What are the typical rules for Hand Launch Gliders competitions?

Hello !

My name is Marko and i live in Europe, more exactly in Slovenia. I`m flying HGL models abaut 2 years. Porblem is that we in Slovenia don`t have eny real roles for competitions so we use the Germen rules. Olso the FAI don`t have eny specific rules.

I`d like if is it posibel to send my thru mail or give the internet address where can I find the rules thet are you using in your competition in USA.

Thank you !
Marko Perpar

Marko,

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to your question previously through "Ask Joe and Don" on our website, with the "Christmas rush" around here I've been a little busy.

I did some checking, particularly at the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) website and the LSF (League of Silent Flight) website. Unfortunately I was unable to find a listing of the rules. I'm planning to suggest to both organizations that they post the rules for everyone in an appropriate universal format. The AMA website does have documents available in an Adobe format, and links for downloading an Adobe reader, but unfortunately I don't have space on my hard drive for that software right now. It also wasn't clear to me if their huge list of documents included the rules or not! The URL for the AMA is "http://modelaircraft.org/", and the LSF website is "http://www.silentflight.org/", perhaps you will find something helpful there.

I'll see if we can find a way to post the rules on our website as well, but it may take some time.

Basically the airplanes are required to follow FAI rules with a few exceptions.

The minimum wing loading rule is ignored, since this rule was developed for open-class sized models, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever at hand-launch glider Reynolds numbers. Forcing HLG's to follow this requirement would make almost as much sense as forcing F3B models to use full-scale loadings! Small, slow airfoils simply can't develop as much lift efficiently as larger, faster ones. It would literally kill the class for anywhere other than places with extremely strong thermals, like southern California. The maximum wing loading rule is enforced but also unnecessary, a model with a wing loading that high would be too heavy to throw to a decent altitude on launch.

The other modification is to require the 7.5mm minimum nose radius in only one view, which is also commonly done in the other American classes as well. For HLG's with their very slim fuselages this particularly makes sense, since enforcing the FAI requirement to the letter would result in a very poorly proportioned nose shape. At the very low weights and wing loadings typical of HLG's, safety is not significantly compromised. Once again, the original FAI rule came as a result of a specific problem area (a trend by some slope racers in Switzerland to use extremely sharp noses on some small, heavy and extremely fast models)and then foolishly applied to all classes (including future ones that hadn't been created yet) without really considering if that was appropriate.

The only real limitation on the model design is to limit the projected (i.e.: straight line, tip-to-tip) wingspan to 1.50 meters (or 59.06 inches in U.S. terms). Other than that, pretty much anything is allowed. There are some models available that advertise a 60 inch wingspan, but in most cases this means that they are measuring span along the wing surface, and that because of dihedral effects it falls within the 1.5 meter limit for the straight line measurement. This is something you should verify when buying and building a kit, if it doesn't meet the 1.5 meter limit you could be disqualified.

Contest tasks are largely up to the creativity of the Contest Director. The original tasks were typically to get three 2-minute maxes (or 1.5-minute maxes on days with weak lift) in a 6 (for 1.5-minute max) or 8 minute (for 2-minute max) working time. Contestants are allowed as many throws as they need with no penalty. The task is flown man-on-man; at the end of a flight group the number of seconds for the best three flights for each contestant are totalled, then the best competitor in that group gets 1000 points. The others in the group get points based on the ratio of their time divided by the best time for the round.

Many other possible tasks have been added, I would suggest reading the contest reports on the R/C Soaring Exchange, S&E Modeller magazine, QFI magazine and R/C Soaring Digest magazine for ideas.

Hopefully this will be enough to get you started, meanwhile I'll try to get the complete rules posted somewhere.

Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech