Whats more fun than flying a Bare Bear? Flying FPV while trying to pop balloons. Want a bigger challenge? Try it with only half a wing.
If you're looking for some top quality Flite Test entertainment, look no further. This is one of those classic FT episodes where something extraordinary happens resulting in a challenge of rather epic proportions.
The Challenge:
Fly the 100mph Horizon Hobby Bare Bear FPV and try to pop balloons suspended on the end of bendy poles.
At this speed it was hard enough for us to see the balloons, much less pop them. Josh had early success but Alex took the cake with his exceptional one-wing flying skills after he collided his airplane into a pole.
100MPH FPV
During this Flite Test challenge, the team used 25mw micro FPV transmitters on the tails of their Bears to get a unique perspective which almost resembles the third person. You may have seen us do this before with our FT Mini Scouts.
If you've been inspired to take on the challenge of FPV at high speeds, make sure that you share it with us here on the fantastic Flite Test community. There are lots of great articles and forum posts out there and we would just love to see your very own projects among them.
Are you inspired to try out your own Flite Test style challenge? Here are some of our top tips for (safely) setting up your own missions with RC aircraft:
- Keep it safe - You'll probably have noticed that Josh and Alex made sure that they weren't standing right next to the balloons. 100mph planes need to be respected as mass x acceleration = potential danger.
- Keep it simple - Have a simple goal and try not to over complicate things. Often you may find that more things go wrong when there are more things to go wrong!
- Make sure that you're not too attached to your plane(s) - Risk of writing off your aircraft is often quite a lot higher when doing perilous challenges. Flying under a rope or going upside down just meters from the deck doesn't always end well so you'll need to be prepared for that. Just look what happened to one of our planes!
We have to commend Alex for his superb effort carrying on with half a wing - It must have taken some concentration!
If you'd like to see more high-speed FPV flying, we've done lots of other little challenges here and there such as the time we flew an FPV wing through the woods.
About the Bare Bears
A few weeks ago, we got together with Horizon Hobby to promote their newest incarnation of the famous 'Rare Bear'. Here is what we produced with them.
You can check out the Bare Bear in the Horizon Hobby store here
The Bare Bear is quite a remarkable aircraft. Stepping back a few years, the original Rare Bear established itself as a favorite among serious pylon racers and good old speed enthusiasts alike. Capable of 100MPH+ and available as a PNP (Plug and Play), the aircraft is still is very popular. Adrenaline filled flights are common with this absolute beast of an airplane.
An 880mm wingspan, light-weight EPO foam construction and a 1200Kv brushless motor powered by a 4s battery is what enables the Bare Bear to be a machine of pure speed. Although this means that the plane is not exactly that beginner friendly, it's a blast for intermediate to experienced pilots. If you are wanting to scratch build your own Bare Bear inspired airplane, these specs might be useful to base your design off of. If you want to check out one of our fast-flying warbirds, the FT MiG-3is a good one to check out.
What is special about this particular model is that it's really a blank canvas, as the name 'Bare Bear' suggests. Naturally, the aircraft presents itself as an ideal candidate for customization. Here is one that we painted in a dark contrasting black and red for our Horizon Hobby commercial. We have made quite a few videos over the years with tips and tricks on painting model airplanes that you might want to check out (click here!).
When painting your Bare Bear, or any other high-speed airplane for that matter, it's usually a good idea to use contrasting colors for ease of viability. Often people paint the tops and bottoms of the wings and fuselage differently which really makes a big difference when judging the orientation of the aircraft from a distance. As you can probably imagine, it's especially useful when your aircraft is traveling extremely fast meaning that one mistake could see it plow into the dirt! Womph!
It's worth mentioning if you prefer to get up in the air quickly, decal sheets are included with the PNP Bear Bear kit meaning that you can easily style your brand new plane straight out of the box.
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