My carport has 120v outlets, my shop has 120v and 220v outlets. Every winter I tell myself I’m gonna buy one of those electric or propane shop/patio heaters, but this is I think our 7th winter here and I haven’t yet.

For the most part I don’t mind, I can layer up. When I’m in the shop, my tube amp gear keeps the area around my workbench warm-ish. It’s only when it’s cold enough that ice start starts to form on the inside of my shop windows that I start to reconsider my life choices.

At least you don't live in North Alaska. I once watched a documentary and the guy was lighting a bonfire under the trucks engine to thaw it out. Apparently the night time temperature was cold enough to make the diesel so viscous that you had to heat the engine up with a fire to make the diesel into something burnable.

Yeah, no. That would be way too cold for me. I miss the desert climate and Southern California. Only time I ever saw snow there was when I’d ride my motorcycle up into the mountains.

That is really hard core dedication to go through all that to go fly. It is kind of addicting, and I do miss it if I haven't flown for a couple days. I've had some medical problems, and a few surgeries the last few years, and the cold gets to me a lot quicker now than before all that. I use to prefer the cold over the heat, can always put on another layer. I haven't been able to handle too much heat after our first Winter when we moved back from S. Fla., and now, I can't handle the cold any more either. Coated or not, I never felt comfortable flying over snow, and especially water, and wondered about the parts overheating if I'd coat them.

I've seen a few of your projects you've posted about working on lately, and does seem like you have something going on with building or tweaking/changing most of the time, which is great . . . me too. Yours seem a bit more involved and thought out, and seem to go through a lot in the process. I tend to just kinda throw them together any more, just using different colors, sizes and shapes, but they all go together pretty much the same way, and I basically know what I want to end up with, and have been lucky enough not to have disappointed myself yet . . . I have put quads together over Winter, and they've sat on a shelf till after our St. Patrick's Day snow when it gets warm enough to go outside in a windbreaker . . . 

I didn't notice a difference switching from the 2" Avan Blurs to the Azures. and their 2 1/2s" were like the 2 1/2" Avan Rush, and some tri-blade Gemfans.

As I get older the cold does cause my joints and previously broken bones to ache. If I couldn’t fly on my own property where I can step inside to warm up and top off my drink, I highly doubt I’d be out flying in the rain and snow.

I’ve never had an issue with overheating, even when I fly in the summer on 100+ degree days- but I don’t just smother them in conformal coating. I use a disposable eyelash brush to coat the pins of chips while leaving the top exposed for cooling.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with just throwing parts together.
I *love* the build process, so I tend to spend some time and thought on it. And yeah, I’ve always got one or two builds going as well as repair projects and whatnot. I enjoy fiddling and experimenting.

Prop choices like most things in this hobby is all about personal preference. The Azure’s have a 1.6” higher pitch than the blurs, with these motors and the weight of this quad, it results in a bit quicker acceleration and a bit more thrust.

(17-Feb-2023, 03:29 AM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: As I get older the cold does cause my joints and previously broken bones to ache. If I couldn’t fly on my own property where I can step inside to warm up and top off my drink, I highly doubt I’d be out flying in the rain and snow.

I’ve never had an issue with overheating, even when I fly in the summer on 100+ degree days- but I don’t just smother them in conformal coating. I use a disposable eyelash brush to coat the pins of chips while leaving the top exposed for cooling.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with just throwing parts together.
I *love* the build process, so I tend to spend some time and thought on it. And yeah, I’ve always got one or two builds going as well as repair projects and whatnot. I enjoy fiddling and experimenting.

Prop choices like most things in this hobby is all about personal preference. The Azure’s have a 1.6” higher pitch than the blurs, with these motors and the weight of this quad, it results in a bit quicker acceleration and a bit more thrust.

Haha . . . if hits 80, I'm looking for shade, 83 & skrew the shade, where's the a/c?

I've thought about trying the spray on coating, figuring I could keep that thin, and still cover everything, but I hardly ever go out flying right after a rain, or when things are still soaked anyway. Maybe if I get into r/c snowmobiles . . . 

I sure don't feel any difference in the two props. You're flying is definitely above my pay grade if you can feel that, although I'm mostly running them all on 3S, and a Whoop, if that makes a difference . . . I was really surprised at how low of a pitch the Blurs are suppose to have. They look a lot more aggressive than that, and are a wide/fat prop too. I don't go a whole lot on pitch, unless I'm really watching my amp pull. I've had milder pitch props out perform their aggressive brothers in tri-blades & the 4 blades, and I can see the differences in the props on my different Whoops, thinking of my 85s, which I have the most diverse motors on basically the same platforms, so is a more fair comparison.

(16-Feb-2023, 08:04 AM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: Dude, it's so freaking cold out that I've gone from beanie to balaclava.

(The sunglasses are just for that proper look.)

Actually, this is no joke and is probably how we are all going to have to start dressing when we go out to fly FPV, even in the middle of summer to avoid being identified when it becomes impossible to fly legally with all the new rules and regulations coming into force.

Every FPV pilot will sport one of these mask printers.  Sat next to there standard 3D printer.



Two guys were recently in the news over here that used really good latex face masks in a robbery.  Had they not been so dumb as to keep the masks and clothes (in the boot of their car), they probably wouldn't have got caught.

The other thing nowadays, in light of Covid, wearing a face mask, is not frowned upon anymore.  A balaclava on the other hand might elicit a tactical response.  But a baseball cap and face mask wouldn't look out of place.

(17-Feb-2023, 12:16 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Actually, this is no joke and is probably how we are all going to have to start dressing when we go out to fly FPV, even in the middle of summer to avoid being identified when it becomes impossible to fly legally with all the new rules and regulations coming into force.

…and don’t forget to cover up any visible tattoos.
I’ll be complying the best that I can, but it’s difficult to parse through all the new and new to come regulations.

You won't have any issue Lemony, you only fly at night and you live in some place where internet is still 56k. Remote id for you is a box ticking exercise that has no real world chance of ever working. Also since no one ever sees you fly, it's about as stealthy as it gets. I get the feeling that this whole remote id crap is more for cities. people who live in some rural place with no real infrastructure is about as far from the FAA giving a crap, as it gets. You will never see any commercial drones that far out as none exist that can fly that far, not to mention the locals peppering the skies with buckshot to stop the government spying on them.

Although i think ph2t is beating you a little on the stealth side with his digital stealth quad that he flies later at night, with it's advanced functions, although I am waiting for him to change his floodlight/optics to IR for that real stealth feeling and maybe work on some way of making it really quiet.

How much helium would you need to make a quad float? I was wondering the other day, if you created a diamond shaped frame from something really light, made 4 holes in and mounted motors, then filled all internal air gaps with helium filled air pouches, what reduction in thrust could be achieved. Frame wise I'm talking like a model plane, so maybe 10-20mm in height. it doesn't necessarily need to actually float, but if it achieved a 50% reduction in thrust to hover, I would consider it worthwhile. The aim would be to make an almost silent drone for cruising, jet black with optics and sensors designed more for night flying than day flying. A true stealth design with an extremely low radar cross section.

I don’t think now is the time to fly any kind of balloon type thing in the US.

There was an article in the local newspaper last year (yeah, we still have a local newspaper). Someone was doing a commercial flight, doing an aerial survey for some new construction.

Anyhow, the neighbor didn’t like that the drone was flying near his property, so he went out and aggressively confronted the pilot and called the cops on him.

Cops came out, checked that his licenses were all correct, and explained to the neighbor that he is legally allowed to fly where and how he was flying.

The newspaper interviewed the local sheriff to get his take on all of it, and the sheriff felt the need to clearly state that no, you cannot shoot a drone out of the sky even if it’s over your property.

This is why I fly on my own property and not over anyone else’s. I don’t want to get shot out of the sky, and I don’t want to get shot going on someone else’s land if I crash on it. Both are legitimate concerns in these here parts.

