Hello everyone,

For this wonderful glider, there was an article written in the old Indian Modeler Magazine. If after decades, memory serves right, it was written by Mr. Carlson himself or someone interviewing him in the magazine. 

Would any one of you senior free flight modelers would have access to this original article? Thanks so much in advance.

Many of us in this group here know this glider very well, plans were posted by Mr. Iyer.  What I am now curious is to see what Father Carlson had on his mind and the article might throw a light at it. Very much want to know his thoughts.

Thanks again.

Having difficult time placing that article. Hopefully someone will help locate it. 
Anyways it is a great CLG model highly recommended for beginners and experts too. Overall weight ready to fly is 5 grams. Flying it with 1/16 inch rubber from office supply about 7 inches long and only an 80 percent pull. More than that, it would be an ever better flight, but would surely be a gift for the thermal Gods.Here is a video of one these flight. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did on the field.

Lovely flight. The sink rate is was pretty good considering the wing span is not much. Great outdoor space too.
I have some left over kits of Tich from Aurora Models I bought quite some years ago for conducting a workshop for kids. Must get one of them ready for action and fly it once the rains stop.
Great going - added is the flavour of nostalgia.
Anant

Lovely flight. 45+ seconds, eh!
I guess you are flying in the US, and have 6lb/cft or lighter contest grade balsa 
Mine (9gms) was lost in a soyabean field after 20 seconds from a hand launch.

I hope this video inspires newcomers (young and old)
My efforts, over several years, to generate interest by offering small cash prizes (Rs 1000 for a 10 second hand launch flight, 20k for 20 seconds etc), came to naught.
Even after Glidiator and Saikat offered to match the prize money!

A fortnight ago I made a Whatsapp group of 10 youngsters who've been in touch with me for a year or two. Of course everyone wants to fly RC straightaway.

After a lot of persuasion, one of them (RC Guy) finally made a Tich in 3mm depron.
I think he was quite surprised at how well it flew.
So he got himself one sheet of 1.5mm balsa to build the Tich with.
Hope to see it completed and flying tomorrow.

I've sent a msg to all the group members to see your video.

Regards
Iyer

@free flight,

Found an article 'Chuck Gliders' by Fr Carlson.
Indian Modeller July-Sep 1970.

Original Tich article I don't seem to have.

After the Tich, Fr Carlson had published another larger polyhedral glider plan.
A year ago, when I was looking at it, my dog couldn't bear the lack of attention, so he grabbed the mag and shredded the plan page.
We saved the shreds in a plastic folder. Now all we have to do is find the folder!

Gladiator, thanks for the kind words, glad you liked it. Yes build one and enjoy.
Mr. Iyer, glad you liked it too. Could you be kind enough and post a PDF of Fr. Carlson's article? Wish you the best of luck to find the folder and perhaps when glued together, we can have a look at it.

Yes, these days, I do not seem to blame them, the younger generation wants RC or Drones as they are ready made, no trimming as such, ARF and instant gratification seems to be a norm. Then they move on to other hobbies.

If I may share some of my building experience with Tich.

Once I did use the light 4 pound balsa. But on the second flight, the wings fluttered and tore apart like a  piece of paper.
So that expensive and rare wood, I hold only for indoor flight.

This Tich was made with 8 # wood and fuse with 10 #. One idea is that before you carve the fuse, balance it at mid point. The heavy side will go to the nose as it will need clay anyways. Moreover, the tail gets light. Then sand, sand and some more keeping the wing and stab glue spot portion as is. That saved overall 3 grams .

Next I use only cement with double coat. The cement is applied with a tiny thin brush and let dry for 24 hours or more with pins holding the joint. As acetone evaporates it looses more weight but hold strength. I never use Flevicol type aliphatic glue , though very good, it is heavy. With this strength, I do not use cement fillets. More weight saved.

I do not coat my planes with dope etc. I use only Sharpie marker on top (Red)and black at the bottom. This gives good identification in grass and zero additional weight.

Sand the wings well while maintaining the aerofoil and HP thickness. Do not go thinner at HP and 1/20 at TE seems good enough to avoid flutter.

So this Tich came out at 5 grams with no light balsa.

You guys probably do all this anyways, but thought I would share as I made this recently.

Have posted a couple more videos to share. Hope you guys like them too.

A couple more videos on the same day: To get the 2 minute max, must learn to pick the air. After all these years, I still struggle with that.

Not very good quality, I fear...

@free flight

Sent them by email too.

Regards

Dear Mr. Iyer, Thank so much for sharing.
A wonderful article. You can see how those days they had just stumbled into TLG design ( Page 2) . Those days they has clear concepts of a composite structures that gives strength and yet reduces the weight by a fair amount.

This is great. Thanks again.

Hope, in the near future we can see your copy of the Tich Article too.