Hayduke27
New member
Hi everyone!
With winter upon us, I was curious about using electric RC planes in the cold. This will be my first winter flying them, and I figured there must be some precautions and pointers that some more experienced pilots would know. A couple of questions come to mind:
1.) First off, the cold. I know that cold can make it hard to operate electronics and can also minimize battery life. Will this be the case with electric RC planes and LiPo batteries? Is there a temperature below which I shouldn't fly? Where I live, it can get down to -40 F, which I sort of imagine would be hard on the planes. Then again, I'm always surprised by what these things can do! As a side note, where I live has extremely low humidity, so it's a dry cold I'm usually dealing with. Is it okay to take a LiPo battery right out of a warm climate (car or house) and fly it in freezing temperatures?
2.) Snow. I know that skis can be bought and I've seen the FT guys flying off and back onto snow strips, so I know this is a plausible option. My question is this: do I have to worry about getting it into the airplane electronics? Specifically, I have a Storch and a Scout flying right now, both of which have the power-pod mounted motor out front. Do I need to keep that motor out of the snow? It seems like snow and electric motors might be a bad combo, but that certainly makes those landings a lot harder if I have to be sure the motor doesn't touch the cold white stuff.
I have built my planes out of the new water resistant board, so I'm hoping that would prevent the snowmelt from destroying any surfaces. Does anybody have any other suggestions for a guy who wants to fly through a winter while living high in the mountains?
With winter upon us, I was curious about using electric RC planes in the cold. This will be my first winter flying them, and I figured there must be some precautions and pointers that some more experienced pilots would know. A couple of questions come to mind:
1.) First off, the cold. I know that cold can make it hard to operate electronics and can also minimize battery life. Will this be the case with electric RC planes and LiPo batteries? Is there a temperature below which I shouldn't fly? Where I live, it can get down to -40 F, which I sort of imagine would be hard on the planes. Then again, I'm always surprised by what these things can do! As a side note, where I live has extremely low humidity, so it's a dry cold I'm usually dealing with. Is it okay to take a LiPo battery right out of a warm climate (car or house) and fly it in freezing temperatures?
2.) Snow. I know that skis can be bought and I've seen the FT guys flying off and back onto snow strips, so I know this is a plausible option. My question is this: do I have to worry about getting it into the airplane electronics? Specifically, I have a Storch and a Scout flying right now, both of which have the power-pod mounted motor out front. Do I need to keep that motor out of the snow? It seems like snow and electric motors might be a bad combo, but that certainly makes those landings a lot harder if I have to be sure the motor doesn't touch the cold white stuff.
I have built my planes out of the new water resistant board, so I'm hoping that would prevent the snowmelt from destroying any surfaces. Does anybody have any other suggestions for a guy who wants to fly through a winter while living high in the mountains?