RC Soaring in Türkiye
A snapshot of recreational flying activity at ‘the crossroads of Europe and Asia’.
The Eskişehir Aviation Club (ESHAVK) has been active since 2004 (see Resources, below, for website.) There are model airplanes, gliders, hang gliding, ultralight, and paragliding pilots within the club, and it continues its activities in İnönü, Eskişehir city located in Türkiye. In the last 15 years, we have mainly been flying and pursuing our hobby with model gliders. The 2m glider models are the most popular among our club. To date, more than 20 of our modellers have participated in competitions with 2m model gliders.
EsGlide and EsMax
Our club started to design its own gliders in 2012. In this project, builders have built composite (glass fibre, carbon fibre and kevlar) fuselages while others have opted for a simpler, wooden fuselage. Wood, composite, foam and hybrid wings were made, and many models were tested in competition. At the end of approximately five versions, the EsGlide F3L 2m glider model, which complies with the FAI F3L provisional rules of 2022, will be able to be flown with carbon spar and D-box wooden wing versions. Numerous modellers have had the chance to build and fly dozens of EsGlide models since 2012.
In addition, our club designed an F5J model in 2018, and the prototype was built in 2019. Five of our EsMax models have been produced and flown to date. With a wingspan of 3.40 meters and a flight weight of 1200 grams, the EsMax is one of the lightest models in its class. There is no commercial production of our F3L 2m EsGlide and our F5J EsMax yet.
2m Model Glider Competitions
We started organising 2m glider competitions in Türkiye in 2002. We initially set out using an alternative to the F3J models. F3J models were costly and were fully composite. For this reason, modellers could not make their models and had to buy them ARF. Based on this idea, we decided to focus on the 2m class, which is primarily built with wooden materials and can fly with a two-channel receiver. These 2m models could cost one tenth of an F3J model.
The first 2m glider competition was held in Bursa, Orhangazi, in April 2005. After a few competitions, when the interest increased, it became clear that some rules had to be set. Model, competition area, flight rules, matrix and such like. All the issues were determined in many meetings, in consultation with community members from many cities, and shared with everyone. These rules are reviewed at the beginning of each season in a series of meetings.
From the beginning to the present, competitions have been held in 11 different locations in Türkiye including (number of events noted in brackets): İnönü, Eskişehir (11); Orhanli, Istanbul (10); Bekirpaşa, İzmit (4); Yalova Air Force Academy Facilities (7); Bursa (11); Riva, Istanbul (2); Büyükçekmece, Istanbul (2); Gölbaşı, Ankara (2); Orhangazi, Bursa (1); Bandırma (5); Nicosia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (4). Through the end of 2021, 59 competitions were held in our country, and 283 competitors participated.
Our Turkish Brand 2m Class RC Gliders
Models designed and built in Türkiye have helped modellers from 7 to 70 start in the sport and learn to fly. Some of these models are; Albatross, Kamikaze, Miles, EsGlide, Turquoise, Star, Bures and Rookie.
2m rudder-elevator-spoiler (RES) glider class rules have been published in the FAI provisional F3L category since 2022. In the new season, we plan to hold our competitions within the rules published by the FAI.
In this class, 11 competitions were organised by ESHAVK and held at the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) İnönü Aviation Training Center, one of the most famous airfields in Türkiye. While most of our competitions were attended by around 25 people, some were held with more than 60 pilots. Paragliding, glider, hang gliding, and model airplane training are given to Turkish youth at the İnönü Aviation Training Center, which became operational in 1936 under the auspices of the Turkish Aeronautical Association which in turn, was established in 1925.
On 3–4 September of 2022, ESHAVK will organise the F3L 2m glider competition in İnönü using the FAI rules. Why not join us! See our club website in Resources below for more information.
Special Thanks
We are grateful to our modellers who put great effort into the 2m glider branch. Thank you: Oktay Gülmez, Birol Öner, Mustafa Vehbi Koç, Philip Kolb, Kadir İstifçi, Mike Yust, Selim Etger, Eser Kişmir, Gültekin Kalay, Ufuk Özben, İlhan Gümüşel, Saim Gürer, Murat Yagan, Mustafa Kölemenoğlu, Selim Nohutçu, Haka Oruz, Oykun İlgün, Yunus Karaer, Ataç Gültekin, Hayrettin Topel, Selçuk Gül, Savaş Zafer, Haluk Güloğlu, Murat Bozdemir, İlker Evrendilek, Mehmet Şekecioğlu, Mehmet Arslan, Ali Varış, friends from Istanbul, friends from Bursa, friends from Bandırma, friends from Yalova, friends from North Cyprus and last but not least the valuable staff of the Turkish Aeronautical Association. And another hearty ‘thank you!’ to you all.
More Happy Moments from the Soaring Scene in Türkiye
You can find our flight videos on our YouTube channel which is linked in Resources, below. Please don’t forget to subscribe!
Thank you very much for reading and if you have any questions about RC gliding activities in Türkiye, please feel free to use the Responses section below and I will do my best to answer them.
Happy thermals and landings.
©2022 Yavuz Dal
Resources
- Eskişehir Aviation Club — Official website of the organisation which is the focus of this article.
- FlyingThings — The YouTube page for the Eskişehir Aviation Club.
- Turkish Aeronautical Association — From Wikipedia: “a non-profit organisation with an aim of increasing public awareness and participation in aviation related activities and the national body governing air sports in Turkey.”
Ibrahim Yavuz Dal was born in 1974 in Eskişehir, Türkiye. He worked as a lecturer at Anadolu University between 1999 and 2018 and since then, has been working at Eskişehir Technical University within the Faculty of Sport Sciences.
All photos by the author unless otherwise noted. 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.
