My latest Radio Controlled airplane (night flyer)

[Michael]

Just finished it last night, was going to maiden it tonight but it's rainy and windy so maybe this weekend. I put a lot of weight on it using a separate battery dedicated for the lights rather than siphon off the flight pack but it will still hover out of my hands so I'm confident sh will fly great. This is a highly aerobatic plane and overpowered so it will do just about anything you want it to do. I built one last year which was nowhere near the intensity of this one and when I flew it at a local spot close to the interstate, traffic would slow down because of people trying to figure out what those lights were

Being electric, it makes almost no noise and on a clear night, there is no scale reference so at half a mile away, it looks like something at 10,000 feet altitude going insanely fast and making unreal moves.

[dvonk]

haha, Michael, you have some awesome hobbies.

i would love to see that in action... especially on a night with a new moon.

[DMCVegas]

Seconded. I'd love to see that fly at night!

Having said that though, don't take it anywhere near Boston...

[Bitsyncmaster]

I've never flown one at night. Is it any different than daylight to fly them. I always used gas and glow plug power. If I was still flying them, yours looks like something I would build.

[Michael]

I've never flown one at night. Is it any different than daylight to fly them. I always used gas and glow plug power. If I was still flying them, yours looks like something I would build.

Flying at night is just as easy if you lighted your plane properly. Most people who build night flyers, do so with the FAA light pattern(Green right, Red left). I tell people just be sure you can tell top from bottom...as long as you do that, you know right from left. It's actually pretty easy and no harder than daylight..in fact it's easier as you never loose orientation on your plane since you never have dark shadows. My first plane used those 5mm LED's and I used 30-35 bulbs. These lights are very lightweight, so I could go overboard and I did. There are a little under 600 lights on this bird!

It took me some time to warm up to electrics. I was a nitro guy too. When they first hit the scene, li-po batteries did not exist and batteries were heavy and flights were short and slow due to brushed motors. Now we have brushless motors that easly turn 60k+ rpm and batteries that weigh a fraction of what they used to. I'm building a electric F-16 fighter jet that uses 22volt packs!

Electrics are definately ahead of the game now, so many advantages and so few faults.

[refugeefromcalif]

Electric R/C planes are Nice! They are the Main planes in my hanger.

Great to see that there are some other R/C plane flyers around here.
Here's a video I posted of a friends night flyer. This was a couple of years ago.



George

[refugeefromcalif]

Oh, and just for a few Giggles, Here's a video of my own (Bad) flying...

The plane is an electric 87" Extra 300 SHP.




George