Video progress report!

[Luke Warmwater]

Well, I'm a little behind some of you guys in the skill stakes, but I did manage (or rather, a friend managed) to get a video of me flying my Gootch 500 the other evening at sunset.

I must confess that during the summer months I do a lot of plank flying and the helis come out as the light fades (you don't need to be able to see so far...lol). I have got vids of the planks as well, but I guess they are really for another forum...hehe.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOSpEhOMCU&feature=plcp[/ame]

[Tomstoy2]

You confess to flying a WHAT????
You bastard!!!

Just kidding, buddy.

Nice vid! I really don't think I could do even that right now. Just been too long. Plus, this whole dark side has just sucked me right in.

Always wondered what you look'd like. Jeeze,,,, you're ugly!

( so says the guy who doesn't need a Halloween costume to scare children )

[jperkosk]

Luke, you're still plank-curious after all this time?
Nice flying in near-dark, btw

Tom, I'm tempted to renew my offer of providing a warm home for all your clearly abandoned helis... The Kasama would get a perch above 6HV

[Luke Warmwater]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

Luke, you're still plank-curious after all this time?

Curious?
I just took delivery of this!
http://www.kingslynnmodelshop.co.uk/..._shopping_feed

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0eLvvlXZLA&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

It's the Sebart Sbach 342. Balsa frame and she flies lovely! Not me flying in the vid....obviously...lol.

[ragge1]

got a new scorps 130A ESC factory waranty and the say they have done some modifications , have been running the HW120HV ESC on the green belt v7 but never liked the softstart on it and lately kind of feel both the motor and ESC have been running qiute warm , swap the ESC last night and vbar gov , 1780 , 1900 , 2075 hs , not så good quality by mobile phone under my daughters hands

Goblin , softstart test (4 min 7 sec)

[dauste]

Hey chaps, as you may know I run my Furion 6 on 10s. Chris hasn't managed to get his 12s Trex 600 in the air yet, so this morning down at the field we thought we would stick his batteries in the F6 (just for banter). OMG it was ballistic, could only run it at 55% throttle and it was pulling like a tractor on punch outs. The batteries only lasted just over 3 minutes though!

Chris had a quick go on a standard set of packs afterwards and I managed to sneak a little filming in.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ReitGeaSk[/ame]

[sutty]

Excellent videography, as per usual Dave, and some good flying there from Chris.

Nice one chaps.

Cheers

Sutty

[Chrisss]

Thanks for posting it up Dave. Didn't think you'd be able to see what i was doing against that lovely grey sky!

How's the flying going Sutty?

[ragge1]

nice flying

[Tomstoy2]

So, here it is, my first ever FPV flight under the goggles using the XA/Hexa. WKM with 5.10 firmware, Tiger mt2216-900kv motors and mt30a esc's, 5.8ghz 200mw Foxtech vtx, AIO Goggles, RMRC-700xv 700vtl (ntsc) camera.

Distance estimated 1/3rd mile!

Fiying an estimated 3/4 throttle to and back, motors and esc's come down at 102 degree's F plus or minus 5 degree's, nice and cool.

Now, I had done a flight using the monitor before, over the lake, and the monitor flight went off perfect, great color and detail.

However, under the gogglesI only had black and white transmission!
This was disconcerting at first but I got over it easily and continued to fly.
I had a hand full of great sucessful color flights using my 500mw vtx, but damaged that in my last wreck with my F450.
Only thing I can figure is the power isn't enough.

Now, my Futaba T8fg transmitter should reach out about a mile. So, to get my color back it just sounds easier to increase the vtx strength, since I never had an issue with the F450.
However, I'm on the fence now about changing out my FPV system to something like 1.3ghz instead.
I would loose some definition, but it is ntsc, after all. The ability to burn thru objects and do low level flights at range is a big plus, though.
My buddy Bill pointed out that with the increase in range I an experimenting with now, ( each flight I'm pushing it further ), I will soon become bored at the range I am currently flying now.
I just haven't currently found the edge where my vtx will drop out with these cloverleaf antenna's I'm using.
Really, I'm totally blown away at the range I'm getting on such a small powered 5.8 vtx!.5.8 eats a lot more power to transmit the farther you go out and needs a clean line of sight, which isn't much of a problem now, but I see his point.

On the 850mah and 2000mah battery consumptions side. I figure everything was powered up for close to an hour. I did a total of 5 flights and only put back 101 mah's on both batterys, more than enough power to do a hell of a lot of flights.

Power consumption on the Hexa, I can easlity fly 8 minutes putting back 4000mah into a 4s 5000mah battery.
I'm planning on putting two of these in series soom. I figure I can then get aproximately 13 minutes and still not exceed the lifting capacity.
If I do, I can try steping up to 9 inch prop's instead of these cheap as sin Gaui 8 inch prop's I'm using which work perfectly in my estimation.

So, the flight review,,, finally!
Other than the color issue, it went off without a hitch.
I kept increasing altitude as I went out and guessed I was aproximately 400 feet in altitude, though Bill argues it was higher.
Anyway, in the vid you will see I was a hell of a lot higher than a hawk circling around. Kind of glad he didn't take exception.
Again, it was easy to do, kind of relaxing, really.
Should have gone lower over the lake to test vtx transmission at low level at range. Hind- sight.

The GoPro, however, I had issues with. Totally my fault.
After my 3rd recorded flight of the day, I turned off the recording, but forgot to turn off the camera, as the Bronco game was comming on soon. By half time the GoPro was dead so I didn't record the last 3 flights.
Kind of pissed off at myself, it's the second time I have had the battery go down on me. Both my fault. Plus, the last 3 flight were kind of fun.
One I flew over the house behind Bill's and to the south. Another I visited the neighbor to the north. Could have had a great vid of the donkey's having sex, too! Dale would have loved that!

On one flight it I even did the first test with failsafe! Now that was exciting! I was, once again in a tight spot, a chicken coop, propane thank, trees, shed, and fences surrounded me. It worked great, up to a point.
I had stuck my head up ,y ass, again, and took off before gps was locked. I did lock it in hover above me, and figured that was good enough.
I took it out past the back property fence, about 100 feet up, activated rth and everything worked as advertised.
All the time I held the tx at my side.
Eventually, it tried to lower altitude and land but as I was worried it would end up clipping a tree behind me I flipped out of failsafe, flipped out gps back into attitude control and back into gps to disengage failsafe and take back contool.
Worked perfectly!

In all, it was a supurb experience. I absolutley had the time of my life!

Enjoy!


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up2YQC7HVi8&feature=player_detailpage[/ame]

[sutty]

Originally Posted by Chrisss

How's the flying going Sutty?

Yeah, not bad thanks Chris. I'm not getting out quite so much now, as I feel a little stuck, but I'm happy enough. I've kind of decided I am where I am and any improvement now will just have to come whilst I enjoy flying as opposed to setting out to try hard and learn something new. Seems to be woking as I am having fun, so that's good enough for me.

Tom, that looked great, how did it feel to be flying like that. What about when you flew back and had a look at yourself, kind of odd? It looked kind of odd even thinking about the fact that you knew you were looking at yourself. Did you feel like you were in the aircraft?

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

It really felt good flying that way.
You don't ever worry about orientation, left is left always. altitude is easier to maintain than I would have thought. Still get nervous pulling her closer to the ground and had Bill call out the altitude as I came in. I used the windmill as a reference when on approach.
Just like a mirror though, things are closer than they appear.
When flying far out it's a good idea to set up visual references in your mind for easily distinguishable land marks for reference.
Out in the open fields it's easy, just remember which house is which so you can get home. Flying in an unfamiliar area it would be best to take time once up high and do a look around to familiarize oneself with the landscape.
It kind of reminds me of flying in a Piper Cub.
The main thing is to try to keep time in your head straight. A couple times I put it in a hover and lifted the goggles up so I could see my tx countdown timer.
I did that over the pond and saw I had 2.46 minutes left so I high tailed it back and when I landed I still had 30 seconds left before the alarm would have gone off.
Time does indeed fly when having fun!

The goggles themselves, aren't that comfortable to wear, There is an outfit now that will sell you a Fatshark Goggle set that they tore the optics out and mount them in a blacked out set of ski goggles. This was from a popular modification others are doing.

