In the Hanger

In the Hanger

Heinrich Stork

The Heinrich Stork, a beautiful all molded F3J sailplane with a 3.4m wingspan, SD7037 profile with an elliptical leading edge and unique upswept crescent tips. I love the lines of this ship, and the quality of the model is superb. The color of my model is white over teal, and I have left the finish clean, the lines of this ship speak for themselves. To see a full review of this model and more pictures, click here.

Hobie Alter Hobie Hawk

The Hobie Hawk by Hobie Alter. One of the best looking model R/C sailplanes created in my opinion, and the design is over 20 years old. This is one of 3 original Hobie Alter Hawks that I own, restored to like new condition. This one is a standard class model, orange on transparent orange flying surfaces. I haven't flown this model yet, I should get a chance to fly it this summer. (Update: first flights May 17, 1998, see below)

A perfect summer day, and it was contest Sunday for the Chicagoland SOAR club. I decided to bring my Hobie Hawk along to show off on the flight line, and maybe fly it after the contest. During the contest it caught many pilots attention, some didn't know what it was, others had never seen one in person before, and the old-timers were telling stories of how difficult the Hobie Hawk is to fly, and all the modifications that were made to tame them. Of course my Hobie Hawk doesn't have any of these modifications (restored to original condition), but I was careful to balance it and apply the washout in the wings as described in the manual. As the contest neared completion, I heard the murmured chants of "Hobie-Hobie-Hobie", everyone wanted to see me try to fly it.

Actually as the contest ended, I was looking forward to flying something different, the weather was perfect, so it was time to try it. I checked out the controls again, and ran with it a bit in my hand to feel about what speed it started to fly. I decided I was going to give it a big running throw, it seemed to need a little speed and I wanted to get it high enough in case I needed some room for maneuvering out of trouble. A nice smooth release and the Hobie launched from my hand right into a thermal. Not expecting to get it this high on just a test flight, I didn't circle in the thermal but I did have to cruise around the group of guys flying HLG on the sod out in front of me, and fly it back and land. Came in a little slow on the approach, and tip stalled it from low altitude, no damage done. Ok, I know now to keep the speed up on approach, time to launch it on the high start.

I've heard stories and read on RCSE how squirrely the Hobie Hawk is supposed to be on launch, so my plan was to make sure I had a lot of flying speed with a shallow angle of attack when I released on the high start. That seemed to work just fine, the Hawk tracked straight from my hand and up the high start. I had to feed in a little up elevator towards the end of the launch, followed by a shallow zoom. Decent launch, I proceeded to track west over the highway next to the sod farm where I knew I could hook a thermal. As soon as I got there, the tail on the Hobie Hawk went up like a Peacock, and I set the model into a gentle turn and enjoyed the ride. Soon it was just a little orange speck in the sky, so I decided to dive out and bring it back home. This is a plane that likes to go fast, which is fine by me. Since I had been flying in the contest earlier and didn't get one landing, I figured I'd practice and give it a shot with the Hobie Hawk since the tapes were still out. Of course I nailed a 100 point landing that wouldn't count, but hearing the "bzzzzz" of the nylon tape rub against the fuse as it came to a halt was pretty cool.

With a flight like that, I had to try it again, plus I wanted to prove it was no fluke that the Hawk could be launched and flown. The second launch was as uneventful as the first, just a little higher because it was trimmed out better and I was more confident. I hooked a light thermal off the launch and rode it downwind, brought it back in and landed it gently in the soft turf at the sod farm.

I liked the way my Hobie Hawk flew, it has legs and likes to move out. It feels like it grooves through the corners on the arched wings, strange at first but then fun. It's a really different looking plane in the air, with the swept up wings even more pronounced and the fuse drooping down towards the front.

Now I need to try my blue and white ten foot Hobie Hawk...

Craft-Air Windrifter

The Windrifter is a classic gas bag. It took me over five years to build this kit, and I bought it over ten years ago. I kept building a little bit, and then get interupted with a more important project, and packing it away. I finally finished it early in January 1997, and it flies great. This is the kind of glider that you need to take a lawn chair and a cooler full of cold beverages with, it likes to stay up and doesn't require a lot of attention on the stick. Recent enhancements include removing extra lead out of the nose and placing a 1800 mah battery pack in for extra long sessions. I've flown into the evening hours several times with this glider.

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