My humble "Travel Quad":

The idea is to have a small system that will fit in airline carry on.

1200Kv Turnigy Motors
15 Amp Turnigy ESC
8 X 4.5 Props
2200 mAH 3s LiPo
Hobby King KK2 Board
Hextronic 3 AMP BEC
2.4 GHz VTx
CX-161 FPV Camera
DragonLink
Stock wood from Coop Byg
Foam Landing Gear
808 #11 Key Chain HD Cam

It shares the same ground station and batteries with my EZ*.
I'm getting about 8 minutes of flight time per pack.





...Continue Reading

My wife owns an embroidery shop. She made me these RCG Shirts.

Thought y'all might want one as well. You can have your RCG "callsign" a.k.a. username embroidered. I think they'd be awesome when you're at club or fly-ins. BTW, she has Jim Bourke's permission to use the RCG "Terry the transmitter" Logo.

Long Sleave T-Shirt

$20 for sizes L and smaller.
$23 for sizes XL and larger.

Golf Shirt:

Shipped to lower 48 States, First Class Mail, she's charging per shirt:
$30 for sizes L and smaller.
$33 for sizes XL and larger.



She'll drop in the mail requests received before Wednesdays on Friday Mornings.
For anyone overseas or faster shipping method, she'll charge whatever extra shipping is incurred.

PayPal (Gift) is the preferred payment method. She'll take checks, snail mail, as well.

Order here:
http://www.forevercali.com/rcg-shirts.html

or PM me or MrsSqrl if you're interested.

Get your HAM license!


Another HAM Radio License Study Guide



Know your airspace.




Some Humble Advice for Newbies




***If I were a Newbie, starting from scratch, and cost was a big factor, this would be my setup.***


At first, Keep it simple...BASIC FPV Easystar


BASIC FPV FLIGHT TRAINING THREAD


Progression and Upgrades




EZ* Landing Gear Modification


How to install an Outrunner Motor in an Easystar.

Easystar Hush Mod


Poor Man's Zero Drift Pan-Only Mechanical Head Tracker

EZ* AILERON MOD

Starter FPV set-up for less than $200!

Sander's Super Simple LC Filter

Camera Pods




Gyro Notes.

Co-Pilot and Gyros

Kinder Egg Camera Case

Simple "whiskey" compass.


More HAM Tests

Removable Horizontal Stab

Long Range Flying Advice:

4 miles (2 min 12 sec)

...Continue Reading

This is my 3rd Easystar. I retired the second after having flown for nearly 120 hours. That set-up was sound, having flown reliably for nearly 3 years. I incorporated some improvements on this my 3rd:

1. Cleaner lines. Looks much better and probably helps reduce drag and increase range/endurance. Fewer non-foam parts, I think makes it less "threating". When people see it, they should not think it is anything other than a "foam toy plane.":

a. Camera Ball Turret on the stock canopy
b. Embeded VTx in the tail w/ stripped antenna
c. Internal ESC

2. 3700 mAH battery- It should increase total time on one cell to over 1 hour. No need to for longer flying time. That said, I can still hang another 2 cells as before. That will probably come in handy later for long range flights when I'm flying faster trying to actually get somewhere.

3. Full Wave Length antenna on both the airplane and the Tx. (Maximum range still to be tested).

4. FMA Co-pilot- I have this primarily for flight training. It will give me a "panic button" to right the plane when I teach newbies. As well, it comes in handy (in conjuction with pitch and roll gyros) in high winds or when I just want to leave the plane alone to have look around.

5. SimpleOSD- Just the essentials: V(Main Batter), Amps, mAH. (On order)

6. Night lighting- To be installed into wing.

Any questions. PM....Continue Reading

I spoke to Chris, Diggs, and Jammie on www.allthingsthatfly.com about FPV.

To listen, click here.

I hope you find it informative.

My EZ* has evolved a lot in a year and a half...

Here's how I got started flying RC...I couldn't fly a plane coming towards me to save my life...The light bulb did not turn on until I started to fly FPV. The "Geek Box" allowed me to see things from the airplane, which helped me figure out the airplanes attitude...I still think it's an awesome set-up to learn how to fly and learn how to fly FPV.

RTF EZ, Video Pod, NiMH Batteries...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8649233901243315126&hl=en

Here's what it looks like with standard wings, stock motor, LiPos, no gyros. I flew my bird like this for a year...It was a hoot. I got to fly it Day and Night.