It is easier to fly using the goggles than the monitor, in respect to the screen is right there in front of your eyes. I wear bi-focals so using a monitor I'm adjusting my distance to focus my eyes.
Not being able to keep track visually on the acft and trusting what you are doing, ( and having total trust in your flight controller ), is disconcerting at first. I think just about everybody has an instinct to take there eyes off the screen to check what the acft is doing. Once you are out that far it really doesn't help.
Bill reported loosing sight of the acft a few times and not being able to relocate it visually.

Looking at yourself comming back in is a trip, for sure. I would focus on myself to do a final approach. I felt comfortable enough to attempt a landing under the goggles but I knew all the obstructions I had close around me so didn't attempt it. In a more open area I would have, like the donkey's pasture, but I didn't want the donkeys pestering me for attention while under the goggles.

In all it's a very satisfying experience, not as tense as flying a fast moving sr heli, and it's so cool to enjoy the scenery while cruising around.
It hooked me immediately. Can't wait to do it again!

[Chrisss]

As long as your enjoying it that's the main thing for sure, shouldn't feel like a chore lol! I've decided i need to either calm down or fly higher, basically whichever will stop me crashing, i seem to be pushing it too hard and need to master more advanced moves first! £145 the last repair cost :/ thats not enjoyable...

Looks good Tom, want that on one of my planks!

[jperkosk]

Amazing again, Tom !!!

First question of many: I saw your ground station mounted on the tripod with your friend walking over to it to look at the screen, but you were standing good 4m away from it. How were you getting the video feed into your goggles? Are you using 2 video receivers on the same channel, one for the screen and one for the goggles?

Went to our out-of-town (70km) "ranch" where Mrs. had to supervise some tree planting, she also insists that the place is perfect for heli flying. It's not, it's a bare strip of land (full of thorny weeds overtaking some tiny fruit trees that Mrs started planting early this year) about 300m long and 35m wide surrounded by trees, so I feel crowded there with a 600. Well, maybe it'll force me to start flying higher , there is plenty of space there higher up.

Sunday was exceptionally gusty, winds ranging from 5kph to about 40kph within less than 1min. To make it worse, the tree line is shielding the wind a bit down low, but that creates a turbulent transition zone a bit higher, so my heli was all over the place. Not much of a problem at the club, but those trees at the at the ranch are way to close

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io4gG_W49xE[/ame]

Couldn't help to bring my quad with a ground station, as well . Now Saturday I was doing more fpv tests at the club and finally found what my biggest problem is: in the wind the camera acts as a sail, and since it's mounted forward (battery that is moved way back to keep CoG correct has much lower profile) the side wind tends to turn the quad around, I was finding myself giving a 100% rudder input to keep it from slow-spin. Has anyone thought how the quad executes rudder command? Cyclic is no brainer, but quads don't have a whole lot of rudder authority, it seems. All I did before Sunday tests was to change from Gaui 8" 2-bladed propellers to 3-blades ones (recommended by manufacturer to increase lifting capacity), and the quad felt much more responsive. Few conclusions here:

* I must have had a brain fart forgetting I live @ 1900m altitude. The lifting capacity stated by the manufacturer with standard 8" 2-bladed propellers is 380g. My whole GPH2+Tx setup with cabling weights about 270g, so I thought I was fine but at 1900m my theoretical lifting capacity will be reduced to about 80%, meaning 300g. Add some wind into equation and it's clear why the quad feels overloaded and a bit out of control. With 3-bladed propellers the stated lifting capacity is 540g, or 430g at my altitude, so no 2-bladed props for me while testing FPV.

* The proprietary Lotus flight controller plain sucks. It's impressive on paper (3-axis gyros + magnetometer + barometric sensor), but none of this works. Gyros are OK in light wind. Magnetometer is supposed to help holding the tail steady, but the wind twists my quad around. Barometric sensor is part of the supposed altitude hold function, but I could never get it to work. For FPV flight it's critical to have a confidence in the controller, I found myself really flying (more like struggling) LOS with an occasional peek onto the screen. Next step then: WK Naza with GPS.

* Tom, my ground station is mounted on a hand truck, and it doubles up as a charging station. Normal car battery at the bottom, FMA Cellpro 10S charger in the middle, 15" monitor on the top. Makes it easy to roll around on the asphalt, but PITA on the rough ground.

I recorded one flight from both hatcam and FPV cameras, makes for interesting comparison. Forgive the jumpiness of the latter, but it looks not so bad once you have looked into the former, there was really too much gusting for this flight test.

