Grunau Baby IIb - 1/5.5 building pictures

[Fred]

Hi there,

Follow the building of my latest ship here

More info will come to the forum soon.

Fred

[Fred]

Ok, nearly there... Ready for the first flight !





Hope the weather for Paddy's day will be ok for the first flight...

Fred

[Alan_Perse]

Hi fred,

If the weather is OK on Paddies day where do you plan to fly it. I love to have a closer look. I think the wind will be coming from the east on paddies day, there might be snow also, according to the weather forcast today. But they have been wrong before  :roll:   .

[Fred]

Hi Alan,

If the weather is ok, i'll plan to fly over Keelakee... But I'll do the first flight only if there is a good Westerly wind... That's safer for a first flight / crash   :oops:

Will see, and I'll post something here on thursday.

Fred

[joe]

Looks really really good Fred.excellent work can't wait to see it fly! colour scheme is very nice as is the finish.can't wait to start building after seeing the Grunau.

Hi Alan are you from Naas? I'm originally from Allenwood,not too far from naas.any slope sites in kildare?

[Alan_Perse]

No Slope site that I know of Joe. The only places I fly from are Lacken and Kilakee. I hope to fly from mount Lenister some day. I actualy when't up there one day, unfortnaly with out a glider, to have a look. It looks great.

[joe]

Lacken? don't know it.Must be something up around Blessington?

[Alan_Perse]

Yes thats right. It's an OK slope. I would'nt fly big gliders there as its quit rought in places. You also have to land crosswinded.

[Fred]

Yep, it's snowing here...
So, no first flight for the Grunau this Week End...

Hopefully next week end !

Fred

[joe]

Ah good old Ireland.
you can alway depend on the weather!!  :lol:

[Alan_Perse]

Hi Fred,
Do you think you will be flying your grunau baby this weekend.

[Fred]

Hi Alan,

Maybe on Sunday, but not sure... Weather, weather weather !  
So, I keep concentrated on the B25 now..  

Fred

[Fred]

Great news !
I've done the maiden flight yesterday evening... Between the rain / snow...
The place was the crappy North slope in Keelake.
I've launch the Destiny first, just to see where the lift are... Not great as usual for this slope. And very bumpy !
So, I've made 3 flights... First one last for 10 secs... Very bad launch !Nearly crash the glider on the road behind me.
 :oops:

Second launch.. A bit better, and last 3 mins, but really like a truck. Ailerons were slow, rudder not efficient at all, and this bloody machine did not want to grab some altitude ! Land quickly ( :roll: )... Sad...

So, I've checked the video at the slope to analyse the flight (too tense and concentrate to keep it flying..)... That was clear on the video... Centre of gravity too much forward... The theorical  CG was Ok, but I've forgotten to compute the cg with the wing Incidence.. (I'll talk to you about that some day..)..
Remove everything I can from the noze... Not much, maybe 50 / 60 Grs.. Big battery... and go for the 3rd launch...
Very bumpy at the start, but now, I have a glider that I can control !
As usual with the vintage glider, you must use rudder to be able to turn... Very gentle glider / flight in those flying conditions !
Really happy !! You can see the relief on my face after the landing ! The glider have nothing !
So now, I've just to wait for better flying condition to finish the setup, but overall, this is a great machine... And the sound !!    Really happy !

So, here is the video of this 3rd flight, and the bumpy ride ! :

http://acmangouleme.free.fr/GrunauBabyweb.wmv

Enjoy !!

Fred

[joe]

WAYHAAAAAYY!!    
Congratulations Fred.Thats brilliant.Well done.
Looks great,can't wait to see it crusing around in some nice lift.
You must be a very happy man  

[Fred]

Hey Joe,

Yeeessss ! Happy ! And relieved that all the calculations were right ! Damn, I'm good !   :lol:

And so beautiful in the air !

So, Start to design the next one now... A bit bigger...And hopefully as good as the Grunau !

Have you seen the PSS video ?

Fred