We used to make the Dove 1 and 2 both of these sailplanes were under 27 ounces. The Dove 1 was in the 22-23 ounce range. They were both good sailplanes and won quite a few contests but suffered from having too little area. Once you drop in area you need to have a very low wingloading for the sailplane to have a decent sinkrate, usually the glide is pretty good but the sailplane suffers from having a small range of angle of attack where the CL is reasonable. The flying was great but the launch heights could have been better. This is usually a function of aspect ratio on a two meter sailplanes. The high aspect ratio and small chords will just not pull hard enough on a typical contest winch especially when the big contests load the line with 300 lb test. The airfoils reach critical and supercritical reynolds numbers (not sure if I'm saying this correctly) and have a very small range of angle of attack. In a contest the wing is required to fly at a high angle of attack and to pull hard enough to get a strong high launch. Since I have tried this type of design I am wondering how the Spectra 2 meter compares to other 2 meters with regards to winch heights. I would be interested to find out how this has worked out. I do notice that the Blu Darter has 600 sq in. so it should pull just fine on the winch. Looks like it might really be a winner. One last question...what is the tail moment on the Blue Darter two meter like? Howard Mark wrote: > I've seen a bit of banter regarding ~25 oz. 2 meter planes lately. > Just a FYI -- the 2M BluDartar is also an impressive composite 2M and can > be built to less than 25 oz. > I have not been able to break the wings on F3B or ford winches. > It launches very high, will easily turn in 2 wingspans. > I've thermalled mine out from a weak hand launch 2 weeks after hernia > surgery. > The LD is very good, and it takes ballast well - I've flown mine with 18 oz. > onboard. > With the right paint job you have a 2M system that is easily as good as > anything out there. -- Sal DeFrancesco Northeast Sailplane Products 140 Kirby Lane Williston, VT. 05495 802-658-9482 Website: http://www.nesail.com RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
