Le Fish & Spindrift Plans
“I’ve come to realize that what I want is a four channel plane (flaperons/elevator/rudder) that will fly in lift similar to a Weasel and can take the same kind of abuse.”
– Original Le Fish build thread
Le Fish kit available here from Leading Edge Gliders – make sure to specify if you want a traditional or ultralightweight version!
Hello and thank you for your interest in the Le Fish and Spindrift VTPR glider designs!
The Le Fish glider was designed for unlimited VTPR (Voltige Très Près du Relief / “aerobatics very close to the ground”) aerobatics flight as shown in this video:
VTPR California Style from surfimp on Vimeo.
Here is the original video of the Le Fish prototype from 2006:
Le Fish at Farren from surfimp on Vimeo.
My designs have been influenced strongly from what I’d learned in flying my beloved Aeromod Voltij and studying open source plans and photos of the MiniToons v1 on EPP Concept, as well as BPLR’s Madslide, experience with scale models of the MDM-1 Fox and S-1 Swift, and lastly the Alula forward swept flying wing kitted by my good friend Michael Richter of Dream-Flight.
The Le Fish plan was intended as a first step towards my stated goal above, to create a lightweight EPP aerobatics glider that would allow me to take what I love about flying a Weasel and go even further. The resulting commercial success of the kit offered by Leading Edge Gliders has been a wonderful thing to see develop and I’m so glad to have been able to give something back to the hobby and community that I love so deeply.
In that same spirit of experimentation and shared journey, I encourage anyone and everyone to learn what they can from these designs, and make them better! They are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. You are free to copy, adapt, and make commercial use of these designs provided that you adhere to the following requirements:
1) Attribution — You must provide attribution to Steve “Surfimp” Lange for all copies, adaptations and commercial uses of these designs. This attribution must not indicate that I in any way endorse you or your use of my designs.
2) Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
Happy building and flying!
Steve “Surfimp” Lange
Specs of Le Fish:
- Wingspan: 60″ (1.5m)
- Airfoil: SB96V (root), SB96VS (tip)
- All Up Weight, Traditional build: 35-40oz. (990 – 1130g)
- Wingloading, Traditional build: 10-11oz/sq.ft.
- All Up Weight, Ultralight build: 16-20oz. (470 – 560g)
- Wingloading, Ultralight build: 5-6oz/sq.ft.
- Controls: Flaperons, Elevator, Rudder
The traditional build of the Le Fish will fly with full aerobatic performance in a range of wind conditions from approximately 10mph – 25mph+ without ballast, depending on slope characteristics and pilot skill.
The ultralight build of the Le Fish will fly with full aerobatic performance in a range of wind conditions from approximately 6mph – 20mph without ballast, depending on slope characteristics and pilot skill.
Both versions of the Le Fish are designed with fullspan flaperons in mind, requiring both positive and negative snapflap mixing for best performance. In addition, the ability to apply camber or reflex via a switch, 4-axis sprung throttle or similar is highly recommend to extend the performance of the plane.
Resources for builders:
- A kit of Le Fish is available from Leading Edge Gliders. Make sure to specify whether you want the traditional or ultralight version when ordering.
- A proper DXF/DWG plan (for CNC construction) and a PDF plan (for printing) for Le Fish will be made available very soon. In the meantime, feel free to use the original drawings below as your guide
- See the original Le Fish build thread if you are interested in building the traditional version of Le Fish.
- See the How to build a Swiss Fish thread on RCGroups if you are interested in building the ultralightweight version of Le Fish.
- SB96V and SB96VS airfoil coordinates for download. SB96V is used at the root, and SB96VS is used at the tip.
Le Fish plan:
Original Spindrift plan:
