Official Flite Test Article Thread! (What do you want to see?)

[JennyC6]

What I'd like to see FT doing more of, both in video and in article form:

* Stuff related to ICE power. A lot of us still fly fuel burners! And still more would love to have that extra cool factor, but perhaps don't want to risk lunching an expensive engine because of inexperience.

* More FPV-related stuff. After fiddling with it on my scale farm truck I'm totally hooked and, at this point, my entire RC fleet...surface and air...is getting FPV'd. At some point in the near future the only LoS RC I'll be doing is stuff that's just too small for FPV, like the 7" diameter helicopter I have which only barely has enough power to carry itself and the 400mAh batteries I gave it. Hell, I'd even FPV my model railroad if they made cameras small enough to fit on the front of N-scale trains. Would be nice to see some informative articles on what gear works best on what kinds of vehicles, how to poke through lens ratings on board cams to avoid fisheyeing while getting a good field of view, vibration isolation(Key concern on cars, fuel-powered RCs, and doubly so on fuel powered cars of which 50% of my ground fleet consists), explaining antennae, connectors, etc, that sort of thing. It's incredibly easy to get an FPV system set up(Can be done for <50 bucks off Amazon), but it's a nightmare to try to figure out the lingo and ratings.

* Give Drive On a bit more of a spotlight as well. As someone who does both cars *and* planes I love that Drive On exists, but it seems to be more of a side gig than anything else.

* Articles on detail and greebling for aircraft would be boss. Navlights(Especially explaining what colors go where on the plane, what patterns they should use, controllers to run them, et-al), stuff like cockpits, fabricating clear canopies out of everyday materials(Especially canopies that don't obstruct the view from a boardcam), realistic markings for civilian aircraft in major countries, for warbirds, easy ways to make decals and paintjobs, that sort of stuff.

* Articles on adding landing gear to planes that didn't have it, converting fixed to retract, adding retracts to belly landers, pros and cons of the various landing methods, placement and adjustment of landing gear, et-al.

* More really silly stuff like halloween ghost nutballs, flying tanks, Harry Potter Anglias, stuff like that. That's the very content that drew me to Flite Test in the first place and I'd love to see more videos of crazy stuff like that backed with detailed articles explaining how it went together and what it took to make it fly.

 

[FoamyDM]

My feedback will quick.
Details. James I like the articles you write. They are numerous, written well and brief.

Too brief. Some things deserve details, And I find your article have me wanting more details without a way to get em'

That being said. Thank you James for the work you do both at FT and your own projects.

 

[Vimana89]

Working other materials besides FB into builds. Like @JennyC6 mentioned, clear cockpits and canopys would be a great topic to cover. I personally like using poster board for certain components like the FT guys did designing the Scout canopy. I'm going to experiment more heavily with poster board and possibly other stuff in the near future, and when I have a good grasp on it I'll write an article. More silly stuff here and there is always fun and can't hurt, but I'm thinking get a little more inventive with it, like an EDF bicopter steampunk airship or sci-fi starship(this could even be the same design with two different aesthetic finishes and paint jobs). Also, how about more rocket planes, and perhaps toy with some alternative propulsion. I've seen an RC blimp on YouTube with an ion thruster that swivels.Even just a blimp with EDF engines would be sweet though, and would have a whole lot more thrust.

 

[Grifflyer]

Working other materials besides FB into builds. Like @JennyC6 mentioned, clear cockpits and canopys would be a great topic to cover. I personally like using poster board for certain components like the FT guys did designing the Scout canopy. I'm going to experiment more heavily with poster board and possibly other stuff in the near future, and when I have a good grasp on it I'll write an article. More silly stuff here and there is always fun and can't hurt, but I'm thinking get a little more inventive with it, like an EDF bicopter steampunk airship or sci-fi starship(this could even be the same design with two different aesthetic finishes and paint jobs). Also, how about more rocket planes, and perhaps toy with some alternative propulsion. I've seen an RC blimp on YouTube with an ion thruster that swivels.Even just a blimp with EDF engines would be sweet though, and would have a whole lot more thrust.

Nice ideas!!

If it helps I made an article on building clear canopies a while back https://www.flitetest.com/articles/how-to-make-clear-canopies-for-your-rc-planes

 

[Vimana89]

Nice ideas!!

If it helps I made an article on building clear canopies a while back https://www.flitetest.com/articles/how-to-make-clear-canopies-for-your-rc-planes

Good stuff! I'll probably be experimenting with some similar stuff, but no laminator or printing. I may just use some basic clear film, or even see how good clear packing tape on two sides would look.

 

[kdobson83]

Here's another idea I've written an email to the website about. Jen responded and said she'd inform the guys but with how busy you guys have been it may have fallen through the cracks.
Idea: Video or article (preferably video) of test data on the new radials. Update product info on the store with the thrust/amp/watt/prop data. It was in a video about a year ago, TJ highlighted a thrust test stand you guys got but never used it, at least not that the community has seen.
A LOT of people, new and experienced have been asking around both on the forums and store about stats. I for one would be more willing to spend the extra money for the FT Radials over competitors motors if I had test data and I'm sure others would too.
Anyway, my vote is for a video on the FT Tech channel. Makes it easy to answer people's questions with a simple link to the video. Maybe add the test info to the stores products.

