Bug HLG

While you're reading, I'll tell my story: A friend and I are at the NC State fairgrounds flying Bugs. Steve has his v-tail on high-rates and I am trial using a cruciform tail, much like the Carbon Bug photos. Obviously, this distributes loads for the high-stress discus launch (yes, finally full discus launching now). Anyhow, so Steve is cruising around and I had just landed and was watching briefly. I saw his plane buck up then fall down and told him: "Dude, there was a thermal." With plane in hand, I chucked my cruciform tail above his plane and started circling, looking for the air that threw me around the most. Flying the tarmac and grass-line, I found what I thought was a thermal and just circled. You know the feeling of circling and not losing altitude; these circles seemed to be getting higher, just kinda. They drifted up with me literally banking and yanking the plane in a circle to keep it cored. I flew directly above me, making pitch difficult to judge but managed to keep my circles semi-flat. I glanced at my watch with the first signs of going up. Four minutes later, I had around 200 feet of altitude, the plane was getting small, and two years of frustrating circles were exaulted with shouts of "I caught a thermal, I caught a thermal!" After the few minutes, which last a long time when the plane gets as high as it did, I realized I drifted out of the thermal and realized my mistake. I searched, but must have been under the bubble. I gracefully circled down, actually discovering how sink compares to thermals' lift, and landed on my scotch tape and gravel marred rudder and fuselage nose. 4:31 Hot Durn. I'm officially a glider pilot now; no if's, and's, or but's about it. I am hooked now. Transparent covering only for this modeller. I'm using air-power. (okay, occasional flirt with e-power) That's humbling, using only the stored energy of my puny arm to fly where the Bug is getting small in the sky. Dan