Dream-Flight Libelle 1.2m

Poor support from hyper flight. Will not support them in future. Pilot holes for wing bolts on Libelle significantly out of alignment . I sent a photo to illustrate my concerns. Person I spoke to demonstrated little interested in addressing my 🙁 concern. Said it was within his perspective on tolerances, probably does not fly.

Such a well designed and thought out model. Easy to put together. I had an issue with one of the parts and Neil was very quick to put this right and get me out flying.

This model is light but also very tough and has had a few hard landings already when wind conditions just werent right. Only problem now is i want a fibreglass or carbon dlg!!!!

Quick delivery! Easy made! need a more weight on the nose

El producto llego muy bien empaquetado y en perfectas condiciones a Las Islas Canarias, España. Así le doy 5 estrellas. Muchas gracias por el envío.

Ordered the Libelle and it arived the next day so five stars for delivery. Also bought four rolls of polypropylene tape. It is a Christmas present so I will do a more detailed review in the new year.

A wel constucted cardboard package arriverd safely at my doorstep.
Building is straightforward, and easy with the booklet..

Curious about how it will fly but we'll experience that when the time is right!

Thnx for a nice product!

Bought the Libelle to follow on from the Elf. It’s noticeably heavier which is great for those days when the winds are up a bit and you need some more penetration. The ailerons give great control authority and with a little breeze on a slope she goes well. Still waiting for a thermal day! The fuz does have a bit of a twist in it so I couldn’t stop myself squaring the wings up to the tail with a bit of carbon strip. I’ve had to reinforce the wing joint as a heavy landing did split them. I’ve found a tiny bit of flap slows things down to my level and setting some right rudder on launch has stopped it knife edging. Not as refined as the Elf but good fun nonetheless!

No doubt for DLG afficianados, the Dreamflight is indeed "almost ready to glide". For beginners, that label is really misleading. Foolishly, as one such beginner, I hadn't realised we would have to learn programming in order to set up the receiver/transmitter we were sold (from a different supplier). If there were easy-to-read online guides, we could get round that, but (as with so many sports like these), online videos seem to cater to enthusiasts rather than to beginners. At the moment, it seems likely our "ARG" Libelle will simply languish in storage -- an expensive mistake.

Fast delivery ,great kit cant wait to fly it

Bought the lillbelle to start of in dlg it a great beginner dlg easy to assemble.
It had a few rough landings is quite robust.
If you are thinking of getting a dlg this a great one to start with. This has got me hooked on DLGs.
A1 service ordered one day arrived next .
Well done hyper flight good product good service good price

Absolutely brilliant as a first time DLG , could not wish for a better plane.
Would recommend the Libelle to anybody.

Very nice package arrived today. In good time as always.
Looking very much forward to maiden!

Beatifully manufactured. Little bit fidly, but requires little work to complete. Good istructions and flies well in winds up to 25km/hr.

Beatifully manufactured. Little bit fidly, but requires little work to complete. Good istructions and flies well in winds up to 25km/hr.

fantastic service once again from Hyperflight , I ordered one day received my Dreamflight Libelle the next day. a super easy kit to assemble & fly thanks to a comprehensive manual from Dreamflight, a lovely model that will fly well in light too moderate winds on a slope or flat, set up as instructed, it will fly brilliantly ,, the Hyperflight battery for this model is also excellent.

Excellent plane and brilliant service from Hyperflight. Easy to put together, look forward to flying it.

Not a bad plane, very easy to put together, no fuss. For me the vertical stabiliser broke off after 15 min of playing in field and landing bit harder ( get some glue with you to get it back :) and buy spare. )

The. libelled is a great first time DLG and is easy to assemble with good clear instructions even down to setting up your transmitter. The service from Hyper Flight is absolutely fantastic next day delivery for all items bought from them big or small.

Arrived quickly. Easy to build with very few issues. Flies and floats very well with some flaperon active. After some some flat field thermalling I had my firsat sessiion with it on a slope where it penetrated the wind easily and was fairly agile. I shall increase the max aileron for faster roll I think.
Main issue is that the wings on mine as supplied are curved upwards, it flies well never the less but the servos need to work harder to work the ailerons because the hinge line is not straight. That sloping day ended for me when another flier belting around while I was floating, hit my Libelle which then appeard to just explode in front of my eyes. That now gives me the reason to rebuild the wing pieces and try to set them straight and with lesser dihedral, seems to have more than necessary as standard. Dream Flight put a great deal of thought and effort into producing efficient gliders and Hyperflight in the UK give very good service.

