KEEPING YOUR FINGERS WARM

Those of you that have been flying in the cold weather have probably seen my attempt at keeping the old fingers thawed out long enough to manage a full flight with my helicopter, and that’s just ten minutes. For the rest of you that have not I will try to explain how I have achieved some degree of comfort.

Basically I have used a 55 watt halogen spot light bulb as a source of heat and soldered some fins to the base of the bulb to act as a support and heatsink . I then made a small tube from thin ply , and put the bulb with fins inside and glued a small 12volt fan at one end to blow air over the bulb making the unit into a 12volt 55watt fan heater.

This fan heater I used inside my transmitter tray & screen , I wind proofed the tray by stretching a pair of old over trousers over the front and using the pocket holes to put my hands through. The legs of the trousers were cut off and the tied up to stop drafts.

The heater draws about 4.5 amps @ 12volts so requires a good battery to work properly , I use a small car battery but you could use your 12volt gel battery from your flight box just remember to charge it before and after use .

The heater can also be used in a TRANSMITT with great effect , just be careful not to block the airflow through the fan as the bulb very quickly overheats and could burn your fingers or something more important the transmitter!!!!

D Probert