ExCali Limbo
Another amazing shot by Dave Garwood… this time it’s Swiss Peter flying the 2.5m ExCali under the 2.6m wide limbo setup at WeaselFest. What a great photo… what great flying… Wow!!
Posts Tagged ‘VTPR’
VTPR means “Voltige Très Près du Relief” in French and “aerobatics very close to the ground” in English. It is a style of aerobatic slope glider flying originating in France. VTPR aerobatics are flown at extremely low altitude and touching the tail, wing or belly of the glider on the ground are signature moves of the flying style.
VTPR is one of the most challenging types of slope aerobatics. It requires excellent piloting skills as well as a specialized, lightweight glider with a rudder and equal performance whether upright or inverted.
Worldwide, VTPR pilots also participate in motorized R/C aerobatics, with some extremely talented pilots representing their countries in international F3A competition. The best American VTPR pilots tend to have backgrounds in surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and similar creative, trick-oriented sports, as well as having a solid understanding of and proficiency in aerobatic fundamentals
Here’s a collection of great VTPR videos collected from all over the internet. Feel free to contact me if you’d like your VTPR video featured here!
Make sure to check out the new VTPR and Slope Aerobatics Facebook Group
Great shot
Great shot by Dave Garwood of my Le Fish and a Weasel flying at Ellwood Mesa during WeaselFest this past weekend. Dave is a very talented photographer and came all the way from New York to document our event. I can’t wait to see more! 
ExCali VTPR Glider Project
ExCali VTPR Glider #1 at Ellwood Mesa from surfimp on Vimeo.
ExCali build thread on RCGroups
Five years ago on March 21st, 2007, I launched this site with the goal of making it the best source of R/C slope and glider aerobatics content in the English language. Today the site features great slope aerobatics content from all over the world and helps bring us together so we can enjoy all that is going on. And there is quite a lot these days!!
So, in celebration, I’m pleased to announce the latest collaboration between Swiss Peter and myself. We are undertaking our most ambitious project yet, a California reinterpretation of the world famous Excalibur VTPR glider from the mecca of voltige tres pres du relief: Bretagne, France.
Our glider will be named ExCali, which in Latin means From Cali and of course also pays tribute to the name of the original Excalibur designed by Eric Poulain.
We have been collaborating closely with Rémi Le Besque, the pilot of the red Excalibur 2 from the famous Ménez-Hom 2005 video. Rémi is following in the long tradition of really cool French aerobatics pilots in generously sharing his time and enthusiasm with us as we undertake this project. Merci beaucoup, Rémi!
The ultimate objective is a 2.5m glider with molded fuselage and wood sheeted wings, the time honored construction technique of large and durable slope gliders worldwide.
Span: 2.5m
Length: 1.48m
Weight: ~1700g
Airfoils: TP42 – 9% (root), TP29 – 9% (tip)
Madslide-style stabilizer capable of 180* rotation
Printable PDF of the ExCali fuselage shape: ExCali ZIP file (10MB). Costs about $5 to print out at your local Kinko’s or equivalent.
The design will encompass best-of-breed features of the Excalibur 1 & 2, the Madslide, the Voltij, the Wasabi and the Le Fish. We intend it to be the most cutting edge VTPR glider produced up to this point, synthesizing all that has been learned in recent years about VTPR and Madflight.
We are first building EPP prototypes to test ideas and then, when we are satisfied, we will proceed with mold production. As you can see above, the first prototype, built by Swiss Peter, has been completed and flown. It’s a lot of fun! We have more in the works
Next summer, August 2013, my family and I will travel to Finistère, Bretagne where we will spend a nice holiday on the coast. There I will introduce the ExCali to the locals at Ménez-Hom and fly it alongside the French pilots who have been such an important inspiration to us.
Steve “Surfimp” Lange
F3B Tomahawk
Some really smooth flying, including some very highspeed VTPR, performed in strong 30mph wind with a Tomahawk F3B ship. Sweet!
Azik Light at Ménez-Hom
Another great video from my new buddy Ludo in France… totally digging it!
Surfimp’s VTPR Clinic From WeaselFest 2012
I provided this VTPR Clinic on Sunday at WeaselFest 2012 in celebration of the 5th anniversary of this website (launched in March 2007). It was well attended and a lot of fun! Andrew v B was kind enough to film it and post to his Vimeo… thanks Andrew!
I hope this is helpful for those getting interested in VTPR… enjoy!
Slopium ready for maiden!
The Slopium prototype is finished and it looks fantastic! This plane use the very cool “Twincam” elevator control linkage and also appears to have some kind of sophisticated wingeron-like setup for the wings. I’m really excited to see what it flies like!!
VTPR and Slope Aerobatics Facebook Group Created
I’ve gone ahead and created a Facebook Group for VTPR and Slope Aerobatics. It’ll be a nice and easy way for us to share cool stuff directly with one another… and of course I’ll pilfer the best stuff to post here! Check it out, have fun!
Update: This Facebook group is blowing up! Getting new members like crazy, from all over the world, at a pretty rapid pace – certainly exceeding my expectations! Very stoked.
Modded Telink Multifun
This is some video from the past weekend of John “Big Gas” Scahill flying his modified Telink Multifun. He cut a new wing for it with a TP42 airfoil, then covered it in “New Stuff” laminating film. The results speak for themselves! This is easily the best-performing Multifun I’ve seen yet, and has turned the plane into a very capable VTPR aerobat. Great job, John!
Kona 180º Flies!
Great footage of Benny Wachtelaer’s Kona 180º on its maiden flights! It looks like it really flies nice, glides beautifully and has a lot of aerobatic potential. Benny has put a huge amount of work into this project and he’s got to feel very proud of the outcome! Congrats Benny!!
Learn more about the Kona here on Benny’s site.
