Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - Lets See Those Gliders!!!

My first successful boost glider was the Estes Orbital Transport. Loved that thing.

My Estes Falcon was built and tried earlier, but it boosted right into the sun glare and vanished on the first flight, on an A motor. Never saw it again, even though I did a good search grid on the large field.

Did an Estes Space Plane next, which I got to work fairly well. Little tricky to trim.

Did my own interpretation of the Space Twins dual boost glider from the Estes free plan. Did not change the gliders, but used a BT-20 booster instead of BT-50. That worked very well.

I have probably built just about every parasite boost glider kit since the 1970s and a number of other boost glider kits and a few rocket gliders. I designed a modernized version of the Space Twins called the Gemini, with two stylized Space Plane-like gliders (more wing sweep and swoopier tail surfaces). Flew this at the NARAM 32 sport range in Dallas in 1990.

Circa 1981 I built a modified Larry Renger Skydancer RC BG. My first RC boost glider. Used strip ailerons instead of conventional ailerons (for ease of construction and simpler linkages) and changed the shape of the twin vertical tails, just for fun. I had at least 100 flights on that thing, mostly using CHAD staged D12-0 to D12-3. Was a little boring on a single D12-3. This model was also flow at NARAM 32 in Dallas. I think there is a picture of it in the NAR magazine article that covered that NARAM. Have not flown it since around 1996. Still have it and it is still flyable, if I install a modern RX.....

Lots of things, since. Wish I had pictures of all the old ones I built.

Edit: I ran across a newspaper picture of the Skydancer going off the pad at a model airplane fly in called SMALL Steps in Little Rock, AR in June of 1990...31 years ago. And, the model was already 10 years old. Me at the rear flying and my old buddy Randy Rogers doing LCO duty. Not a great pic, but about the best I have.