‘t Is the time of year to indulge in a nice wee present for oneself. Given that I need more exercise, I decided to treat myself to a fresh new DLG. The present Blaster is still flying well, but the new breed of DLG´s is just that, totally different animals. Rather then go for something ”foreign”, I decided to call Alex Hoekstra from Tweagle fame, to see if could make me a Xmas present. Lucky for me, the answer was yes. So a quick trip was organised ”up north” and soon afterwards I was able to take posession of a shiny black DLG. First thing you notice is: It weighs nothing! At home I quickly located my scales to find how much nothing is. Wing is 104 grams. (This is the D-box version), El/Ru together 10 gr. Fuse is 38 gr. All added up, we are talking 152 grams for bare carbon! At the moment, the fully assembled glider RTF sits at 230 gr on the scales.
I have 4 KST-08’s fitted, a Jeti 5 channel RX, a small 2 cell Lipo from ”way long ago”, and my Openaltimeter found a place too.
I updated my Multiplex Cockpit to Jeti, but even though the setup works flawlessly, I might start saving for a true Jeti. Setting up the Cockpit is just so tedious compared to the a proper Jeti system.
Once I do some fine tuning I will probable loose a few more grams. (Wiring is bulky at present, I can also loose the connectors on the receiver, might still change the guitarstrings to a bit of kevlar, we´ll see.
Building a plane like this is not to be undertaken if you have never built something high tech like this. Do take you time planning your build. Everything is just strong enough to do the job, it is not designed to be bashed about in your typical overfilled hobby hideout! Look on RCG for tips. (or RC-Networks).
One thing to note, is that the weight mentioned on the website, is probably ReadyToFly, not bare carbon!
I do not have a lot of build pics, it turns out that fotographing carbon is difficult. Tomorrow we have a midwinter-spring, temps are predicted to hit at least 14C, good enough for a spin I would say. This will be the second outing, the first spins I made 2 days ago in 8 m/s wind, not really that good for a maiden flight. All I can say it went up like the proverbial homesick angel! The third toss showed a respectable 30 meters on the Altimeter, and this was just a gently flip of the wrist!
Merry Xmas everybody, and a Happy NewYear!