Le Fish, Best tip drag possible, flight in various winds. 

Thanks Man! Love your Sailplane!

Sorry I didn't realize you had commented until now. I found your E-mail address, you must have given it to me quite some time ago so I'm compelled to ask permission to contact you via E-mail. No is OK, I won't get upset! just asking.

Robert Shaver Ya, email is fine. Thanks for asking

Thanks, I noticed too that you shared my build video thank you but also see my addendum video showing the change to get "both" double front and double back flips. My site is on the Monterey bay in California, yep It's better now than it's ever been (since the 70's); sand moves a-lot over the years. light winds and heavy winds? I know!!! I've never had a sailplane that operates well in all conditions, I used to bring two gliders... now just one does the trick and better to boot! Thanks again!!! Robert

Hey thanks for sharing! I used to fly a rudderless Ridge Rat that worked after 12mph but it was pretty much a low aspect ratio lead sled that could turn on a dime and loop forever and never did find a wind speed limit if the air was clean. But this is a whole new class of flying and will have to build one. Looked at one of the 66in kits out and Hacker has the 60in Vagabond 1500 ARF with "foil" covered wings and tail and it looks a lot like the Le Fish too and wondering if its using the same SB96V root/SB96VS tip foils shape as the Le Fish. Ever seen the Hacker fly? I read mixed reviews of some of their planes but see them fly well so think it's a lot of "user error" involved setting them up. But nice flying and thanks.

John F Hendry I don't have "experience" with the vagabond, If I had to make a recommendation it would be a Le Fish, I'm totally astounded with mine, what could be better?

Well I've been reading up on both. The Vagabond is much like the Le Fish but there are some big differences with pros and cons. The Le Fish wing uses a SB96V airfoil at the root, and SB96VS is used at the tip. The Vagabond has a SB96 airfoil according to one guy which is more cambered... I think but another guy with both say the wing foils look close to being the same. The SB96V-VS combo works well and suspect Hacker has played with combining the foils some more. The Le Fish can be built lighter due to the fuselage design and is a little bigger which I like for better visibility whereas the CZ made Vagabond is only a 60in wing span with a 3/4 in shorter fuse moment from TE to Elevator. But the Vagabond has HUGE ailerons and a much better roll rate and will allow for some amazing tight turns mixed in with the elevator both in pitch and roll if you go to a pull/pull elevator system, the biggest complaint I've read about and it doesn't look like there is room to use your solution of letting the nyrods bend. I suspect the Le Fish will be better at fast inversions and easier to fly inverted due to less induced drag (one guy flying a vagabond in CZ says he likes it using aileron differential on it which I'd want to stay away from for 3D especially with such large ailerons) but that's just an opinion right now having never flown either nor ever messed with using reverse camber. The best flying I seen so far has been done with the Le Fish and it's a proven design and given the choice what I'd pick if offered one with both RTF. The one main advantage of the Vagabond is it's a true ARF with the wings offered covered in low heat foil that adds 2 oz and that's over half a tube of Shoe Goo (not Amazing Goop that's nowhere near as strong and elastic I've found after testing glues to use on EPP) so not sure which I go for with as thinned with Toluene that's a LOT of coats that done right can make the wing as tough as a shoe but won't help much with rigidity, so I guess I'd go with the foil first and try to get the same foil for the fuse that's not covered. One thing is for sure this hobby just keeps getting better and some of the folks in it are far more educated than when I started and we see this in new designs from electronics to aerodynamics. If I didn't have other projects to finish I'd order a set of Le Fish wings and fuse and see what I'd do keeping it as light as possible and add the wing holes for visibility something the Vagabond lacks... Take care and let know what you find out;-)

John F Hendry Yeah just took a serious look at the Vagabond, looks good to me dude. The Le Fish is a "build" for sure. The vagabond looks have the same performance as far as I can tell via videos, maybe not quite as good in super light winds but I really can't even "state" that without flying it to know. Looks "Great" to me, I'd love to have one... go for it!

Thanks; the same right back to you ;)

I'm pretty sure that its EPP, it's not heavy and the span is about 68". I believe that Le Fish is still on the market so you should be able to find out more info online. This one was what they called Le Fish Lite, they don't make this one anymore but they do make another like one but it flies much differently. Honestly I would recommend an "Ahi" and then modify it with a full flying stabilizer so it can do the double flip maneuver. sorry for the skimpy info, it's about 8 years old.

+Mailton Guimarães obrigado, voce pode encomendar um destes lideres de planadores @ leadingedgegliders.com mina e a versao light que nao consigo encontrar em seu site. tenho a intencao de escreve=los para obter uma outra versao light.