Every year, I show up for Christmas Eve at my folks place in La Palma. It’s two whole miles away from my house. I bring my little dog and something that flies with a remote controller. This year it was a DJI drone, my Mavic Air 2S and two RC fixed wings, aircraft with LED lights so I could fly in front of the house. I brought a UMX Night Vapor, a very delicate little slow flyer and my UMX Ultrix that has a very elaborate set of LED light strips installed in the leading edges of the wings. I thought it would be fun to fly them both on Christmas Eve.
Our guests had left for the night and it was just my sister and my folks so we went outside to the front yard. Not long after the little Night Vapor took flight like a butterfly, flying slow, it went dark. The battery connection was less than secure when I plugged in the new battery into the plug. I decided to fly anyway. My mistake. At least I glided back down onto the street and not in a tree or a neighbor’s backyard.
I recovered the Night Vapor and and plugged in the battery again to the plug and th lights came back on, controls worked normally and back into the Christmas Eve night sky I went. After the 2nd safe flight and landing of the Night Vapor. I flew the UMX Ultrix which is a lot more peppy. It zipped around the sky and over the rooftops. Since there are so many trees on their street, I didn’t have a clear path to land on the grass front lawn of anyone’s yard. A small tree in my neighbor’s yard stopped me on my final approach and no damage to the aircraft.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish you all a blessed, healthy and prosperous 2023 ~ William Flying39