Nanite slide wing glider questions

I am getting into rocketry, focused on mostly micro maxx. I was looking over my Nanite kit to plan my build, I looked up my local rocketry club in hope that there would be micro flyers there, sadly they do not fly in winter due to the snow fall we have in Michigan, so I am on my own building/ flying spree until spring.
From my reading the Nanite should not be painted for best performance....I was studying the brilliant simple design and it occurred to me that with a few simple mods the slide wing feature could be actuated without the need for a burn string therefore permitting rear ejection of spent motor And this makes the glider noticeably lighter in the glide phase....so a silly newbie question...is ejecting the spent motor case permitted in 1/8th A glider class? Sorry if this is a dumb question....I do not know or meet any " rocketry guys" other than my local hobby shop, they are not familiar with micro Max, but are trying to order motors for me. This mod of course would require re- balance of the glider, but that seems easy on this nifty design.

In the competition world there are different glider events. Boost Glider (B/G) is allowed to separate into unattached pieces, and the glider component is the only one timed. Rocket Glider (R/G) does not allow any kind of separation, so in order to transition from a stable rocket, to a stable glider, there must be some kind of change in geometry such a sliding wing, or pod, or swing wings. The Nanite is an example of a slide-wing R/G.

Yes, you could modify the kit to allow motor ejection, but that would be making it into a B/G. It would not be legal in competition, unless you have a streamer attached to the motor. However, if what you want is a B/G, then you don't need the added complexity of a sliding wing. If you are not familiar with building B/Gs and R/Gs, I recommend you build and fly a B/G before you do the Nanite.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a B/G kit for MMX, but I'll do some searches and let you know.

LW Bercini said:

In the competition world there are different glider events. Boost Glider (B/G) is allowed to separate into unattached pieces, and the glider component is the only one timed. Rocket Glider (R/G) does not allow any kind of separation, so in order to transition from a stable rocket, to a stable glider, there must be some kind of change in geometry such a sliding wing, or pod, or swing wings. The Nanite is an example of a slide-wing R/G.

Yes, you could modify the kit to allow motor ejection, but that would be making it into a B/G. It would not be legal in competition, unless you have a streamer attached to the motor. However, if what you want is a B/G, then you don't need the added complexity of a sliding wing. If you are not familiar with building B/Gs and R/Gs, I recommend you build and fly a B/G before you do the Nanite.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a B/G kit for MMX, but I'll do some searches and let you know.

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LW is right on about the Nanite not being legal if it ejects the bare motor in 1/8A BG or RG competition.
Do note that one can fly either a BG Boost Glider or an RG Rocket Glider in any BG competition. but one could not fly a BG Boost Glider in RG competitions.
It is possible to eject the motor casing IF it has an attached Streamer. This Streamer need only be long enough to be seen by the RSO.

While their are not many "Kits" out there currently there are a bunch of Plans that can be had. The Nanite RG from Fliskits is a Great little RG. QCR "Qualified Competition Rockets" has a Micro BG and RG.
over on the MicroMaxRockets Yahoo group there are plans for a few BG and RG conversions from standard 1/4A size models.
Hope this is of some help

That Is helpful, I was not aware of the separate classes of glider...I will build one Nanite stock to get a feel for the performance as designed, then build a second Nanite with my mods to see if they have any merit....I am mostly building for sport flying and fun.
I have joined the yahoo group, but not posted there yet, it is a different format than this forum and I have yet to learn to navigate there...I would be very interested in looking the plans section over.

My son and I just built 2 of these we did not have much luck .the string kept burning as soon as the motor was ignited



There are 2 clubs in Michigan that fly all year but one of them just lost their field so the won't be flying anytime soon the other club has a launch planned for dec 6th .
There is another club that doesn't fly in the winter but they hold build sessions once a month .

harrison2537 said:

My son and I just built 2 of these we did not have much luck .the string kept burning as soon as the motor was ignited



There are 2 clubs in Michigan that fly all year but one of them just lost their field so the won't be flying anytime soon the other club has a launch planned for dec 6th .
There is another club that doesn't fly in the winter but they hold build sessions once a month .

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Yes: The Nanite is a bit if a challange for folks new to slide wings. they are very touchy no matter what size, Micro size makes the hold back boost string tension all that more challanging. Personally I like the NOMAD Micro RG where the burn sting activates an hinged elevator to transition from Boost to glide phase.

