Fun Stuff: Red FlyByNites, Basic Comments
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I've flown my kites at night with Xylumes, the green tubes with the bioluminescent chemicals inside (you know, "break and shake"s). I bought everything I could find one Halloween and went ghosting with a few of my kites. It was fun but the Xylumes are temperature sensitive so they didn't stay lit that long and they weren't that bright to begin with. Great if you're on the ground but not much from 100ft up. I do a lot of my flying in large fields adjacent to farms so there's not a lot of people around. When I fly at night, I figure my work is done when I see the neighbor's lights go on in their homes. This time out, I decided to attach the Fly-by-Nitess to my Maxima (10+ft from tip to tip, dual line. A great kite).
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The figure on the right shows what the Maxima looks like in daylight. With that picture in mind, check out what the Maxima looks like with the red FlyByNites in a UFO Scouting Party configuration in the figure on the left.
I do a lot of flying up in Nova Scotia and I'm sure the RCMP is going to see this and get the explanation they've been looking for regarding those strange lights that have made Carl's cows stop giving milk.
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FlyByNite construction
Some people might be concerned that the FlyByNites will add too much weight or drag to their kite. I suppose that if you're attempting to get airborne in an incredibly light wind this is a valid concern. I wouldn't attach the FlyByNites to a kite if there was minimal wind. It would defeat the purpose, don't you think? I mean, if you wanted to have them UFOs take off and land and take off again, you'd need enough wind to get them up in the first place. The good news is that the FlyByNites are very lightwieght. The entire rig, with the two required A-cell batteries (sold separately) weighs a few ounces. The design of the lights is that the battery holder is at the center of two strings of lights and there was more than enough to stretch out the entire wingspan of the Maxima (again, a 10+ft wingspan strutted kite). I attached the battery pack to the center strut of Maxima with the included velcro strap then clipped the lights (each light is on its own plastic clip which slides over a strut) to the top cross strut, left a few hang loose then clipped a few of the middle lights on the bottom cross struts and finally left the last light hang loose from there.
I didn't fly the Maxima in any less or more of a wind than I would normally fly it in and there was no noticeable change in performance or handling.
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FlyByNites with a foil kite
You can use the FlyByNites with foil kites, too, and I'm sorry that I have no pictures to show of this. Maybe next time out. In any case, I took a Stylus 2.8 and threaded the lights through the control lines, using the clips on the lights to clip onto the lines instead of a strut. Nice effect. You can also thread the lines through the loops on the back of the Stylus (where you'd attach either tales or another Stylus to fly them stacked). If you really want to make people nervous you can spread the lights out through the inside of the Stylus. They'll be a bit dimmer, but at night depth perception decreases so the brain interprets the dimness as being further away, especially during some dynamic maneuvers. If you're good at collapsing the foil and recovering before it crashes, you can give the impression that the lights are dog-fighting, being shot down and then having new craft enter the fray.
Hey, I'm weird. I know it and so do my friends. You learn to live with some things.
Good flying, friends.
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I also had a great time with the Fly-By-Nites on a Solaris Extreme recently. Those flights are shown above and here.
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Good flying, friends. |
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