Radio Control Cross Country Soaring News

World Record in Cross Country Soaring

Twenty years ago, Joe Wurts set the cross-country RC-soaring record, which still stands today. He wrote a report about it way back then, it is still relevant today, and we are happy to post it in the hopes of inspiring others to make their own record attempts.

2008 Golden State Cross Country Race

Ron McElliott has submitted photos of the event.
The annual California Valley Cross Country Race was held on Saturday, May 16th and Sunday May 17th this year.

Testing RNR’s SBXC Performance

Dan Edwards has updated his testing paper Performance Testing of RNR’s SBXC Using a Piccolo Autopilot on March 2008. The paper discusses actual flight performance of the popular SBXC cross-country glider.
Dan is a graduate student at North Carolina State University and has a website about his autonomous soaring research.

2008 Montague Cross Country Challenge

The 11th annual Montague Cross Country Challenge offered blue sky with hardly a cloud in it. Dieter's Report and official results show that conditions were challenging but fun. Coming from North Carolina, the ALOFT team flew their autonomous soarer, an SBXC loaded with electronics.

Pin Awards

Dean Gradwell presented Dan Edwards a 25 k pin for a flight he flew in North Carolina. Steve Henke received his 50 k pin for a flight at Montague. Dan Edwards also turned in paperwork for a 50 k pin for the Saturday flight at Montague. Dan will receive his pin in the mail.

SBXC Assembly Manual

The venerable SBXC and Super-XC are popular gliders for cross-country soaring.

This downloadable PDF document describes the step-by-step assembly with many photos and detailed descriptions.

Minimizing Slop in Control Surfaces

The popular cross-country gliders SBXC and MXC are molded performance planes. Slop is a problem, especially in high-performance gliders.
At best, slop makes flying more difficult; and at worst, it can lead to flutter which in turn may cause air frame failure.

SBXC and MXC Sailplanes

The SBXC and MXC are commercially available all-molded gliders designed specifically for cross-country competition. Their design yields high performance while also providing the stability needed to pilot them from a moving car.

Testing RNR’s SBXC Performance

John Ellias and Dan Edwards have tested actual flight performance of the popular SBXC cross-country glider. John used an on-board GPS unit to arrive at a sink polar for the glider. Dan expanded on John's data using an auto pilot.

Organize a Contest

How to design and run a cross-country soaring event. Course, tasks, base and rules are aspects to consider.