From Whence Came the Windsong…and Other Thoughts
What’s with all the mullets and Phil Collins’ songs? Because suddenly, it’s 1982.
After introducing the Camano 100 kit in 1981, to replace the Todi, I was ready to seriously consider a replacement kit for the Maestro line which was first introduced in 1974. Originally I had favored using the Maestro fuselage with a Camano type control system and wing construction. My dream, beginning with our multi-channel Todi in 1972, had been to design and kit a glider with an undeniable performance edge over any other available kitted glider. With the Todi, Maestro,and Camano 100, we had offered soaring pilots the most versatile thermal competition gliders available. These planes would more than hold their own in competition against any comer in the hands of skilled multi-channel fliers. Alas, their performance edge was not dramatic enough to jar the bulk of the soaring world away from its first love, polyhedral floaters, except in pockets around the country where great fliers could demonstrate their capabilities. Where these multi-channel ships were flown well they dominated the competition scene.
I looked upon the Maestro replacement as the perfect chance to achieve a clear cut performance edge that none could deny. Utilizing what we had learned from our then ten year evolution in multi-channel kit design, we hoped to lock in on the perfect set of compromises for the new plane. I have long believed that the best flying glider is the one that has incorporated the best combination of compromises between structure, weight, aspect ratio, control systems, airfoil, aerodynamic purity, and handling.
It wasn’t until the1982 Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska however, that the Windsong design really jelled in my mind. I had driven to the Nats in my Toyota motorhome with four of the most skilled multi-channel fliers in the country: Dave Johnson, Tom Brightbill, Jack Pitcher, and Tom Neilson. The trip back home was long and soon the conversation came around to when I would be coming out with a new kit. Since I still had not made up my mind on several design variables for it, I took advantage of this captive, free, expert-flier, design team. What we got going was a think tank environment. By the time we reached the West Coast, most of the basic design parameters had been laid down. We decided to start from scratch with a third generation Camano concept fuselage, go with the Eppler 214 airfoil, and utilize the basic control system and wing construction of the Camano 100, in conjunction with the basic Maestro planform. It has been rightly said that “the Windsong was conceived in the back of a Toyota.”
When I got home in August of 1982, I worked out the details, drew up the Windsong plans, carved the fuselage molds, made the wing core templates and constructed a prototype. During the drawing stage, I was struck with the idea of using reflexed ailerons as both spoilers and, when reflexed only six degrees, for high speed flight thus eliminating the need for typical, drag producing, spoiler bays and allow for a high speed airfoil along the entire wingspan. After all the Eppler 214 airfoil was specifically designed to perform well with camber changing capability and I was eager to see how it worked in practice. This control innovation would require no more servos than would simple, efficiency-robbing spoilers. Moreover, the concept offered the advantages of full span trailing edge camber control, full-throw inboard flaps and separate outboard ailerons that reflex as spoilers to use along with 90 degree flap throw to allow dethermalizeing in safe, steep and even vertical dives. The separate flaps and ailerons also minimize potential high-speed flutter problems, the flapped handling problems, and the performance penalty of changing the camber along the entire trailing edge every time the ailerons are deflected.
The prototype Windsong flight tested fine. It took me some time to get used to flying the Windsong, however, as it required more up elevator in the turn than I was used to. The Windsong also seemed to fly faster than I was used to but soon I was amazed at how slowly it could be flown. In the first contest that I flew the Windsong I didn’t get many landing points. Also I was getting radio interference so I had to settle for half a tow and I could safely fly only in one little sector of the sky. In spite of this dual handicap the Windsong was turning in the longest flight times. From experience I concluded that these air times were just a fluke and that at the next contest I would sink like a stone. It didn’t happen. It began to become evident to me that we had a real winner here. By November 1982 we had production kits on the market. In the spring of 1983 we incorporated a flap-elevator compensator ‘Der Devastator’ into the kit. This feature allows the safe use of up to 80 degrees of flap for very slow, steep landing approaches with excellent control. With this steep approach you never need to fall short on landing because you can remove flap (without stalling) to stretch the glide as needed.
The Windsong that I am still flying is the first Windsong prototype that I built back in 1982, The more I fly it the more I see what it is capable of doing. My contest performance has improved since I retrofitted the flap-elevator compensator to my Windsong which helped my landing precision. With the Windsong I have come to firmly believe that I have a real advantage over any other glider design especially when air times are hard to come by.
My Views on Thermal Contest Formats
I hear people say that ‘man-on-man’ is the only fair way to hold a thermal contest. I have flown in several man-on-man contests and I do not feel that they really show much since you can’t gain on people ahead of you unless they really mess up or unless you are in the same heat that they are. The best thermal contests that I have flown in are contests that have many flights of long duration (seven minutes or more, variland, or triathalon). I mean long flights even when the air doesn’t look as if anyone will get a max. This type of contest, with as many rounds as possible and most probably no one maxing every flight, is the forum that best rewards the most skilled thermal flyer, who will rise to the top despite the ‘luck factor’ that poor thermal flyers blame for their lack of air times. Naturally, to make this type of contest work as it should, no ‘sandbagging’ can be tolerated so that thermalling skill, rather than sandbagging skill, becomes the decisive factor. This type of contest forces an aerial dual between the top thermal flyers and it is won or lost in the air rather than on the ground in spot landing points.
Having many long flights is what I enjoyed most in participating in the 1984 National Soaring Society regional contest (Soar-In). In fact, the 1984 NSS Soar-In was where the first flight was put on my own newly revised Camano 100 which I entered in standard class. It did not take long to see that the new Camano 100 is to become “the Windsong of standard class.” I hope that the NSS continues the long flight format in future years and abandons the old “3 for 15” event, in which air times are too easy, resulting in a landing contest rather than a thermalling contest.
©1985, 2021 Bob Dodgson
This article originally appeared in the November-December, 1985 issue of Sailplane, “the journal for RC soaring published by the National Soaring Society”. It was edited and updated slightly for publication in RCSD. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
