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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Restoring my 20 year Gentle (Old ) Lady.


I am currently restoring my CG Gentle Lady that I bought in 1987.
Actually it started out as a my first ever electric glider and the kit was called a Electra by CG. The kit with the motor but excluding the NiCad battery pack cost +/- R700.
The electric motor was similar to that found in RC model cars at the time.

The combination of the electric motor and battery pack was capable of giving a running time of +/- 10 min but due to the under powered motor, did not have a great rate of climb.

Even so, I can clearly remember a number of flights over 30min and at least one flight of more than an hour endurance. Unfortunately the electric motor broke down, so I had built the nose back up to that of conventional fuselage and also fitted a tow hook for bungee or winch launching.



Apart from the strengthened wing (fully sheeted top skin D box and extra strength (3 ply doubler's in the fuse) the dimensions are the same as a normal Gentle Lady.

Finally, about 2 years ago I stalled it close to the ground on landing and broke the right hand tip and so it landed up on my “Ag one day I will repair it again -Shelf "


Evan’s resent call to get our old gasbags out and to dust of their wings for the RES/100 Challenge, has prompted me to revamp it

The pictures here show the scars of many years of flying and it has maybe more carbon in it than most Gentle Lady’s.

Once I have it completely restored it I will post more pictures of (Then (1987) and Now (2007)).

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