Hand launched balsa glider memories?

The Skeeter, says Comet on the packaging but I remember it as being made by North Pacific back in the mid 1960's.

http://www.parmodels.com/north-pacific-skeeter

Photo from Paul and Ralph Bradley's website.

Then, it was only $0.15. It did not come with wheels, but I'd use the salvaged wheels off the slightly larger and more expensive Sleek Streek ($0.25), because it used the same prop rubber nose bearing. Then I could R.O.G. (rise-off-ground) with the Skeeter. The Skeeter's sheet balsa wings and tail surfaces were silkscreen in medium blue. The Sleek Streek was in red.

Another, can't remember if it were Guillow or one of the other companies, made a slightly larger R.O.G. with a red plastic profile cockpit that fit in a machined slot on the top of the stick fuselage. It had a slot for the wing versus a plastic red dihedral brace wing mount on the North Pacific's.

I did manage at 12 years old, to make Keith Laumer's 6 inch glider from his book. It flew well, my first scratch built glider. I also did experiments by taking a crashed Sleek Streek, salvaging the elevator off it, cut it down the center and use it as a front wing in the plastic dihedral clip. It flew interesting, it actually flew, but it was a little quicker since it had less drag.

And, the North Pacific gliders were the cheapest, only a dime ($0.10). I bought a good number of those. I learned to repair the cracked and broken balsa wings on these with model airplane wood cement. Thus, I kept them going longer than a lot of other kids did. Plus, I would take salvaged newspaper rubber bands, gang them together to make replacement rubber motors, they work just as good as did the factory bands that came with the models.

I preferred to keep mine flying rather than tape firecrackers to them and blow them up in flight, like some of the other kids. That is what paper airplanes were for.

Those were fun times.

Yes those are nice memories, Had dozens of them as a kid…. Like George mentioned lots of experiments… We didn’t realize but we were learning rudimentary trimming…. Neat web site with history on these simple little gliders …

https://www.oldwoodtoys.com/new_page_2.htm

I still make simple balsa gliders from time to time… Both for me and grandkids  
Here’s the flying wing from the Jetco Thermic Trio I converted to catapult a couple of years ago…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RaEz6lBSolk

My dad gave me a Jetco Thermic B when I was around 8 years old. I remember him saying carefully read the instructions. I didn't and I tore into the kit not knowing any better. Jetco provides two templates for washout and stated to make a left and right wingtip. Well I made two rights and didn't have enough wood to complete the kit. My dad was pretty hot and told me to put it back in the box. He was mad that I didn't read it through. Well it sat in the box for 45 years. I opened it back up and my son and I completed it. He was far better at launching than I was. I took it to our control line field and made some trim changes and we finally got the plane to roll out and level off at the top. It flew quite well and in fact it flew so well I lost it. I flew this on a fairly cold day and it leveled off circling but each time it would circle, it was opening up and climbing higher as it got into the wind. After minutes of watching it, it flew out of sight and I was mad but pleasantly pleased at the same time. I did the plane as on the box art with clear dope and I used red Jap tissue for trim.

Neat story Ken, That’s a unique experience to have something you made fly out of your hand and just keep going…. Bittersweet but kind of worth it at the same time ….We can always make another

You don't know what you don't know!

Both catapult and rubber stick planes were my introduction to aerodynamics as a youngster. I've moved forward, but sometimes it seems painfully little at times.

Like most of you, I experimented with moving the wing forward and back (didn't know about CG at the time) and shifting it left and right. I wanted the model to turn right, so I decided to shift the wing to the right, the idea that more weight on that side would drop the right wing and give me the desired results. I was quite confused when the opposite happened. It took awhile for the lift/area concept to sink in -- not sure I knew it at the time, but I did learn what to do.

Campbell's kits were my go to gliders. He's since retired and another fellow took over laser cutting his designs. You don't receive the same quality of wood. Lasers use light wood and denser woods burn and char badly so they're discarded. Campbell originals were hand cut and the wood selection was very good stuff especially when the fuse was selected. You need heavier wood there. The Sweepette 19 is just one that's tough to beat. If you want a glider that can stay aloft for long periods this is the one. We had one at our local contest stay up for nearly 30 minutes.

