Future Aviation Events

[fozendog]

Hi guys,
What are your best times with the elastic launch glider? Im having some troubles with it.

Right now mine is at about 12 seconds and it is consistent. One time it got 15, but it only happened once and went back to 12.

[science8]

Hi guys,
What are your best times with the elastic launch glider? Im having some troubles with it.

Right now mine is at about 12 seconds and it is consistent. One time it got 15, but it only happened once and went back to 12.

Thats pretty good. I haven't tested mine yet. What do you think will be the best time at nationals?

[twototwenty]

Hi guys,
What are your best times with the elastic launch glider? Im having some troubles with it.

Right now mine is at about 12 seconds and it is consistent. One time it got 15, but it only happened once and went back to 12.

What ceiling height is this at?

[science8]

What height and width will the room be at nationals? or is that not released yet?

[chalker7]

What height and width will the room be at nationals? or is that not released yet?

It's being held in the same room as Storm the Castle, which has dimensions posted here: http://www.scienceolympiad2012.com/tour ... he-castle/

They should be transferring the info to the elastic launch glider site soon as well.

[science8]

What height and width will the room be at nationals? or is that not released yet?

It's being held in the same room as Storm the Castle, which has dimensions posted here: http://www.scienceolympiad2012.com/tour ... he-castle/

They should be transferring the info to the elastic launch glider site soon as well.

Thanks alot that really helps. whats your best time?

[illusionist]

What height and width will the room be at nationals? or is that not released yet?

It's being held in the same room as Storm the Castle, which has dimensions posted here: http://www.scienceolympiad2012.com/tour ... he-castle/

They should be transferring the info to the elastic launch glider site soon as well.

Thanks alot that really helps. whats your best time?

Just to let you know, Mr. Chalker is the national event supervisor for helicopters. His time will probably be out of reach for most competitors.

[fozendog]

Hi guys,
What are your best times with the elastic launch glider? Im having some troubles with it.

Right now mine is at about 12 seconds and it is consistent. One time it got 15, but it only happened once and went back to 12.

What ceiling height is this at?

The height was about 25 or 26 feet and their were a lot of obstacles such as chairs, tables, and columns in the way.

[fozendog]

Just to let you know, Mr. Chalker is the national event supervisor for helicopters. His time will probably be out of reach for most competitors.[/quote]

I would actually be interested in knowing you time Chalker7. Me and my coach have been looking online for different gliders in a roughly 30 foot high room and we don't know what is a "good" time. If you have built a glider I'm sure many other members and I would be interested to know your time.

[twototwenty]

For some of the recent questions on "good flights", here is quite helpful post from earlier on the thread that you may want to check out:

OK, perhaps time to start talkin g about what it takes to succeed in this event. Note, comments are based on AMA experience with indoor and outdoor catapult gliders, but the general principals and approaches should be good.

First, you should know what a good flight is to judge your efforts against, and so we can start talking the critical factors in success.
Stage one launch. Competitor stretches the rubber just enough to launch the glider to just under the ceiling, holds rubber almost vertical, and releases the glider nearly vertically, often tilted so climb is a spiral or corkscrew. This is to prevent launch stalls. Glider climbs to ceiling essentially balistically, NOT on lift. That corkscrew path is aerodynamic, height is ballistic. The most important thing here is to be dead consistent for the next phase. And of course the rubber stretch changes as ceiling height changes. The consistency needed in this phase makes competitor launch SKILLs much more important than for Helicopter & Wright Stuff. Another reason for lots of practice.
Stage two transition. This is probably the trickiest part, trim wise, and depends on dead consistent launches. As the glider reaches the top of the ballistic launch, it almost, but not quite, stops, rolls wing level, points the nose down, accelerates, and transitions to a nice glide. Done right, it is a thing of beauty. Done wrong, well, lets just say a lot of height is lost very quickly. It is dependant on trim conditions (cg, relative wing and horizontal stab angles of attack, differential 'aileron', etc) and sensitive to small changes in those around the optimum point.
Stage three, glide. Now your glider behaves like a normal plane. Your goal is to minimize descent rate, and all that that implies. If you ever did balloon launch, everything you learned there applies. A good glide will be a gentle, floaty, near stall circle to the floor.

So, what how does this help? Well, how is your glider performing against that ideal? What angle are you launching at, what wing tilt, what does the transition look like, the glide. Without details it is hard to help!

OK, this is long enough for now, I'll talk design implications in another note, unless someone else beats me to it.

Oh, what's 'good'. Of course that will depend on ceiling height, but look for way better than 1 second per foot in real low sites, and close to 1 sec per foot for real high ceilings.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI