Sailplanes available?

[Wad Cutter]

Leif and John, thank you very much for the flight into years gone by. The music was the best part I thought and fit the video perfectly. One day John you will have to give me a few sim lessons. Flying my Cub in there is one thing but a non powered guilder is another. I did try once and it was the best but I couldn't find the up-drafts to stay up.You become a true mast of the sky this way. I saved that link John so one day I can add a few sail planes to my MSFSX. If only my Grumman Duck was in there. Thanks guys, wonderful planes and photos. Great. wc

[Leif Ohlsson]

John - "Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune" - what a wonderful source for material about this pioneering glider pilot. And what a singularly spectacular method to get airborne - but I'm not sure I would have the stomach to try it outside a sim!

Waddie - Glad you appreciate stuff like this. Here's some more, leftovers from the search for more about the Nemere. Mostly sources for those who like it all. But also one exceedingly beautiful film clip - of a 5m model Nemere flying at Finistère, France, with a webcam attached to its wingtip. It's really something. First the other sources, though:

• Wikipedia - about the 1936 flight.

• Short biography of Lajos Rotter (in English). Follow the link to the Nemere and you will find several period photos, plus a fine little film clip of the Nemere being bungee-chord launched. I took the liberty of uploading this clip to Youtube. You've already seen it - it's the one in the last post.



• Soaring 1937 Vol 1 no 05 - p. 11; download from the Soaring Archive of the SSA. The article is a condensed rewrite ffrom the British Sailplane and Glider issue cited previously.

• Photos from the Berlin 1936 gliding exhibition, including one of the Nemere in Berlin 1936 from the Lajos Rotter collection.

• Hungarian site about the 1936 gliding olympic exhibition. One similar, but unmarked, photo like the above (published in previous post).

• Original period photos plus a very good drawing in a build thread at the Blue Ridge Area Soaring Society (no sources for the photos given; the thread is about a beautiful model of the Nemere, and a video of its maiden flight can be seen at the end of the thread).



• Vintage scale Sailplanes - about the development of a flying scale model of the Nemere. Also contains this piece of useful information: "As a testament to the beauty of the Nemere, Martin Simons chose this design for the cover picture on his book Vintage Sailplane 1908-45.”



• FS version of the Nemere by Jereb Gábor, author of the site "Gliders in Hungary". Here's a proper download site for three versions (FS 2000-2004). They are all by Jereb Gábor and contain good information about the Nemere, including a photo by Lajos Rotter himself of the instrument panel:




More links to flying models:

• Good model photos - Swiss
• Retroplane - build thread by "Philippe", one VERY good three-view drawing (from Martin Simons book?)
• RCgroups-1 - build thread by "Vincent C" with several photos of oriiginal which I haven't seen anywhere else.
• RCgroups-2 - nice model photo plus pdf of vector drawing; very gracious contribution by signature "Doug".




• Video - flying with the Nemere (RC model) over Finistère, France; slope soaring with camera in wingtip, abo****ely fantastiic. You can download two versions, 600 or 1200 pix wide, both in HD. Image above is actual screenshot from my computer, watching the downloaded big-size clip. Actually the highest quality video I've downloaded ever, all categories. Why aren't all YouTube clips like this?

Schempp-Hirth airbrakes are shown to advantage at the end of the flight, so this is a model of the post-1937 repairs undertaken on the original. This model flight took place May 2012, so its a very recent video. A bit shaky at times, but that's what happens, I guess, when you attach a remote mini wide-angle webcam to the tip of a 5m span model flying in hard wind - those wings flex…

[Jan Kytop]

Originally Posted by Jan Kytop

You can also ordered a german Doppelraad (1/33 and 1/50)at:
Home - Paperwarbirds
The model is not on the site , send an email for enquiries and to order it (6,80 euros + postage).
Raab Doppelraab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have received an other mail from the publisher and
you can also buy a Bergfalke in 1/33 and 1/50 and a motorised Doppelraad (motorkrähe) (printed models).

[Leif Ohlsson]

Hello Jan,

- Bergfalke, that is very good news! Any chance of Roman Seissler introducing these models for us, you think?

Leif

[The Orange]

Leif, all of this information, pictures, descriptions, the like, are extremely interesting! And
I fear if I continue viewing such content, I'll be inspired to build sailplanes - first you
post intriguing content on WW2 aviation...then WW1 aviation...then Civilian aviation...and
now I find myself respecting the whole spectrum.

Thank you very much Leif, if I had to compare you to another member on this forum,
or rather, describe what members you manifest essentially in a single body,
it would have to be CharlieC - a member who has acquired such a vast knowledge of armor - plus the great charismatic character of D.Boose.

