To clarify for some of the questions that viewers have asked: 1. Flying site is Round Valley Dome in Eagar, AZ, for the 2022 US Indoor Championship. 2. HVAC was shut down the entire time; it is not possible to fly these airplanes when the HVAC is on due to their fragile nature 3. The doors were all closed for the same reason as (2). 4. This airplane is made from thin balsa wood and 0.5 micron thick OS Film. Flying weight was about 500mg. It was built for rubber power and achieved several flights over 15 minutes with rubber power.
Well, this is how several thermals happen in the earth as well, first that was a geodesic dome which geometry clearly helped to produce this, but the biggest factor were the top (almost centered) windows that let it the sun in, heating the floor, raising the air that needed to be remplace by the air from the shadowed floor (as happen between clouds shadows vs opens). Cool effect..
@@bontrom8 yeah it's been developed over many years of testing. My latest example of this design did 31 minutes this weekend, powered by a 0.5g rubber band.
That’s a superb video, too many years ago I had a similar experience with a folded paper plane. I was ten years old, walking home from school on a hot afternoon I launched the plane on a street corner and this massive boomer of a thermal took it straight up to about forty feet where it went round in sort of stalling hiccups for something like two or three minutes, I was spellbound! I tried that street corner many times after that but never repeated the event. Your video brought back this wonderful memory, thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Foot Loose. ..I am also a fan of paper airplanes, (gliders). I developed a wing back in 1973 when I first started hang gliding. I eventually developed what I call the OmniWing. I basically predicted the shape of what the modern day hang gliders would look like. I provide you with a video of my launch at Mt. Nebo in Arkansas off of the Hang Glider Launch location. Winds were light, coming into this nice bowl. I had made several flights with most of the wings returning back to the launch area. Then I have a flight that looks like the OmniWing will simply fly out of site. But it surprises me. Do watch to see the surprise ending. ruclips.net/video/SrZ1bqU_g4o/видео.html
@@joshuawfinn Greta video, I haven't seen this sort of model flying in decades. I ended up doing aerospace engineering and this is one of those obscure areas of extreme vehicle design. If you consider the basic engineering exercise of taking a specification and designing the extreme variant of one or more parameters these make great case studies. For any young engineer these are great ways to consider what happens if you focus on one or only a couple of things and how far that can influence designs. You can then take that back to the full specifications and see what compromises do to designs and what the consequences of choices are.
I also made a lot of paper airplanes in grade school, and would fly them in the school yard. I remember being amazed when one caught an updraft and climbed higher and higher. Now many years later I build radio control gliders, and was once president of my local glider club. Even got to ride in a real glider, a few times. My interest in flying started early, and never went away. Show all the kids you know, how to fold a paper airplane :-)
@@tonywilson4713 thanks so much. I’m 14 and have a big passion for engineering/robotics. I am learning basic aerodynamics, and the idea of focusing on a few specifications at a time. Then thinking the affects, really interest me. One day I hope I will be like you, thanks so much!
As a paraglider, I found this video very intriguing and really exhibits how thermals work like rising columns of air which is how we fly our paragliders. We stay up for hours dancing thermal to thermal. Interesting that they can even happen indoors if there is access to sunlight and the right conditions. Great job!
Back in the 70’s I had a go with my nephew’s foam wing throw glider. I had a few goes and flattened out the flaps and lifted one slightly so the plane went in a large circle. When I threw it the first circle was amazing and then it went in a second loop without touching the ground…. The third loop saw the plane climb and then it went over a big oak tree and bounced higher. It kept looping over that tree until it started moving away, leaving my young nephew in tears… after about 30 minutes of flight it was so high nobody in our family could see it… and the funny thing on the plane packet mentioned that they wanted to hear about any flights over 45 SECONDS (we never did though, sadly)… We never saw that cheap chuck glider again. Once it got in the thermal it was lost for good and nothing we could do would bring it back. We couldn’t even follow it because it was just a tiny dot in the sky. I doubt I could repeat it if I tried for a decade. I was only 14 at the time.
Saw once an expensive $$$ remote plane sucked up gone.;) Was interesting watching the operator /owner bend the control then toss it at the thing. Gosh Darn!!!
First time I have ever seen anything like it. I love the idea of building these and watching them Fly as a testament to your patience and love for your hobby
@@joshuawfinn Very cool! I watched it right after you posted it, and thought it was awesome. Glad it got the recognition it deserves. Happy flying my friend!
Thank you for sharing this video. I have lost (2) model gliders during my lifetime to thermals taking them Out Of Sight...once, when I was about 10 yrs old tossing a small "Traveller" model from Aero Tern Models and the other was a dime store Guillows "Jetfire". Although it was sad to lose them, it was a thrill to watch them be taken up, up and away until I could no longer even see them.
This video is really impressive. I did not know of this class of indoor flying. I fly the larger Radio Control gliders, and am fascinated with thermal lift. Thanks for sharing, and congratulations to the young man who made/flew the glider....well done.
I won a RC gliding contest. 30 sec of powered flight to achieve the longest glide. All the pilots were going full power and straight up. I flew horizontal over to a thermal with birds circling in it and not flapping their wings. My glide was over 20 minutes compared to 2nd place that was around 6 min. I remember a pilot asking me "what are you doing?" I pointed at the birds circling...
Yup, that's how it's done. Modern F5J sailplanes are designed to have a run speed of over 100 mph so they can get to the good air in under 30 seconds, and at the lowest altitude the pilot can safely pull off (you're penalized for every meter you climb under power).
I've had SNOW in quite a small building, I think as I walked out a door, the humidity ( from myself and the room I was in ) rose up on the heat ( it was a heated room, leading into an unheated roof space, and froze, then fell as snow. Kind of takes you by surprise when it snows a few feet under a roof.
Few years back I was staying at the edgewater casino in Laughlin Nevada 18 stories high. I threw a paper airplane out of window it was pretty dark and lost sight of plane and actually forgot about it until 15 minutes later the plane comes back hovering outside window. There was a record broken somewhere that night
Awesome video! About 30 years ago, we were wasting time in P.E. class because it was semester exam day, but there were no exams in that class. We were allowed to just hang out and mess around in the gym for the two hours as long as we behaved. A few of us decided to make some paper airplanes and see who could make the best one. I made one that was kind of a modified dart, and after some tuning, had a plane that performed really well with a gentle hand launch. After we'd flown each of ours several times, and decided that each of ours had its merits, I got this crazy idea to throw mine really hard towards the ceiling, just to see what I'd get. Well, it flew right up to just below the hanging lights, leveled off, rocked side to side a few times, then slowly glided to the other end of the gym. It hit the opposite wall about 8 ft. from the floor (a little over 90 ft. away from where I threw it). We stood there stunned for a few seconds, then cheered like we'd just won something. LOL We were able to get several more similar flights out of that plane that day, and it got the rest of the class' attention (even the coaches). It was awesome that it had such a shallow glide ratio, but was also able to withstand (and stay stable during) a fairly violent hand launch. I kept it (and may still have it), but it never again achieved the glory of that day in high-school. LOL
@@joshuawfinn Thank you for being a receptive audience. Not everyone wants to hear about a paper airplane from my youth, so I don't get to tell the story very often. LOL
Josh, when I was 14 I came up with the idea of finding ground thermals with a parachute made of a plastic laundry bag 3.5 sq. meters and 15 grams, with harness made of sewing thread and ballast of a paper clip. I just swung the chute using a breeze and when it appeared to loft it was released. Got a flyaway about once in twenty or thirty tries. BTW, that was in 1960! Really interesting vid and concept.
This concept was a feature article in the late 60's in a model airplane magazine. I built several and had many interesting flights from the park next to our house.
@@GlideLA Cool! Was it MAN, or FM? I was in the Army then and missed that. I assure you that the idea wasn’t genius and certainly others came to the same concept independently. I think it was dandelion seeds that inspired me. I didn’t throw it in the air but stood over blacktop paving and just swung the chute with the wind and when it evinced any tendency to loft I let it go. For contest use I don’t think it was much good and it wasn’t very useful with anything more than a couple of meters/sec. wind. I had a buddy that shared the invention. Steve, I hope you’re still building.
@@jamesjacocks6221 I subscribed to both at the time and don't recall. The weight was a standard marble. Dry cleaner bags were used for the canopy. In addition to 8 shrouds was a few feet of bridle. The launch method consisted of pulling to inflate then swinging overhead and releasing. The mass of trapped air gave it the momentum to swing overhead before releasing. Now that I think of it a fishing rod or pole with a remote release would have worked really well. What this taught me was to read the air for thermals by just standing and feeling the air as well as looking for visible signs. Now I'm 64 and fly hang gliders once or twice a week and I use these skills every time I launch and while I'm in the air. I also use Joe Wurts' 3rd vector technique. Funny how it all relates.
@@GlideLA Thanks. My “chute” had six or maybe eight shrouds, all threads and with a paper clip couldn’t have weighed more than ten to fifteen grams. It was all suspension. The hang glider is no doubt a gas!
Fantastic video that brought back some memories - glad to hear that ‘Easy Bs’ still exist. Spent a year or two fooling around with indoor condenser and microfilm models but stayed outside with RC. Took up full scale soaring and raced them for 15 years. Built and fly an RV10 but have a handlaunch RC sitting in the hangar for ‘those moments’. Still remember catching my very first thermal with an AMA Delta Dart I think they were called. That first thermal is magical and addictive.
Well…the “I’m getting a neck ache” statement made me stop the video😂…lost it because I was getting one too, just watching you😂. Great flight guys…Congratulations!👍🏼
Speaking of great engineering - how about that dome, made of wood trusses covered by ash wood planks - a self-supporting geodesic dome ! ruclips.net/video/sL3hkQoByBo/видео.html
That's amazing. I had an outdoor rubber model fly away once in a thermal. I chased it for a quarter mile and gave up. I'll never forget it because it circled at about 10 feet, free wheeling during a trim session then it shot upward and out of sight.
Of course, Ross pulls out a beater and bests a world record. Way to go, bro!!! Thanks for sharing this with us, Josh! I will sorely miss you guys at FF again this year!
3:51 Launches 🚀 7:51 (*exactly* 4 minutes later) “I don’t know the timestamp in the video where you launched so, I’m just assuming we’re very close to four minutes now.” Cameraman is secretly Swiss with a very convincing American accent.
My dad was at a similar event back in the 1940s or possibly early 50s. One of the contestants caught a fly and glued it to the airplane. The fly propelled it around the indoor arena for quite a while!
This reminds me of a rubber-band powered helicopter I had around age 11 (early 1980's). My parents had enrolled me in a local "aerospace" class for kids one summer, which mostly consisted of building model planes and rockets. My final project was a rubber-band powered balsa-wood helicopter, with four big top blades and two small bottom blades. However, it was too heavy and never did much more than hovering for a few seconds. After the class ended, I continued tinkering with this helicopter, ultimately moving the four big blades to the bottom and removing two of them, and finally launched it one sunny afternoon. My tinkering paid off! The strange looking contraption climbed steadily to perhaps forty feet high, and then hovered there for about 30 seconds before slowly descending (probably with help from an updraft). All the neighbors who were outside were transfixed by the sight of the odd-looking, squeaking flying contraption, witnesses to my moment of glory. After that, the darned thing was never able to fly again, probably because the rubber-bands got over-stretched.
At 5:30 it's just stuck up there with the hot air bubble it's in , not going anywhere 😮 but just hovering in the slow hot rising air , it's reached its "equilibrium". So to speak 🎉... that's kinda of not fair. Trapped in a dome...😢
They had those film planes for indoor flying when I was a kid but they were rubber powered and they lubed the rubber bands to unwind slowly. They would take off and fly for a very long time in a gymnasium if they were trimmed to turn wide circles.
That's what this airplane is. We removed the propeller and replaced it with ballast for this video. Afterwards the prop was reinstalled and it returned to life as a 35cm class rubber model, flight times around 22 minutes in this site due to high elevation (7k ft above seal level). Ross did put up a 31 minute flight with a small unlimited in there.
In the late 1950's, I saw a record set under sort of similar circumstances in a hanger at the Lakehurst Navel Air Station. Peter Nashanian, a member of the Long Island Gas Monkeys, built balsa indoor hand launched gliders with 24 inch wingspans - very large for the time, not much altitude on the launch but slow descent. During the day, the officer of the blimp hanger in which we were flying would periodically open and close the hanger doors to let aircraft enter and exit. It was a very hot day and it was clear that when the hanger doors opened, hot air from the tarmac would come into the hanger. Nashanian set his record right after the door closed in the early afternoon and caught an excellent thermal. The best time he would ever make.
Now that's seriously cool! Lakehurst is the stuff of legends. So sad that we can't fly there anymore. It was the ultimate flying site and having planes circling under the center catwalk was pure magic.
We used to see these "dust devils", which are really simple whirlwinds caused by differing pressures coming from opening and closing doors. We saw them in our Jr. High and High School gymnasiums we played basketball in. They DID become dust devils on the wood floors, since those floors were so smooth. The dust kicked up easily. The rubber floors didn't react the same way, as they seemed to attract heavier dirt.
Loved your experience; had a similar experience whilst living in the Netherlands as a then 13 year old. Launched a paper plane on the corner of the street and an air vortex developed which took the creation up and away to the roof tops only to descend to where the vortex of air was still functioning . This was repeated a couple of times whilst my young eyes were bulging with excitement ( and aeronautical pride). One turn of the plane was too wide and descended gently at my feet. Been trying to repeat the experiment in Australia, but now I buy a ticket to get aloft.
Coriolis effect must be the problem, try making the same plane but with your other hand (non dominant) and launch it with that hand as well. No doubt that that will recreate that magical event =]
I hear terms like 'sink rate' but in planes & gliders, the usual measure is called 'glide ratio'. That plane doesn't achieve lift from air moving over an airfoil via forward motion. It's more like a plane-shaped parachute? Very neat regardless.
In full scale sailplanes, sink rate is critically important since it dictates the thermal strength required. Glide ratio isn't important on this model since there's no need to travel from thermal to thermal. It does have a very good glide ratio in still air, greater than 5:1 which is superb for such a small model. Makes lift the same way ad any other airplane.
Little does anyone know that Mitey Airlines has 230 of these models on order, and that there are 75 mites on this flight. The pilot is itching to run another test flight. An interesting fact about mites is that although we generally are not particularly fond of them, they can really grow on you. I mean, really.
@@joshuawfinn I'm glad you liked it. Upon actually reading it myself I realize that instead of "75 of them" i should have said "75 mites" as no one would know what the heck I was talking abouit at that point. I hope you don't mind that I edited it. I also just subscribed.
When I was in 5th grade (1973) my friend Dick Gilbert tossed a paper plane he had made that got caught in a swirling updraft. It flew from the elementary school playground up up and away and over the Jr. High school and disappeared into the redwood forest behind the school. We were the only two witnesses to the amazing flight. I can't estimate the time of the flight, but it must have flown over a quarter of a mile.
My father made these in the 60’s. He would fly them in the dirigible hanger in Irvine on the air force base. Powered by rubber bands they would fly in slow motion...
@@joshuawfinn One of the hangers in Irvine just burnt down =/ My mom lives nearby and when I visit her I am always in awe of and drawn to it. The massive doors are like something from a sci fi or fantasy novel cover art! I live in the SF bay area and see the ones at Moffett field when driving on HWY 101 in Mountain View. I seem to recall some interesting refurbishing project going on there a few years ago. I will check up on the sitch' and get back to you with an update =]
This is astonishing - my own high performance engineered paper gliders will sometimes catch a thermal, but to see this being done indoors with a microfilm model is breathtaking...
