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Modelarz 1962-04
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Sweepette-Ette 14
Sweepette-Ette 14

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Sweepette-Ette 14
Description: A simple 14" span catapult glider for sport or fun competition featuring simple balsa wood and basswood construction.
Keywords: Catapult, Glider, Sport
Date: 09.20.2020 17:20
Hits: 531
Downloads: 229
Rating: 0.00 (0 Vote(s))
File size: 3.6 MB
Added by: higgphanx1

Comment:
higgphanx1
Member

Join Date: 12.22.2013
Comments: 12
Background information on this glider.
Way back in 1979, Al Lidberg designed an outdoor chuck glider for one of his kids that he called the Sweepette-Ette 14. It was based on Lee Hines’ Sweepette series of gliders featured on pages 195 through 197 of Frank Zaic’s 1959-61 Model Aeronautic Yearbook. I really like the looks of the Sweepette series of gliders and especially Al Lidberg’s Sweepette-Ette 14 version, which appeared as a plan and construction article in the November 1979 issue of Flying Models magazine. The only part of Al’s glider that I did not care for was the shape of the horizontal stabilizer, so I slightly revised it to what I consider a more pleasing shape.

For the catapult version of the Sweepette-Ette 14, I added a fuselage extension and handhold to the aft end and a catapult hook to the forward end. Although my Sweepette-Ette 14 Mk. II plan does not show the falling weight dethermalizer, it is shown on the drawing titled “Simple Dethermalizer for Small Gliders.”

I had to add around a half gram of nose weight to the glider along with the Viscous D.T. to get the model to balance properly. Incredibly, I did not need to make any adjustments whatsoever to the prototype Sweepette-Ette 14 Mk. II during the low speed glide tests and subsequent catapult launch tests at the flying field, which is a first for me! Using a fairly steep launch angle of 70 degrees inclination from the horizontal, the glider climbs around 100 feet or more before transitioning to a very flat glide with almost no altitude loss during the transition. I used a 9 inch loop of 1/4” wide brown rubber attached to a 1/2” diameter by 6” long dowel for the catapult, which is shown on the plan.

On one of my test flights the glider caught a thermal right at transition, and after about a 1 minute flight, the falling weight D.T. popped and the glider started doing a series of whip stalls which caused the glider to stop circling and fall out of the thermal. The D.T. popped just in time, as the glider was getting very close to an adjacent corn field; we are not allowed to enter the corn field to retrieve a model, and good luck trying to find a small glider in 4 to 6 foot tall corn stalks.
09.22.2020 17:40 Offline higgphanx1



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