Last year there were a couple of articles in RCM&E which caught my eye, the first was an article about the Ecirtech Hexen slope soarer and on looking at the French website I found that I was drawn to the company’s Bannsperber vintage glider. The Bannsperber would make a great builder’s project but before I took the plunge there was another article in the RCM&E about the 1/5th scale Flamingo HW-4 slope soarer. I liked the idea of both models as they were going to provide a significant build project and after much ado about nothing I plumbed for the Flamingo as I thought it more suitable for the slope.
The Flamingo was a Brazilian glider of 1947 vintage glider with a gull wing and high aspect ratio, the model I’m building will have a wingspan of 3.5m.
From the RCM&E article I had the free plan but it would have needed a significant amount of copying to make it useable to build from. Over the lockdown I ordered a laser cut short kit from Laser Cut Sailplanes (LCS) and a pack of additional spruce, balsa and plywood from Sarik hobbies. I went to LCS as the guy there was more forthcoming with information regarding the plan than I could glean from Sarik even though I phoned them up.
The wood that arrived from both companies is of good quality and a full size plan is thrown in free of charge by LCS. I’m sure the purist would ask why I am not cutting everything out myself but I have done that in the past and there is enough of a build so I make no apologies for having bought laser cut ribs, frames and other parts that need to be accurately cut out. One half of the fuselage is built over the plan, the whole then being completed by building the second side directly on to the first half.
For the complete Flamingo build post then CLICK HERE
