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Ok..since it’s been quite in here I am starting another poll !
Question: Why do you prefer flying rubber or power ?
Thanks to all!
I have been flying Vintage Rubber Free Flight exclusively since 1986. I have so many reasons, they are almost beyond counting, but I wrote of a small anecdotal experience from about that period when Rubber powered Flight took over my life, which expresses the whole thing in a nutshell.
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About this time I was flying regularly at Chobham Common and it was here that I had the following singular encounter. Early-birdish, I was first to arrive one flat calm day for an extended trimming session and had already made one check flight. As I prepared for a full powered check of flight pattern an elderly gentleman wandered up and watched reverently during the whole process from prep, winding, checking rigging angles, lighting the fuse, launch, DT and landing. At launch the plane screamed silently aloft under the influence of one hundred grams of newly acquired TAN I plaited into sixteen strands of irresistible force. It was also in lift so after fifty seconds of spiraling power she settled into a perfect pattern sitting on top of a typical “Chobham Bubble” of buoyant air until the DT popped at five minutes to bring the model down no more than fifty feet away.
Without doubt a perfect flight. At this point we talked for the first time and I learned that he had travelled the world and seen many things in his lifetime. He had even fought a war and spent time in a prison camp but in all his life he had never seen anything so elegantly silent and yet so spectacular as he had this day. I explained that this was a flight made without radio control and I asked him if he was an Aeromodeller himself. The answer was no, but the fact that it was a free flight model driven by a rubber motor convinced him that, from this single observation, he regretted that he had missed out on such an obviously rewarding experience. He then wandered off and I never saw him again.
However I have often pondered this encounter. He had never experienced the thrill of a perfect Wakefield flight yet despite the fact that he had knowledge of so much else in his life, he still thought he had missed out on something special. We “Crazy Rubberbanders” have always known this to be true, of course, but it is rare indeed, that a member of “Joe Public” takes such an adoring view of our dying art and expresses it so well.
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This was extracted from one of the many autobiographical essays on my website, each of which contains similar references to my love of the “Crazy Rubberband”
I prefer glider flying. I have flown both rubber and power but not with any sucess. I saw power as a natural progression with more complex systems and I always had an interest in making the metal bits myself but the fundamental probelm was that I kept crashing the things. With rubber I flew F1B for some time and again liked the engineering but here I was never any good at winding the rubber. As time went on I found it difficult to find the time to build and trim different types of models and so as I had been most sucessful in glider I have pursued that type almost exclusivly for the last 20 years.
There is also a financial aspect. Gliders have few overheads and a lower capital cost (I build my own but gliders are still much cheaper than rubber and power) but rubber and power are expensive now. You also have much less stuff to lug around which is important if you travel by air.
Equally the specification for glider haven’t changed since I started this lark whereas power and rubber (FAI) have. These changes have made the models more complex and more expensive and have resulted in smaller numbers of people competing.
Finally in the UK we have few good sites to trim rubber and power models (FAI) whereas I can go a few miles and fly my gliders in peace.
Lots of other aspects but that’s the gist of it.
Hi Che … a little puzzled by your comment that there are few sites in the UK to trim rubber and power models, especially with so much F/F activity carried on year round … where are you situated? When you live in a region where there are now no sites .. and have a near-250 mile journey into New York State to do so .. you’re really in a fortunate situation.
As to your original question … since the late 40’s onward I’ve always considered myself primarily a power flyer, but always with a glider or two as a sideline. In more recent years I’ve added various rubber classes to my activities which have, as a result, reduced the level of participation in power flying and I keep promising myself to reverse this trend.
You are correct in that rubber and power require more equipment to transport but power isn’t necessarily too expensive. Given a strong engine, even if somewhat outdated by present-day standards, it can be very competitive in a model well matched by size and weight to the power available. Obviously, I do not now fly any FAI classes, I prefer to ‘add lightness’ rather than be forced to fly heavy airplanes by the edicts of the Federation of Antiquated Ideas.
Heading for cover now ….
Hi Che … a little puzzled by your comment that there are few sites in the UK to trim rubber and power models, especially with so much F/F activity carried on year round … where are you situated? When you live in a region where there are now no sites .. and have a near-250 mile journey into New York State to do so .. you’re really in a fortunate situation.
As to your original question … since the late 40’s onward I’ve always considered myself primarily a power flyer, but always with a glider or two as a sideline. In more recent years I’ve added various rubber classes to my activities which have, as a result, reduced the level of participation in power flying and I keep promising myself to reverse this trend.
You are correct in that rubber and power require more equipment to transport but power isn’t necessarily too expensive. Given a strong engine, even if somewhat outdated by present-day standards, it can be very competitive in a model well matched by size and weight to the power available. Obviously, I do not now fly any FAI classes, I prefer to ‘add lightness’ rather than be forced to fly heavy airplanes by the edicts of the Federation of Antiquated Ideas.
Heading for cover now ….
Jim,
I live in the Scottish Borders and fly FAI. My comments apply mainly to FAI models where to get good glide down trims you need a huge site (7 minutes + for F1C, 5 mins + for F1B). The F1C flyers go to Salisbury Plain (which is about 400 miles from me) from Birmingham for example. A few guys have ‘personal’ sites but overall the only way to fly down to the ground in safely is somewhere like Lost Hills which for me is 5000+ miles. I’ll be there in February to do just this sort of trimming with F1A….
I have a site about 10 miles away I can trim on but can’t really do long flights (trees, stone walls, fighting Scots Clans etc).
Che, from where you are I appreciate your problem. However, do you really NEED to trim through entire seven/five minute flights .. there are few sites anywhere other than Salisbury for that .. but if trimming is your objective then you can determine all you need in 3-4 minutes in which case Church Fenton, Barkston, etc. are appreciably closer.
Good company at CF, too .. all my old mates are there and I often wish I was….
Jim,
Church Fenton is 8 hours round trip, Barkston is 12 hours for me. I do go to both, Barkston more so as it is used for the Nats/Team Selection etc but not practical for a trimming session ! I have done 4 minute flights locally but maybe only once a year.
To win contests every second counts. Findal won by a few seconds in Odessa with a flight of over 5 minutes. To do that you need to trim AND practice full glide-down flights. He has a frozen lake outside his house to play on. Maybe I should move to Sweden …………..
The problem for UK F1B/C flyers is much worse hence the rapidly reducing numbers.
It’s the same here too re. flying fields.
I gave up driving 2 hours to the worst place I have ever flown on a couple of years ago for more than one reason, and also lack of good competitive flyers with the sort of things I like and have flown since the 50s
decent power models.The next place on is 4 to 5 hours away, depending on traffic, and our beautiful state (Qld) government has just from today set up the speed cameras to book you at 1k over. Boo hiss. I give up. Will just walk down to the park—-maybe.
I must admit we were spoilt in Melbourne Victoria with a huge open field—-one mile square, and miles of flyoff on all sides in my flying time there from early 50s until 1992—-it has gone now by the way to make way for industry. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Ya just gotta love power…..One engine typically lasts longer than the airplane does- No winders, just a starter….I have never measured out a motor before flying…The motors are self lubricating…..Then there is the sound….Nothing like it when it starts to scream when the plane is going straight down….Like a friend of mine said-He flies power because the crashes are more spectacular….
But then I do like circle towing….
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