I was fortunate to see Paul MacCready give a lecture on dynamic soaring at an
SSA convention several years ago, but it seemed a fantasy. Many things
MacCready
worked on were considered fantasy until he proved them possible.
There are a few hills near home where R/C dynamic soaring can be done in the
right conditions. It takes the right slope on the lee side to get a good wind
shear.
The basics: Pull up into the wind shear, dive downwind, gain energy in both
maneuvers.
The flight path is roughly a circle paralleling the lee slope.
Most of those R/C flights are done at altitudes and attitudes we wouldn't
dare. Many Gs are pulled, which is much easier with the pilot on the ground.
After the dive, there's a turn towards the hill at 200+MPH. With a pilot on
board, parachutes would be less useful than nappies.
Look up Joe Wurts or Parker Mountain for some interesting videos and R/C
D-S'ing background.
The USAF Test Pilot School tested dynamic soaring over Rogers Dry Lake,
nowhere near a hill. It's old enough news now that I should ask "Forger" for
images or video of that project if he attends the Experimental Sailplane
Association workshop (and AS-W20 get-together... Gary, David, Peter, et al)
this
coming weekend in Tehachapi. The project involved lots of telemetry, extra
sensors on the Blanik, and a tablet PC in the cockpit displaying wind shear.
Jim
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There are some youtube videos of RC models dynamic soaring rather impressively
in the lee of a hilltop.
Mike
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