For the most part if you want your gliders to get the best flight times they should not be painted, They can be decorated with Magic markers without adding any additional mass. Markers can then be sealed with a very light coat of Kyrlon #1306 Workable Fixatif sealing clear. other clear as again to much extra weight.

Don't have any photos yet of my nanite but below are 9 photos Micro powered Glider models. The micro Deltie and Ivee BG and Micro Nomad RG are all contest qualtiy flyers. Most of the remaining are Sport flying Gliders with one page plans in the files section folder titled "McCoys Micro Fleet" That has about 150 or so different scratch built micro models. Gliders would be in the 1/8A competition model sub-folder.

Once you have joined the group, you'll be able to access all the files from the menu on the left side of the opening screen. Lots of fun stuff to look at read and pruse. I'd also suggest reading the FAQ files to help with making or converting you current range equipment to allow Micro flying. One of the very first things that you'll need to purchase is an .049" or .050" x about 12" long piece of Hard Music Wire or better yet in Stainless steel music wire. This will be the basic Launch rod for the majority of Micro Maxx model flying. For most of the very light weight under 6g models a 9" long rod with do. some of the very heavy and glider models can use an 18" long piece. I personally carry all three in my range box.

Once you gain a little experience you will likely want to build a micro tower, Piston launch and perhaps even switch some models using Micro Rail button on a "MakerBeam" launch rail.

Remember absolutely everything that is currently being done in model rocketry can is IS being done with Micros.
We even have micro Electronics (Altimeters, Staging timers, and RC for Micro models).

hunterdude said:

That Is helpful, I was not aware of the separate classes of glider...I will build one Nanite stock to get a feel for the performance as designed, then build a second Nanite with my mods to see if they have any merit....I am mostly building for sport flying and fun.
I have joined the yahoo group, but not posted there yet, it is a different format than this forum and I have yet to learn to navigate there...I would be very interested in looking the plans section over.

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Since you want to do this just for sport, by all means, do it.

I think you will find that in order to balance the glider without the motor casing, you will need to add back the same amount of weight as the casing. That's because this kit is designed with the weight of the casing in mind.

I am not discouraging you from doing it, I just want you to know what to expect.

Personally, I get a kick out of people who like to experiment. It leads to creativity and a greater understanding of how these things work.

Re: the two Nanites with burnt strings at launch...the eject charge is most certainly not activating on the launch pad..so my thought is the exposed rigging string is being burned by motor thrust nozzle sparks?...perhaps different string route or slightly stronger string may help? I do not know for sure.
Micromiester, thanks for the tips on yahoo groups, I will have a look, also appreciate the photos of your micro gliders, I had no idea there where so many! I really like the looks of the scissor-wing!
LW...I believed you are correct on trying to make the glider to light...a glider Needs a certain amount of weight to pull it forward to generate enough speed to create lift...as the designer spent a year developing this model it may well be "optimized"...in the glider world it can be hard to find the perfect weight...the stock build may be better to penitate light winds...my super light model may be better in zero wind flying slow at near stall speed...the glider was designed to balance with a spent motor case, if I eject the motor I will be very tail heavy, I can cut weight from the basswood boom in the tail area to help but not enough so I will put a small balsa stop on the forward wing position..this will in effect make the nose " longer" and therefore shift the CG to correct for light airframe weight...it may or may not improve performance but experimenting is 90 percent of the fun for me...I suspect a precision sanded airfoil and building straight and square AND a well trimmed model is what wins contests in the end

Your welcome!
There are a few more; Like Micro Flex-Wings. I've been flying time away eversince I started flying them. If I could ever catch up with one I'd have another 1/8A National duration record but I've never been luck enough to return one during 1/8A Flex-wing competitions.
Some work much better then others, I've found the larger the model the less likely it will fly well on micros. the second picture below is an example of a 1/4A Slide-wing RG the was only marginally sucessful as a 1/8A RG. While it did work the glide times were Way to short.

Most of the micro gliders are nothing more then 1/4A to B motor Designs scaled down to micro motor size. Actually most of Robert Edmonds (Edmonds Aerospace) Glider kits are just perfect for downscaleing for flight with T2+ (.281" OD) minium micro motor diameter motor pods. He was quite impressed with my Downscale of his Deltie and it's EXCELLANT 60+ Sec flight times.

Several of his competition glider kits are designed to NOT be airfoiled. Believe it or not doing so actually decreases the models flight performance. The Deltie is one such model