Awesome Idea for Night Flying!

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
I just got this idea when writing this post http://flitetest.com/forum/showthread.php?370-Foam&p=5620&viewfull=1#post5620

Paint airplanes with neon colors (colors that glow under black or UV lights) and have them fly at night under a couple of UV lights such as these: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100553168/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
This would make for a spectacular lightshow, almost as awesome as this:

images.jpg
 

ananas1301

Crazy flyer/crasher :D
They seem to be bright enough on the picture. At least those neon guitar strings.

But otherwise LED´s would do the job better I think.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Yeah you would have to fly 3D indoors and it would work. I'm guessing 10 - 15 meters.
 

Pilot Scott

FLY LOW
It would really be dependent on the UV bulbs output. Some of the high intensity bulbs like you find at a strip club or roller rink might work.
 

ananas1301

Crazy flyer/crasher :D
glow in the dark paint works with some chemicals that only save light for a certain time. But on our scale of only flying a few minutes up to an hour the time limitness shouldn´t be a big problem.

I wouldn´t go for the glow in the dark paint because it wont be really visible outside after few meters you won´t see it clearly anymore and would have to concentrate much more!
 

bubsteve

Member
I put 20+ lite sticks on my EPP wing,, Worked GREAT! but 20$ worth of HK led's and I got a fly'in Mark-ay billboard that got seen from 5 Miles away across the bay,,, the local Sheriff Dispatch say my plane's a running joke down there from all the Low Heli's flying to UFO's reports,,been fly'in her for 5 yr's now, I'll be putting LED's on the 6' Wing for SEFF next year,,,bubsteve
 

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colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Yeah, reconsidering, it would be kind of for indoor flying with helis or 3D planes, something like that. Though the effect that neon colors produce under UV light is not quite the same as LEDs. Neon colors glow uniformly.
 

ananas1301

Crazy flyer/crasher :D
You could a wing. Drill a small line along the leading edge of the wing and kinda insert the LED´s into the foam.

Then go over it with some transparent neon colour paper and fix them together. The white LEDs will shine through and give it nice colour effect, but I don´t know if a really good neon effect will get through. That should be pretty hard to do as simple as it looks like :D
 

davereap

Member
UV LED lights plus ordinary LED's on the model... use a white model with a foam build or like I do a depron body with CF and fabric wings ... All the LEDs are arranged to light up various bits.. they will light up quite large areas if you point them nicely.. The white model is easily colored with the fluro marker pens.. pink yellow and green show up well under the UV lighting and in daylight they look good and bright as well..
In the dark they are all highly visible, the model is seen at further distances than you would fly in the daytime.. Orientation is no problem..
The only thing to be carefull of, flying in the dark, is to make sure your battery connections cant be pluged in the wrong way round.. I did it wrong the once, blowing out an ESC..
On the lighting loom I use JST connectors .. on the flight batteries I have the main power connectors plus an added/soldered on JST.. Smaller batteries come with JST so for them I make a Y lead so I can split the output..
Use a red led on the right and a green led on the left.. thats good for orientation then arrange the rest to your lighting choice.

I buy my LED lights from china and wire them as I want for each design ..I hot glue the harness to the model..
I havnt used the stick on lighting strips, They are a fine easy solution good for the depron or foam models...but I prefer to arrange the LEDs more artisticly, rather than just having straight rows of lights..
Long straight rows of the same color lights just dont appeal to me, for what you can do, lighting wize, have a look at the goflykites from singapore, they are lit pretty nicely
 
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davereap

Member
Here is another model that uses the same idea.. the UV LEDs are on the top of the cockpit shape angled to illuminate the wings surface, as they are on the first model
.with CF and fabric the lights are seen through the wing.. I normally fit them on the top surface.. DSCN0428.png
 
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colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Yep that was exactly what my whole idea was all about. But someone else beat me to it.

Thanks for sharing your design, davereap!
 

davereap

Member
I find there is rarely many new ideas... near every thing I think Ive come up with has been done before..
what I do need are better marker inks... these work ok , but I would love it to go really bright..