Well, Actually trying to miss the jungle gym …. Yes sir, That’s mine….The wing was a little tricky to trim because of the reflex needed to glide OK….During the cat launch it makes it want to loop so I hinged the elevons and spring loaded them so they would blow down on launch and come back up to glide…. Still it wanted to porpoise a little in the glide…

I built these little guys about ten years ago….I called them Arrow because of the anhedral tail… Six inch span….Still have the two in front…. The back one and one its predecessors flew away similar to how Ken described…. They can get quite high on a six inch loop of 1/8 and will average about 45 sec in still air…

Those certainly look like a lot of fun

Ken mentioned the Jetco Thermic B, I can relate to that, built one may be 30 years ago along with the Thermic Trio. Also built the Thermic Trio in high school back in the late 1960's, then again in the late 1970's. Acquired a 3rd set back in the 1990's, still have that one kit left.

Because the decalage was set up differently on the Thermic B and the Trio's one standard glider, they could be thrown higher than the North Pacific and others inexpensive RTF gliders plus had a fantastic glide once trimmed. I finished the Jetco's with a lightweight finish, several thin coats of clear dope lightly sanded between, trimmed in color, usually bright orange.

However, there is one set of kit hand launch gliders that I always wanted to build, but seems since they went out of production in the mid 1970's came 2 to a kit by Jetco. They looked like jet flying wings, one a touch smaller and simpler than the other. Those I have never seen anyone produce plans or retro kits for.

And, do you remember the WW2 fighter plane gliders that could be obtained by collecting several cereal box tops, and taping a quarter or two to the cardboard order form on the cereal box, then waiting several weeks to receive them? I was always excited when stuff like that came in the mail.

Growing up, occasionally I would receive Japanese ROG kits from my mother's brother in Japan. Here is an unusual one as it did not come with a propeller, a small tow line kit, "Swan", of 23.4 inches. I scanned the plans and the instructions envelope it came in and sent it to Steve at Outerzone, who posted it. It is in Japanese, but the diagrams and plans are clear enough, one could build one from just that.

https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3831

Bangers, that sounds fun. We would make a diarama on the dunes with airfix tanks etc., and blow them up with bangers...

I have mentioned my elder brother I think, FF r/p glider launched, lovely climb out, a dog became interested, barking, following, jumping...rubber motor exhausted and plane glided down only to be caught by the dog who shook it to bits and then trotted off...

Got a small glider as a freebee from a supplier, can't remember who, will post a picture later.

ME heron powered bitsa glider 2 channel still in service and flies great. Strong wing which will pull tight loops...even low level loops on landing approach...wing based on extended "found" FF r/p free plan from aeromodeller mag which is on OZ....fuz, a simple box fuz.

Free bee from perma grit tools...

www.balsabar.de kit @ 3euro...

If you would like drawing please pm me

I tried mounting a Jetex 50 onto a hand launched glider. It worked when (and only when) I could get the darned thing lit!

We had a lot of fun as teenagers taping penny bottle rockets on the bottom of those little 5 - 10 cent gliders…. We figured out how to take the bang out of the end of the glider by digging out the charge of the end of the rocket… We always looked forward to the 4th of July to buy more “engines”…  

I wanted to show my kids when they were little what we used to do but by that time the little bottle rockets were no longer available so we substituted one called Jumping Jacks instead…. Only thing was the nozzles were 90 degrees to the end to make them spin on the ground so I would make a little wire clip for the gliders so the nozzles would be just under the fuse…. They had just enough zip to push the glider across the back yard…The kids really got a kick out of it…

One more flying wing glider I converted to cat launch a couple of years ago ….”Spook” by Bill Dean -1947…

https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=4439

Quick and easy to build and a great little flyer….Caught on a fly by…

Emails sent chaps...