Building the Venus DLG glider

[msc]

I wouldn't say it is a cheapo kit, but the workmanship need lots of improvement. For example:
1. The hinge tapes were not trimmed properly, resulting in 'dog-ears' at the end of the tape over the ailerons and tail control surface
2. Poor fitting of the canopy
3. The seams of the covering is dog-eared. The ironing of the covering was definitely not done by an experience aunty!

I re-ironed the wings and the tails. Also, the resolution of the pictures is not fine enough for you to see the details. The glider is nice from far, but it is far from nice!

MS

[gEcky]

MSC,
you might want to consider soaking the 2 strips of balsa at the wing supoort with thinned epoxy or CA. Balsa is soft and your wings might start rocking after a while. Better still, can mix some epoxy and micro-balloon to make a proper wing saddle.

[msc]

MSC,
you might want to consider soaking the 2 strips of balsa at the wing supoort with thinned epoxy or CA. Balsa is soft and your wings might start rocking after a while. Better still, can mix some epoxy and micro-balloon to make a proper wing saddle.

Good idea!
The glider is still in un-flown condition, I did not have the chance to maiden yet. I may start to change or solidify the balsa saddle when the wings start rocking.
Thanks for the tips.

[msc]

The Venus remained un-maiden due to weather and other priorities.
So, what to do when you have a glider sitting there, and not flown? Well, with my itchy fingers and trying to make improvements, I changed the control pull thread to steel wire from the dental floss that I was using.
There were some stretch from the dental floss, with the steel wire, there were none!

I managed to find the steel wire from the fishing tackle section of NTUC hypermart. It is very thin, about 0.3mm and weighs close to nothing. The best part is that it is non-stretchable and cheap. Cost only $2.15.
I changed the controls in less than 1 hour, and was able to see the good results of positive controls.

Hope to maiden the glider this weekend, weather permitting.

MS

[msc]

Maiden......Finally!

Managed to maiden the Venus yesterday, at the small park down stairs. This is just to check out the controls and the CG of the glider.
There was no CG written in the 2 page manual, if you consider it as a manual of sorts. It consist of some pictures on construction, and some simple instructions. Even then, the instructions were not much useful, except for the length of the boom and the distance between the rudder and the elevator.

I made some simple calculation of the CG based on the wing span, taper, and the chord length. Based on this calculation, I balanced the glider with some weights in the nose.

When I first threw the glider in the park, it just went nose down, without any control I could help with. I immediately knew that it as way too nose heavy. Glad to say that the glider flew - floating, on the 3rd throw. I think I had the CG spot on, as the glider just floated with a light toss. Next, tried a heavier throw, and it just flew, and flew. I made some right trim, and it flew very straight. I tried all controls - Rudder, Elevator and Ailerons, all controls seemed to be very responsive.
At one of the throws, I thought the glider might fly out into the carpark, as the park was very small. Luckily, it landed with a few meters to spare.

After a few more slight trims, I decided not to risk it anymore, and will head for the CD field, or the mosque field (or what's left of this space?) next week, with a bigger airspace to DLG the glider.

MS

[randomtask]

Hey bro,

Good to know your maiden went well. The mosque field at Ave 6 has more than enough space for DLG.

Cheers,
Adnan

[msc]

Hey bro,

Good to know your maiden went well. The mosque field at Ave 6 has more than enough space for DLG.

Cheers,
Adnan

Most of space had been taken up by BTO, EC, etc..... Which corner is suitable?

[Sunstorm]

ah, dun't be like that.

If else, how're we gonna house the 60k foreigners we import each yr?

[msc]

Not asking for the moon, just a small clearing to fly DLG....

[tampines flyer]

well u can try at the vacant field next to bedok bus depot ave5 .just infront of fty name simei kitchen.it use to be a flated fty but now it demolish. u can try enter after cross the canel abt 10m turn left park at the power station beside as u can see the fence is prey open by the grass cuter.

[randomtask]

Most of space had been taken up by BTO, EC, etc..... Which corner is suitable?

Go to Ave 6. The space where we used to fly in front of the new flats.

The one at Bedok North, besides the Bedok Depot station is nice. I used to practice flying there but decided to stop as it was right besides the PIE and the ground is not that flat. You can actually hurt your back if you step in the many potholes on that field.

Cheers,
Adnan

[Sunstorm]

I have done mine up....

Mine is mostly stock as I intend to use it for light wind sloping and not thermal DLG launches. Still, maybe from time to time I will bring it out for sloping.

by the way, I decided to chuck the 4 wing mounting screws and use rubber bands

There is an alignment pin to align the wing, you can't see it.



the batt is a 350 2s lipo

the BEC is a 1 amp homemade BEC with the chip from sLT

the servos are 4.7 gm from SHS

as you can see, this is quite a cheapo build

[rt9]

well done !
see you at OHR

[msc]

I have done mine up....

Mine is mostly stock as I intend to use it for light wind sloping and not thermal DLG launches. Still, maybe from time to time I will bring it out for sloping.

by the way, I decided to chuck the 4 wing mounting screws and use rubber bands

There is an alignment pin to align the wing, you can't see it.



the batt is a 350 2s lipo

the BEC is a 1 amp homemade BEC with the chip from sLT

the servos are 4.7 gm from SHS

as you can see, this is quite a cheapo build

Nice. I permanently glued both wing halves together and use 2 screws in the center.
Let us know how's the maiden flight.

MS

[Sunstorm]

First test glide.
ok

first DLG launch.

no ok! Flipped inverted

note to self: do not do dlg launches on rubber banded wings