MRSSA

A lot of you reading this might think R/C soaring is pretty dull and limited. You or someone you fly with in your club, occasionally dusts off an older built-up model and brings it out for its yearly 2 minute bungy launched flight. After all they can’t stay up there very long. And they aren’t very fast. There isn’t much skill involved and it’s too hard to stay aloft… 

How wrong could you be?  An r/c sailplane can stay up all day in the right conditions and battery pack. For many years the world r/c speed record was held by a sailplane. With the right gear and model you can winch launch to well over 300m high although consistent launches and long flight times do take practice. 

Thermal type models these days can be very high tech. Top competition F3B, F3J and F3F type sailplanes are carbon composite, hollow moulded, wind tunnel tested, speed machines that seem to defy gravity and the laws of physics. Could you point your favourite model at the ground from 1000ft and then pull full up into multiple loops as you just miss it ?!!  You won’t even notice it flex. They are very expensive, very strong and exquisitely built. There are even flyers in this state who make their own and they are superb. 

That’s the high performance end but you don’t need to pay a small fortune to enjoy very satisfying soaring. A built–up model can be very rewarding.

Then there are Scale models. These beauties can be in excess of 6m span and are usually aero towed to height using a large 1/4 or 1/3 scale r/c tug. The two models in the air together look really impressive. There are also scale Slope Soarers like this giant 767 pictured at Laidley at few years ago. Good slope sites are getting rarer.

How about hand launched 1.5m models? If you have ever seen someone fling one of these airborne you’ll think the thing had a rocket in it. There are 2m models, slope soarers, slope racers, dynamic soarers, combat foamies, electric powered, hand towed, winch launched. There is huge variation and all of them are fun to fly. There are quite a lot of ARF models that are quite capable and not too expensive. And of course that humble bungy-launched built-up model can fly with the best of them on the right day. R/C Soaring is quiet, relaxing and enjoyable.

If you have ever thought of having a go, or would like to have a look at what all the fuss is about, there are a number of clubs around SE QLD. From 2 channels to 12, for competition or for fun, whatever kind of soaring you may be interested in, one of the registered MAAQ clubs listed below probably caters for it.  

Maleny R/C Gliding Club
Moreton Region Sports Soaring Association (www.mrssa.net)
Redbank Summerholm Silent Flyers (http://www.rssflyers.info)
Redlands Aero Model Soaring
This web based SE QLD soaring interest group is a good source of information as well. (www.windsock.net.au)

MRSSA is a club that bases its activities around R/C Soaring. That isn’t to say that’s all we do. We also embrace electric flight, I guess we just like the quiet stuff. We have a core of members in Brisbane with others spread about the state.

The club centres its flying activities on a field at the Normanby Winery near Harrisville (south of Amberley, just outside the control zone). We cater for all sorts of r/c soaring flight, r/c thermal being the most prevalent. We hold monthly club flying days at the field and regularly attend competitions around northern NSW and SE Qld as well as at our own field and work with other clubs to foster these events.