Fast delivery, as always from Hyperflight. Goes together quickly, although fitting gear is tight- I am using a Spektrum AR400, and this fitted best in front of the servos. Needed around 25g of lead in the nose- I could not get close to the advertised AUW but I did use the wing strengthening stickers which must add some extra weight.
Only two outings so far (weather...) both to the slope. Performs well, even in quite gusty conditions.I feel this is more of a slope machine than a DLG, but it will be a good introduction to this when weather permits.
Well thought out design, and value for money - lets you try DLG without spending a fortune, and is a useful sloper even if you find DLG is not for you.

Lovely kit, easy to put together. My only problem is deciding colour scheme.

This is my first DLG i have ever owned, i also have a Elf from Hyperflight waiting to be put together.

I bought my Libelle with the battery and the sticker set as i read the wing decals really help stiffen the wing up. Went together super easy, couple hours work and then off to fly.

Glides like a dream, someone should have warned me about dlg gliders as i am now hooked! I'm currently only flying it on a dx6i so no flight modes set and my launches need a lot of work but i love it.

Huge thanks to Neil and Hyperflight for the quick postage (arrived the following day) and for answering any questions i had.

perfect service and arriving in great conditions.
Got it to practice discuss hand launch skills while keeping the blaster 3 safely at home, and then....
then I arrive to a nice slope, 6-8 knots... and this was it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCuSHrutNDA

never thought of having so much fun in my hands. beginners, this is a must on the slope.

I bought this plane 4 months ago and crashed it hundreds of times. And yet it's still in one piece. Amazing fun! Things i would change/improve: a. horizontal stabilizer's guide is so soft that after 1-2 rough landings it stopped locking the stabilizer surface - so every time i need to check if it's true. b. some fuselage locking system - i had situation when battery flew of the plane during launch! I spent half an hour looking for it - since then i use rubber band and/or extreme packing tape to hold the hatch in place. c. reinforcement of the ailerons. For whatever reason, after a while, surfaces warp and now it's hard to tell if trim the plane correctly on the ground - edges are not on the same level. I'm thinking about some super thin carbon spar to reinforce the aileron surfaces. Speaking of ailerons - for whatever reason, on rough crashes, aileron servos are the first to die. I changed at least 4 of those already. Finally, recently i bought metal gear servos, wonder how long those will last :)

well made kit , easy to assemble , flies really well , great fun

I bought the Libelle a few weeks ago as a step towards a Blaster3.
I had flown the Elf for two years, and in comparison the Libelle was a let down, the Elf is more comfortable to launch higher and fly longer in still air. But when it started blowing on the slopeing field where I fly the Libelle finally shone! It is a great slope flying plane.

But Dreamflight, please send us a stiffer boom and a flat peg when you update the Libelle!!

Managed to put the libelle together but the weather hasn't been that good to do any trimming. Great little DLG very easy to put together. I did inlay a carbon cap top and bottom which has stiffened the wing up considerably for very little weight. The rudder and one aileron were slightly warped but removing them was very easy. I used SD100 servos throughout which meant there was a little adjustment to do for the installation. One thing to note is if like I did you mount the servos side by side running from the nose back the rudder push rod will be around 8mm too short. I mounted the rudder servo about 1.5mm below the elevator servo to get a better run and stop any potential binding. Simple enough just carefully remove the shrink tube at the servo end and re glue the wire to the carbon and then wrap in Kevlar thread and glue. I was going to replace the carbon rod but it's an unusual diameter being at 1.2mm. I used the Dream flight battery and two lightweight 15cm extension cables, again a little surgery was required and I recessed the cable guides slightly. Same for the wing servos as they stood a little proud so a light sanding had them flush. As mentioned I've not had chance to fly but I've mixed in 1.5mm reflex for launch, 3mm thermal, flap as recommended and a small amount of aileron/rudder mix.

HyperFlight Comment
Thanks for the positive review. The rudder pushrod is the correct length if the rudder servo is mounted as shown in the instructions.

Libelle is my second DLG (after Hobbyking's miniDLG) and what a difference! I could brag about the pros for hours so let's focus on cons so everyone can fix (prevent from happening) the issues right away.

