Howdy all- just got approved to be a member of this forum! Im usually over at RCGROUPS but the FF crowd is a little thin when it comes to chatting about HLG.

So- anyways- Thought I'd start off with a picture if possible- Just built this "long" WWHIZ and my buddy Jeff made a 3 inch EGG tonight.

Excellent so far in the living room......

Dean

Nice job. Now put it on the catapult and lets see how it flies!

Mike- yes. Same Steelhead.

Joshua- I flew a couple of planes today, not the 3 incher though. Mostly just spent and hour trimming the planes for outdoor flight. Its always different than indoors.

Found some clay. Not the best, kind of a mix between playdough and fimo. Going to try and find my stash of FIMO clay tomorrow. I might not be looking correctly, but who makes the best ballance clay and where do I get it?

I did get to catapult the 6 inch EGG design. Took me a few tries, but finally got the launch angle good and took off a little noseweight to get it to roll over and float without much altitude loss. I think it can use a little larger vertical fin and maybe a tad bit more dihedral. A couple too many launches ended with a stall, flip and a dive back at me. It sure does go up like a dart, really impressive. Just need to perfect the rollout.

The standard WWHIZ hand launched the best today. The two Long WWHIZZES might be too light for a decent handlaunch. That and they need to be made from stiffer balsa. Going to try laminating 2 or three pieces of balsa together for the LONG WWHIZ tomorrow. The thin wood didnt keep proper trim from one flight to the next. Also going to make another standard Whiz tomorrow with a little thinner fuse, and the nose weight as low as possible

Im trying to decide on a 18 to 20 inch HLG to play with. It's been a while since I had a big'n to mess with. Its been longer since I trimmed one out....might be why I'm holding back a little. I have 36 inches of 4" sheet just begging to get an airfoil carved up. I have 10-12 plans or so but none really seem to be true to scale.  A lot of the plans out there on the web are too simple. They dont give enough dimensions (or some give too many)   The Sweepette plans I have might be fullscale- they show a wing panel of 8 3/16" each. Is that right?

All of my plans are from Swedish sites. Any links  that are English or higher quality?

In the running-
SWEEPETTE
TEXAS BOWEEVIL
PEPPIS
PAPANUI TAVERN

None of them show any reference for span or fuse length. Any help here

I am not looking to injure myself with every throw, just looking for something that I can take out during the late afternoon and throw..... so something that can take a bad toss or two. Any suggestions?

Just in the past 2 weeks I've gotten 8 or 9 people re- interested in FF just by me building and flying. And a couple of friends interested who never new it was a "sport" 

Dean

Dean, build a Sweepette.

Another vote for the Sweepette.  Do yourself a favor and add a tad more dihedral to the tips, it will make it easier to fly, and more capable of turning the occasional bad toss into a good toss.
~jim

Dean, I built mine from that plan with no problems. Use 1/16" balsa for the tail surfaces and 3/16 or 1/4 for the wing. The fuse should be made from bass or spruce. 1/8" should do it there.

The Sweepette as per the kit is 19" span, I believe.
Its easy enough to enlarge with a calculator and copier with enlarging capability.

PeeTee- I'll take a look and see what I can find under that search.

What are people using for clay weight these days? Where can I find it?

Also- I have nearly zero familiarity with DTs other than the fuse type. Mechanical timers look pretty neat- how much do they weigh- is there anywhere I can find info describing mroe about them? All I can find are pages that list them for sale, but not size...shape.. how they work etc..

Thanks

Dean