 

[Kyle124rombo]

I would love to see more information about the current projects before they release, like the p47. I would love to see a video about the design process and testing of it even before its released, maybe some of the wonderful and amazing community members could chime in with an idea that could tweak part of the design. Two heads are better than one kind of thinking. Its worked a lot in the past it seems like. Other than that, I've seen some comments around on YouTube complaining about the advertisements, c'mon people, Flite test is growing, obviously in a very positive way. They were never meant to work out of Chads basement forever lol. Buying a golf course for RC planes can't be cheap, keep doing what you do Flite Test! Know that Me and my family are very happy for who you are and what you do.

 

[JennyC6]

Other than that, I've seen some comments around on YouTube complaining about the advertisements, c'mon people, Flite test is growing, obviously in a very positive way. They were never meant to work out of Chads basement forever lol. Buying a golf course for RC planes can't be cheap, keep doing what you do Flite Test! Know that Me and my family are very happy for who you are and what you do.

I'm going to speak out against the ads anyway. And here's why.

1: I've spent enough on FT Speedbuild Kits alone to more than offset the 'lost' dollar or two from me blocking ads on the videos. I've bought a Spear, a Mini Sportster, and a Commuter. That alone is more profit than ad views will ever get them if I were to allow those ads to play. And that's not even counting all the FT branded servos and hardware and such I've bought to go along with those planes! FT has made more money off my goods purchases already than they ever will off the views I give every video they release from the time I found the channel until the time I stop watching vids. The pay per ad view is abysmal, something like half a penny each time. Oh, and I should probably also mention that I have plans to buy pretty much every speedbuild kit they offer except for 3 or 4 and put internal combustion power in the models. A little personal challenge, if you will. And that is going to give FT a LOT of money.

2: The 'in video' ads that the guys themselves act out are just pure cringe. They're usually for products or services wholly unrelated to RC, products/services I would never buy, that I know are absolute junk at best. It really pains me to see the guys shilling for mobile games that rely on loot boxes and pay2win -beep- as their monetization scheme. That stuff is directly harmful to the players of those games and it grinds my gears seeing FT shill for those games. These wouldn't be so bad if they were for RC related things that weren't directly harmful to the purchaser, but alas. IIRC, they're currently shilling World of Warships...I've played World of Tanks, trust me, the monetization system that developer uses is quite predatory. Not as bad as most mobile games but...well, to put it succinctly, you're not making it more than halfway up the tech tree unless you open your wallet. I freeloaded my way up to tier 6 in World of Tanks and hit a wall where the grind was just so ridiculous that it'd be months of playing 6+ hrs a day to unlock the next tank...

3: Youtube's ad servers are not secure, and there have been MULTIPLE occasions over the years where YT's ad servers gave people malware. This, alone, is more than enough justification for me to run uBlock Origins in zero tolerance mode. And there's no amount of heartstring tugging that'll budge me on this. I'm not opening my computer up to the risk of malware so youtubers can get half a penny off my views. Sorry. Not happening. And it's doubly not happening when I'm supporting said channel more directly by buying their products, as is the case with Flite Test. Again, they make more money off me buying one Mighty Mini speedbuild kit than they'd make off an entire year's worth of my ad views if I didn't block the ads.


Also, IIRC, Edgewater was a kickstarter project anyway.

 

[stereodreieck86]

2: The 'in video' ads that the guys themselves act out are just pure cringe. They're usually for products or services wholly unrelated to RC, products/services I would never buy, that I know are absolute junk at best. It really pains me to see the guys shilling for mobile games that rely on loot boxes and pay2win -beep- as their monetization scheme. That stuff is directly harmful to the players of those games and it grinds my gears seeing FT shill for those games. These wouldn't be so bad if they were for RC related things that weren't directly harmful to the purchaser, but alas. IIRC, they're currently shilling World of Warships...I've played World of Tanks, trust me, the monetization system that developer uses is quite predatory. Not as bad as most mobile games but...well, to put it succinctly, you're not making it more than halfway up the tech tree unless you open your wallet. I freeloaded my way up to tier 6 in World of Tanks and hit a wall where the grind was just so ridiculous that it'd be months of playing 6+ hrs a day to unlock the next tank...

Thats the reason why I unsubscribed but we are not 100% on the same page; I have no problem with wholly unrelated products but the of product is my problem? America has so many problems like obesity (due to unhealth lifestyle with a lot of fat and sugar), lack of affordable insurence, housing and eduacation. They should make productplacements for the kind of product that solve these problems like onlinelearningcourses, TinyHouses and more.

3: Youtube's ad servers are not secure, and there have been MULTIPLE occasions over the years where YT's ad servers gave people malware. This, alone, is more than enough justification for me to run uBlock Origins in zero tolerance mode. And there's no amount of heartstring tugging that'll budge me on this. I'm not opening my computer up to the risk of malware so youtubers can get half a penny off my views. Sorry. Not happening. And it's doubly not happening when I'm supporting said channel more directly by buying their products, as is the case with Flite Test. Again, they make more money off me buying one Mighty Mini speedbuild kit than they'd make off an entire year's worth of my ad views if I didn't block the ads.

I do block ads everywhere because it is annoying and if I like to buy something or need something, I rather spend the time on forums and Youtube directly searching for reviews.
I also like to support content creators directly via donation or when I buy a product rather then through some shaddy company like Google, Youtube etc.