Night Flying Challenge at Burning Man in the Week up to Labor Day 2008
The Container Ground Crew has Arrived
Left to right Curly (container) Jeeves*, Larry (container), Ken (driver), Moe (container) Splinter*, Dan (driver) Hulot*, Dave (Driver) The Man (in the background).
Night flying two of our Delta wing Towel remote control aircraft. All of that remaining empty space in the sky can be filled a plane built and piloted by you. Cost? 2.5 hours of build time and $125 cash money. If you have the desire to freak the night sky, come join us.
Some Infrastructure
Behold the amazing Towel Rack meant to keep participants hip (no walking out to the playa with airplane, no need to
take your towel back home, you can move to the next gig with the cutie pie that "just luvs what you do and wants
you to come to Tokyo". Some married guy or near approximation of same will handle the return of your precious towel
to a safe place.
And for you local New Yorkers/East Coast folks, we are going to be
doing night flying events in the Big Apple for warm-up purposes. We
start in McCarren park in Williamsburg. Have to keep things hip you
know.
Some videos of night flying--not at Burning Man
Videos of the Towel in action
The Towel is our one simple design airplane designed to allow maximum creativity in design at minimal costs. This setup is about $125 of gear total and it is scratch built from simple, easily replaced materials and can be built in an
evening
Night Flying with FireWorks:
Trying to pop balloons: My, my it is manouverable:
These are actually gliders (not the Towel) flying off of a slope with
the wind blowing into it, but it gives the best sense of what a sky
full of night flyers looks like. It is incredibly fun to do this sort
of flying.
There will be carnage. There will be fun. There will be folks totally
appreciating the spectacle that combat is. I flew a 4 foot delta wing
with a masonic eye illuminated on the bottom and a laser beam shooting
out the front in 2005. People stopped me in the airport to say it was
the coolest thing they saw that year. Last year it was a giant
illuminated wriggling sperm and next year we can really blow the
50,000 plus attendees minds with night flying foamie combat.
FAQ
Who is running this?: We all are. This is a community effort to do an
extraordinary thing at Burning Man.
How safe is this?: Safety is a big deal. The easiest way
to keep things safe is limit wing loading, keep props on the
back/middle of airframes and separate spectators from the action
area.
I have no clue about this "RC-thing", but I would love
to participate. Great, you show up with $100 on a build night
and 3 hours later you will be flying in McCarren Park. We hand you
all you need to build The
Towel. A simple el-wire setup will cost an additional $25 or you
can bring your own illumination setup (LEDs, glow sticks, glow in
the dark paint...). We will teach you to build, fly and create your
night flying artistic vision. The hobby could use an injection of
fresh blood to liven things up a bit. Sputnik (the last great
infusion of folks into the hobby) is sort of over, time for art to
supersede the cold war eh? If you are local, then it is easy--just
come to our weekly hobby nights (Tuesdays right now) and get started
on a simulator etc. If you are out of town we will try and find
locals that can help....We are working on some gear deals so you can
buy good stuff that will work.
Can you recommend an airframe and/or radio?: Visit out site for the The Towel. It can be built in 3 hours if you come to one of our hobby nights.
