Bug HLG

Archive of the Yahoo! Groups mailing list for the Bug hand-launch glider 2002-2018

From: "jason_wasylyk" <thetoothdoc@...>
Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 11:05 PM
Subject: On lightness, stretched wings and 1/8" CF tailbooms
Hi John, I'm Zhack the author of the "Adding lightness..." article you mentioned. I've never had my BUG weigh over 3 oz with the original wing area. It weighed about 75g when it got away. This has been a very consistent thermaller for me at this weight. I've got nothing but good things to say about this bird. There seems to have been some controversy about the use of a 1/8" tailboom in the yahoo group. From reading the 190 or so posts, it seems that there is quite a variation in the stiffnees of commercially available CF tube. The one I used is from CST: http://www.cstsales.com/Carbon/carbon-rods.htm These have been more than stiff enough for my hardest SAL/DLG. I use the V-tail with no gyro (a little right rudder held with the left thumb on the left stick during launch) and she launches arrow straight. I have just enough time to recover my grip on the Tx and push the nose over as she reaches her launch apex. My full force launch is rarely over 30 feet because of the extremely low (2.5 oz/sq. ft.) wingloading. Mind you at that weight, that's all I need to find lift. The same trade off between weight=launch height and lightness="floatiness" seems to exist even at the highest eschelon of this discipline (eg. the 11.5oz Full House Taboo competing with the 9.5 oz composite poly owing to its higher launch as a result of its greater mass). I'm by no means an accomplished HLG pilot and I rarely--in fact I'd say never--have a less than 2 minute flight in a typical session of 10 to 20 throws. I regularly speck(ed) her out (past tense owing to her tragic loss) and felt cheated if I didn't get in a five to 10 minute flight every weekend. Anyway, I'm building the stretch version with a single 145mAh Kokam for Rx juice so wing load should be down to <2oz/sq. foot. I'll post how this flies when it's ready. To sum up, the stock planform flies GREAT at low weight (see my article in the yahoo groups files section) and the stretched wing version can only be better. DON'T be afraid to use the 1/8" CF for the boom--just make sure you get the right stuff (see link above)