As they say, "Just keep doin' you"

[sparrowhawk]

This thread keeps getting better and better.
I am still deeply in love with warbirds, mainly the Spitfire, but the sleek lines of those vintage gliders are something hardly surpassed in motorized airplanes of the time. And they were civilian.
Leif it is great to have you with us!

Kind regards, Martin

[Leif Ohlsson]

… And you, Martin, especially since I learn your life is so full of other good things! Johnray, I'm glad to hear your interest in sailplanes has been kindled!

Today just a photo to clarify why I think the news of a papermodel of the Bergfalke is such good news:



The earliest versions of the Bergfalke simply had no compound curves (surfaces bent in two directions, like in a glassfibre nose, or a blown canopy). Thus it conforms to the recipy for a succesful paper model replica - no need for petal-shaped nose covering simulating a molded area - here the petals are true-to-scale! Everything is edgy, fabric over steel tube framework, but still well proportioned, and wings very prettily swept slightly forward to enhance the view from the back seat. There is a large transparent canopy, which allows you a good view of the two seats, with all details visible. Worth waiting for!

Another reason is that this was the mainstay of Swedish glider clubs from the mid-50s onwards. When I was growing up, the Bergfalke was synonymous with sailplanes. In Swedish gliding clubs it is still an unspoken tradition that any attempt at the Swedish distance record for gliders should be undertaken in an old Bergfalke. Otherwise one isn't really a good sport…

A third reason might be that late in life, in the mid-90s, I belatedly learned to fly and gained my glider pilot's license (now expired) on several Bergfalke types, one of them red, much like in the photo. Not the most elegant, and certainly not the most quiet of gliders I flew, but a true classic.

Leif

[Johnflys2]

I feeling a twinge of guilt talking about gliders other than card models. So before I do so again I'll share this photo of a Fiddlers Green Colditz Cock that I reduced and built a few years back. Now I feel better.
I would like to build a few planes for the simulator, the Colditz Cock being one of them but first I have to learn FSDS. I have this habit of making vitual models out of card models.
Leif, I very much enjoyed the video of the RC Nemere. I flew a RC 10 ft w/s Cirrus for quite a few years. John

[Leif Ohlsson]

John, after your Coca-Cola-bottle-cap-sized Colditz escape glider, you may now feel absolutely free to talk your heart out about non-paper gliders. I've already done so for quite a while . Here's my rationale:

Roman Seissler - of the Sero-Papermodels site for historically correct Fokker DrI papermodels - has designed several sailplane paper models, first mentioned by Jan Kytop earlier in this thread, Roman just got back to me with photos of his three finished designs, and one in progress:



(Above) This is the Raab Doppelraab, a most curious German post-war design, where the instructor had a cramped space behind the pupil, handling the control stick over his shoulder, and treading almost straight down for rudder control. Most uncomfortable! It could also be used a single-seat trainer. You've simply got to see the two photos at this site (in Swedish, the photos speak for themselves).



(Above) Here's my wish fulfilled - a Bergfalke II 55. The photo shows Roman's testbuild during the design process, hence some remaining imperfections. I'm looking forward to this one! Here's a good Retroplane page about a restored Bergfalke II 55.



(Above) Roman's version of the GÖ3 Minimoa, a classic beautiful glider.



(Above) This is the one in progress - the Raab Motorkrähe 3D, a motorized viintage glider. Made by the same company as the Doppelraab, and developed from that two-seater glider; see this interesting drawing, with the two aircraft overlaid on each other.

Finally, a nice photo of three two-seater trainers built by Roman Seissler - the Doppelraab, the Bergfalke, and an ASK 21 designed by Marian Aldenhövel.



Roman must have done some clever things with the ASK-21, since that model did not have a transparent cockpit, nor any cockpit details, as originally designed. It would be interesting to learn how Roman managed to make the canopy so nicely rounded.

Roman has promised me to get back shortly about availability, etc., of his own models.

Leif

[Leif Ohlsson]

Waiting for more on the Bergfalke and the other models by Roman Seissler, I'll return to Hungary for a bit longer. The reason is this website (google-translated). I arrived there in the search for ever more material on the Nemere, and this is where I really struck gold. The link goes to a search result (arrived at by Google) of Hungarian electronic books. Clicking on "Related sites" and exploring the result, I came up with three invaluable sources for vintage sailplanes, all of them authored by Jereb Gábor:

• Hungarian Sailplanes by Jereb Gábor - full book (click on the image of the cover at top right). See pp,. 59-68 for the Nemere and ten pages of fantastic drawings of it, including structural details, cockpit, and more. If you then browse the rest of the pdf-file of this 1988 book, you'll find the same quality material for sailplane after sailplane, glider after glider.

