I have this new electric Baby Ringmaster (just completed) and I have promised to do the maiden flight on New Year's Day. Course when I set that date I expected weather in the 30s or maybe even 40s but now the predicted high is 18 degrees. New Year's Eve low is predicted to be 12 degrees so I would be flying in the range of 12 to 18 degrees. I know that batteries (Li-Poly) don't like too low a temperature and I have no idea about the ESC (CC Phoenix 10) and Timer (Will Hubin FM-0d). My thought is to either chicken out of flying or to keep the plane in the warm car with the lines attached and to quickly arm it in the car and then place it on the field and roll out the lines, attach the handle and take off. I can set the timer for a one minute forty five second run and some of that time would be consumed rolling out lines and attaching the handle so it would be a short flight.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the advisability of a flight under these conditions?? Any suggestions other than the obvious don't do it?? Sure wish I had a gym available for this but I don't.

Don't worry about the ESC or the timer, John; electrons don't get cold until the temperatures approach (absolute) zero! Any loss from a cold battery should be more than offset by the dense air. But do worry about John...

Great shot. I wouldn't mind finding those under MY tree.

I've been flying in near freezing weather (35-40F )with no issues. I agree some insulation on the battery would be good. The rest of it's pretty much unaffected. The planes sure do turn well in that thick air.


John W

FWIW there is a heat~cool range in which the electronics are comfortable operating. if you are oustide the design zone of the components, things can and do go out of tolerance and will cause some issues. Look on the web site or in the owners manual for the specs on the electronics to find out what they are. some of my RC electronics will start to glitch below about 35 or 40 degrees,,

I occasionally design electronics for near-military temperature ranges (-40 to +75C ambient); from my experience you can design with all parts that are rated for a particular temperature range and still have a board that doesn't work at cold or hot.  This is much more prevalent when you're aiming for industrial or mil-spec temperature ranges -- and I, for one, don't intend to go flying when it's -40C outside -- but it can still happen in more 'commercialish' ranges like 0-40C if a designer is seriously not paying attention to performance over temperature.

I would expect consumer items to work at the temperatures where they work; if the manufacturer paid attention to hot and cold (or paid attention to customer feedback) then it'll work.  If not, then it'll work only if you're very lucky.  And don't expect to get a straight answer from the manufacturer that didn't do a good job.

John,

From my experience with building and testing circuit boards I think you should be ok in the temp ranges you are expecting. We used to do hot and cold cycle of the boards to screen out infant failures and the higher temps were much more stressful. That said there could still be a remote chance of some components going out of spec at the lower temps but I would think this is not a great risk.

You do want to keep the batteries warm. I carry then in my pocket until ready to fly. You could also put them in a insulated cooler with some sort of hot pack.  Most sporting goods stores and also golf courses sell hand warmers that are air activated packets that would be worth a try. The only other problem I have had is that my Cellpro charger has a low temp sensor and will not charge the batteries if it's too cold. It goes into low temp balancing mode.

Good luck and have fun!!!

I fly a lot in the winter with temps below 32 (rc electric) with no issues. Was out doing first flight on an RC electric today at 29 degrees. Started on the first flip! ... I love electric in the winter! 

bob branch

OK, We chickened out of trying to fly today. My flying buddy, Jim Swearingen, and I agreed that it made sense to wait until we were in the 30s at least. Anyway, I did do the outside static test run for 1 min and 52 sec duration. All seemed to work well at an outside temperature of 10 degrees F. The slip stream wind chill was truly wicked and I also discovered that more capacity was drained from the battery. Indoors around 70 degrees that duration run drains around .080 mamp and the outside cold run drained 0.109 mamp. I wonder if this is the result of the chilled battery having a lowered voltage and thus requiring more amps to maintain the RPM (I am using set RPM mode in a Castle Creations 10 amp ESC). Does this make sense?? If this is the case one should allow for this extra drain to avoid going beyond the nominal 80% max drain (to preserve the battery) when you are flying in cold temperatures.

John

The Minneapolis Piston Poppers had their annual Jan. 1 get together today. The temp was in single digits. I flew my electric Ringmaster with no problems. It was great to just plug in, walk to the handle, put in a three and a half minute flight and get back in the warm car and watch the next flyer in line try to start their i.c. engine!

  You boys have to much time on your hands!

You may be confusing me with another "Will", Paul -- although I'll admit to not wanting to fly an unheated airplane made by your company when the temperature is below about 55F...

When it comes to eC/L, though, my problem (along with others, I'm sure) is that my flying partner isn't willing to go through the ordeal of lighter fluid/ether (while he gets colder and colder), re-needling, and then having too much power -- and so he is the one that calls it quits at temperatures below about 60F. Another problem, right now, is the foot of snow on the ground. (See also pp. 6-7, Flying Models, November, 2008.)

As it happened, I was introduced to stunt only about fifteen years ago, when I met a student from Uzbekistan who was most eager to revive his passion for the stunt pattern. We found a Ringmaster and a Fox .35 in a local hobby shop and he built it in my garage during the Christmas break. The weather turned cold and snowy just before he finished it, but we were determined to fly it. We shoveled off a takeoff path in a university running track and then, with multiple trips to a warm car, managed to get it running--and stunting. 

Thanks, Paul, for doing so much to help establish the legitimacy of competition eC/L! The revolution is still in its infancy...