rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

There may be information on this posted somewhere, but I've yet to find it, so I thought I'd ask you guys for help. What are you guys using to build sun dots for flying when the sun is in your eyes. At my field the sun sets right off the end of the runway, and it never enters the box, but it will virtually blind you from behind your sunglasses. I'm open to ANY suggestions, with preferably places to purchase things. The biggest question is obviously what are you using for a stand?

thanks for the help,

Arch

cmoulder

Check out [link=http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=impact+light+stand&N=0&InitialSearch=yes]these.[/link]

rwlewis

My Feedback: (4)

The most recent one I saw made by a local competitor was made with a cheapo speaker stand from Guitar Center and an extendable paint roller handle from Home Depot..worked great, wide base works well in some wind..All up I think it was less than $50 total to make....

Richard

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

Thanks Bob. That is exactly what I'm looking for.

Arch

cmoulder

You're welcome, Arch.

You may find some stuff a little cheaper at some of the other mail-order photo places, but best to stick with B&H. Good quality and reasonable prices.

Are you going be at the Endicott contest July 9? I need a little coaching, having missed 1st place in the last 2 contests by a TOTAL of 17 points.

I realize that's quite a long drive from south MD!!

woodie

The one we use at the Sacramento field is basically a spike driven into the lawn with an adjustable length pole. Works great but only if you can drive it into a lawn or soft dirt.

Woodie

snaproll4

Arch, You may want to build a little anchor on one of the feet. I found the biggest problem with something designed for indoors was the wind. When you put someting the size of a stop sign on top, it gets a little tipsy. If you use someting smaller on top, just shifting you stance will take you out of the shadow. Make sure you can raise the sun blocker to at least 7 feet.

Steve

woodie

Yes, it is kind of a juggle deciding what size to make it. I settled on a disk about 18" in diameter that is about 4-5 feet from my face, just enough to block the sun while flying thru it horizontally. I don't move my feet or stance while I am flying a pattern so it is easy to keep my face in the shadow. The reason I like a smaller disk is you fly thru it quickly so the plane is not out of your sight for very long. If you are not going to fly thru the disk shadow, then a larger disk or plate would work great.

Woodie

houckj

I have thought about making one of these but just learned the name sun dot.
So the shield part is opaque.  I was thinking translucent.  Perhaps a piece of smoked plexiglass. 
What is everyone's experience?  At my field the sun can rise almost directly in front of you in the morning.  It is often a bother until about 11 in the summer time.

snaproll4

I think you want opaque. I've never used one when facing directly into the sun. I use mine in the evening when the sun is low at the left side of the box. It is really effective.

Steve

VerneK

Hi Arch,
I've had one for about 10 years. I made it from a very cheap photographic light stand and a dark, opaque frisbee. The cheaper the light stand the better. Higher quality light stands are heavier and more robust than the cheap ones. You basically just want a lightweight aluminum rig that will fold up very compactly that you can toss in the car. The sections of my light stand slide up and down inside of a compression-type fitting that you finger tighten.

The standard thread for photo lights and tripods is 1/4-20. I cut a piece of 1" dowel about 2" long. One end will be CA'd to the inside of the frisbee. You'll need to rough up the frisbee with 80-grit where the dowel will be glued on and a fillet made from CA and baking soda around the edge of the glue joint will prevent it from breaking loose. Near the other end of the dowel, sand a flat spot on the side of the dowel and drill and tap it for 1/4-20.

I take the frisbee off when I'm done for the night so the glue joint won't be stressed during storage and transportation. I also slide a 5 pound barbell weight over the shaft of the stand which sits on the tripod part of the light stand when I set it up. That's where the compression fittings work better than a thumb bolt so the weight can slide down the shaft toward the tripod. There's nothing more disconcerting than having the wind blow the whole works into you while flying! The weight will make the assembly stay put in wind up to 15 mph or so.

Hope this helps!

Verne

David Bathe

Translucent would be an idea. Some years ago I flew at a local comp with the late afternoon sun directly in the centerline. They had a semi perminent, solid sun disk... didn't enjoy the experience at all. If you lost the plane behind the disk, you naturally move to find it. BANG! Instant sun blind for the following seconds, had to have the caller inform me about the model... hated it. Having said that, a disk is certainly is something one can to get used to as the locals look it all in their stride, no problems at all. Least the disk gave me something to loop around. Different types of translucent disk are certainly worth experimenting with IMO.

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

Awesome tips guys. I have ordered a cheap light stand and it will be here tomorrow. Fortunately, Don Szczur was here last night and had his and I was able to check it out. It is very similar to Verne's idea, except he uses an L bracket and a piece of plywood. He also had weight on his, which makes sense.

Thanks for all the help. Hopefully others that have had similar questions were able to get something out of this as well,

Arch

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

Sounds like the shade part can be built such that its's translucency can be adjusted according to the brightness of the sun.

Some "plastic" glass covered with window tint film probably be good enough. To adjust the level of translucency, one can add or subtract the number of glass pieces.

houckj

great ideas.  Now I need to get to work.  Any brand recommendations on tripods?  I like translucent to start with.  I was out this am sport flying and basically limited my self to the left side of the sun except when I flew low.

Michel

Hi

At our field we use a microphone stand and a frisbee

Michel

houckj

Any pictures of one in use?

VerneK

Based on my experience, you won't like translucent. With an opaque frisbee, you can position the frisbee so it shields the side of your face that faces the sun and fly right up to the edge of that point. With a translucent shield, the difference between light and dark will still effectively blind you from your plane. All of this assumes that you don't intend on flying your plane into the sun which I'd view as a risky experiment at best. The frisbee I'm currently using (original got chewed up by the dog) started off as dark translucent green which I found useless. I made it opaque with spray paint and it's held up for about 8 years or so.

Verne

drube

Are you guys using sun glasses with blinders on the sides? They really help me at times I also use polarized lenses.

VerneK

I usually start with blinders on my glasses on the side the sun is coming from. As the sun starts dropping in the horizon (evening) the side shields stop working because you have to turn your head toward the direction of the sun, the side shields rotate with you and whammo, you're blind. I'm sure all of us can tell when that's going to happen. At that point, I bring out the sun dot but usually don't bother removing the side shield on my sun glasses.

One little tip on the sun dot is to set it as close to the side of your head as possible. It's easier to get it positioned properly and accurately and allows more head movement without getting blasted by the sun. The reverse is true the further the sun dot is from the side of your face where a fairly small amount of head movement will get you away from the protection of the sun dot. I use mine primarily in the evenings at a field where the pilot faces north and the sun dot is always on my left side (west). I'm sure it would work in the morning as well when the sun is very low in the eastern horizon, but I don't recall ever using one in the morning. Just so there's no confusion, the sun dot is designed to shield the pilot from intense side-light. If the sun is out in front of you, the sun dot would be useless.

Verne