I live in the USA in New York on Long Island.

I started flying in March of 2003 with a small electric RTF airplane called an Aerobird. Since then I have become more of a thermal soaring glider pilot than an electric airplane pilot. I fly pure gliders for thermal duration, DLG, slope and aerotow. These days the electrics that I fly tend to be e-gliders. I have about 26 gliders and planes with about 10 flyable at any given time.

Most of my flying is at our club field. I am former President and current member of the Long Island Silent Flyers. www.lisf.org. We have a great club focused on thermal duration soaring and small electric airplanes.

That is me in the video and that is my red tent in the background.

The Long Island Silent Flyers - Come Fly with us
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I try to get to the field one day each weekend all year round. That is when I am not flying glider competition with the Eastern Soaring League. www.flyesl.com I am former President and Newsletter Editor of the League. I travel along the East coast of the USA for the ESL contests.

My longest TD glider flight is just under 90 minutes. My longest slope flight was just over 2 hours. After that the flights become boring and I land. With slope, it can be the cold that gets me as slope soaring where I live on Long Island, NY, is mostly a winter time activity. At 20 degrees and 15 mph winds, it can be chilly.

I started competing in thermal duration glider contests in our club in 2004 with Spirt 2M RES sailplane, then a Sagitta 600 then a 3 meter Airtronics Legend. They got me into a great sport and now I am totally hooked.

In 2005 I started flying with the Eastern Soaring League. First with a Sagitta 600, then an Airtronics Legend. In 2007 I upgraded to a Polecat Thermal Dancer. With that plane and a year of flying I managed to move up the ranks within the Eastern Soaring League, www.flyesl.com , to finish 2007 at 6th in the sportsman class. I was so hooked.

Today I fly Expert Class in the ESL. My main TD competition gliders are a Kennedy Composites Supra Pro Competition (58 ounces) which I added in December 2011. My original Supra (64 ounces) is my back-up. I have a third "heavy" Supra (72 ounces) and a Graphite D-Box 3.4M, (60 ounces). The Thermal Dancer and Legend have moved on to other members of our club.

RES, rudder, elevator, spoiler is a wonderful form of soaring. My first RES gliders were the Sagitta 600, which is no more, and my original Spirit which rarely sees air anymore. Today, for RES thermal soaring competitions I fly an AVA (45 ounces) or a Bubble Dancer (36 ounces) . These gliders seem to produce their own lift.

I think it was in 2006 when I purchased a Mountain Models Boomer as my first hand launched glider. This foam flying wing was a lot of fun but I was not very good with it. In 2007 I added a Polecat XP-5 DLG and started flying club and ESL DLG contests. In 2010 I added a Kennedy Composites Blaster 2.

While I have flown a number of club and Eastern Soaring League DLG contests, the rapid fire launching bothers my left leg. So my DLGs are just for sport flying today. They are a ton of fun. Hand launched glider is a very different, very personal experience compared to my larger winch launched or my electric launched or slope gliders. I love 'em all.

In e-gliders I have a e-Supra Pro, a Radian, an Easy Glider Electric (brushless) and a World Models Sky Runner. Up until 2012, my e-gliders have been for convenience for when I didn't have the time or the opportunity for my pure gliders. I have a Mantis 3M that is ready for conversion to electric also.

In 2012 our club started holding electric launched soaring contets under the Altitude Limited Electric Soaring contest, ALES, rules. I was the co-CD for 2 years. In 2014 I started flying ALES more competitively. My e-Supra is now my main contest e-glider with the Radian as back-up.

As you can see from the notes above, I really really enjoy contests. That is not because I win a lot, far from it. Mostly I finish in the upper half but I have come in dead last more times than I care to admit. Even finishing dead last I have enjoyed every one of those contests.

While I enjoy winning, mostly I love flying with a whole group of other pilots who share my passion for soaring. It is the contest experience that has made me a better pilot. And traveling along the East Coast for Eastern Soaring League contests has allowed me to fly with, and become friends with so many great soaring pilots.

I highly recommend soaring contests to any pilot who wants to become a better pilot. Don't worry about winning. Work on personal bests and enjoy meeting and flying with other pilots who are better than you. They will become your teachers and your friends. And, as you improve, you can pass those skills on to the new pilots you meet.