1. ailerons become flexible quite fast - different parts of ailerons travel at different rate then. some reinforcement (carbon spar maybe?) would be a good step. And do not cut the hinges as the manual suggest - after few hours of flying you might be forced to reinforce the joints with packing tape!.
2. I suggest using some packing tape on the fuselage - if battery will move around, it will open the hatch! (and before you learn how to balance the plane and fly it, some packing tape on the nose will save you few cracks and gravel+grass pushed into the cavity)
3. vertical stabiliser requires proper glueing! Remember about that one, maybe reinforce the join with some packing tape
4. horizontal stabiliser has a little grove to make it straight, but after few rough landings or due to transportation, this groove stops serving it's purpose, so try to find the way to keep the stabiliser straight and true.
5. i added some extreme packing tape to the leading edge of the wing - will save you some adrenaline spikes when the plane will land on a tree :D

Although I'm not an experienced flyer, I've been using my Libelle for a few weeks now, and so far:

Build: Good, clear instructions, and quick and uncomplicated to put together. My original build came out lower than the design weight and, using a 300 mAH LiPo rather than Dream-Flight's own NiMH battery, I had to add some lead to the nose to bring the CofG to the correct point.

DLG: In good flat-field conditions I've managed up to 5 minutes thermalling. However I usually struggle to prevent the Libelle from veering off and down to the left on launch (I'm right handed) with the resulting loss of height and cannot isolate exactly what is causing this. It might be my newbie's technique (although my Elf mini-DLG launches more vertically), but it could equally be due to some play in the rudder's control linkage during the spin and/or the relatively high speed of the initial launch itself (as has been alluded to on some forums).

Slope: In light/moderate wind conditions and a good slope (eg Uffington White Horse bowl in a northerly of about around 10mph), the Libelle is quite lovely, responsive and fun with good penetration. In lighter airs and a more marginal slope, she'll struggle for me to maintain - let alone gain - reasonable height. In brisker conditions, say 15mph and above, she needs to be worked carefully over the terrain to penetrate and can be quite twitchy, especially in gusts.

Fine-Tuning: I've mixed rudder with aileron as an aid to co-ordinated turns, without which she suffers from some adverse yaw. I also set up flaperons (on the 0/1 Flap channel), with a tad of down elevator mixed in to prevent the nose from ballooning, and this slows things down for landing - and seems to aid lift on marginal slopes - but also makes for a slightly more sluggish response.

Resilience: I've so far landed my Libelle atop a large thorn tree with no damage, and thwucked her leading edges into tall dry grasses with the usual light denting, but have most seriously also cartwheeled her a bit hard in 15-20mph winds onto firm earth - she didn't like that and broke one wing off just alongside the original centre-join and snapping the larger of the two black plastic strengheners. My repair involved glueing the break back together with CA, and inserting a new 100mm long, 6-8mm wide, 4mm thick birch plywood brace alongside the carbon spar at the balance point. I've also added packing-tape reinforcement along the whole of the wing leading edges, as the foam was beginning to suffer from the usual slight dents, which with time would only get worse. Finally, the tail-plane joint as long begun to wear (the foam has become bruised and slack where it is recessed to sit on the plastic pylon) and this needs attention to stop the foam from yawing, perhaps a permanent spot of CA.

Conclusion: For me as beginner, a good first choice for a relatively lightweight aileron glider (I've previously only flown the 2-channel rudder and elevator Elf with its generous dihedral), enabling me start learning some clearer aerobatics on the slope etc and extending the range of my flat-field DLG thermal-hunting. But it perhaps falls between two distinct purposes: it isn't a true, stiff 1.5m DLG able to launch cleanly to serious height, and neither does it seem to be a dedicated slope-soarer with adequate penetration to suit brisker winds, and I can see it get heavier over time with repairs to its relatively delicate foam construction.

Notwithstanding these reservations, the Libelle is huge fun and its been an easy and enjoyable second step for me this summer.

I have a Dream Flight Alula already, which I love, but I wanted a true DLG for those days when getting to the slope wasnt possible....the design and manufacturing of the Libelle is first rate and it is clear much thought has gone into the design making for a very fast build. Not had a chance to maiden her yet as a few issues with duff servos but she will be airborne this week. Lovely model!

Having had a Elf mini and sadly after a bad launch is now departed. After reading the write ups of the libelle I purchased one. The build is far easier than the Elf and should not pose any problems for anyone with nimble fingers. If you are wondering what's the catch and there is one I have failed to achieve the height that I obtained with the Elf but on saying that, it is still a good model you will have to put some lead at the front even with the recommend battery but get the c of g correct and gentle stick control and you will have fun.

