THSS REVIEW
Carl Goldberg's "GENTLE LADY"

Specifications:
Wingspan: 78"
Weight: 30 oz.
Wingloading: 7 oz./sq. ft.
Airfoil: RG14
Radio: standard receiver, 2 standard servos
Skill level: Beginner

Why the Gentle Lady: I walked into my local hobby shop and I asked the guy there which was the best glider he had for a beginner. He pointed out the Gentle Lady. Luckily for me, I find out later that the Gentle Lady is renowned as being a great glider for beginners. Although it's most definitely NOT a slope specific sailplane, I've flown it on slopes more than anywhere else (e.g. flatland thermalling*).

Building the Gentle Lady: Having no experience with building models (except for the plastic cars that I made as a kid), I'm surprised that my Gentle Lady turned out so well. You open up the box, and all you see are pieces of balsa wood and the directions. Needless to say, I was quite daunted with the task ahead of me, but I proceeded anyway. After a few weeks of work, I finished building the wings and fuselage* of the plane. The only thing left was covering* it. I had no idea how to go about covering the darn plane. The directions on the Monocote* that I bought just weren't as extensive as I wanted them to be. However, after letting the uncovered plane sit in the workroom for a while, I decided to bite the bullet and cover it. Surprisingly, covering it was WAY easier than I thought it would be. It took a little while to get the hang of it, but after that, it was a breeze (except for those darn curved parts like the wing tips and nose).

Flying the Gentle Lady: I threw the plane a few times off a little hill (no wind) just to see if it wouldn't fall like a rock, and then I took it to a good slope that I've seen before. Having no experience at all with flying R/C gliders or planes of any kind, it says a lot about how easy the Gentle Lady is to fly since I didn't crash it that first time out. The first few throws off the edge of the slope ended up with quick landings behind me, but on my third or fourth throw, I kept it in the air for about 5 minutes. On the next throw, it was up there for at least a half hour. It was great! I even did a few loops. Being a floater, the Gentle Lady doesn't need much wind at all on a slope to keep it up. The next time I went to fly it on a slope, I was up and away and flying quite a bit higher than any of the other planes there (they were all slope specific planes). My attempts to copy the speed runs* of the other gliders were pretty sad. The Gentle Lady has a very definite top speed. Take it up as high as you want, point the nose straight down, and it reaches terminal velocity pretty darn quick. That's because the terminal velocity is pretty darn slow. And I mean SLOW. That was my first problem with this plane. It flew great, and it would be darn near impossible for me to crash it, but it flew like a blimp compared to those other slope planes. All in all, it was a great plane for me to use to learn the basics of slope flying, and it's really good to have on those light lift days, but it really lives up to its name, which makes it pretty boring.

* Defined on the Definitions page.
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