All Lit Up

...waiting for a calm evening

Anticipating the successful restoration of the Floater Jet I'd splashed out and purchased a Lumifly LED system, comprising a controller, manual switch and four half-metre white LED strips. I also got a small 1000mAh 2S battery, one which has with the small red connector whose official designation I don't know but it's not the regular yellow XT connector.

Packaging these additional components into the Floater's nose was a challenge to say the least, and also raised a concern about it becoming excessively nose-heavy with all the extra gear packed up-front.

First of all, to clear some space and transfer a little weight backward, I pushed the receiver right back into the rear of the fuselage where the ESC resides. To ensure no loss of signal will all the gear on board I made a hole in the side of the fuselage and taped the antenna to the outside. I didn't bother with a satellite receiver as I'm not planning to let the Floater stray too far from base these days...

With limited space between the battery and servos, I opted to lay the extra battery flat on top of the main unit and placed the LED controller on top of this held in place by velcro tabs. I also pushed the whole lot as far rearward as possible for better weight distribution. The LED strips, which are not the self-adhesive kind, I taped onto the wing and fuselage with clear tape placed in between the LED's themselves. 

The result is quite spectacular when viewed in low light, with each strip having five high-intensity LED's shining a clear white light. The kit comes with four strips as standard but I'll be adding another pair to the underside of the wings for better visibility from below.

With all this gear on board I was understandably a little nervous regarding how the Floater would respond, particularly on launch with its unfortunate predisposition for nose-diving into the ground. Well, having tried a few launches with success, I can happily say it manages the extra weight with little apparent effect. One does still require care not to launch with excess power and to be ready with the elevator as it noses down on launch, but otherwise it flies pretty much as well as ever.

The characteristic porpoise effect is still there as a result of the large disparity between powered and unpowered flight regimes. However it's at its happiest when gliding, its large wing area allowing it to float peacefully and silently as if magically transformed into some sort of ethereal whisp...