> That's what I meant when I said the Corndogger was too light
 > for the winch. It's simply too easy to inadvertently overload
 > the glider.
 RR> You should be able to use the winch, rather than holding your foot on
 RR> the winch switch all you have to do is pulse the switch by pressing
 RR> and releasing the switch. I've taken a 20 year old glider up doing
 RR> this without any problems. 
Yes, I know about pulsing the winch to reduce the pull. Please, 
there's no need to explain it to me further; I understand the 
concept. In fact, I used that very technique to launch my 2m 
Windstar glider without breaking its wing. But this Corndogger 
hand-launch glider is lighter and easier to break. Since there's 
less margin for error one must have more skill with the winch--
skill that I lack and have no plans to develop. 
Besides, as I mentioned previously, I prefer slope flying which 
has no need for winches and high starts. Why go through the bother 
of setting up a winch or stringing out a high start when you can 
just toss the glider? Slope flying is "up close and personal" too; 
on this particular hill it's easy to keep the glider within 200 
feet of the pilot or even 50 feet if desired. When it's that close 
you can more easily get involved with the subtleties of flying. 
Kids really get a kick out of it when you drag the antenna wire 
through the grass or do a turn at 12 inches of altitude or 
"bounce" the glider off the ground or "hover" 5 feet in front of 
their face. Dogs, buzzards, and mockingbirds will occasionally 
chase gliders and that's fun to watch too. I've discovered that 
little dogs have an amusing "eagle" instinct that you can trigger 
with a glider. And when the wind is right slopers can rise 200 
feet or more above the ridge and stay up until the battery gets 
low. Sometimes we can fly out over the flat part of the playground 
and take the "thermal elevator" 500 feet up to buzzardville. But 
most of the time the flying is below 50 feet. Slope flying offers 
plenty of challenges to humble you: turbulence, 30 mph gusts, and 
chain-link fences, people, and other gliders to avoid. Doing a 
loop from 50 feet or a wingover at 10 feet gets the adrenaline 
moving. I'm currently trying to master snap rolls. I wish I could 
get the other fliers interested in pylon racing. Sometimes the 
wind is very light--lots of skill and/or an efficient plane is 
needed just to fly the slope when the wind is 5mph. Fortunately, 
the thermals are usually pretty good in such situations. It gets 
hot down here in Texas. That's when I get out the high start. 
Sure, slope flying has it's problems: it's no place for big, 
expensive, highly crafted gliders. They don't stay pretty for long 
when every 10th or 20th landing is a cartwheel or auger-in. My 
glider looks like a patchwork quilt and I've seen others that look 
worse. In fact, it's something of a milestone in your progress as 
a slope pilot when you can spend more time flying than building & 
patching. But you eventually get pretty good at that too. 
 RR> How do you get away with flying R/C in a playground. Where we live
 RR> there's a by-law that prohibits flying R/C within the city limits
 RR> except at assigned locations or get a $500.00 fine. 
To my knowledge, there's no such law here. Nobody flies powered 
planes from this playground but RC gliders, hang gliders and para-
gliders are all permitted. Most of the other playground users 
avoid the steep part of the hill where the gliders fly so there's 
little risk of hitting someone. I've flown there for over a year 
and have never seen or heard of a glider hitting an innocent. 
(On rare occasions gliders will hit other glider pilots but they 
don't count. :-)  The few pilots who fly heavy/fast gliders use 
extra caution, of course. Most of us fly hand-launch and 2 meter 
gliders that rarely exceed 2 lbs. 
 RR> Well at the moment I'm starting to build a SIG LT-40. I want to learn
 RR> to fly power as well as being a glider-guider so my time to try any
 RR> more modifications is put on hold at this time. 
Good luck with that LT-40.
P.S.  Tell Jim to surf over to 
http://infoweb.magi.com/~rofficer/saclist.htm 
to contact members of Canadian glider clubs. I'm a member of a 
club called Fault Line Flyers in Briggs, Texas--about 40 miles 
northwest of my home in Austin. It's affiliated with the Soaring 
Society of America. (If you want to fly thermals, full sized 
gliders are the way to go. Too bad they cost so much!) 
--- Blue Wave/Max v2.12
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