Hatcam video:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k0MBkEcIvc[/ame]

FPV camera video:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CZD_wU2tZA[/ame]

I really dared to turn nose-in only once towards the end, when the wind has calmed down a bit. The second aborted attempt almost resulted in a ground-smack in a gust. Oh, and that's Mrs with the farmer neighbor showing some interest in my experiments

[Tomstoy2]

Nice looking place there, perfect for fpv!

I was wondering when you would get sick of that controller. You were getting bounced around pretty good with that quad. You just won't believe how well the Naza/gps combo will work. You won't even be doing any corrections in that wind. Ruddeer will be rock solid, too.

How is your GoPro mounted? The jerkiness in the playback is caused by vibrations knocking it around. The case mount amplifies this if you are using it. Lots of guys are cutting ear plugs in half and using the bottom half glued in rows to mount the GoPro with fantastic results. Seems the foam in ear plugs is the perfect density.

As for my receivers, indeed there there are 2. The goggles have it built in. Both 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz. 2.4 will give better penetration and range but lower quality display and the risk of stepping on the flight controller signal if the tx is too close to the receiver or fc.
Later, when I go to 1.3ghz for long range I will still use the small 5.8ghz transmitter to send signal from my monitor to my goggles so I can still remain cable free.

Speaking of goggles, yesterday it took me only about 15 minutes to troubleshoot my color loss problem.
I remembered, ( when I sobered up ), that when I changed out to the 500mw tx that I had to change channels to get color on the goggles. So all that was necessary was to move a few dip switches and find the correct channel. All good now.
Should have done that out there but was terribly distracted by 5 wasp nests that we managed to royally piss of by spraying them. All the returning drones were quite upset!

Here's a link to an excellent flight calculator for multi's. Comes in pretty handy.

http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc_e.htm

Get that Naza and you'll be cruising around fpv in no time.

[Tomstoy2]

3 vids from yesterday's adventure to Southpark.

The first vid, I had my friend Bill put on the goggles while I did a line of sight flight, giving him a ride.
The goggles are now working great and I really prefer them over the monitor. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but the goggles give you a nice big screen effect and makes it immediately apparent what you are doing instead of interpreting info on a small screen. Cuts down on reaction time, as you will plainly see in the second vid.
We had some good winds, you always do up in Southpark, but it was a gorgeous day. Storm clouds pushed thru, but we always seemed to circumvent them in transit to the next place.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZxmMtB5hiI&feature=player_detailpage[/ame]

The second vid, we were in transit to a different river. There was a great stretch of river way off, next to a tall ridge that I wanted to get some shots of, so I put on the goggles and flew all the way out there.
Bill lost sight of the Hexa several times and at other times warned me I was getting too close to the ridge. I didn't feel I was ever in danger and some of his calls I felt were just due trying to orent the Hexa's position in space to the ground detail at such a distance.
At the end of the flight, I decided to take the Hexa aways away and low over the ground and test out the failsafe function.
As advertized, she raises up to 60 feet, turns nose in, comes home hovers and automatically lands. I don't intend to use this function, other than emergencies, but it's nice knowing it's functional and available when needed, like transmission interruption or radio failure.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_YWIfu376c&feature=player_detailpage[/ame]

The last flight, we stopped behind this great old dam to fish. I met a great guy, Steve, who expressed interest in my Hexa, never seeing one before. So I did a line of sight flight to demonstrate for him. He really got into it.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRrzi30q724&feature=player_detailpage[/ame]

And, a few pics on the ground.

[Luke Warmwater]

I get more and more impressed with this with each video you put up!

Lovin' it....keep 'em coming!

[sutty]

Same here. I'm sitting here quietly in the background, loving every vid, just waiting for Tom to batter me into submission on FPV, just like he did with FBL. Never looked back after that, and will probably feel the same when I try this out.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

Just got back from my first FULL FPV flight, take off to landing! Pretty proud of myself right now.

Can't cook it to boobtube until after work so look for it tomorrow.

[ragge1]

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

Just got back from my first FULL FPV flight, take off to landing! Pretty proud of myself right now.

Can't cook it to boobtube until after work so look for it tomorrow.

nice

boobtube