This is the absolutely most generous gift I've come across on the internet that I can remember right now. And the very best thing about it is that it is not a scan - I believe it is a pdf-file of the printer's original, which means that both illustrations and text are absolutely clean and undistorted. Thank you, Jereb Gábor!

I don't understand a single word without the help of online translation (and even then I have to copy & paste from the pdf pages - see below), but the amount of drawings, and the number of detail sketches, are enought to get one hooked for a very long time, just studying the development of Hungarian gliders. Examples in just a little bit.

• Gliders in Hungary - website by Jereb Gábor: Gliders designed and built in Hungary + Gliders importer or built under licensce in Hungary. All the extra material in form of photos and text you can wish for - and in perfectly good English right from the start! Like the similar site for Polish sailplanes encountered earlier in this thread, this is a goldmine for historical material.

• Gliders by Jereb Gábor - full book (click on the image of the book at the top right corner). A lot of advanced glider theory, but also see-through images of several gliders. In particular, one page about the Nemere (p. 61), with a sketch of the instrument panel. Otherwise I have not saved this book, since - like the first one - it is in Hungarian and mostly theoretical.

As it turns out, I believe the work collected here is the original source for all drawings available on the internet of the Nemere, to give just one example. And I'll add to that bulk of work here, republishing all the major drawings I have found of the Nemere in these two books. In the illustrations to follow, I have run explanatory captions through an online translater and copied the result into the pages published here (for high-quality drawings, download the original books - even single pages from the books are just a bit too large to publish here).



This is the drawing from book II, Gliders, the only thing I saved from that book (since sailplane theory in Hungarian is difficult). The rest of the drawings here are from the first book, Hungarian Sailplanes.

The first interesting features of this drawing is the diagram at top left, which is a calculation of time spent by Lajos Rotter during his 1936 flight spiralling in thermals to gain height, in relation to time spent on course Berlin-Kiel. The quota is exceedingly low for his time - such a low value would not be achieved again until the end of the 1940s, if I have understood it correctly.

The second most interesting feature from a modeling point of view is the drawing of the instrument panel, with legends detailing what kind of instruments were on board. I have incorporated a translation in the drawing. The Nemere instruments were taken from an earlier glider, the Karakán: 1) Coarse altitude, 2) fine altitude, 3) variometer, 4) clock, 5) airspeed, 6) inclinometer (nose up-down), 7) compass, 8) turn indicator

Note that Rotter did have a turn & bank indicator, i.e. a gyro, which most probably was vaccum-driven, by the venturi tube attached to the canopy. The philosophy was that the canopy should be jettisonable in an emergency, including the bulky instrument panel, to leave the pilot space to get out with his parachute on. This meant that the external venturi and pitot tubes had to be mounted to the canopy, not the fuselage.

The third good feature of the drawing above, is that it all fuselage sections are marked, which they aren't in the main drawing below:



This is the excellent three-view drawing of the Nemere, upon which all other drawings on the internet are based, I believe. No additions necessary. It includes fuselage sections in larger scale. The wing sections are included in the next drawing:



This, almost more than anything, made me very happy. It is a very detailed drawing of the cockpit, with levers and all. Studying it closely one can learn a lot about Rotter's design philosophy for the Nemere. Translations for the Hungarian legends around the fuselage, as well as the numbered legends, have been included in the drawing as republished here.

The Nemere cockpit: 1) pitot tube, 2) handle to open/close canopy, 3) rudder pedal tensioning, 4) tow rope hooks (one for ground-launching by bungee chord, and one for aero-towing), 5) rudder pedals, 6) tow release knob, 7) aileron drop indicator, 8) landing gear wheel drop release cable, 9) aileron drop indicator cable (?) 10) aileron drop adjust mechanism, 11) crank for adjusting aileron drop, 12) aileron control bar, 13) wheel release mechanism, 14) aileron push rod, 15) elevator trim (spring), 16) map case, 17) control stick, 18) panel, 19) venturi tube, 20) barograf

Notice particularly that the bottom row of instruments were mounted in an angled panel section for a better view. The barograf was suspended in springs behind the pilots head. There was also a crank for offsetting both ailerons up or down simultaneously, to effect profiles suitable for penetrating sink or headwind areas between thermals, or thermal spiralling. This was a most advanced feature for its day.



This is the detailed wing drawing, with a lot of details for how the spars and aileron control horns were constructed. No additions necessary. The grey area is ply covered, and the rest is fabric over ribs.

With this, I'll leave the Hungarian gliding scene for now. But I suspect those of you who have downloaded Jereb Gábor's book Hungarian Sailplanes will be stuck there for some time longer…

Leif