Let's talk about chuck gliders

[FAI-F1D]

There's been a fair amount of discussion in the Flite Test community about chuck gliders, so I'd like to put forth my take on them. It seems like most folks are under the impression that a chuckie is just supposed to glide across the yard.

Well, for the past 90 years, thermalling simple gliders into the clouds has been a great tradition in model aviation.



I'm going to post plans soon for a basic chuckie for folks to get started. In the meantime, here's a fun how-to on getting some nice flights.

If you want to get really hard core, here's Curt Stevens' method:
http://www.modelresearchlabs.com/legacy.htm

 

[jaredstrees]

Nice. Subscribed.

 

[FAI-F1D]

The next plans due for release...
At left is Alexa, an 8" span glider set to be released as a J&H Aerospace kit and featured in the above video. Next is Foamette, the prototype foamboard design set to be released tomorrow as a free plan.

The other two balsa models are the Sweepette 8-II and the Carbonette 6. The Sweepette 8-II is a further refinement of my popular Sweepette 8 published about 10 years ago with lessons learned from Tony Mattews' Minimat. It trimmed out in only a couple of flights so I'm good with publishing it now. Hopefully we can release kits for those two soon.

 

[JimCR120]

I'm subscribing as well. As I get ready to head to the cheddar state to visit my kids and grandkids I'm desiring to share the hobby with the next generation and see this as a low cost and potentially high interest way to pass time with the youngins.

Thanks Josh for starting this thread and posting your very qualified insight.

 

[FAI-F1D]

Alrighty, here are the plans for the Foamette.
View attachment Foamette.pdf

A basic look at what you're getting:


And a sneak peek at the Aleda:


Jim, now you have everything you need. A stick of hard balsa from the craft store (or basswood if you can't track that down), a little bit of plywood that you can cut with scissors, and some foamboard. I recommend using CA to mount the hook. I don't trust hot glue for a joint that's so heavily loaded.

 

[FAI-F1D]

Ok folks, here are, in my opinion, the contenders for the highest performing 8" and 6" catapult gliders you can build. It's true that the Minimat I built some years back outperformed every Carbonette I've built, but it also fluttered on every launch. The debate shall continue forever I guess. Either way, these at least won't ever let you down. I cannot quantify how many of their variants I've built, but I've lost every single one except my current Carbonette 6. Variants of the original Sweepette 8 have been built in at least four countries.

View attachment Carbonette 6.pdf
View attachment Carbonette 8.pdf

 

[FAI-F1D]

I sent a preliminary kit/plan for the Aleda to a new glider guy recently and he whipped it out in an evening. He then trimmed it out in only a couple hours. Flew great! I'm looking forward to more folks seeing more of these out there.





Caleb and I built a new model last night in about 15 minutes. Floats around really pretty and only took a few minutes to trim. It's not a windy weather airplane...gets tossed around pretty good. It's mainly for indoor though.




More stuff for folks wanting to get in on this fun...

Here's a tutorial on the Supersweep glider and some flight footage. Not a difficult build, and no fancy materials:

Here's some stuff related to indoor gliders. Lots fun stuff on Mikhail's channel.

And the good folks from Nighthawk Gliders hunting lift at Flite Fest East this summer:

 

[FAI-F1D]

Kits. Yes. They're here. Just need to do a build video.




And my young'n is perhaps the best person ever to model this. Wanna know why I don't like foamboard chuck gliders? My son can't throw them. This thing makes him more hyper than junk food!

 

[FAI-F1D]

We've come full circle here. I started this thread trying to get information out there on building chuck gliders. Now I'm selling kits for them. Have a look:
http://jhaerospace.com/product/aleda-catapult-glider/

 

[JimCR120]

I still want to build one. So much to do. Maybe I could order some time but I think it's on backorder.

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

I might try scratch building one over winter break. Thanks for the plans Josh.

BTW, the video of Caleb made my day. He's going to be a great flyer some day.

 

[Mid7night]

I have some skinny sheet balsa lying around...now I have something to do with it. Awesome!

FLY ALL THE THINGS!

 

[foamtest]

I was over to my friends house yesterday and we started thinking about another chuck glider design using BBQ skewers for the fuselage and a penny for noseweight. I can take a picture of the plane when I get home but it’s a ton of fun to throw around and is not heavy enough to hurt anything or itself!

It’s fairly simple, foam board wings and tail with the paper removed on the underside of the wing to make a under cambered airfoil.


We also had to bend the penny so it could attach to the bbq skewer.

 

[FAI-F1D]

Ok guys it's been a few weeks and I've cooked up some new stuff. I'm slowly rolling out an whole line of glider kits and J&H Aerospace. We now have a rocket powered Aleda and the Carbonette 8 is available as a kit.

Here's a flight video for the Carbonette:

And flight video for the Aleda-R:

There are full build videos for both these models and they're priced for beginners. I can confidently say these are the highest quality and best documented small glider kits on the market today.

I'll hopefully have two more gliders coming into production next week--a 6" Carbonette and for those who want real performance, a 12".

 

[Jim G]

Wowi like that!

 

[FAI-F1D]

My old standby scaled down Carbonette 6 is now listed for sale at J&H Aerospace. Cool plane, launches ridiculously high.

I went out on a limb and scaled the Carbonette 8 up to 12". I've built several 12" gliders over the years with varying degrees of success, some of which have managed very nice flight times, others not so much. Most of those are long gone now. So it was a little of a shot in the dark as to how well this one would fly.



Hope and I built those two together on New Years Day and then took them out in the bitter cold to see what they could do. The wind was howling too, so it was hard to really see what they were doing, but they both produced some nice glides before we went inside with our hands and faces numb.

Since then, there's been a little opportunity to fly them some more and I've got to say, these launch waaaaaaay higher than I ever expected. You definitely need one of these. They'll make you rethink everything you thought you knew about chuck gliders. The kits are a little pricer than the small ones, but you're paying for me to hand select really good 1/8" C grain balsa which is what makes the plane. Try one, you'll like it!

Now for the next bit...I'm working on an R/C version of the Carbonette 12. I think it's going to ultimately become something far different from what it currently is, but for the time being, rest knowing that a Estes B6-4 sledgehammered it halfway to the moon, and it lived to fly again. It's a serious performer, not a sport plane, but rather a purebred contest aircraft. It just happens to be really fun to fly. It's hard to put it down, it just flies so well.

 

[foamtest]

Wow, those are really awesome! If I can sell enough of my own kits I plan on coming out with here soon, I would love to get one of those 12" gliders.

 

[FAI-F1D]

Bigger is better, right? Maybe?

Well it is in this case. Better performance, decent handling, responsive. Still super light and still able to launch to the edge of visibility on a rocket motor.

Whipit's got some competition now.

 

[FAI-F1D]

Wow, those are really awesome! If I can sell enough of my own kits I plan on coming out with here soon, I would love to get one of those 12" gliders.

Sweet. What kits are you working on?

 

[foamtest]

Well I got a hot knife recently so I'd like to sell some of my Simple Glider chuck gliders, but I am also working on a mini explorer project that I am going to call the Discovery. It has a 15'' wingspan and I plan on powering it on a motor from a 3in quad. I have loaded up the chuck glider version with the simulated weight of all of the electronics with pennies and it still flew great. Also it should have a 2 to 1 thrust ratio so it'll have plenty of power, and that's on 2s but I don't think ill need any more than that. I plan on selling that as well. I would also love to design a little flying wing off of this new "micro power pod setup." On 3s I bet it would scream. I just want to make enough to support my YouTube projects because ad revenue isn't really anything with the size of my channel.