Future Aviation Events

[Orange714]

Has anyone tried building one and flown successfully?
I'm in the process of building one...

[wlsguy]

It was run as a trial at Wright State this year and the times were very low. Don't expect 2 minute flights. 30 seconds is probably doing pretty good.
Gillows makes a kit which may give the the basic idea. It uses metal (prohibited) and is not really designed for the event but could be helpful in the early learning stages.
http://www.guillow.com/catapultglider.aspx

I think many hobby stores carry it (Hobby Lobby, etc)

[Orange714]

I looked around at the models you buy online and decided that I'd probably be better off building off a design that I found online. I meant better off in the wallet XD

[twototwenty]

Specifically, Elastic Launch Glider. Here is a video of the equivalent in AMA to get an idea of what we're talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5iXgye- ... re=related

Is this to be an indoor or an outdoor event as the video shows. If outside it is usually anywhere between -7 to 28 degrees F when NYS has their competitions.

Definitely indoors. I just couldn't find a high quality video of the indoor equivalent (although I'm sure they exist somewhere)

How would this be done indoors? Wouldn't the glider just hit the ceiling and fall back down? (Perhaps I am just not really understanding how the event works)

[jander14indoor]

Now that would be part of the challenge.

Just as in Wright Stuff where you had to tune your plane to the site to get maximum time (typically by messing with rubber width and torque to ascend to just below the ceiling), with catapult launch you have to tune your launch to JUST reach the ceiling without touching and transition to a smooth gliding descent.

Of course flight times will be constrained by ceiling height, and as in balloon launch, you could almost predict max time if you knew ceiling height.

You'll have two big challenges. The first is to develop a launch procedure to precisely hit target heights for the transition. The second will be to maximise descent time (minimize sink rate).

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[William_Wallace]

Personally, i would have liked to see wright stuff again but whatever i guess this works.

[jander14indoor]

Wright Stuff will come back eventually, the national organization requires us to rotate events in and out, WS actually had a very long run with few changes. Our goal has been to keep some sort of lightweight flying event in the system at all times. The principles are more similar than most seem to think across these events.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[hogger]

Unofficially, do you think this launch glider will be in for both B and C division next year? Or it would replace Helicopter for C division only.

[twototwenty]

Does anyone here have any actual experience with the elastic launch glider? And to the chalkers or anyone else who would know, is ornithopter planned to become an actual event any time in the near future?

[chalker7]

Does anyone here have any actual experience with the elastic launch glider? And to the chalkers or anyone else who would know, is ornithopter planned to become an actual event any time in the near future?

A lot of people have a ton of experience in elastic launch gliders, just not in Science Olympiad quite as much. The equivalent AMA event is called "Catapult Launch Glider." There are a number of good results that come up from a google search.

As for Ornithropter, it will almost certainly not become an official event. It's simply too difficult for the majority of teams. I've only seen a very small number of national caliber teams get one off the ground and as a result I suspect almost no regionals in the country would offer the event.