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This is a subject that crops
up on a regular basis. The record that has passed into
R/C mythology; that of 242 mph (390 kph), was set in
1978, ignoring Dynamic soaring records of course. That's over 40 years ago!
(page edited in 2019) This
will be before many of
you were even born...
Of course,
nowadays, the record is held through Dynamic Soaring, as I write it
currently stands at somewhere around 545mph (877kph) but that doesn't
detract from the previous slope-side record set back in 1991. Although a magnificent achievement
at that time, don't try to relate it to your own slope
flying because the record was set over a 50 metre course
and 6600 feet up an Austrian mountain at the end of an
enormous dive! And, of course, the air is thinner (19% less)
at that high above sea level as it was where the DS record was set.
If you want to read more, and
see a 3-view of the model called the PFEIL (German for Arrow) there's a
contemporary article on to download below. I scanned the 3
pages below (~800Kb) of the original since the original
magazine is unavailable 30 odd years on. Click on the thumbnails.
As far as I know, in 2010,
the
course length is 200 metres and not the 50
metres mentioned above. The
slope-side speed record (i.e. non D/S) was/is held by Klaus Kowalski
of Germany at 239.70 kph (149mph) over a 200
metre course. That record
was set on 20th July 1991. The
record has to be the calculated from the average
time of a pass in each direction over the course,
in the same flight and within a 30 minute slot. Claims
higher than 150 mph must be electronically timed
(i.e. no stopwatches).
After the success of
the Pfeil some other well known models came along, notably the Dassel
which was flown in F3B, and the Sitar Special, a kit variant from Solent
sailplanes with a glass fibre fuselage and plank-like foam wings
differing from the Pfeil's high sweepback but with a similar high
mounted elevator.
More info from the web:
Flown at Patscherkofel Mountain (Ski Resort), Innsbrück.
There may be a Sitar/Pfeil model in this Swiss museum,
Verkehrshaus (Transport Museum) in Lucerne.
The models, Sitar and Dassel,
were designed and built by the AME Group in Austria under the direction
of Fridolin Fritz and Werner Sitar. My
brother filmed the Austrian team way back in 1977 at a UK F3B event
using 150m towlines (no winches back then) with an early ½"
reel-to8-reel video camera.
Click image to watch the YouTube
video.
Shot at the 1977
International F3B contest held in Oxford in 1977 on 1/2" reel to reel
video tape. At the beginning is Sean Bannister from the UK flying, and I
still remember he did a 14.6 sec for a 2 lap speed task. Next is some
footage of one of the Sitar brothers from Austria flying. They used to
hand tow from a 150m towline. The amazing thing then, was they just did
10.5 to 10.6 sec every time and convincingly obliterated the opposition. |
