Peter Laing's LadyBUG Ultralight Glider Page

LadyBUG, a version of the Bug2 by Mike Sandlin, of San Diego, California. This glider is being built for casual soaring at low speeds. One day, my LadyBUG will look like the photo above.

The yellow surfaces are all rip-stop nylon. This material had to be hand stretched. Although it looks good now, the effort and problems associated with it, were'nt really worth the effort and agrivation, not to mention the glue that I wasted as a result. In high humidity conditions, such as a rainy day, the nylon tends to "RELAX" and go loose. However it does tighten up again when the air dries out. Take my advice and stick with the heat-shrink dacron!

The LadyBUG is essentially now complete, with the exception of the wing ribbing and covering. The seat is a JAZZ, fiberglass round track racing seat for $60.(seat will be lightened by drilling out 2" key holes throughout) 5PT. harness $80 Both bought off e-bay. The current weight of the LadyBUG is now 160lbs. My finall BIG push, is to complete by the fall for the first test flight... YAHOO!

The foot pedals are re-cycled, alluminum front panels, off a Compaq computer server. I wonder if this could lead to a sponsorship endorsment? You can see the Hall Wind Meter on the front tube in front of me, which is calibrated from 10-50 MPH in 5MPH increments.

Here, you can see my newly installed control lines and the aileron torque tube. My center wheel still requires a vertical brace for impact strength. The TRAINING wheels are for ground handling, and can be easily slipped off for flying.

The control surface mechanizm is built as per Mike Sandlin's specs. To give the unit some added mechanical stength, epoxy filler was added between the slide bar bushing and the main tube.

View of horizontal control and epoxy filler.

This old wing bracing method reluted in excessive slack in some of the cables.

With my newly re-engineered design, each new cable brace consists of a single length of cable fastened to the top spars. At the Bottom, as shown, the cable passes around a pulley on a marine grade SS turnbuckle. When the turnbuckles is cinched down, the forward and rear cables will have identical tenstion, due to the shared load point. This system works like a dream. Both flying (right turnbucle) and landing (left turnbucle) cables use this configuration. Eight turnbucles in total are required. Although this solution adds extra cost and some extra weight, I feel the pay-off is well worth it. If excessive wing twisting results from the pulley configuration, this can be eliminated by placing an adjustable cable clamp directley above the pulley, to to eliminate any cable travel.

Once all the cables are tensioned correctly, the flying wire turnbucles are LOCKED down perminently, with the lock nuts. The landing wire turnbuckels are then extended untill the ends come off and the wing can be collapsed for transport. An important reminder.... I had to re-swag ALL my cables, due to the fact that I had used alluminum nicorpress (Too Weak) and was not aware the requirement for the much stronger, nickel clad, copper nicorpress.

I wonder if the golf club would mind me using the fairway as a landing strip?

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Peter Laing (Bug2Builder) Kanata, Ontario, Canada

Copyright © 2003, Peter Laing - All Rights Reserved