Very nice video on solar powered sailplane

I used to fly the Radian glider, which could manage 30 minute flights up to 2000 ft. AGL, it was a two axis glider.  When my first one was "shot down" by a radio failure the company sent me a new one, free of charge, a $120 value.  But I chose not to fly it, did not have a field where it was safe to fly it, even though it was meant to be a park RC glider it was dangerous if the radio failed, could easily exceed 55 kts in a dive, and hurt someone or property if uncontrolled, like the first one almost did.  But I did have over two dozen good flights with it, more than ten hours' flight time, and I got my money's worth.  The young gentleman in this video is experimenting with a solar powered glider, he is a good teacher and shares a lot of his passion for flight.  I learned RC way back in the mid 80's with a friend.  We bought a five dollar foam store glider, cut out ailerons and an elevator for it, cut out space for avionics, and would fly it on wave lift on flights up to 3/4ths a mile away.  Then we scratch built a balsa and mylar covered glider and soared it on wave lift off of a hill about three miles south of Napa Airport.  We could hand launch it, take turns flying it, and keep it aloft for a couple of hours with the steady winds that came off of San Francisco Bay.  It was easy to gain 3-500 feet in altitude during our flights.  There was no other hill like that hill but alas, thirty years later, homes have been built upon its south face.  I replaced my interest in RC with a full time passion for simming, in my early retirement!

John