My slope soaring planes include a Zagi 3C, a Windrider Fox, the Radian and the Easy Glider Electric mentioned above. I have flown some of my 3M thermal soaring gliders on the slope too. I fly along the North shore of Long Island in NY. This is mostly a winter activity as the sites are all over beaches so we can't fly them in the warmer months as we would be flying over people. Also the North winds come mostly in the winter. I have never flown a slope soaring contest but I would love to give it a try.

Slope soaring usually means layering up. I look more like I am going skiing than flying. I love those little hand warmer packs and I have a radio glove that completely covers my radio for those really cold slope soaring days. I find winter golf gloves to be great as they give me great feel for the radio and, with a heat pack in the palm, I fly fly all day in comfort.

Electric airplanes include an Aerobird Challenger, a HobbyZone Phantom, a Carbon Kestral, Carbon Falcon, a GWS AT6, a SmoothE, a Night Vapor, a mini Vapor and a micro Sukhoi. These are all flight ready. I also have an Electrajet, and a Piper Cub which are not flight ready. These days the electric planes mostly gather dust.

I have three micro helis and micro quad copter. These are just for fun in the basement or in front of the house. I have no plans to get seriously involved in helis. (No plans ... but who knows?)

Then we add a 3.4M Ventus 2C scale glider that is set up for aerotowing. This baby is beautiful in the air. ;) We used to aerotow at our field but we don't anymore. I am keeping the Ventus it in hope of getting behind a tow plane again some day.

I have my own winch, retriever, 2 hi-starts and a OneWinch for launching my gliders. Of course the DLGs and the e-gliders don't need any of these contraptions.

My main radios are a pair of Futaba 9CA Supers. My main planes are on Futaba FASST and I have a Spektrum module and a DX5e for the Bnf planes. I still fly 72 MHz on some of the less used planes. I went the module route so I could switch either radio to 2.4 FASST, 2.4 DSM2 or 72 MHz without problems.

I published 14 articles on RC flying for www.RCezine.com until the magazine shut down. RC Soaring Digest, RCSD, has published several of my articles as has Model Aviation and AMA Today. But most of my articles have been posted on the forums with the goal of helping new electric and glider pilots.

I also published an e-book on Wattflyer and RCUniverse. I chose this format so I could keep it up to date and could take questions from the readers. The title is, "Everything You Wanted to Know About Electric Flight". Like most of my articles, it is targeted at the beginner pilots.

Electric Training - Everything you want to know about electric flight - Note that even though this was originally posted in 2008, the articles get regular review and updates to keep them current. EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ELECTRIC POWERED FLIGHT An E-Book by Ed Anderson Updated March 2015 PREFACE A number of


I also have over 20 articles posted on the ESL web site for the benefit of new glider pilots. We call the forum the Novice Lounge. www.flyesl.org I have been VP and President of our club, the Long Island Silent Flyers, www.lisf.org , and served as President of the Eastern Soaring League for two years and Newsletter editor for 6. www.flyesl.org Today I am club AMA Leader member and AMA Contest Director.

My building skills are limited, focused primarily on repair and maintenance, I do not consider myself a builder. I started a hand launch glider kit, the Quick Flick but never finished it. Gave that one away. I started a 3M Bird of time kit, but that sits unfinished in the racks. I did built the foam electrajet, two MM Boomers and a MM Smooth E kit. But my main focus is flying, not building.

When I get interested in something I get very focused. RC flying has become that focus and will remain so for the rest of my life. I think my wife recognized how intense an interest this was going to become when I took my wood shop, which had fallen into neglect, and started throwing stuff out. I reconfigured it, put up a building table, shelving and storage racks for planes.

I really like electric airplanes. They are so much fun! They are quiet, clean and very convenient. While I may try glow at some time I expect electric power, for my aircraft that have props, will be my power source of choice for any powered planes.

However I LOVE my gliders. They are thrilling and peaceful all at the same time. I never expected this. I probably spend 75% of my time flying pure gliders, 20% flying e-gliders and the other 5% on those electric planes that got me started but now sit mostly in neglect.

I hope you enjoy this hobby as much as I do. Whether you fly gliders, glow, gas, turbine, electric or free flight I wish you clear skies and safe flying!