Here's my new LED Swift 2
If it stops raining I will maiden tonight! Fingers Crossed.

Looks great dolbydarma!

...and sadly the rain still falls. Maybe tomorrow!

Rain stopped for a few minutes - wanted to maiden it at dusk, but night had to do... and it did! Awesome! What a blast! Can't see anything but the plane - no trees, no playground, no houses - just a really really bright flying arrow!

Love It!

Here is a video from my Swift II while I was out of town. It was nice to walk out the front door and go flying.

Swift II (8 min 5 sec)

Dolby, nice wing. Just a heads up if you were going for "scale" on the nav lights the red needs to be on the left wing tip and green on the right. Not a biggie but something to think about if you let someone else fly her at night thats used to red being on the left.


While after building and flying Ritewings I decided to build something "slow and easy" that would give me longer duration flights and not require me to be thinking 5 seconds ahead while flying at 100plus MPH so I built one of these this weekend. I love her but I learned a few lessons:

1) regular clear packing tape sucks for building these
2) 3m packing tape with the rip stop threads works better
3) the Grayson microjet motor on 3s and a APC 6x4 prop is too much power

The maiden went well but I launched her at 3/4 stick and suddenly realized she was faster then expected...alot faster. I rolled her back to half stick and she was still out running any of my PZ warbirds. Rolls and loops looked good and for a "relaxing" wing I am impressed. The build is easier then a Ritewing but I do miss the no flex of the Ritewing and the heavy weight handles wind better. We had 10-15mph winds so I had a little fun "trimming her out". LOL

I have switched to a APC 5.7x3 prop and hope that will slower her down. I used 800 mah from a 1320 lipo flying a soilid 8 minutes. I am aiming for 12 minute flights on that lipo.

Maidened the Swift II last night. I was a little apprehensive as a beginning pilot and this being my first delta was more so.

First toss at 3/4 throttle took a twist high to the left and nosed into ground! I thought...time to pack up and take the walk of shame. Ugh... no damage?

Second toss at 1/2 throttle took a left twist, but I compensated, flew off straight and level. Made my turn, messed up on my orientation...straight into ground... Surely this broke something... Nothing..no damage.

Third toss at 1/2 throttle with a pizza toss high, straight and level, took her up to about 200 feet, notched it back to 1/4 throttle and floated around getting used to orientation. Flew in racetrack circles.

Looking forward to taking her up this evening. A buddy of mine once told me that the only sure fire way to learn to fly RC other than a durable plane and at least an intro from an experienced pilot is logging about 8 hours of flight time. And that is just the basics (orientation...trim..etc)

All and in all, the Swift II is one tough plane and I am one happy noob!

Pantseatflyer, I use a baseball throw for all my wings...even the heavier ones. Fingers under the chin of the wing, thumb on top right along center with wing behind your head and palm facing the sky, 1/2 throttle and basically you pitch her like a baseball to your kid but you release it whne the nose is just past your shoulder and make sure to FOLLOW THROUGH to clear the prop. Works perfect every time.

Went out this evening and something 'felt off'. Elevons were level and true, but every time I would toss, she would go nose up and try to almost hover before I gave it a bunch of down elevator.

I took her back inside and checked the CG. It was WAY tail heavy. I ended up putting several pieces of Extreme tape on the leading edge, but still was tail heavy. I ended up taping four pennies to the nose and it balanced between 180 to 185.

Took it back out, baseball toss (Thanks ATIS), flew straight and true. I made around a dozen laps and got brave and did two loops!! Slowed her down and floated on in. Not one crash!

I'm HOOKED! Next step...LED's!

Great!! Happy to be able to help you on the toss, that always seems to be the hard part. Looking forward to some video and picts!

Day 3 of flying the Swift II. Flew through (2) 2s 800mh Lipos. Slow figure eights back and forth. I was ready to head inside because the mosquitos were starting to swarm..that was until I popped the 3s from my pocket. WOW! What a huge difference 11.1v make!

I took off at 1/4 throttle, took it up to 200 feet and opened it up. It took off like a rocket! I banked the turn flew straight toward me and pointed it up and she took off vertical while doing barrel rolls and then a dive which kinda spooked me... I cut it way back to 1/4, landed and came on home.

Will have pics and video up end of this week.

Awesome!!! She is a great flyer and can really carve those turns hard when you want her too! Looking forward to the picts and video.

Originally Posted by ATIS

Dolby, nice wing. Just a heads up if you were going for "scale" on the nav lights the red needs to be on the left wing tip and green on the right. Not a biggie but something to think about if you let someone else fly her at night thats used to red being on the left.


While after building and flying Ritewings I decided to build something "slow and easy" that would give me longer duration flights and not require me to be thinking 5 seconds ahead while flying at 100plus MPH so I built one of these this weekend. I love her but I learned a few lessons:

1) regular clear packing tape sucks for building these
2) 3m packing tape with the rip stop threads works better
3) the Grayson microjet motor on 3s and a APC 6x4 prop is too much power

The maiden went well but I launched her at 3/4 stick and suddenly realized she was faster then expected...alot faster. I rolled her back to half stick and she was still out running any of my PZ warbirds. Rolls and loops looked good and for a "relaxing" wing I am impressed. The build is easier then a Ritewing but I do miss the no flex of the Ritewing and the heavy weight handles wind better. We had 10-15mph winds so I had a little fun "trimming her out". LOL

I have switched to a APC 5.7x3 prop and hope that will slower her down. I used 800 mah from a 1320 lipo flying a soilid 8 minutes. I am aiming for 12 minute flights on that lipo.

Wasn't going for anything scale, just as many colors as I could find - good point though!!! If there are two ways to do anything - right and wrong - I always pick the wrong way first. But even though it's wrong I absolutely love this wing! Night flying is so much fun, and it's a great vehicle for my micro cam so win, win, win... Can't say enough about it.

As for tossing it - I side arm it kind'a like a boomerang at 1/3 power - works great for me.

Originally Posted by dolbydarma

Wasn't going for anything scale, just as many colors as I could find - good point though!!! If there are two ways to do anything - right and wrong - I always pick the wrong way first. But even though it's wrong I absolutely love this wing! Night flying is so much fun, and it's a great vehicle for my micro cam so win, win, win... Can't say enough about it.

As for tossing it - I side arm it kind'a like a boomerang at 1/3 power - works great for me.

Give us the specs on the LED's. I am curious what type you used and how you installed and hooked them up.

Night flying would be very nice!

Dolby, I only commented cause I crashed my IYF44 at SEFF at night cause my brain for some reason deceided that red was right so I pulled instead of pushing and hit the ground. LOL

I used the LED strips and installed them standing up on there edge on the IYF44 as it makes the foam glo on both sides.