Slope soaring above Costco this afternoon
Mark Randall
I was just up sloping my new UMX Radian on the grassy hill above Costco overlooking the Hwy 50. Wow, the wind is at a perfect angle and the lift is amazing. It’s actually too much lift for the ultra micro Radian so I’m back home to grab my 2m Phoenix electric glider. I’ll head back out there about 4:30 or so. The weather report says the winds are going to stay 8-10 mph at the same angle until dusk. I’m going to bring everything I’ve got with wings. I’m pretty sure you could slope soar a brick in that lift!
Come on out and join the fun. Bring whatever you’ve got. Warbird, 3D foamy, high-wing trainer, flying wing, I think anything will soar there today with the motor off. Just head up Ironpoint Rd from East Bidwell near Hwy 50, go past Costco toward the top of the hill and you’re there.
- Mark
Dcunning36
Sent from my iPhone
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Mark Randall
I sloped at Costco hill today from about 4:30 to 7:20 with a break for dinner. I’ve never flown up there before and it was a lot of fun. As a sloping site it’s just about perfect. You can park your car right next to the launch, there’s plenty of flat space to land and the view of downtown Sac can’t be beat. There’s even a park bench. A lot of Northern California sloping sites are considered good if you only have to hike for half an hour to get to the launch site. So we’re lucky. We don’t get a lot of windy days but when we do, we’ve got a great spot only a few minutes away. When the wind is blowing the other way, we can go up to dike 8 overlooking Folsom Lake (that’s the huge dirt dam alongside Blue Ravine Blvd. as you head up to El Dorado Hills). Flying on the lake side is pretty great when the wind is from the North, however parking isn’t close and requires a ten minute hike to get to the top. However, the hike does earn you some beautiful lake views.
Russell and Nathan stopped by for a while today. Russell sloped his T-28 but the old war bird wasn’t exactly graceful in the wind J. Nathan, you should have brought your Visionaire. I think it would have sloped nicely. A red tailed hawk came out to slope alongside my glider for a while. He was definitely better at it than I, but he does get more practice. The telemetry log reports I used only a tenth of a volt for a 20 minute flight. That’s because the battery is only driving the servos and receiver. I have flaps installed on my 2m Phoenix electric glider ($89 PNF at HobbyKing) as well as a crow mode programmed into my radio. Crow mode drops the flaps and raises both ailerons 50% while still providing decent aileron control. It’s like having power brakes. Using crow mode I was able to bring the glider around into the wind and slow it down to almost a standstill before dropping it on the grass. I really enjoyed flying on the wind with the motor off. It’s really relaxing!
I picked up the just released UMX Radian at HobbyTown a few days ago. It’s $89 for the RTF Basic which has a battery and charger but no radio. It can bind with any DSM2 compatible radio. I use the Orange TX module in my Taranis radio. The UMX Radian is a lot of fun. It’s a tiny micro glider with a 28 inch wingspan and a 1s 150mah-powered brushed motor. The thing is light as a feather and has E-Flite’s ASX3 stabilization built in. It’s amazing how stable it is and how incredibly far it can glide without the motor on. You can take it up with 30 seconds of motor and easily spend five minutes cruising around with the motor off before reaching the ground. That means one battery charge can get you a half hour of flight time with juice to spare. If you find some thermals, you can stay up an hour or more. It flies so slow I also think it would make an excellent trainer. I have a Champ and the UMX Carbon Cub and haven’t been a big fan of either of those but this UMX Radian is awesome. I was able to bring it in for a perfect motor-off landing and catch it with one hand on the first flight.
Dan,
I was up on Dike 8 at Folsom Lake yesterday around 5-ish. I was hoping for a bit of wind to fly the UMX Radian but it was dead calm when I was there. I’ve also recently added telemetry to my 2m glider. I’m using the FrSky voltage/amp reader and an altimeter. They seem to work well though I’ve just started to get the hang of using them. You have a six foot glider? I want to see…!
- Mark