🚀 go-pugleaf

> Anyone out there fly RC helicopters? 

I'm interested in helicopters, but to be honest, they scare me.  It seems
like there's so much that can go wrong, from a mechanical standpoint.  With
a plane, you can pretty much assume that it will continue in the same 
direction as it plows itself in.  I get very nervous when anyone flys his
right toward our pits, and get even more nervous at the thought of an 
out of control upside down lawnmower.  Maybe my fears are unjustified?

> I live in Illinois, but once went on vacation to Denver and took along
> a machine. I flew it at the site of one of the Denver clubs, and found
> that the mile altitude at ground level had a profound effect on the
> abilities of the machine and I had to re-adjust everything to make it
> fly very well at that altitude. Living at that location has it's draw-backs
> when it comes to flying RC.

Yes, we definately suffer from power loss, but I can't think of anyplace 
I'd rather live.    I've got a Great Planes Trainer 40, and at a recent
club meeting, saw an ad for great planes in the Video RC Magazine.  When
I saw the kind of take-off's you can do at sea level with that plane, I
almost cried.  The Trainer 40 is a solid plane, with lots of hard balsa,
so it's HEAVY.  I generally take a nice long take off run, and climb at
a fairly shallow angle.  (None of this 30 to 45 degree angle climb out
stuff around here!)  By the way, Al, in that video ad, they're talking
about the stuntability of the Trainer series.  They show a low altitude
roll that some members of our club swear rekitted the plane.  The video
cut to something else before we could see what happened.  Do you know 
anything about this?

If you're not into power planes, we've got much more thermal power than 
most places could dream of having.  Being at 5000', we heat up quickly 
during the day, and cool off very well at night.  At the moment, we're 
having evening temps in the 30's and daytime temps of almost 70 at times.  
This makes for lots of thermal activity.  I've got a friend who has had 
several 15 minute flights, and he's brand new to gliders and hasn't yet 
had to circle in a thermal.  The lift is just all over.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who's tried glider towing.
We're currently building a towplane with a 9 foot wingspan.  I'll  give
more details if anyone's interested.  (It's kind of an unusual project)
-- 

Scott Wiesner
{allegra, ucbvax, cornell}!nbires!scott