This was created just for people who are interested in getting started in the Radio Controlled Sailplane hobby.

R/C Sailplanes are small to large models made from a variety of materials from balsa wood to carbon fiber and epoxy. Sailplanes don't have engines to keep them flying, although many have electric motors or gas engines powering propellers to 'tow' the sailplanes to a decent altitude. As in real (human piloted) gliders, R/C sailplanes rely on the same mechanism for gaining and keeping altitude: Thermals and slope lift.

One of the best things about sailplanes is that they're noiseless, don't produce exhaust or get a coat of 'slime' over every exposed surface of the airframe after being flown.

Sailplanes have the distinct advantage of powered planes, either gas or electric, in that they can, in the right conditions, stay up for an hour or longer. You don't just launch your sailplane and then glide down to the ground. The goal is to stay aloft and that means 'looking' for thermals or flying off of a slope which gives the sailplane lift. Once your sailplane is airborne, regardless of how high, the sailplane may only remain in the air for a couple of minutes or less. If there is lift or the pilot has gained a reasonable amount of experience, the sailplane can remain in the air, for 15 minutes or even longer. My longest thermal driven flight was more than 1-1/2 hours!

Once you're in the 'lift', you rise or stay at the same altitude. There is something very special about launching a handlaunch glider in a small field, groping around for lift, finding some and then 'specking' it (making the sailplane go so high that it is a 'speck' in the sky). Once you've done this with a sailplane, you will be hooked into this hobby for the rest of your life. Choose your hobbies carefully.

Some sailplanes can be launched merely by throwing to get altitude, known to the 'purest' as Hand Launch Gliders or HLG, or by using a towing mechanism from the ground such as a long rubber band known as a hi-start or with an electric winch. Hi-starts are usually constructed of several hundred feet of surgical rubber tubing connected to an even longer piece of line (twice as long, typically) either braided nylon cord or a single strand of monofilament (fishing line). To get the sailplane to a high altitude means attaching your sailplane the line end of the hi-start with a ring on the hi-start and 'tow hook' on the bottom of the plane (near the plane's center of gravity) and staking the rubber end into the ground. Start by stretching the rubber downwind and when there's enough tension (depends on the weight of the sailplane) releasing (or sometimes throwing) your sailplane up and into the wind. The hi-start will cause the plane to rise quite quickly depending on the weight of the sailplane, the tension on the hi-start, and the amount of wind that is blowing. Launches can be as high as the hi-start is long or even longer under good conditions.

Winch launches can be higher than hi-start launches, and certainly are more convenient, but can also destroy a sailplane if too much force is applied to the sailplane during launch. Typically, there is a foot pedal that allows the pilot of the sailplane control over how much 'winching' occurs during a launch. Tapping the foot pedal can then control the force by turning on and off the winch.