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blackshire
06-04-2009, 04:11 AM
Hello All,

I have found two books and a video on Hand-Launched Gliders (HLGs) that would help model rocketeers overcome problems with boost-gliders. The books are available from multiple sources (please see below). The books are:


TITLE: Flying Hand-Launched Gliders

AUTHOR: Kaufmann, John

PUBLISHER: Morrow (Published 1974, Illustrated, 96 pages)

ISBN: 0688201083

SUMMARY: Instructions for building, launching, and flying model gliders. Includes suggestions for contest flying.


TITLE: Throw It Out of Sight! : Building and Flying a Hand-Launched Glider

AUTHOR: Abrams, Lawrence F.

PUBLISHER: Dillon Press (Published 1984, Illustrated, 93 pages)

ISBN: 087518247X

SUMMARY: Gives instructions for building and flying a balsa wood glider including a pattern to trace or photocopy, and includes suggestions for handling such problems as breakage and finding lost planes.


Both books are available from AbeBooks.com www.abebooks.com , Alibris www.alibris.com , Amazon.com www.amazon.com , and Barnes & Noble www.barnesandnoble.com . Re-print editions of "Flying Hand-Launched Gliders" are also available from the National Free Flight Society (please see below).

Between the two of them, both books contain plans for a total of five different hand-launched glider designs (all of which are similar to conventional front-motor boost-gliders). The books contain complete building, finishing, trimming, and flying instructions for the gliders. The books also include extensive information on finding and using thermals and on repairing damaged gliders, as well as tips for finding lost gliders after “flyaways.” To prevent flyaways, both books also have chapters on building and using dethermalizers (D/Ts) on gliders.

Mr. Kaufmann's book "Flying Hand-Launched Gliders" has been re-printed by the NFFS (National Free Flight Society, see: www.freeflight.org/store/publications.htm ) and is available from them for $13 plus $5 for postage (with payment by money order, cash, or bank draft with a US bank). The NFFS also has a glider video (available on DVD and VHS) called "Techniques in Building and Flying Hand Launch and Catapult Gliders." This 60 minute video by Bob Johannes shows step-by-step building and trimming tips for Catapult-Launched Gliders and Hand-Launched Gliders. It is $20 plus $5 for postage. The NFFS's postal address is:


NFFS Publications Services
%Bob Stalick
PO Box 1775
Albany, OR 97321


Also, below are links to sources of hand-launched glider kits (these gliders are similar to boost-gliders). Here they are:

Campbell's Custom Kits www.campbellscustomkits.com has a complete line of HLG (Hand-Launched Glider) kits. (The Campbell's Custom Kits web site has few illustrations. However, Campbell's Custom Kits are also available from Radical R/C www.radicalrc.com and Penn Valley Hobby Center www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com [among many other vendors], and their web sites have illustrations of the gliders.)

Sting Aero Products www.stingaeroproducts.com also produces numerous fine HLG kits.

Tom Martin Radio Control (TMRC) www.tmrcsailplanes.com/plans-and-patterns.html offers both plans sets and laser-cut balsa kits of classic JASCO, JETCO, and Zaic Hand-Launched Gliders. In addition, Mike Smock's Aerosente Glider Workshop www.aerosente.com contains a wealth of information (in the forms of text, illustrations, and online videos) about building, trimming, and flying Hand-Launched Gliders. They also carry selected hand-launched glider kits from several manufacturers.

I hope this information will be helpful.

shockwaveriderz
06-07-2009, 01:30 PM
I have a copy of Kaufmann's....

I read it when it 1st came out in 1974, and many times since.

terry dean

o1d_dude
06-07-2009, 02:14 PM
I've got both books and the video but what do you expect? I'm the dude who used to write "The Tao of HLG" column in the National Free Flight Society's Digest.

To my knowledge, these two books are the only ones on the subject and they are pretty good to boot.

blackshire
06-08-2009, 01:59 AM
In the boost-gliders section of the rec.models.rockets USENET files, the recommended books include both Lawrence Abrams' and John Kaufmann's hand-launched glider books (along with G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry" and Tim Van Milligan's "Model Rocket Design and Construction"), and also one called "Hey Kid, You Wanna Build an Airplane?" by Bill Hannan.

blackshire
06-08-2009, 02:21 AM
I've got both books and the video but what do you expect? I'm the dude who used to write "The Tao of HLG" column in the National Free Flight Society's Digest.