Makes me wonder exactly what generated the thermal. Quite possibly just the sun shining through the upper glass windows on to the floor. Flew a hang glider back in the late 70s and the early 80s, so was always looking for thermal generators. Learned how to fine tune hand launched balsa and foam wing gliders, and made a bunch of my own. Lost many to the thermal gods.... I would think that maybe one of the halogen lamps would generate a considerable thermal. Maybe a group of 10 or more people could do the same thing, especially if the building was cool, like in the 60s. That lapse rate is huge in generating thermals. I was up on a hill once, waiting for conditions to be right for flying. Saw a basketball sized base of a dust devil in the grass. Launched a properly tuned slip through wing type of balsa glider into it and in 3 revolutions, it was over 500 feet above the launch point. Great flying day that one...
Thanks. I think if it's a warm/hot enough day it could stay up there until sun set. I light spread of Styrofoam balls, like bean bag top up should be standard operation from now on.
I've done everything from model planes to working on a pro mod pit crew. This isn't thousands of horsepower like some of the stuff I work on but this was most enjoyable!
About 30 years ago I happened to be in West Baden, Indiana and there were a bunch of people flying these planes in the atrium there. Some would fly seemingly forever.
As soon as i saw the structure i knew exactly where you were😂. We were in there during the Wallow Fire and the HVAC was making bigger dust devils and you could see it in the ash and smoke in the air.
I've wondered for years whether a model built this way could compete in indoor hand launch -- apparently, if there are skylights (to warm patches of floor) and a high enough clear space, it could. Too bad about the "immediately gain height" rule...
That rule was actually imposed specifically because of this type of model. Lee Hines a Dick Peterson were instrumental in getting the rules changed and they did so by getting one of these models to fly about 2 1/2 minutes.
![Lethal Company Music Video 🎵 "Follow The Orders" [VERSION A]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QeooZB4Z7RA/mqdefault.jpg)
To clarify for some of the questions that viewers have asked:
1. Flying site is Round Valley Dome in Eagar, AZ, for the 2022 US Indoor Championship.
2. HVAC was shut down the entire time; it is not possible to fly these airplanes when the HVAC is on due to their fragile nature
3. The doors were all closed for the same reason as (2).
4. This airplane is made from thin balsa wood and 0.5 micron thick OS Film. Flying weight was about 500mg. It was built for rubber power and achieved several flights over 15 minutes with rubber power.
Well, this is how several thermals happen in the earth as well, first that was a geodesic dome which geometry clearly helped to produce this, but the biggest factor were the top (almost centered) windows that let it the sun in, heating the floor, raising the air that needed to be remplace by the air from the shadowed floor (as happen between clouds shadows vs opens).
Cool effect..
Where can you buy this OS film in the UK?
@@turkeyphant you should still be able to get it through freeflightsupplies.co.uk but indoorffsupply.com does ship globally.
The raised main wing is a fantastic improvement over designs I used as a kid! That and every expanded parameter towards insanity lol.
@@bontrom8 yeah it's been developed over many years of testing. My latest example of this design did 31 minutes this weekend, powered by a 0.5g rubber band.
That’s a superb video, too many years ago I had a similar experience with a folded paper plane. I was ten years old, walking home from school on a hot afternoon I launched the plane on a street corner and this massive boomer of a thermal took it straight up to about forty feet where it went round in sort of stalling hiccups for something like two or three minutes, I was spellbound! I tried that street corner many times after that but never repeated the event. Your video brought back this wonderful memory, thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻
There's a trick to learning to find thermals. With practice you can find them with amazing consistency.
Foot Loose. ..I am also a fan of paper airplanes, (gliders). I developed a wing back in 1973 when I first started hang gliding. I eventually developed what I call the OmniWing. I basically predicted the shape of what the modern day hang gliders would look like. I provide you with a video of my launch at Mt. Nebo in Arkansas off of the Hang Glider Launch location. Winds were light, coming into this nice bowl. I had made several flights with most of the wings returning back to the launch area. Then I have a flight that looks like the OmniWing will simply fly out of site. But it surprises me. Do watch to see the surprise ending. ruclips.net/video/SrZ1bqU_g4o/видео.html
@@joshuawfinn Greta video, I haven't seen this sort of model flying in decades.
I ended up doing aerospace engineering and this is one of those obscure areas of extreme vehicle design.
If you consider the basic engineering exercise of taking a specification and designing the extreme variant of one or more parameters these make great case studies. For any young engineer these are great ways to consider what happens if you focus on one or only a couple of things and how far that can influence designs. You can then take that back to the full specifications and see what compromises do to designs and what the consequences of choices are.
I also made a lot of paper airplanes in grade school, and would fly them in the school yard.
I remember being amazed when one caught an updraft and climbed higher and higher.
Now many years later I build radio control gliders, and was once president of my local glider club.
Even got to ride in a real glider, a few times.
My interest in flying started early, and never went away.
Show all the kids you know, how to fold a paper airplane :-)
@@tonywilson4713 thanks so much. I’m 14 and have a big passion for engineering/robotics.
I am learning basic aerodynamics, and the idea of focusing on a few specifications at a time. Then thinking the affects, really interest me.
One day I hope I will be like you, thanks so much!
As a paraglider, I found this video very intriguing and really exhibits how thermals work like rising columns of air which is how we fly our paragliders. We stay up for hours dancing thermal to thermal. Interesting that they can even happen indoors if there is access to sunlight and the right conditions. Great job!