My FPV Set-up (3 min 47 sec)

...Continue Reading

I finally upgraded my trusty Easystar.


I plan to fly my Easystar around the fjords. The intent of the mod is to have an endurance of around 2 hours, while keeping all the nice flying qualities. To prove the system, I flew an "over water" recce of a light house 2.5 km off the coast.

BWEZ* To the Lighthouse (7 min 51 sec)

Development Thread.

Some videos.


I modified Easyglider wings from BP Hobbies to fit in the EasyStar. I decided to do that rather than just buy an Easyglider because of:
- The location of the prop (not in the way of the camera).
- I wanted it to fit in the carry box. I cannot understate how important it is to the entire "system". With it, I'm able to take the plane anywhere by plane, trane, automobile, bike, foot...It's been all over Asia, North America and Europe.

The big wings give the Easystar a theoretical max weight on take off of about 40 ozs. She currently weighs in at 34 ozs. With the big wings, she flies much more slowly, climbs more agressively, and is more stable. They are interchangable w/ the stock wings which I still use occasionally.

I use ailerons.

I enlarged the rudder to handle the bigger wings.

It has stability augmentation in pitch and roll via 2 EKK 704 rate gyros. They give the plane a "smoother ride", even in high gusty winds.

I flew for a while w/ 3 channels, which was good enough with wind less than 8 knots. I activated the ailerons and now am able to...Continue Reading

My Favourite FPV Videos

This one by WOLT

Quadrocopter Extreme Jungle (4 min 31 sec)

This one by Winds of Change
...Continue Reading

Videos!

Check out the Three Swords...

Three Swords (1 min 38 sec)

Check out this beach...

...Continue Reading

Video Piloting: Controlling model aircraft by radio, where the primary pilot view is via live video imagery originated from the aircraft.


The Basics

Flight Rules

Flight Rules...some more

Know and stay in your "box"...Turn every 10 to 12 Seconds

Some advice on the size of your plane and the number of Servos on an ESC w/ BEC

Flight Plan

Intro to ORM

Secret Squirrels

Flight Rules <---Following these keep me out of trouble.

Normal Procedures

Emergency Procedures

Here's what it looked like...

Here's video of my first EasyStar and how the set up works.My first Easystar

It was an awesome start and not that expensive...

Easystar RTF & MicroWireless VideoPod, which is now out of stock, but you can get a Booster Vision "Gear Cam"...It's cheap and will keep you out of trouble when you are learning because the video will drop out before the plane leaves visual flying range. Once you're comfy flying FPV, then you can move on to the other gear.


Eventually upgraded with Futaba 6 Ch radio.

Here's the set-up that I flew with for nearly a year. I learned and got proficeint FPV. with it. It was an excellent starter set-up. You can see how it evolved over time. Also proves the versatility of the EasyStar w/ a humble Stock Motor.

I decided to go simple and light...

I don't claim that this is the best set-up...All I'm saying is that this is it worked really well for me.



Airplane: EZ*
Motor: Stock Speed 400
Esc: Stock Multiplex 8 Amp ESC
Flight Battery: 1800 or 2300 mAH 2 Cell LiPo from Micro Wireless
Rx: Electron 6 from Hobby Lobby
Flight Control Radio: Futaba 6EXAS from Tower Hobbies
Altimeter: Zlog Altimeter
LiPo Shield from Dimension Eng.
LiPo Saver
Position Lights for night flying.

Notes: The Rx is located in the cavity just under the motor. I installed it using by cutting a "keyed" section in the belly of the aircraft as others have done to separate it from the video Tx. The rudder is enlarged. An APC 6 X 4 Propeller is installed. I fly it for around 20-25 minutes per pack, though 40 minute flights are not uncommon. Lipo Shield provides low voltage cut-off protection. LiPo Saver provides visual cue that the battery volatage is below 6V.

Channel Assignment:
1 - Rudder
2 - Elevator
3 - Throttle
4 - Pan
6 - Tilt


Airborne Video:
Camera: KX-131 from Range Video
Tx: 500 mW 2.4 GHz from Range Video
Battery Pack: Homemade with 4 AAA 900 mAH NiMH Eveready Batteries
Pan & Tilt Set-up.
Notes:...Continue Reading