Flite Fest 2026 Ideas and general information

[FlyerInStyle]

I wonder if I could put floats on the A-10 I am going to be building shortly......

That would be very funny, and could end great or horribly

 

[LitterBug]

Still want a HackRF One SDR, but $$$ for how little I'd use it. Did order a Nooelec HamItDown which will let me use my SDRs in the 2.4Ghz band. I'd like to do heatmaps and waterfalls during FliteFest to see what the 2.4Ghz band looks like, especially during Combat. LOL.

I'll have to play with mounting some gear on a plane to do RF survey work. Probably use my Stratosurfer since I am running FrSky R9 900mhz and not 2.4ghz. Have ArduPulot on it so it would be easy to set up automated course runs.

My Ham-It-Down came in, and I am now able to view a portion of the 2400 mhz band at a time.

The blue area is the waterfall for ELRS for example. Frequency hopping shows as lines at all the different frequencies in the band.

Wasn't getting any results at first, then realized the antenna I was using had the wrong polarity connector. This is with a 900mhz antenna. Closest I could find with the correct connector and had to have my TX pretty close to get any reception.. Need to dig out my adaptors.

And this is an unbound DSMX signal.... Not so channel hoppy....

This is a BOUND DSMX signal. Uses the whole band

FrSky R9 signal

 

[mindstormer7]

I wonder if I could put floats on the A-10 I am going to be building shortly......

Just gotta scale it up

 

[FishbonesAir]

The flysky one was running on a tx16s mk1 internal 4in1

I was previously running my FrSky equipment off of my TX16S Mk1 4in1 module with the proper rftune done and I have never had a combat failsafe before. This year I had them constantly but I had my plane set to failsafe to level with my S series receivers so I was able to recover

I'm fully switching to ELRS for everything combat or expensive now. The cheaper stuff I have I might stay on FrSky but I am no longer risking it for anything else

This year I was using a Zorro on ELRS, and my problems were purely wind related. 😂

In 2023 I used my Flysky Tx/Rx. My issues that year were getting my Aura to talk nicely to the Rx, not interference. The Flitetest guys were wonderful about helping me.

 

[FishbonesAir]

My observations on what FF has been lately:

• Combat combat combat (2 ways)
  • Build something Large and eye-catching, then let it be targeted
  • build a combat plane(s) to attack and take down a large or small beast
• Build large to fly with other Giant birds!
• STEM Tent
• F-18 Jet formation flights
• Dawn Patrol (I never get up in time

It is no longer Build Sketchy there, and see.
What it could be:

1. Community (like the Wonders ARCN Noob Wonders)
2. Warbird Combat
3. Gotha Gaggle
   View attachment 252242
4. Under the Sea
   • Sharks
     View attachment 252243
   • Profile fish
   • Flying Turtles
     
   • Manta Rays
   • Quad based Jelly Fish
5. Everything is Awesome Flight (All Lego-like Planes)
6. EZ-Gaggle
7. Night Radian Flights
8. Barn Storming! - Pop-up Barn, and Bi-planes
9. Mock-Carrier Landings
10. Airborne Aircraft Carrier

I have ideas for ALL these things. It feels right that the community here would spear-head it and get it to be part of FF and try and get some of the creative fun back. I think some of what helped in the past was a tight-knit group of OG's who decided to all do a thing, and it took fire (the Night Radian Evening Flights).

the Noob Wonder Gaggle was an example of Dan Sponz working on a Wonder Workshop, the Aviation RC Noob Podcast had him as a guest and we developed the "Noob" Variant. Then listeners to the podcast built theirs, inspiring us to build 300% versions, as well as EZ sized ones
View attachment 252239 View attachment 252241 View attachment 252238 View attachment 252240

This goes on, and on...
My thought is we Pick 3 on this list in a Month. A volunteer Champions one of them to write the Article and start and monitor the thread here, To rally interest.
A pattern I've seen is to have Big idea/Plane. That Big idea is coupled with ways the Typical FT forum member can be part.
A way to take it bigger, is to also figure a way to Host Build Workshops or EZ classes. That way folks at FF who aren't forum goers can be part.

That's my two Cents. What's yours?

Kids + EZ planes + 8x4' aircraft carrier. Use 100# braided fishing line arresting wires, each tied to a spring on one side. Run 10 or 12, not 4, covering half the deck . 😂 An arresting hook should be pretty easy.

I'd also love to see a Carrier set up across a section of the main runways, maybe down at the West end or something?

I don't know if this would/could be considered, but a Crosswind Runway would have made life much, much easier this year! Taking off into the wind. Crazy 🤪 right? Even if I had to hike all the way to the East side of the field... it would be worth it.

 

[mindstormer7]

Kids + EZ planes + 8x4' aircraft carrier. Use 100# braided fishing line arresting wires, each tied to a spring on one side. Run 10 or 12, not 4, covering half the deck . 😂 An arresting hook should be pretty easy.

I'd also love to see a Carrier set up across a section of the main runways, maybe down at the West end or something?

I don't know if this would/could be considered, but a Crosswind Runway would have made life much, much easier this year! Taking off into the wind. Crazy 🤪 right? Even if I had to hike all the way to the East side of the field... it would be worth it.

That reminds me, I've been wanting to set up a high start for a fun glider launch and that would make a good combo with a straight out runway

There would just have to be something to make absolutely sure that nobody attempts to land on that runway as that would have people flying straight towards the flightline/crowd

 

[LitterBug]

I added two more spectrum grabs to my post above. The DSMX I originally posted was a signal that was not bound. I added one where it was bound. Also added FrSky R9 on the 900mhz band. Turns out I have more R9 PWM RXes than I remembered. Found my plug-in DSMX TX, so I will attempt to compare power levels between the 4-in-1 modules and native TX module.

Making progress tword being able to do a flying heatmapper.

Should have my polarity changers for my antenna plugs today. Will be nice to be able to do 2.4Ghz with an actual 2.4G antenna.

SDR Setup with 900mhz VAS antenna

 

[Dutch Breeze]

I want to try to make a giant seaplane theme for next year in some sort of way. Would anyone be willing to participate? I would make a huge sea angel, (probably modded for a different power system) there's the sea duck, sea otter, probably something on floats could count, not counting the tons of community designs to scale up. Maybe some smaller ones would be great too! Would anyone be willing to participate?

I am restarting my giant sea duck build.

 

[FlyerInStyle]

I am restarting my giant sea duck build.

That would be perfect!

 

[FlyerInStyle]

I think I'll start a thread in august maybe earlier about organizing this for flitefest, seems there is interest! (Or at least I'll try my best)