Flying Squirrel challenge!

What would it take to get a good shot of a flying squirrel using a D7100 with a 1.8 lens, camera set to 1/3 crop and a floodlight aimed at anticipated flight path? I can predict the squirrels habits and I'm willing to give it several nights of attempts so i am looking for input on this camera/lens combination.

I'll mount the camera on a tripod at a 45 degree angle about 4 feet from anticipated squirrel trajectory using all manual settings for obvious reasons. I have furry dog toys that i can use to simulate for focus and experiment to some degree for other settings. I've had this camera for about 4 months and i am quite familiar with it, but i suppose my photography skills are still in the warming up stage. What could the fastest plausible shutter speed be in such a scenario?

Never having seen a flying squirrel I am not sure how fast they are BUT I do shoot bird in flight all the time. I probably would start off with at least 1/1000 second. You might have a better shot if you use a flash instead of a flood light. The flash would help to stop the action also. There are also some accessories that will fire a camera based on movement. It see the squirrel fly by and fires the camera and flash and you have a stop action photo.

I would say they are about as fast as a gliding Meadowlark towards the end of the flight. I didn't know of motion trip accessories, thanks for the input!

While flash would be great and freeze any action it would most likley be a one shot take,if you could use flood lights you could take a rapid sequence of shots,the end results will have a large element of luck involved no matter how much you plan.