Is the Chrysalis strong enough for a beginner?

I've been flying powered RC for about two years, and now want to try my hand at HLG. I purchased your Chrysalis, but now wonder if this is the ship I should start with, due to its delicate construction. Is this glider robust enough for a beginner HLG pilot, or should I shelf it until I get some experience? I received a Skeeter HLG for Xmas, maybe I should learn on this first? I'd rather fly the Chrysalis, but I'm not sure its the wise move. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

From : Don Stackhouse

Understandable Rob, but you don't need to worry about your Chrysalis. Any hlg worthy of the name will break if you try to play "lawn dart" with it, but the Chrysalis will absorb a surprising amount of abuse. It really isn't "delicate" at all. Most of the primary loads are carried by spruce and birch, not the more fragile balsa used in other kits. The structure is well designed, and uses the materials to their best advantage. It's light and flexible, but also quite tough. It will hold up as well or better than most of the built-up models in this category, and the simple structure is very easy to repair if you do break something.

If you've been flying successfully for two years (i.e.: able to land consistently by yourself, can tell left-right and up-down without looking over your shoulder when the model is coming towards you, and you don't take your models home in a bag very often) you should have no trouble flying your first hand launch sailplane. The typical hlg will be slower and more sensitive to air currents than what you're probably used to flying, but also more nimble, and with better stability. Just don't try to put it in orbit on the first throw, work up to it gradually as you develop a feel for the launch. There are several articles in "Ask Joe and Don" about launching technique and how to not overstress your model; I would recommend you read each of them at least twice. Thicken your finger pegs with extra balsa on top to help prevent inadvertently wrapping your fingers over the top of the pegs and breaking a wing. I also recommend that you NOT try to hand-catch your Chrysalis until you are very familiar with it. Just concentrate on making controlled landings on any nearby smooth and obstruction-free area, preferably something soft and non-abrasive, like grass.

If you are expecting to have a lot of hard landings there are a few things you can do to beef it up at the expense of a small amount of extra weight:

Add a strip of fiberglass tape across the top of the nose and down the sides, just in front of the removable hatch. This keeps the battery compartment cover from splitting along the upper longerons in a hard nose-in.

There have been some reports of fuselage sides splitting in the tailboom area from hard landings. The best fix for this is to put some 1 inch wide bands of fiberglass tape around the tailboom, one layer thick all the way around, one just behind the trailing edge of the wing, two more spaced evenly along the tailboom, one more at the leading edge of the stabilizers and a final strip around the aft end of the fuselage and about 1 inch onto the underside of the stabilizers just in front of the hinge line. The tape in the kit, or 1 inch wide "Sig" glass tape works well. If you have some 3/4 oz. fiberglass cloth use that, it will save weight and still be plenty strong enough. You can apply it with cyanoacrylate, or thin epoxy. You can also use the water based polyurethane you use to finish the wood in that area, which should help save some more weight.

In the wing you might want to use 1/16" balsa for the shear webs, and install them with Titebond or Weldbond rather than cyanoacrylate. Use the rubber-band type of wing attachment, and use only 4 rubber bands.

Read the other articles in the "Chrysalis" section of "AJ&D" for other hints.

As far as what to do with that other kit you mentioned, there are lots of opinions in the soaring community about that one. Since you already have the kit I will keep my own opinions to myself. I would suggest you ask some of your friends who've built one of those for any suggestions they might have.

Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech djarotec@bright.net