Florida Soaring Society Contest #3

I participated in the Florida Soaring Society’s third contest of the year at the Indian River Kontrol Society’s field just west of Cocoa, FL. The contest was well put on by John Graves and his wife Kim. The whole weekend was a blast. I also had my best flying of the year! Continue reading

Flying the Sunbird

If you’ve been following my Sunbird series you’ll know that in the last posts I covered and finished the wing. I had to run an errand after work which got me home a little earlier than I normally do. I immediately got into finish the glider mode. The ailerons setup was pretty easy, just like any other ARF. I setup and made mounts for the wing bolts and drilled the holes in the wing. Basically, I was done! I had two OrangeRX receivers in my electronics box. Now, I’ve had a bunch of these receivers and have had no problems with … Continue reading

Covering the Sunbird Wing

The major covering tasks on the Sunbird have been completed. Just a few more items on the list until I can get the glider out for test flights Continue reading

Covering the Sunbird

Most people hate covering a model. While it’s not my favorite thing, I’d rather be out flying, I think I enjoy putting the covering on more than actually doing the building. I’ll admit it is frustrating and I’m not good at it. I often get to the point of frustration where I shortcut stuff or don’t do things correct because I just want it done. However, in my eyes covering is more like actually completing the model. When it is covered it is ready to go! I decided to go with Ultracote Lite covering. It is a great covering material. … Continue reading

Sunbird Electric Glider Build

Recently I got bit by the building bug. I don’t know why, but I’ve been wanting to build something. There was a thread on RCGroups about building a woodie DLG. I decided that it would be cool to have. It looks like an awesome flying glider. However, I have’t built anything before. A DLG airframe takes a bunch of stress. Building one has to take this into account. You don’t want it to come apart after a few hard throws. I decided that building something cheap like the Sunbird Electric Glider would be best for me to try before I got the … Continue reading