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In light of recent queries to the exchange, I am
re-submitting my comments from several years ago regarding the DAW 126
2M:
I see a lot of enthusiasm
for the DAW 126 hand launch as a first plane. Wanting something bigger for
training my kids and others at the club, I went with the 2M TG-3. This is
a fun plane, especially on the slope, and is truly unbreakable. It is a
bit heavy for thermaling, however, and it has a pretty thick
airfoil.
Enter the 2M 126, also by Daves. A
member of our club bought some for trainers and for novice contest
prizes. This plane is intended to be built with alerons. but for our
purpose we definately wanted a rudder-elevator setup. Dave said it should
work fine, as long as we put a poly break in the wing and increased the fin and
rudder areas by 15%.
We built according to the plans, except that
we cut the wing 12 inches from each tip and with the inboard panel
flat on the table, we blocked the tip up 3".(about 15 degrees, I
think) 3/32 birch ply was used to make a couple of 2"
long polyhedral braces to fit the back of the spars at each
poly break. The subspar in front of the aileron was ommitted, and the
ailerons simply glued to the trailing edge of the foam core. I
respected Dave's comments regarding hot glue on the spars. It is heavy,
and all you need is a little along the bottom of each spar. My next 126
will have balsa outer spars.
The hard balsa tail material was sliced up to
make a built up tail. 3/8" wide pieces were use for the outer
perimeter of all surfaces, and 1/8" strips were cut for the internal
trusswork. The fin and rudder areas were increased, as mentioned above,
and the elevator area reduced by 20% . Oracover was used for the built-up
tails, and coloured packing tape was used
everywhere else, in the interests of cost, weight, and ease of repair.
This plane came out light, at about 26 ounces. Subsequent planes had
Oracover throughout, which looked better and made it easier to adjust
washout. I reccomend reducing the fibreglass tape on the top of the wing
by 50%, as it provides no compression strength. We have had a wing
failure, but only from ridiculous attemts at zoom-launching on powerful winches,
which is pointless anyway, as the plane isn't clean or heavy enough to benifit
from this practice.
The flying characteristics are simply superb.
Launching is predictable, thermaling is great, and penetration is quite good
compared to most trainers. This glider is quite sensitive to Cof G,
as we found out when we built a second one with a heavier tail. It
wouldn't track properly until nose weight was added then-voila.
Crash-worthness was attested to when a radio glitch caused it to go
straight in from 200' with NO DAMAGE!
DAW 126 2M. Get one!
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