Flippin’ Out with Le Fish Light, 08-30-11 Mormon Lake Overlook from Dawson Henderson on Vimeo.
Groundbreaking!!! Some really cool new stuff here from Dawson: knife edge flips, flips with rudder added, and a whole bunch more. Seriously awesome!
Doug Montgomery of Glendale, Arizona has started producing laser cut servo pulleys / wheels that can be used to create a 200°+ rotation Madslide-style stabilizer based on Dawson Henderson’s innovative design. They look really nice and simply bolt to a standard 4 arm servo horn. They have a 1.6:1 ratio between the servo side and the stabilizer side and are cut from a combination of G-10 and 1/16″ plywood.
You can order by contacting Doug via private message on RCGroups. The post announcing these, including prices, is here in the “How to build a Swiss Fish” thread on RCGroups.com.
After having tested pull-pull and pushrod setups, I’m convinced that this pulley solution, pioneered by Dawson Henderson, is the best. All the drawbacks of the other solutions are addressed in an easy to set up, reliable, and durable solution that lets you whip a multiflip with ease. I will be getting some soon from Doug and can’t wait to try them out!!
Doug is also offering lasercut SB96V/SB9VS and MG05 airfoil templates in chord lengths designed for the 1.5m (60″) Le Fish. You can order his templates via this thread for the SB96V/SB96VS templates and this thread for the MG05. He also provides PDFs of the templates if you want to cut your own. Please note that the current Leading Edge Gliders Le Fish uses a modified SB96V/VS airfoil of Jack Cooper’s design, which is different from what Doug is offering here.
Wow! I’m so totally floored and excited by this development! Huge thanks to Doug for providing these valuable resources to Le Fish scratchbuilders worldwide!!
Flyin’ Light at Mormon Lake Overlook, 08-21-11 from Dawson Henderson on Vimeo.
Dawson testing his pulley driven, 200 degree movement flying stabilizer in Arizona… awesome 
Ellwood Compilation from surfimp on Vimeo.
This is an extended duration compilation of footage of Swiss Peter and myself flying over the last few sessions we’ve had out at Ellwood.
Peter has mostly been flying his all-white 2.1m 635g Big Fish, and I’ve been flying my white-and-black 1.5m 470g Le Fish with Madslide-style stabilizer. Both planes are built with the ultralightweight construction methodology that Peter pioneered, and they allow us to fly in a truly new and unique way.
Conditions varied between 6-12mph over the course of the various days and sessions presented here. This is the sweet spot for this current crop of ultralightweight gliders.
Apologies for the shaky bits of video in the beginning – those were filmed by my 6yr old son who is showing a lot of interest in gliders, especially now that we can make them do flips The rest was filmed via my headcam.
Ellwood Duet from surfimp on Vimeo.
Fun single take, uncut video of Peter and I flying a bowl at Ellwood, filmed with my headcam. The wind was a lot better than in most of our videos, about 10-12mph and coming in nicely to this bowl.
We tried to keep the planes in really close, within 5-10ft of the lip, where the compression was working really nicely. It allowed us to get the planes “on step” and really rockin’.
I was flying my 16.5oz 1.5m Le Fish and Peter was flying his 24oz 2m Big Fish. Filmed with a camera mounted to my hat
Slope Aerobatics with Le Fish “Light” from Dawson Henderson on Vimeo.
Dawson is really pushing the limits now… using a new pulley setup he came up with, he was able to get greater than 90* travel in one direction and found that he really liked the result. He’s going to modify his setup to use a larger drive wheel on the servo so that he can have more than 180* of total elevator rotation.
Here’s the original RCGroups post debuting Dawson’s pulley setup and his description of how it works, along with some photos:
“I used the 1.5 to 1.0 ratio to get the 120° to 180° movement on the elevator. I used the large servo horn/wheel as the “core” of my servo pulley. It measured 15/16″ in diameter… so I made the stab pulley 5/8″. That seem to work fine… I ended up with 180° of throw on the stab.
However next time I might go a bit larger on the servo pulley so I could be sure I got at least 90° each way and maybe a bit more. I was really enjoying the 100° throw on my UP elevator (only 80° on down); before I balanced them out to 90-90.”
Mad Elevator Using Pulleys from Dawson Henderson on Vimeo.
Cruising at Ellwood Part II from surfimp on Vimeo.
Watch in HD fullscreen for best results!
My 16.5oz (470g) ultralight Le Fish with Madslide-style full flying stabilizer gliding at Ellwood Mesa in very light 6-8mph (9-12km/h) wind. Shot with my hat-mounted camera.
This video was filmed later on the same afternoon as the original Cruising at Ellwood video, but the conditions had backed off some. It was still enough to have a lot of fun with the ultralighweight “MadSwissFish”. The large built-up floater you see from time to time is a kit-built 2m Spirit Elite, and was really the only other kind of plane that would’ve been much fun in such weak conditions.
The song “Star Fire Power” is by Gardens & Villa, an up-and-coming Santa Barbara band that was recently featured on NPR’s Song of the Day.
Cruising at Ellwood from surfimp on Vimeo.
Had a really fun day out at Ellwood Mesa with Swiss Peter and Michael Richter. The wind was pretty light, maybe 10mph max and averaging about 7-8mph, straight in. Very marginal conditions for most planes, but not for our ultralightweights!! We had a blast, flying formation, doing fin drags and touch-and-goes, and generally just having a great time. So nice to spend a day at the beach with good buddies
Light Air Aerobatics with Le Fish LT, 07-19-11 from Dawson Henderson on Vimeo.
More audiovisual goodness from Dawson!
Le Flip… beyond the douple from Dawson Henderson on Vimeo.
Success! We finally have video proof of true Madslide-style multi-flips, performed here in the USA by our very own beloved Dawson Henderson. He’s flying his lightweight Le Fish, with an all up weight of around 21oz and TONS of elevator travel:
Check out Dawson’s thread on RCGroups: Flips, Floops and Flops with Le Fish
