All about RC soaring!

Model Airplane News, Dec 2003 by Garwood, Dave

To start soaring, check with your local hobby shop for available sailplanes, for recommendations on flying sites and for information on nearby soaring clubs. An online search will reveal hundreds of pages of resource information about both thermal and slope soaring. Attending a contest or another soaring event will allow you to meet many soaring pilots and let you see dozens of sailplanes. Joining the Academy of Model Aeronautics will give you liability insurance, a subscription to Model Aviation magazine, which lists upcoming contests and events, and access to a database of many hundreds of modeling articles. Yes, it's possible to teach yourself to fly sailplanes, but the learning goes a lot faster with the help of an experienced flier-maybe one who can be connected to your transmitter with a trainer cable or "buddy box" configuration for some hands-on flight instruction. We here at Model Airplane News hope you do get started in RC soaring, and maybe we'll meet up someday on the a slope or at a thermal field.

SOARING RESOURCES

Here's the contact information you need for the manufacturers mentioned in this article, for suppliers and for jumping-off places where you can learn more about soaring.

CLUBS, EVENTS & INFORMATION

Academy of Model Aeronautics. Pilot insurance, magazine articles online, listings, links to AMA club websites; (800) 435-9262; modelaircraft.org.

American Slope Racing Organization. Slope racing schedules, results, sites; sloperacing.com.

Charles River Radio Controllers. Beginner articles, links to website resources; charlesriverrc.org.

Eastern Iowa Soaring Society. Extensive links to soaring website resources; eiss.cnde.iastate.edu/links.shtml.

Fatlion Sailplanes. Excellent beginner articles, glossary, kit reviews, links; fatlion.com/sailplanes/sailplanes.html.

Gold Country R/C Soaring. Soaring sites in California and Nevada; ncws.com/rcrock.

Laguna Niguel Slope Soaring Guild. California slope soaring club; rcsoaring.com/lnssg.htm.

La Sierra Slope Soarers. Beginner articles, brief reviews of 54 sailplanes; lss.homestead.com.

League of Silent Flight. Beginner articles, LSF achievement program; silentflight.org.

Midwest Slope Challenge; Lincoln Area Soaring Society event; home.alltel.net/mwsc.

Radio Control Soaring Exchange (RCSE). Internet email group-a good place to ask questions;eclipse.net/~mikel/tcse/intro.htm.

R/C Soaring.Com. Resources, index links to many other sites; rcsoaring.com.

Slopefiyer.Com. Slope site listings; Slope Trash magazine.

Southern California PSS Festival. Inland Slope Rebels; ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ISR.

Soar Utah event. InterMountain Silent Flyers; silentflyer.org,

Soaring FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Answers to beginner and advanced questions; kohlin/com/air/soar-faq.htm.

South Bay Soaring Society. Beginner articles, links to website resources; sbss.org.

Torrey Pines Gulls. Slope, thermal and HLG event information, resources; torreypinesgulls.org.

MANUFACTURES

The Birdworks. Unusual slope sailplanes, including the scale RC gull; (503) 332-0194; harborside.com/~birdworks/bwhome.htm.