Interesting stuff. I never tried the designated launcher, but did design a flapped glider at the request of a kid from Florida. He was able to take the design and reproduce my results, though he never got to the ~25 seconds in competition that I was getting in testing, which is expected based on the pressure of building the model on site and using that abysmal catapult. He did however manage 17 seconds at the national conference, which I found very impressive. Here's the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2swQeAIw6Y
-Joshua Finn
--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "William W. Batkins (wwbatkins)" <wwbatkins@...> wrote:
>
> Yes sir, I'm using the launcher and rubber band called for in the rules. Actually got the plane hung (by the hook no less) in the rafters today. We are the host school for our regional TSA competition and I'm active in planning the Virginia state conference as well and I'm truly sorry to hear that the organization let someone of your experience and talent leave an event with a bad taste for TSA. We were fortunate to have Abram Van Dover and another gentleman from his group come to Richmond to judge our state HS event last year. He brought an EZB and flew it for the kids after the competition - amazing after watching the clunky by comparison TSA planes.
> We've managed to get out rubber powered planes up to around 2:30 but we need another 30 seconds or so to really have confidence of winning at the national conference. Last year my students took 2nd and 5th but it's still feels like a long way to the top. I build and fly the TSA planes with them but there is so much we still need to learn. I guess that's what drives us all.
>
>
> From: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com [mailto:Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of William Gowen
> Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2012 10:51 PM
> To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] TSA MS Glider
>
>
>
> Are you using the specified launcher? I gave up on the TSA gliders when I tried to launch a glider with the specified rubber band. It was just ridiculously inadequate. I also declined to judge the event again b/c the last one I did was so shoddily organized. I guess I'm just getting cranky in my old age.
> On 12/6/2012 10:47 PM, wwbatkins wrote:
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>
> I've been watching the MS TSA kids try to fly these gliders for several years while my HS kids were waiting their turn to fly their rubber powered planes. Even at the national competition the best flights are only around 10 seconds. I have only a little TSA HS indoor experience and almost zero with gliders - my attempts in the past have had poor results. I found the TSA Glider plan that Bill posted on Hip Pocket and thought I would try again. The first couple I built flew 10-12 seconds without any sanding and just using whatever wood was at hand. For the 3rd copy I found some 4.5# wood and rounded off the wingtips and stab but still no sanding. With ballast it weighed 4.8g and and flew 14.5 seconds. I sanded a fair amount on the next attempt and got the weight down to 3.7 grams - did 20.3 seconds today in our 18-foot gym. These little suckers are adddictive. I hope to get the next one under 3 grams and see if I can get to 25 seconds. Thanks Bill for posting the plan and for all of the glider tips you and others have put out there. I still don't know what I'm doing but I'm having fun trying!
>
Received on Fri Dec 07 2012 - 07:45:15 CET