Acacia F3F The Original

Original ACACIA and to my mind none of the subsequent versions have been as good.

The Acacia F3F was the first fully moulded model that I owned. At the time Rob had just taken ownership and started flying an Acacia 2. I was on the lookout for a decent moulded glider so was scouring all the usual BMFA, EBAY and the various groups on the net. I saw this come up on EBAY , put in a maximum bid of £400 and waited, fortunately and to my amazment I won the auction for less than the £400.

I made contact with the vendor and arranged to meet him at his place of work, an airfield in the Southampton area. He was a maintenance manager on real airplanes. I met up with him in a hangar, as with most e bay purchases until you see what you have won there is always a certain amount of apprehension. He went to his car and got the glider. He returned with the Acacia F3F, it was mint. There was not a mark on it, the paint had a beautiful gloss and finish. I took a look inside, the radio gear had been put in in such a way it was almost a work of art. I was a happy boy.

Inside the nose of the Acacia F3F. You can see a small cover in the centre section of the wing, we always thought that this was access to ballast tubes but never had the bottle to prize it off, and to be fair the thing never really felt like it would need extra ballast. Penetration and speed was never a problem. She really motored









I took the Acacia out for the first flight, the comments from people that were about were that the build quality was very good, much better than the Acacia 2. The wing was a 3 piece and it was absolutely solid and again beautifully finished.

The first time you fly a fully moulded glider you realise what all the fuss is about. I don't remember who launched it but I remember it flew away from the slope as straight as an arrow.  You realise when you start putting in some controls that the moulded glider is a much crisper / responsive glider to what you would have previously flown. It was great. I flew it for 20 minutes or so and then landed. I remember the landings in the early days were a bit tricky, it took some getting used to. Trying to get something with a shallow glide angle that moves quickly onto the ground takes some mastering.

Note the size of the Tail plane. The later Acacias had a slightly bigger one in order to avoid the Trade mark ''Acacia Flick'' . Only happened to me once but when it happens you really shit yourself. Easily rectified by reducing elevator throws.

The trade mark bulbous nose, looks like it will slow it down but believe me it doesn't. This model is at least 10 years old but it will straight line with the best of them












The Acacia 1 in summary is a very well built glider with a good standard of finish. It is a very quick glider but in all honesty probably lacks some of the agility of modern F3F gliders, however I still think very fondly of this one. It now belongs to a nice guy Richard who provided me with these pictures. Even upto the last minute of Richard taking this Glider Rob who couldn't get shot of his Acacia 2 fast enough was desperate to take ownership of this one. I think this speaks volumes about this glider

This was last time I took the Acacia Out, The BWLCH first time I went

Martin