World's Best FPV ! ! ! 1000 Flight Hours in Four Years

[yourself123]

Hi Guys,

After over 1000 hours of actual flight time in the last 4 years or so, I have developed a unique skill. On average I clock 8-10 hours a week. Below is my demo reel from 2013. Over 85% of this video is FPV. Some shots use brushless gimbals, some shots don't use any stabilization at all, just smooth flying.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

My equipment list can be found on my website if your interested. Most of this is only using a Sony Nex-5n.

www.skyeyemedia.com

Sky Eye Media 2013 Demo Reel (3 min 48 sec)

Cheers,
Chris

[Goldenhour]

Nothing short of master work. You must be proud of what you've achieved.

[isogloss3d]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing!

[R_Lefebvre]

That is very impressive. Looks like you've been all around Ontario. Where was the shot with the Golden Falcon? That's not Trenton is it?

I'm curious about your equipment. On the page, it shows a heli with an underslung mount, and two octos. Elsewhere on the website, you show an S800, and a a more professional helicopter. You have those as well or they're just stock photos?

[StraightUp]

Looks Great!!!

[Jon h2]

Amazing!

I need to work on my videos!

[Valkman]

Well done my man. That gives me a goal to aim for.

[noob1]

Amazing!

[Choppermike1]

When I grow up I want to be just like you. Never working a day in my life

Great work, really! I have a lot of questions but I'm most curious if you have looked in to Oculas rift goggles for FPV and if so, What accomidations need to be made to make them work?

Any thoughts?

Mike

[gtxkid]

At you level i would like to ask what do you think of the new DJI Octocopter.
Would it be a better platform than a Hex

[Obijuan Kenobe]

Some of those high speed shots are simply amazing...and only possible with a heli.

As far as I am concerned, this is indeed amazing. You must be very happy to have achieved this. And to think you can make money with this skill, too!!

Well F#$%ing done.

obi

[yourself123]

Every photo shot on my site is my own. Check out my vimeo channel, I have shot hundreds of videos and photography for multi-million dollar listings. (I now concentrate on real estate now because it is the least stressful.) https://vimeo.com/skyeyemedia

The falcon is know as the "Spirit Catcher" and it is downtown in Barrie, Ontario.

Everything on my site is my own. I used to shoot using a Trex 700 but I sold it because those large helis are just wayyy to dangerous, although it was super reliable. This is why I still fly my Trex 500 with the underslug mount... reliability. I have completed over 2000 flight and it has been perfect. Bearing need to be replaced in the motor quite often with the amount of flying I do though. I shoot all my photography with the 500 (there is no stabilization)

I used to own a S800 and Zenmuse but I just had too many problems with it and DJI's support is obviously THE WORST. I found it very unsafe to fly. I ripped it apart and took all of the electronics to build a X8. I will never fly a multirotor for commercial purposes again unless it is an 8 motor aircraft. The redundancy of loosing a motor is priceless regardless of the slight reduction in flight time.

[yourself123]

Originally Posted by gtxkid

At you level i would like to ask what do you think of the new DJI Octocopter.
Would it be a better platform than a Hex

Personally, I wouldn't buy it myself. I had nothing but problems with my S800. It worked perfect for 6 months, and then put me through a lot of stress after. The X8 that I own is actually my S800 completely ripped apart. I won't a multirotor again unless it has 8 motors. They don't fly as well as a hex I find, and they don't fly as long either, but the redundancy of being in complete control with a motor failure is priceless.

Now although DJI is coming out with an Octo, I still personally wouldn't buy it regardless of the price. While all of the integrated wiring is nice, I believe that was the issue with my S800. I will now always build my own units, so I can ensure every connection and every wire is good.

The second reason to build your own is the ability to quickly repair your unit when you have a problem (it will also be much cheaper to repair as well). There was nothing worse than breaking a S800 arm and then not being able to get a new arm for a month. A custom built octo with circular 25mm booms can be easily repaired. It is not hard to find the tubing and then better yet, you could easily make a temporary fix by wrapping the arm in fiberglass etc...

I still do use DJI flight contoller's though, although the NAZA flyways scare me and after watching hundred of videos online, there is definitely a problem. Many are definitely not pilot of multirotor setup issues. Hopefully it proves to just be a firmware issue.

[gtxkid]

Interesting
I notice the new DJI A2 Has this:

Multi-rotor One-motor Fail Protection
This function means that when the aircraft is in attitude or GPS attitude mode, and one of the motors stops, the aircraft will retain good attitude and rotate around the frame arm with the stopped motor. In this condition, the aircraft is still under control and return home safely and highly reduces the risk of a crash.

DJI WooKong-M New Feature-Protection Function for X6 Multi-rotor (3 min 2 sec)

[R_Lefebvre]

Keeping a Hex flying with one motor out can only be done under certain circumstances. Ask DJI to demonstrate that again with a full payload and/or in real wind conditions.

The falcon is know as the "Spirit Catcher" and it is downtown in Barrie, Ontario.

Actually, I meant the F-86 Golden Falcon airplane. I used to live in Barrie, so I know the Spirit Catcher.

