and had an OS .52 4-stroke glow engine. The one in the front had an electric motor running on a 4-cell LiPo. Performance was very similar between the two with these power systems.

The electric version was built from the newer Deluxe kit (still offered by the present owner of the Telemaster designs). The older glow model was built from the original kit design.



Our sailplane of choice was the Multiplex Easy Glider.



Tow release was fabricated from scrap DuBro pushrod. Worked very well, never had a problem with it on hundreds of tows.







Tow release servo operated the release pin through a bellcrank mechanism. Fabricated from piano wire for the axle and wheel collars to hold bellcrank in place.



Makes me want to build another Telemaster 40 toe plane!!!!

[ARUP]

Sig Riser #2 is completed airframe wise. It just needs the radio install. Riser #1 has double tapered outer panels and Riser #2 has a straight LE. A comparison can be made in the last picture. They are the same structure otherwise.







That's all for now!

[ARUP]

I had my longest flight at Cumberland this past weekend of over 75 minutes flying the Sig Riser! The Riser flies great and the rudder never came off!!! I'm going to finish the other one and put spoilers on it... it needs 'em! So... if you are looking to try soaring 'on the cheap' then get a Sig Riser and consider these mods to the wing. For such an inexpensive kit it offers a wealth of fun flying!!!

BTW... tow was by a big Bidule with a DA180??? or some such engine this weekend. The Hitec 'Feather' servos are doing great service. The airframe can handle larger servos for peace of mind.

[ARUP]

Well... the Sig Riser #1 was had a successful maiden flight being towed by Stephane with his foam Carbon Cub at the MRCA Aerotow. It flies really good. Stephane was able to find some lift even while it was lightly raining on an overcast day! We flew it four(?) times. Now... to finish Sig Riser #2!

[Mark9]

Yeah, no goop to clean off afterwards either using electrons.

[ARUP]

I'll second that... let the fun begin!

[lenb]

Alright!!!!
Looking forward to watching the progress.

[jswain]

Small update -11/12/2018.

the sig 100 kit showed up just fine last week and i am planning on starting on the H9 big ultra stick this week.

getting all the Stick power plane bits and parts was kind of a never ending shopping dirge as i hadn't done a non-glider power plane in donkey years.

the fundamentals of model e-power are already with me so i don't have to sweat that. fyi - why electric power ? have an unreasonable aversion
to IC motors after dealing snarling Cox TD engines as a kid and hacking my fingers to bits on those props - that nitro fuel still stings in my mind

building the riser kit will be a no-brainer so maybe the new two plane package and first tow flight will be done by Christmas time (.....2018....)

js

[Joespeeder]

Thanks Mike, I'll ask about adding those changes. Gino is the one leading the charge up there and he's really happy to have more thermal hunters in the mix. I get the sense these are going to primarily to fly on their Glider Wednesdays. If it were me, I'd build mine as you described but it's a great 1st step either way. I bet we'll see a mix of props and winch launch set ups. If I can agitate Gino a little maybe we can get some aerotow Risers in the mix?? lol

[ARUP]

Joe- if the group build these it is really a simple matter to flatten the wing and cut ailerons from the supplied TEs. You might let them know RES polyhedral models can get towed but it's a little dicey! 'Full house' control is better.