Ass a paradox glider, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Yeah great.
@@voornaam3191 you okay?
As a Paralympian, this glider seems so fragile. One wrong move and one of the limbs could tear completely off.
@@error.418 I'm not patient...
@@voornaam3191 But patient enough to shitpost instead of moving on?
Back in the 70’s I had a go with my nephew’s foam wing throw glider. I had a few goes and flattened out the flaps and lifted one slightly so the plane went in a large circle. When I threw it the first circle was amazing and then it went in a second loop without touching the ground….
The third loop saw the plane climb and then it went over a big oak tree and bounced higher. It kept looping over that tree until it started moving away, leaving my young nephew in tears… after about 30 minutes of flight it was so high nobody in our family could see it… and the funny thing on the plane packet mentioned that they wanted to hear about any flights over 45 SECONDS (we never did though, sadly)… We never saw that cheap chuck glider again. Once it got in the thermal it was lost for good and nothing we could do would bring it back. We couldn’t even follow it because it was just a tiny dot in the sky. I doubt I could repeat it if I tried for a decade. I was only 14 at the time.
You were a terrible uncle lol
Saw once an expensive $$$ remote plane sucked up gone.;) Was interesting watching the operator /owner bend the control then toss it at the thing. Gosh Darn!!!
That’s just amazing!! I was an airline pilot for many years, but I lost my medical. I love flying RC gliders. your video seems supernatural 😊
There are thermals anywhere the sunlight can reach the ground. That's so cool.
First time I have ever seen anything like it. I love the idea of building these and watching them
Fly as a testament to your patience and love for your hobby
This is an art form, an elegant moving air sculpture
I think you can really feel how light it is by looking at the clip, gravity doesn't want to deal with it, it's Amazing
... Absolutely ACTION PACKED 😂 8:24
Super cool! This hobby is way more developed than I could’ve imagined. Thanks for posting
Congratulations on the mention of this video on page 64 of the September 2022 issue of Model Aviation!
Yeah it was pretty cool getting that shoutout. I've enjoyed the response this one got.
@@joshuawfinn Very cool! I watched it right after you posted it, and thought it was awesome. Glad it got the recognition it deserves. Happy flying my friend!
This has to be the most angelic airplane I have ever seen.
ppoppoooopooopoppòpppoò
It is an airplane isn't it.
I agree and I'm not even religious
Glider but ok
That is incredible! I have never seen anything like it!
Thank you for sharing this video. I have lost (2) model gliders during my lifetime to thermals taking them Out Of Sight...once, when I was about 10 yrs old tossing a small "Traveller" model from Aero Tern Models and the other was a dime store Guillows "Jetfire". Although it was sad to lose them, it was a thrill to watch them be taken up, up and away until I could no longer even see them.
This video is really impressive.
I did not know of this class of indoor flying.
I fly the larger Radio Control gliders, and am fascinated with thermal lift.
Thanks for sharing, and congratulations to the young man who made/flew the glider....well done.
I won a RC gliding contest. 30 sec of powered flight to achieve the longest glide. All the pilots were going full power and straight up. I flew horizontal over to a thermal with birds circling in it and not flapping their wings. My glide was over 20 minutes compared to 2nd place that was around 6 min. I remember a pilot asking me "what are you doing?" I pointed at the birds circling...
Yup, that's how it's done. Modern F5J sailplanes are designed to have a run speed of over 100 mph so they can get to the good air in under 30 seconds, and at the lowest altitude the pilot can safely pull off (you're penalized for every meter you climb under power).
I fly a Grob 103 glider. 😁@@joshuawfinn
@@jackfrost3573 nice! I was working on my glider rating in an old K-7 for a while but have had to step away from that for other priorities.
I've seen it rain in dirigible hangers but this blew my mind .. pretty cool stuff.
Thanks Josh & wife great job thanks ..
Thank you!
I've had SNOW in quite a small building, I think as I walked out a door, the humidity ( from myself and the room I was in ) rose up on the heat ( it was a heated room, leading into an unheated roof space, and froze, then fell as snow. Kind of takes you by surprise when it snows a few feet under a roof.
This is insane! Like magic! Indoor thermal finding.
Yes!
Few years back I was staying at the edgewater casino in Laughlin Nevada 18 stories high. I threw a paper airplane out of window it was pretty dark and lost sight of plane and actually forgot about it until 15 minutes later the plane comes back hovering outside window. There was a record broken somewhere that night
Awesome video!
About 30 years ago, we were wasting time in P.E. class because it was semester exam day, but there were no exams in that class. We were allowed to just hang out and mess around in the gym for the two hours as long as we behaved. A few of us decided to make some paper airplanes and see who could make the best one.
I made one that was kind of a modified dart, and after some tuning, had a plane that performed really well with a gentle hand launch. After we'd flown each of ours several times, and decided that each of ours had its merits, I got this crazy idea to throw mine really hard towards the ceiling, just to see what I'd get.
Well, it flew right up to just below the hanging lights, leveled off, rocked side to side a few times, then slowly glided to the other end of the gym. It hit the opposite wall about 8 ft. from the floor (a little over 90 ft. away from where I threw it).
We stood there stunned for a few seconds, then cheered like we'd just won something. LOL
We were able to get several more similar flights out of that plane that day, and it got the rest of the class' attention (even the coaches).
