Versa Wing for Night Flight!! Post your pics!!

DDSFlyer

Senior Member
So...I've never done night flying before. Was considering it. Has anyone every flown in near pitch black conditions, if so, what to do about landings; in terms of knowing where exactly the ground is.

Lighted landing strip would be cool, huh.

The field where I normally fly (during daylight) will likely get very dark at night, was thinking about how will I land in the dark.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
It is a good deal. Too bad they don't run the colors at that price!

Yeah, but for the price of their color strips, you get RGBs -- and really cheap for those. If you wire it up right, you can get any one of 7 fixed colors w/o a controler
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
So...I've never done night flying before. Was considering it. Has anyone every flown in near pitch black conditions, if so, what to do about landings; in terms of knowing where exactly the ground is.

Lighted landing strip would be cool, huh.

The field where I normally fly (during daylight) will likely get very dark at night, was thinking about how will I land in the dark.


Most folks who do it, always fly the field during the day first to learn the boundaries, then start at dusk -- a good way to get your feet wet, while you can still barely see the obstacles.

For landing, many of the planes either are well lit (so it lights the ground as they get close), or put on a landing set -- usually pointed forward and down. it's up to you if you want to put any on a RX switch, a lot of people don't.

Lighted landing strips would be awesome, but a waste if you're not flying FPV. Have wondered what the rent-a-cop would do if I started flying in the local Walmart's remote parking lot . . .
 

Todd L

Member
Have wondered what the rent-a-cop would do if I started flying in the local Walmart's remote parking lot . . .


Now that would be entertainment.. Make sure you get it on film lol



victour20010
As for night flying and knowing where you are in relation to the ground.. It gets really dark where I fly and its a blast! You'll be surprised at how much light the plane gives off and it will light the ground as you fly by. Try starting out a dusk to get use to the lights and you'll see its not a big deal at all.. It's a blast man!! :cool:
 

DDSFlyer

Senior Member
There is a video of Josh Bixler doing exactly that. I will try to find it. It is Funny!

Thurmond

Yeah except I don't think he had lights on his plane, he was just flying from the lights off the parking lot...

Flying at night is awesome! Just got done dusk flying with my super cub and axn floater jet LED equipped planes. Landing isn't a problem if you are familiar with the landing area, just stand close to the landing strip and you'll be fine
 

tw-ryder

Well Grounded
Looks great! Sorry for bringing this up after a couple weeks, but thought some mods I did on my Delta Ray might apply. While building it and our Versa, some very cool people helped us build a pretty rock solid setup for interior and exterior lighting.

I bought some LED strips from Mertline.com They're cheap, epoxy covered, and also the PCB material is white, rather than the copper color of the HK LEDs. I used these as footwell lights in our cars running on touch dimmer switches, and they've been great.

On our planes, though, unfortunately they don't emit as evenly as the HKs, so I put them on the wing leading edges while using HK LEDs on the interior, albeit on a Delta Ray not a Versa. (building a Versa using only interior LED's and wingtip strobes, though). I think I'll use a Turnigy Relay and SEPIC converter to power them off an AUX channel, rather than a servo, as I am on the Delta Ray.

I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to use two relays and one SEPIC to have two circuits, or three, the limit being the number of AUX channels you have, as well as the output of the SEPIC.
 

Flat4

Senior Member
Bit of a necro post, but with how inactive this section of the forum is, I can't imagine anyone would mind. I just wanted to toss up a few pics and video of the versa wing I made for night flying. Thanks Todd for the idea of running the leds inside the wing.

I added a 6 inch center section to the versa wing, to allow the batteries enough room to be completely enclosed, and allow proper CG.

Here's a pic of the wiring before I closed it up.
20140119_010512.jpg

One of it lit up.
20140119_005541.jpg

A short video of it flying.

And a quick one of it landing.

I have another video with some closer flying, and a few low passes, I just have to edit it for some inappropriate language.
 
I am working on a night Versa, I had one flying but it I lost which was was up and down and crashed it in to the trees.
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Now I am working on a new one.
WP_20140613_002.jpg WP_20140613_004.jpg
I am using RGB LEDs and a set of FAA style lights.
 

Tactical Ex

Senior Member
The servo stripped before I even got it outside, halfway repaired it before I moved so as soon as I have time, the weather plays nice and I put the new control rod in we'll get some video!

 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
I missed this thread the first go around. Good to see it resurface now that I'm doing a slightly upscaled BN Versa. I woant this to be my fun, does it all (except water landings, for now) go to plane.

I do have running lights which works but I'm not so sure about the rcvr controlled switch I have.