(17-Feb-2023, 10:13 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: You won't have any issue Lemony, you only fly at night and you live in some place where internet is still 56k.  Remote id for you is a box ticking exercise that has no real world chance of ever working.  Also since no one ever sees you fly, it's about as stealthy as it gets. I get the feeling that this whole remote id crap is more for cities.  people who live in some rural place with no real infrastructure is about as far from the FAA giving a crap, as it gets.  You will never see any commercial drones that far out as none exist that can fly that far, not to mention the locals peppering the skies with buckshot to stop the government spying on them.

Although i think ph2t is beating you a little on the stealth side with his digital stealth quad that he flies later at night, with it's advanced functions, although I am waiting for him to change his floodlight/optics to IR for that real stealth feeling and maybe work on some way of making it really quiet.

How much helium would you need to make a quad float?  I was wondering the other day, if you created a diamond shaped frame from something really light, made 4 holes in and mounted motors, then filled all internal air gaps with helium filled air pouches, what reduction in thrust could be achieved.  Frame wise I'm talking like a model plane, so maybe 10-20mm in height.  it doesn't necessarily need to actually float, but if it achieved a 50% reduction in thrust to hover, I would consider it worthwhile.  The aim would be to make an almost silent drone for cruising, jet black with optics and sensors designed more for night flying than day flying.  A true stealth design with an extremely low radar cross section. 

I don't believe you printed that out loud on the internet . . . With apologies to Alice, even though the restaurant is closed on Sundays . . . 

"FAA guy looked at me and Said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."

… And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
study in black and white of my fingerprints and a folder describing my whole stealth quad plot . . . . 8^}

Haha. I'm not state side, so not worried, nor have any interest in ever going state side, well unless I get offered a job, but i'm not an aeronautical engineer, so unlikely.

Is this not the best place to spitball about crazy ideas for RC aircraft? Honestly if you built something like that I don't think the FAA would come knocking, maybe DHS, maybe a different 3 letter agency, I would be more worried they might offer me a job, but i would probably say yes as well because it is likely to be a pretty cool job. I mean are they really ever going to take someone to court for building a jet black, flying diamond, that is essentially an RC version of a modern stealth aircraft, and even more so if it actually worked/flew.

More likely it gets classified and you get told to not talk about it to anyone, or they ask you to work for them. But I equate it to no more than the origins of NASA's JPL labs. People experimenting for the sake of experimenting. Trying to think which film/documentary it was when they said that JPL came about because a group of students started making rocket fuel in a dorm, almost burnt it down, to launch model rockets with. That was the start of JPL. Might have been The Martian. So I went and looked it up and it appears to be true. Back in the mid thirties a group of Caltech students blew up their dorm while making rocket fuel, got banished to the mountains, returned, got booted out again (for probably creating more explosions) and the place they created in the mountains became JPL. I can't find the original history entry because they have done some modernisation (read as FUBAR'd the website) and the link no longer works. Maybe someone on here can find it or knows where it went.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/

So likelihood I ever build my floating black diamond, LOL, unlikely. Would I like to build it, hell yes. It would be a cool project to do. Technologically though, probably not much more than the TBS Caipirinha or your average oversized drone build. If I had some tech for anti gravity engines or worked out how to manipulate magnetism to achieve the same effect, yeah, that would be different, but in reality what was being proposed is no more than a super light quad, made from light polymer based materials that might use IR imaging, GPS and possibly some level of autopilot to fly (not hard given waypoints and GPS plugged into an RPi and achievable by most middle school students I would bet). All those have already been done by other people. The helium idea probably wouldn't work, given several threads on RCGroups. But would be a cool experiment to do never the less. Either way i am not really proposing anything that hasn't already been done.

The problem i see with quads, is they are ugly, not particularly aerodynamic. I would like to build something that is beautiful, sleek and potentially uses quad motors for controlling lift as opposed to 100% for propulsion. But you need money for that sort of work.