It was awesome that it had such a shallow glide ratio, but was also able to withstand (and stay stable during) a fairly violent hand launch.
I kept it (and may still have it), but it never again achieved the glory of that day in high-school. LOL
Thank you for sharing this! I love hearing these stories!
@@My_Fair_Lady LOL
@@joshuawfinn Thank you for being a receptive audience. Not everyone wants to hear about a paper airplane from my youth, so I don't get to tell the story very often. LOL
Skitz that is the most eloquently described youth highlight I think I've ever heard. I hope you're a writer.
@@granfabrica No, but thank you. I was an avionics tech and electronics teacher. LOL
Josh, when I was 14 I came up with the idea of finding ground thermals with a parachute made of a plastic laundry bag 3.5 sq. meters and 15 grams, with harness made of sewing thread and ballast of a paper clip. I just swung the chute using a breeze and when it appeared to loft it was released. Got a flyaway about once in twenty or thirty tries. BTW, that was in 1960! Really interesting vid and concept.
Ok, gonna need more details on this because it seems like something I need to catch on video!
This concept was a feature article in the late 60's in a model airplane magazine. I built several and had many interesting flights from the park next to our house.
@@GlideLA Cool! Was it MAN, or FM? I was in the Army then and missed that. I assure you that the idea wasn’t genius and certainly others came to the same concept independently. I think it was dandelion seeds that inspired me. I didn’t throw it in the air but stood over blacktop paving and just swung the chute with the wind and when it evinced any tendency to loft I let it go. For contest use I don’t think it was much good and it wasn’t very useful with anything more than a couple of meters/sec. wind. I had a buddy that shared the invention. Steve, I hope you’re still building.
@@jamesjacocks6221 I subscribed to both at the time and don't recall. The weight was a standard marble. Dry cleaner bags were used for the canopy. In addition to 8 shrouds was a few feet of bridle. The launch method consisted of pulling to inflate then swinging overhead and releasing. The mass of trapped air gave it the momentum to swing overhead before releasing. Now that I think of it a fishing rod or pole with a remote release would have worked really well. What this taught me was to read the air for thermals by just standing and feeling the air as well as looking for visible signs. Now I'm 64 and fly hang gliders once or twice a week and I use these skills every time I launch and while I'm in the air. I also use Joe Wurts' 3rd vector technique. Funny how it all relates.
@@GlideLA Thanks. My “chute” had six or maybe eight shrouds, all threads and with a paper clip couldn’t have weighed more than ten to fifteen grams. It was all suspension. The hang glider is no doubt a gas!
Fantastic video that brought back some memories - glad to hear that ‘Easy Bs’ still exist. Spent a year or two fooling around with indoor condenser and microfilm models but stayed outside with RC. Took up full scale soaring and raced them for 15 years. Built and fly an RV10 but have a handlaunch RC sitting in the hangar for ‘those moments’. Still remember catching my very first thermal with an AMA Delta Dart I think they were called. That first thermal is magical and addictive.
Well…the “I’m getting a neck ache” statement made me stop the video😂…lost it because I was getting one too, just watching you😂.
Great flight guys…Congratulations!👍🏼
Absolutely beautifully simple. Incredible engineering. 4 minutes, well done! Thanks for sharing.
Speaking of great engineering - how about that dome, made of wood trusses covered by ash wood planks - a self-supporting geodesic dome ! ruclips.net/video/sL3hkQoByBo/видео.html
That's amazing. I had an outdoor rubber model fly away once in a thermal. I chased it for a quarter mile and gave up. I'll never forget it because it circled at about 10 feet, free wheeling during a trim session then it shot upward and out of sight.
I've had that experience, many times. Sometimes fun, sometimes not, but oh the memories!
That was strangely relaxing to watch, many thanks for posting
Of course, Ross pulls out a beater and bests a world record. Way to go, bro!!! Thanks for sharing this with us, Josh! I will sorely miss you guys at FF again this year!
3:51 Launches 🚀
7:51 (*exactly* 4 minutes later) “I don’t know the timestamp in the video where you launched so, I’m just assuming we’re very close to four minutes now.”
Cameraman is secretly Swiss with a very convincing American accent.
I never noticed that! Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!
My dad was at a similar event back in the 1940s or possibly early 50s. One of the contestants caught a fly and glued it to the airplane. The fly propelled it around the indoor arena for quite a while!
I tried making a twin engine with 2 flies. One on each wing. But one would always be slower and it would yaw and then roll out of control.
Always hard to get flys to work together!
@@mike94560 I saw a show on tv YEARS OGO where they glued them on the fuselage.
I once looped a piece of cotton thread around the head of a fly, it would fly on the leash for short periods, with it stretched out horizontal.
@@Jester123ishI did the same with a wasp. It was great, until it wasn’t
I think we'll be seeing a bit more of that young man in the future in whatever he chooses to spend his time on.
Absolutely!
This reminds me of a rubber-band powered helicopter I had around age 11 (early 1980's). My parents had enrolled me in a local "aerospace" class for kids one summer, which mostly consisted of building model planes and rockets. My final project was a rubber-band powered balsa-wood helicopter, with four big top blades and two small bottom blades. However, it was too heavy and never did much more than hovering for a few seconds. After the class ended, I continued tinkering with this helicopter, ultimately moving the four big blades to the bottom and removing two of them, and finally launched it one sunny afternoon. My tinkering paid off! The strange looking contraption climbed steadily to perhaps forty feet high, and then hovered there for about 30 seconds before slowly descending (probably with help from an updraft). All the neighbors who were outside were transfixed by the sight of the odd-looking, squeaking flying contraption, witnesses to my moment of glory. After that, the darned thing was never able to fly again, probably because the rubber-bands got over-stretched.
