R/C Planes on the Playa

joycem137 · Post by **joycem137** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:29 am

I installed some EL wire on my electric SuperFly R/C plane to enable it for night flight to bring to the Playa. Looks pretty cool, and my test flights are promising in terms of visibility, cool factor, and handling in windy conditions.

Does anyone out there that's flown R/C on the playa have any tips for how to handle R/C planes out there? Things like proper battery storage... how to do repairs... how to fly safely... when/where it's best to fly... etc. I figure most of it is common sense or stuff you know from flying in general, but I'd love any input veterans might have on the special conditions you run into out in the desert.

Thanks!

capjbadger · Post by **capjbadger** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:41 am

Do a search on this board. I know there is a group that manages such things to prevent freq crossover and such.

-Badger

joycem137 · Post by **joycem137** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:51 am

Searching the board doesn't really return much of value. The results all discuss airplane trips and such. There was a post on burningman.com a few years ago about this, but it doesn't appear to be on the site anymore.

capjbadger · Post by **capjbadger** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:57 am

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?p=171658

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:08 am

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n ... urning+man

some seeing eye · Post by **some seeing eye** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:32 am

You are probably down in the 5 & 10m bands, but it appears they are starting to attempt on-playa frequency coordination. Probably not a bad idea, given all the infrastructure communications radios which are probably in the middle of spectrum consolidation and moving to narrower channels. I would send the folks below an email before they get very busy.

""
CALLING ALL TECHNO-GEEKS: PLAYA WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT - MAY 12

Are you an artist, camp and/or geek who will bring wireless/internet technology to the playa?

If you are planning a large-scale technological project, have an art project that absolutely requires Internet connectivity, or will be beaming any sort of frequencies from 900MHz to 5.8GHz into the airwaves above the playa, you are cordially invited and strongly requested to participate in the fifth Playa Wireless Summit hosted by the Burning Man Technology Department.

This year's summit will be held in San Francisco at the Internet Archive (but of course you can participate remotely -- we're geeks) at 7pm to 9pm on May 12, 2011.

PLEASE RSVP by emailing playatech (at) burningman (dot) com and include the following:
- your name
- name of your camp or project
- technology and frequency used, e.g. "controlling rolling spheres with Zigbee on 900 MHz", "want Internet uplink for camp", "RC plane on 2.4 GHz, frequency hopping"

We will add you to an email list and keep you posted on the details (e.g. address, dial-in number).

Thank you from the Burning Man Playa Tech Team.

joycem137 · Post by **joycem137** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:54 am

I've got a 2.4Ghz radio. The Spektrum Dx7. I've sent off emails to both playatech and rchobbyist to check in with them about frequencies and such. Thanks for the heads up on those.

There's surprisingly little information out there on flying R/C at burning man. The links mentioned above mostly lead to articles about other people having done it, not much in the way of actual information.

The only real info I was able to find in my searches was here

R/C Planes on the Playa

R/C Planes on the Playa

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