Lighting conditions

This is just a "for fun" question. Do you (all) prefer flying in the early AM, late evening, under clear skies, partly cloudy, or overcast, etc., etc.? I personally like the sun either nearly or completely obscured (and I am just a "Sport" dude). For you rocket PA dudes (I understand that at a contest you may well not have any choice) do you feel flying in a particular lighting format helps your score? For those who judge at contests, is it easier/harder on you if you have a particular set of conditions?
I am not talking about wind conditions- only the lighting and any background (like trees, etc.) can go in also as a factor.

Jake

Definitely overcast, for favorite conditions. Nice, even lighting, no glaring sun. The very worst is when your flight path has to repeadedly cross the sun, especially when having to fly maneuvers on that side of the circle (this would be most likely late afternoon/early evening, when the sun sits low on the horison).

Some of my favorite flights in memory have been just after the sun went down behind a hill or some clouds - i.e. can't be seen anymore, but there's still enough light in the sky. Great feeling!

In high summer I'm always wearing a hat and sunglasses. It's a real feeling of freedom being able to take them both off to fly...

Tim

"Some of my favorite flights in memory have been just after the sun went down behind a hill or some clouds - i.e. can't be seen anymore, but there's still enough light in the sky. Great feeling!"

I like it when you can do that and you have a full moon rising also. Unfortunately down here on the Texas Gulf Coast, a great many times of the year the "skeeters" will fly off with you and the airplane if you are out at the best time of the evening for this.

Jake

I like the afternoon for flying and flying late into a summer evening. Fly till the forest rangers kick ya out of the park! And unless you burn at least a gallon of fuel that day, you really didnt fly. Thats the only way to practice or trim a plane. Or both.

Have Fun! Bruce

All contests seem to require you to fly with the sun exactly where you have to do all your maneuvers. It is not a well known fact but all experienced stunt flyers know that the sun is also a wind magnet. It is probably published in some little book of obscure rules. Said book will most likely also contain other rules like when you set your Exacto knife down on your work table it immediately hides, mobile home parks cause tornados etc. Others will most likely add to this list.

Here is my hypothesis as to why the wind almost aways blows toward the sun (I prefer overcast days). The sun warms the ground and causes the air to rise--thermals. Cooler air--wind, flows in to the hot area to replace the risen air. In the morning the hot area is to the east of you. Around noon it is on you so you get gusty air and thermals. As the day wears on the warm spot moves to the west. So at any given CL circle, if nothing exciting weather-wise is going on, the wind will blow toward the sun all day long.

Agree that Murphy wants downwind right into our solar friend up there. My eyes are sensitive to sunlight more than most, and this is a problem. Overcast is preferred, and often is correlated to less gusty wind conditions, at least here around Motown, or at least in my imagination.

Nothing beats that last flight when the sun is setting, though. The wind usually is lessened, and to see the model silhouetted against reds, oranges and yellows can be a real treat.

Week before last the wind was blowing directly into the sun nothing worse than that. I love to fly when its over cast, cool, no or little wind, don't care if its raining a little. When its 105 degrees in the shade you won't see me flying. Any time of the day is good to fly I fly until it get so dark I can barley see the airplane. Early in the morning I am usually to stiff to bend down and put fuel in the airplane. It usually takes me about 2 hours in the morning to get my bones to move.

LAST EDITED ON Mar-07-04 AT 11:25 AM (CDT)
 
Any time I can get out to fly. Contest weather ranges from 50-100 temp, wind, rainy, sunny, cloudy...you get. HOWEVER, At Delta park in Portland when the wind is out of the NW It's the best and you HAVE to fly through the sun.

Scott(don't like gray day's)Riese

Having paid far more attention to the Combat than the Stunt circles, I found it interesting that there always seemed to be far more mid-air zorks and ground strikes when the sun was out and about than when there was an overcast or similar obscuring it.

Jake

"It'll probably feel real good again, once it quits hurting".

the absolute WORST conditions for either stunt or combat are on a bright, partly cloudy, windy day. The sun is constantly coming out and going away, the plane is flying against a background with wildly varying brightness, and if it's windy that just makes it worse.

My immediate response would be overcast - no glare, no sunglasses, no sunscreen, no distorted maneuvers because of flying around the sun (that's my excuse, anyway), but then there's nothing quite like flying a vertical 8 on a cloudless day when the breeze is away from the sun. As you go around the top loop the sky has a deeper blue hue to it, you can see the smoke trail of your engine clearly against that magic blue, your model seems to be alive and you just go 'Whooooah!", or something like that.

Best, Hoovie

The wind always blows were the maneuver is... THATS THE LAW!

Down here in Arizona, we don't usually get much overcast, and what everyone else sez about wind into the sun is pretty much observable fact.

And, remember, at a sanctioned contest, the AMA issues wind with the sanction. Also a (nearly) universal observable truth...