Love that story! I've had a ton of fun with rubber helis over the years. Pushed myself super hard and learned to fly like the pros. So much fun!
I feel like I should get a free pocket protector for watching the whole video. Great job!
lol for sure
At 5:30 it's just stuck up there with the hot air bubble it's in , not going anywhere 😮 but just hovering in the slow hot rising air , it's reached its "equilibrium". So to speak 🎉... that's kinda of not fair. Trapped in a dome...😢
They had those film planes for indoor flying when I was a kid but they were rubber powered and they lubed the rubber bands to unwind slowly. They would take off and fly for a very long time in a gymnasium if they were trimmed to turn wide circles.
That's what this airplane is. We removed the propeller and replaced it with ballast for this video. Afterwards the prop was reinstalled and it returned to life as a 35cm class rubber model, flight times around 22 minutes in this site due to high elevation (7k ft above seal level). Ross did put up a 31 minute flight with a small unlimited in there.
In the late 1950's, I saw a record set under sort of similar circumstances in a hanger at the Lakehurst Navel Air Station. Peter Nashanian, a member of the Long Island Gas Monkeys, built balsa indoor hand launched gliders with 24 inch wingspans - very large for the time, not much altitude on the launch but slow descent. During the day, the officer of the blimp hanger in which we were flying would periodically open and close the hanger doors to let aircraft enter and exit. It was a very hot day and it was clear that when the hanger doors opened, hot air from the tarmac would come into the hanger. Nashanian set his record right after the door closed in the early afternoon and caught an excellent thermal. The best time he would ever make.
Now that's seriously cool! Lakehurst is the stuff of legends. So sad that we can't fly there anymore. It was the ultimate flying site and having planes circling under the center catwalk was pure magic.
We used to see these "dust devils", which are really simple whirlwinds caused by differing pressures coming from opening and closing doors. We saw them in our Jr. High and High School gymnasiums we played basketball in. They DID become dust devils on the wood floors, since those floors were so smooth. The dust kicked up easily. The rubber floors didn't react the same way, as they seemed to attract heavier dirt.
legend says its still up there!
That is very cool. I watched twice, even though there's not much action (and because it's clean and not violent)! Thanks for posting this.
Loved your experience; had a similar experience whilst living in the Netherlands as a then 13 year old. Launched a paper plane on the corner of the street and an air vortex developed which took the creation up and away to the roof tops only to descend to where the vortex of air was still functioning . This was repeated a couple of times whilst my young eyes were bulging with excitement ( and aeronautical pride). One turn of the plane was too wide and descended gently at my feet. Been trying to repeat the experiment in Australia, but now I buy a ticket to get aloft.
What a great memory! By the way, there are some freeflight clubs in Australia and they do report excellent thermals in summer.
Coriolis effect must be the problem, try making the same plane but with your other hand (non dominant) and launch it with that hand as well. No doubt that that will recreate that magical event =]
I hear terms like 'sink rate' but in planes & gliders, the usual measure is called 'glide ratio'. That plane doesn't achieve lift from air moving over an airfoil via forward motion. It's more like a plane-shaped parachute? Very neat regardless.
In full scale sailplanes, sink rate is critically important since it dictates the thermal strength required. Glide ratio isn't important on this model since there's no need to travel from thermal to thermal. It does have a very good glide ratio in still air, greater than 5:1 which is superb for such a small model. Makes lift the same way ad any other airplane.
While thats nerdy as all get out it's also really cool!!!!
Amazing achievement, definitely top 3 coolest micro fliers I've ever seen.
Little does anyone know that Mitey Airlines has 230 of these models on order, and that there are 75 mites on this flight. The pilot is itching to run another test flight. An interesting fact about mites is that although we generally are not particularly fond of them, they can really grow on you. I mean, really.
Hahahahahaha!!! Love it!
@@joshuawfinn I'm glad you liked it. Upon actually reading it myself I realize that instead of "75 of them" i should have said "75 mites" as no one would know what the heck I was talking abouit at that point. I hope you don't mind that I edited it. I also just subscribed.
Gee a very light aircraft. Flies very nicely. Hey great looking flag over on the wall. Makes me feel at home. 👍🇦🇺
When I was in 5th grade (1973) my friend Dick Gilbert tossed a paper plane he had made that got caught in a swirling updraft. It flew from the elementary school playground up up and away and over the Jr. High school and disappeared into the redwood forest behind the school. We were the only two witnesses to the amazing flight. I can't estimate the time of the flight, but it must have flown over a quarter of a mile.
Amazing plane. Great video. Thank you.
My father made these in the 60’s. He would fly them in the dirigible hanger in Irvine on the air force base. Powered by rubber bands they would fly in slow motion...
Man I wish we could get back into those hangars. They are the stuff of legends.