Quick and easy to put together and fly

Got the Libelle and have built it up and flown it now for about 4 hours, I am happy with her but there are some things you should mod before you fly, horizontal stab needs extra securing glue or tape, do not use CA to glue things together some high tack epo glue will work much better an elastic band around the fusealage to stop the battery flying out on a hard launch and the plane plunging back to earth (twice)is essential! also there is a mod for the wing anchors theres threads on rc forums all about these things.
I used 500mah 2s zippy and 4 KS HD47MG servos a bit big but metal gears have survived 3 hard landings now frsky D4-II and vario.
all up 288g and am happy with her,but she is certainly not as good a the top notch DLG's but you pay for what you get, this is a perfect plane to get into DLG.

The perfect Discus Launch Glider.
I love this machine, launches well, responsive, durable and soars on the lightest of thermals.
The best fun per pound in model flying.
Have currently got two of these and about to purchase another to take on holiday (converting to a 2 piece wing).
Highly recommended.
MW

Found everything went together very well . Only one irritation in the whole build. This was a minor twist/ defect in the wing / tail alignment .

I am hoping that this will not effect the maiden flight. I am very wary of applying heat to the boom to try to correct this 2deg misalignment but I may try to solve by incremental mods to the wing/tail seating

Anticipating great things from the Libelle

As an absolute newcomer to lightweight discus HLG's the Dream-Flight Libelle appears to offer a very reasonably priced introduction.
So after viewing the selection of available videos an order was quickly placed and just as quickly arrived on my building bench.
I scoured high and low for the recommended Hitec HS35 servos but to no avail so decided to settle on the slightly more expensive digital version, the HS5035 and what sweet, precise little gems they are too.
For battery power I chose the HyperLiPo 2S 300 mah along with the MKS 2 amp regulator, I have modified this to fit between the battery and a Spektrum AR6115e receiver and it now sits snugly under the lipo.
The Libelle kit itself does not exhibit the same build quality expected from the much more expensive moulded HLG's but it does offer some very elegant design and manufacturing solutions, capitalising on the very light materials and components in its very simple construction.
The kit build is a very simple affair but quality issues do exhibit themselves when assembling the two wing halves. The method described for pre-fitting the underside wing braces actually prevents fully closing the not to well matched wing joint faces, resulting in some inevitable gaps needing the gap filling qualities of the CA adhesive, once the top brace is fitted and bonded though, the wing does appear to be pretty strong. Once the wind drops sufficiently for initial launches then this will be tested.
In summary though this is a very nicely designed and inexpensive discus HLG and despite being the novice I am I can see no reason not to recommend it, so thank you Dream-Flight and also to Hyperflight for their excellent service.
Regards, John

The Libelle comes Almost Ready to Glide (ARG), I couldn't get the nano servos (sold out), so I put TowerPro 5g servos in the fus and wings (with small mods to the bodywork), but they fit and work a dream. I test flew it on Friday 4/4/14 at the flat field and it was straight and true with no trimming needed. All the parts go together with tabs / slots, so it's easy peasy to construct in about 3 hours. A real joy to own.

Great service from the guys at Hyperflight (as always). Build was quick and easy but fitting the electrics was a bit of a struggle. I went for some Gening Nano servos (as I didn't want to pay £18 each for the HS35's. This meant a little foam needed to be removed in the wings to get the servo's to fit (not a problem). Fitting the servo's in the fuselage wasn't a major problem and I purchased an Alula battery that fitted perfectly. The problem was finding a suitable place to fit the Spektrum AR400 receiver. This took some thought and some cutting away of the foam cockpit area but now fits like a glove. Maybe a park flier receiver may have been a better option. A few orange Solartrim strips and she was ready to go.
For its maiden flight I chose the early morning with little or no wind. Its first launch (just forward hand chuck) and it went straight and only needed a single click of up trim to make a nice smooth glide.Then on to some more adventurous proper DLG launches and she went like a dream. I would say between 80 - 100ft with not much effort. Landing back into my hand on most launches.
Cant wait to try her out on a thermic day. You can watch our progress with our Dream Flight Libelle's (as we have bought 3 so far within our soaring group)
http://slopesoaringsussex.blogspot.co.uk/
Cheers
Paul