nocturnal aviation

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

At last nights club meeting we discussed a change to club rule

No night flying, why we had this rule I don't know, was no such thing when rule was made.(I think). Amendment went through unopposed.

I don't think lads shall be getting out of bed at 2 am to go flying, but it will allow members to stay over a little into darkness and have some fun.

Not done it myself but have watched others doing it and its amazing how easy it is pick out what the model is doing with these LED strips

so its buy some Depron time and make myself a night flyer

[Allan Bennett]

Our club until recently had a rule that we could only fly up to 5:00pm or sunset, whichever is earlier. This was to avoid annoying the occupants of nearby houses, when our club was made up mainly of glow models.

With the increasing popularity of electric flight, and the ready availability of lighting systems, we changed the rules a couple of years ago to allow quiet electric models (72dBA or less) to fly to 7:30pm, including after sunset.

I have tail and wingtip strobes, and switchable landing lights, on my TwinStar, but am not comfortable flying it unless I can still make out its silhouette. Another clubmate has strip lights on fuselage and wings of a foamy profile model, which is obviously easier to fly in the dark.