It could be fun to play around with trying to make a quad more aerodynamic. Right now I think they’re pretty much just raw power that rely solely on props for lift.

I can’t figure out a way in my head to make it so that the arms and main body could create lift though. It’s not like there’s a leading and trailing edge on something that can move in any direction. Maybe little curved flaps that are programmed to lower or lift depending on the direction it’s moving. That’d be extra weight and not feasible for a small little bird.

Maybe instead of flaps, having things covered in a flexible material, with rods inside that can raise or lower to shape a proper airfoil and whatnot.

Maybe at least rounding the edges working out a way to make the arms and body move through the air with less resistance.

I dunno, but it sounds fun to play with.

(18-Feb-2023, 01:38 AM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: Haha.  I'm not state side, so not worried, nor have any interest in ever going state side, well unless I get offered a job, but i'm not an aeronautical engineer, so unlikely.  

Is this not the best place to spitball about crazy ideas for RC aircraft?  Honestly if you built something like that I don't think the FAA would come knocking, maybe DHS, maybe a different 3 letter agency, I would be more worried they might offer me a job, but i would probably say yes as well because it is likely to be a pretty cool job.  I mean are they really ever going to take someone to court for building a jet black, flying diamond, that is essentially an RC version of a modern stealth aircraft, and even more so if it actually worked/flew.  

More likely it gets classified and you get told to not talk about it to anyone, or they ask you to work for them.  But I equate it to no more than the origins of NASA's JPL labs.  People experimenting for the sake of experimenting.  Trying to think which film/documentary it was when they said that JPL came about because a group of students started making rocket fuel in a dorm, almost burnt it down, to launch model rockets with.  That was the start of JPL.  Might have been The Martian.  So I went and looked it up and it appears to be true.  Back in the mid thirties a group of Caltech students blew up their dorm while making rocket fuel, got banished to the mountains, returned, got booted out again (for probably creating more explosions) and the place they created in the mountains became JPL.  I can't find the original history entry because they have done some modernisation (read as FUBAR'd the website) and the link no longer works.  Maybe someone on here can find it or knows where it went.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/

So likelihood I ever build my floating black diamond, LOL, unlikely.  Would I like to build it, hell yes.  It would be a cool project to do.  Technologically though, probably not much more than the TBS Caipirinha or your average oversized drone build.  If I had some tech for anti gravity engines or worked out how to manipulate magnetism to achieve the same effect, yeah, that would be different, but in reality what was being proposed is no more than a super light quad, made from light polymer based materials that might use IR imaging, GPS and possibly some level of autopilot to fly (not hard given waypoints and GPS plugged into an RPi and achievable by most middle school students I would bet).  All those have already been done by other people.  The helium idea probably wouldn't work, given several threads on RCGroups. But would be a cool experiment to do never the less.  Either way i am not really proposing anything that hasn't already been done.

The problem i see with quads, is they are ugly, not particularly aerodynamic.  I would like to build something that is beautiful, sleek and potentially uses quad motors for controlling lift as opposed to 100% for propulsion.  But you need money for that sort of work.

My quads said, "We hate you, WE are NOT ugly, humans are ugly, and your mother dresses you funny . . . and haha, we can fly & you can't . . ." 

I said, "Hey, I am too . . . " and they just glared at me with a really nasty look . . . Sorry, they've been getting kinda rowdy lately . . . cabin fever I guess . . . hope they don't take it out on me next time out, they are mean, vicious, hateful little critters anyway . . . 8^}

I've had my IT company for over 20 years, my degree was in programming, but bread & butter was networks & blue screens & viruses. I always thought the super crackers could make a stupid amount of money, writing some really awesome program, walking in the front door of Microsoft, Adobe, IBM & leave it with your card & starting salary with the front desk . . . & probably have the job & a bonus before you get back out the front door. I wouldn't think the government is really all that interested in me flying my Whoops around the hood, sometimes even exceeding treetop level . . . but, you're only paranoid if nobody really is out to get you . . .