FanFacts W
elcome back! I hope that the weather has been nicer to you than it’s been to us—unfortu- nately for me, we have re-
mained in super hot and super windy condi- tions—which, of course, are always 90 degrees to the runway!
I’m going to start off this month dis- cussing a relatively new product, from a not so new company; in fact their How High al- timeter was reviewed in these pages back when photographs were taken on film! Winged Shadow Systems, found online at
www.wingedshadow.com, has been producing ultra-lightweight accessories for us to know not only how high and how fast we have flown, but also sniffing out thermals (for you glider guys) and voltage checking. Now, with the possibility of altitude restrictions (already heavily enforced in some areas according to the internet), and as a super-simple method for competition engine cut-off, Winged Shad- ow Systems has brought us a timely addition to their product line that will help us not vio- late an altitude restriction.
The Sky Limit altitude limiter monitors altitude and/or the flight time of an R/C air- plane and when the preset time/altitude is reached it reduces the throttle to either idle (fuel engines) or off (electric motors). The motor/engine is then restarted/throttle re- enabled once you drop beneath the pro- grammed altitude.
Alright, I hear you asking, what do you get for your hard earned money? The answer is two separate items; the first is the actual Sky Limit airborne unit (which weighs a whopping four grams and allows an altitude measurement from 50 feet to 9999 feet (15 to 3050 meters) AGL, or a timer from 5–9999 seconds. This is plugged into the throttle channel (*) of your receiver, and the throttle servo is plugged into the board. While it is easily removable, I think that one for each airplane you desire to altitude lim-
PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG MOORE
The Sky Limit unit from Winged Shadow Systems comes as either a combo with the airborne and programming units, or individually. The instructions are quite simple to follow and easily read.
it, time or measure would be the easiest course of action.
The second item is the actual Sky Limit
Programmer, which does not fly with the airplane. To address my asterisk (*) above, there is also an advanced function that al- lows down elevator to be applied at the set altitude, which would be appropriate for the glider-guiders reading this.
The footprint of the onboard unit is just a hair larger than a stamp, and less than 1⁄8 inch thick, so it will fit into any airplane fuselage I can imagine.
I decided that the easiest way to describe this unit is with photos, and when you are
finished reading this quick review, you’ll be able to program one in just minutes, so let’s get started.
The first thing you do, after powering up the transmitter and receiver (the program- mer via the receiver has to be able to read the idle/cutoff pulse width from the trans- mitter) is to hit both of the buttons of the front case at the same time, which takes you to the setup mode screen. Pressing the right SEL button takes you to the next screen, which is the Throttle to Idle setup. Pressing the SEL button once again takes us to the screen where we can set out alti- tude. Please note that if 9999 feet is select-
by greg moore You can reach Greg Moore via e-mail at
jetflyr@comcast.net
A closer view of the two units (at left) with a Chapstick dispenser for size reference. The onboard unit weighs less than 4 grams. Greg installed the Sky Limit unit (above) in a .40 sized plane, temporarily and secured it with only double sided tape—hook and loop fastener would be better—or it can be wedged into a small area while wrapped in foam. The blue servo plug connects to the programmer unit, a black lead plugs into the receiver’s throttle channel and the throttle servo can be seen plugging into the prongs on the unit itself. Simplicity demonstrated!
24 NOVEMBER 2012
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