Hi, here are some designs you could look at.JonnyL wrote:What would be the best design to use for a glider? Does anyone have recommend a design to use?
A basic, fairly easy-to-build design is the Flicka design. You can modify the online plans to try to improve it and to conform to scioly rules. The highest times I ever got with a modified Flicka design were around 14 seconds in a standard gym, but you could probably get higher times if you adjust the design and make the glider light.
If you're looking for a glider which can get higher times than the Flicka, build a flapper glider. There are lots of flapper designs available on the internet. Specifically which one you choose doesn't actually matter that much since it all depends on how you build the glider and how consistently it launches. The flapper designs have wings built with the front portion of the wing mounted on a pylon. The back part of the wings flap up during launch and then fall back down to an airfoil shape after transitioning into a glide. Flapper designs can get 20+ seconds in a regular height gym.
A lot of people use the Freedom Flight glider kit, but I don't really recommend it. I tried using the kit a couple of years ago and there's a lot of complicated sanding involved and it's hard to get a nice transition out of the glider. I've seen tons of people use Freedom Flight gliders at competitions and although a few of them were successful, most of the gliders couldn't transition into a glide at all. You could always try it but I personally think that just building a flapper from scratch would be better.
Also, like bernard said in an earlier post, the most important factor really isn't the design. Even when you try to build several gliders the same way, there are always fluctuations and sometimes gliders just randomly do things. Build a ton of gliders, build them really light, and practice launching a lot.
Good luck!