@@joshuawfinn One of the hangers in Irvine just burnt down =/ My mom lives nearby and when I visit her I am always in awe of and drawn to it. The massive doors are like something from a sci fi or fantasy novel cover art! I live in the SF bay area and see the ones at Moffett field when driving on HWY 101 in Mountain View. I seem to recall some interesting refurbishing project going on there a few years ago. I will check up on the sitch' and get back to you with an update =]
This is astonishing - my own high performance engineered paper gliders will sometimes catch a thermal, but to see this being done indoors with a microfilm model is breathtaking...
'Light like a butterfly, wing like a bee'
Fantastic creation and effort!
Incredible! If I had the time I'd try something like this. Very interesting. That guy knows his stuff!
Ross is the man!
Makes me wonder exactly what generated the thermal. Quite possibly just the sun shining through the upper glass windows on to the floor. Flew a hang glider back in the late 70s and the early 80s, so was always looking for thermal generators. Learned how to fine tune hand launched balsa and foam wing gliders, and made a bunch of my own. Lost many to the thermal gods.... I would think that maybe one of the halogen lamps would generate a considerable thermal. Maybe a group of 10 or more people could do the same thing, especially if the building was cool, like in the 60s. That lapse rate is huge in generating thermals. I was up on a hill once, waiting for conditions to be right for flying. Saw a basketball sized base of a dust devil in the grass. Launched a properly tuned slip through wing type of balsa glider into it and in 3 revolutions, it was over 500 feet above the launch point. Great flying day that one...
Nice, and very relaxing to watch.
실내이지만 자연채광이나 강한 조명에 의해서 대류가 발생하고 그로인해서 상승기류가 발생할 수 있죠. 먼지가 떠오르는게 상승기류가 있음을 보여주는 증거죠.
Big LOL. Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing some heavy turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.
Lol!
It's great you got it on video! Would have been hard to believe.
That's what I told Ross! Video or it didn't happen!
As an Aussie, It's nice to see the Australian flag in the background.
Nossa muito show meus parabéns
A few "incidences" later.
...
...
WOW WOW WOW ... that was amazing and super inspiring
That’s awesome. Never seen that before
The blimp hangars in southern California used to develop their own weather systems. Clouds and everything.
I wish I could have flown in those!
Me too. I was in the Marines at the time. I did get to slope soar a hobie hawk from a great hill just inland from the ocean. Free lift always
An engineer could go crazy trying to explain the air current, given the structures curved walls and ventilation systems. Still looks like fun.
Heat transfer and internal natural convection within domed enclosures create that "whirl wind" effect. Great flight!
Very very impressive 👍👍
Well done!
The hall is so big there is even a dust devil.
There are currents of air probably from the a/c or the door or whatever. That glider is awesome.
It's hard to believe that thing weighs half a gram.
Wow. Thats really special interesst. Thx algorythm.
Great video, looks like an awesome science/physics project.
I'm giving it all I can captin'. That's amazing.
Thanks. I think if it's a warm/hot enough day it could stay up there until sun set. I light spread of Styrofoam balls, like bean bag top up should be standard operation from now on.
Mesmerizing!
I've done everything from model planes to working on a pro mod pit crew. This isn't thousands of horsepower like some of the stuff I work on but this was most enjoyable!
0:17 that’s nothing in some of the larger nasa hangers you get rain clouds that form, even full weather pattens.
Damn, the only thermal i didnt catch is an indoors😁 now i have a new box on my check list
amazing
About 30 years ago I happened to be in West Baden, Indiana and there were a bunch of people flying these planes in the atrium there. Some would fly seemingly forever.
Really cool loved the video always been fascinated by the super light little aircraft such a delicate precise sport
just wowwew. Fantastic bro
Props to the dust devil. Anytime you have air handling systems, you're going to have air movements indoors that are unpredictable.
HVAC system was turned off just for this event. See pinned post.
I noticed an Australian flag in the background, mounted on the front handrail of the seating. I like that.
Extremely clever.
Have no idea why I am here but that is just Amazing ! And a no go for building something so ultralight with my giant thumbs
Never knew they have so much fun up in Eager....lol. cograts from the city folks down in the valley. Very cool display of thermodynamics.
As soon as i saw the structure i knew exactly where you were😂. We were in there during the Wallow Fire and the HVAC was making bigger dust devils and you could see it in the ash and smoke in the air.
Incredible! Thermal hunting indoors...wow
I personally believe that all free flight aircraft are fascinating
I've wondered for years whether a model built this way could compete in indoor hand launch -- apparently, if there are skylights (to warm patches of floor) and a high enough clear space, it could. Too bad about the "immediately gain height" rule...
That rule was actually imposed specifically because of this type of model. Lee Hines a Dick Peterson were instrumental in getting the rules changed and they did so by getting one of these models to fly about 2 1/2 minutes.
I've SOO wanted to go up to Eagar for that contest for years. It's a few hours from me, one way, so it's a little bit of a commitment to spectate.
Never knew this kind of efficiency was even possible, insane!!!
holy cow that was amazing! thx for uploading
This is exactly why I will never waste my time and money competing at this site.
Clicked on this because it’s the only RUclips video whose title doesn’t end in a question mark. 👍
congrats🎉
Wonderful! Well done young man.
The glider is superb, as was the roof structure.
The title is a good example for teaching the use of the hyphen!
Someday we will all be working for that young man with the glider...
This is so so good, thanks for posting.
Amazing. Never thought this would be possible!
nice
after launch, move away from launch zone, cause yer standing in the way of the GENTAL VORTEX.
You're not wrong. We were a bit giddy about how cool the whole thing was.