Everything on my site is my own. I used to shoot using a Trex 700 but I sold it because those large helis are just wayyy to dangerous, although it was super reliable. This is why I still fly my Trex 500 with the underslug mount... reliability. I have completed over 2000 flight and it has been perfect. Bearing need to be replaced in the motor quite often with the amount of flying I do though. I shoot all my photography with the 500 (there is no stabilization)

So you find helicopters more reliable than multis? That's not something I've heard often. But so few people fly both, so most opinions are biased. Have you never had a servo or ESC/motor failure on the heli?

I do prefer helis for aerodynamic reasons. They just perform better.

So all your still photography is with a 500 heli with a P&S camera? Or a Nex?

I agree that a 700 is a bit risky to fly anywhere near people. Though, a large octo is only slightly better. I still plan to fly my 600 with reduced headspeed if it's not anywhere near people.

I'm actually just exploring the 500 option right now. I have Protos 500 with the stretch kit on it.

[Choppermike1]

Originally Posted by yourself123

Every photo shot on my site is my own. Check out my vimeo channel, I have shot hundreds of videos and photography for multi-million dollar listings. (I now concentrate on real estate now because it is the least stressful.) https://vimeo.com/skyeyemedia

I will never fly a multirotor for commercial purposes again unless it is an 8 motor aircraft. The redundancy of loosing a motor is priceless regardless of the slight reduction in flight time.

Interesting and good to know. I hadn't thought about that yet.

I actually went to your vimeo channel this morning and spent way too long there. Love it! very inspiring. I don't know if the issue was on my end or a bandwidth issue somewhere inbetween but the videos on your site were not playing properly for me. I looked like I could only see one in 10 frames is the best I can decribe it. No worries, just fyi in case it wasn't my fault.

In your erlier post you mentioned the equipment could be found on your site but I didn't see anything there detailing FPV. I'm curious what tx, rx you use for the fpv signal and if you use goggles or a small screen.
Thanks for your time,
Mike

[yourself123]

Originally Posted by gtxkid

At you level i would like to ask what do you think of the new DJI Octocopter.
Would it be a better platform than a Hex

Originally Posted by gtxkid

Interesting
I notice the new DJI A2 Has this:

Multi-rotor One-motor Fail Protection
This function means that when the aircraft is in attitude or GPS attitude mode, and one of the motors stops, the aircraft will retain good attitude and rotate around the frame arm with the stopped motor. In this condition, the aircraft is still under control and return home safely and highly reduces the risk of a crash.

DJI WooKong-M New Feature-Protection Function for X6 Multi-rotor - YouTube

Like Rob said, it is definitely a useful feature but unfortunately even with my experience I could never use the function as intended. Your aircraft will start spinning and you lose yaw control (unless you have a very light craft). Now in theory you should be able to use "Course Lock" and GPS mode and fly is back, like they say... Unfortunately that part never worked for me and it just kind of did what it wanted. Luckily you can bring it down slowly (usually), but when you fly over water 80% of the time like me, it becomes a little bigger of a problem. Luckily the 4-5 times I lost a motor it some how was over land. A couple times I lost a motor over the water and it luckily had enough momentum to drift to land. I couldn't breath during those moments...

[yourself123]

F-86 Golden Falcon - haha sorry, that is in Brockville.

I fly the Nex5n on my 500 and use 6s 5000mah batteries. It definitely flies "heavy" but I have just got used to it. I get pretty good flight times, probably around 12-14 min using 4000mah?

I have never had a problem with any servos or ESC, although it might be time to replace the servos after a thousand flights. The motor has failed a couple times on me because the lower bearing fail, but that is my fault of keeping poor track of them. What is nice it when they fail, the motor will still operate so you can safely land, at least from what I have experienced. I have only ever had the heli go down once and it was because the main gear stripped during hard collective. This was likely my fault again and was a combination of wear and improper gear spacing.

I an still much more scared of the 500 that my large multi. The main reason? Spool up time and spool down time of the rotor of a heli. Luckily it never happened, but it was only a matter of time before the 700 landed and a dog or kid ran up to it, and it take like 30+ sec to spool down. Spool down time on a multi of a few seconds is comforting. Obviously if you crash into someone but types of aircraft could to considerable damage or kill someone.

[yourself123]

Hi Mike,

Hopefully the Vimeo problem is just you! haha. I haven't heard too many people having problems luckily. Maybe it was just the Vimeo servers that day.

I fly on 900mhz. I have many different transmitters, some cheap ones from hobbyking and some more expensive ones. I use a 900mhz 500mw transmitter from DPCAV.com. They have been perfect from me. I haven't ever bought a "good" 5.8ghz yet, I had a 200mw once and it sucked for my purpose. I fly behind trees and objects a lot that I know my aircraft transmitter will penetrate and the 900mhz just goes through object so much better from what I have experienced. I typically don't fly beyond 300m even FPV. Just a habbit I got in from when there was no "return to home" function.

I have always flown with a screen. I have never tried goggles but that is because I haven't been able to find the pair I want. I am constantly switching back and forth, Line of Sight and FPV, which you can't do with any goggles available currently. Even if they designed a pair I think they would be hard to use because of your eyes would get stressed going back and forth between a short and long focal length.

[Choppermike1]

Originally Posted by yourself123

I have always flown with a screen. I have never tried goggles but that is because I haven't been able to find the pair I want. I am constantly switching back and forth, Line of Sight and FPV, which you can't do with any goggles available currently. Even if they designed a pair I think they would be hard to use because of your eyes would get stressed going back and forth between a short and long focal length.

Good Point. That makes perfect sence.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Mike