To my knowledge, these two books are the only ones on the subject and they are pretty good to boot.

I'm very familiar with "The Tao of Equus" www.taoofequus.com . :-) I heartily agree with you on both books. Also, Lawrence Abrams told me about the missing measurement in his book "Throw It Out of Sight!: Building and Flying a Hand-Launched Glider." On the "Micro Chip" glider, the wing should be glued onto the fuselage so that the wing's leading edge is 3.5 inches behind the glider's nose.

o1d_dude
06-08-2009, 12:01 PM
Yesterday I stumbled across a number of Microchip wing blanks and components yesterday as I was putting together a glider care package for one of our members. I'd completely forgotten about this box of parts and was surprised to find it.

blackshire
06-08-2009, 10:13 PM
Yesterday I stumbled across a number of Microchip wing blanks and components yesterday as I was putting together a glider care package for one of our members. I'd completely forgotten about this box of parts and was surprised to find it.

How about that! If you use those parts for a club or school project, Lawrence Abrams informed me about an omission in his book. As he said: "I suggested several ways to add the info, but the editor never did decide and a measurement was left out. The wing mount should start 3.5 inches behind the nose. Other than that, the Micro Chip should fly well."

Also, there is a way that you could fly un-modified Micro Chips as boost-gliders. The Vashon Industries cold-propellant boost-gliders (which Estes carried for a time in the 1970s) had a different physical arrangement that allowed the use of gliders with normal tail assemblies, and this configuration could also be utilized in solid-propellant boost-gliders. In these models, the pop pod was an ordinary three-finned rocket with one "missing" fin, which was replaced with a glider. While they looked like parasite boost-gliders at first glance they were not, because the two-finned carrier rockets were not aerodynamically stable without their gliders attached.

The glider was mounted "belly down" on the rocket body in such a way that its wings were even with the rocket's two fins, and much of the glider's airframe was located behind the rocket's nozzle. This provided both aerodynamic stability and "trailing-member stability" (like a skyrocket's stabilizer stick). The Vashon X-13 (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/vashon/vashon14.html ), Astro-Gnat, and Baron (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/vashon/vashon16.html ) all had this configuration.

While this arrangement would have a bit more drag during the powered ascent than the common front-motor boost-glider, it might be less prone to weathercocking under power. It would also allow many un-modified hand-launched gliders (and especially catapult-launched gliders) to be used as boost-gliders. (Two low, forward-pointing "L-shaped" wood brackets glued to the rocket in place of the "missing" third fin would fit on either side of the glider's fuselage and hold the trailing edges of its wings during ascent. At ejection, the glider would slide forwards out of the brackets when the rocket body was kicked backwards.)

mycrofte
06-09-2009, 03:30 AM
I never have figured out why more parasites didn't do that. If you have dual gliders acting as fins, why waste material and weight by adding more fins to the rocket!?!

blackshire
06-09-2009, 02:39 PM
I never have figured out why more parasites didn't do that. If you have dual gliders acting as fins, why waste material and weight by adding more fins to the rocket!?!

The Cox "Space Shuttle America" and the Estes "Space Twins" (the old plan from "Model Rocket News") both utilized this configuration, with two gliders mounted 'belly down' on a finless, parachute-recovered core.

GuyNoir
06-09-2009, 11:25 PM
The Kaufman text is excellent and well worth the investment.

Jeff Walther
08-12-2009, 12:10 PM
The Kaufmann book is now waiting for me at the local library, thanks to the miracles of inter-library loan...

blackshire
08-12-2009, 10:26 PM
The Kaufmann book is now waiting for me at the local library, thanks to the miracles of inter-library loan...

It is well worth the wait and the paperwork. In addition to the value of the portions about selecting the wood and building and trimming the gliders, the sections that go into great (and illustrated) detail about hunting thermals and aiming & timing the hand launches are also very helpful for flying boost-gliders and rocket gliders, especially in contests.

Jeff Walther
08-13-2009, 12:14 PM
It is well worth the wait and the paperwork.

Especially because there wasn't any paperwork. I guess I did have to fill out the electronic equivalent, but I was able to make the entire request without getting out of my chair, after reading about the book on this forum. :-)

Now I just have to remember to go pick it up at the library and *read* it.