LC filter, battery, motor for Stryker ordered ! All this will set back my hobby cash reserve a bit...

I'll tell ya I'll be cautious with the next FPV plane, this one will fly close for a while and be tested thorouly !

Originally Posted by carguy1994ca

LC filter, battery, motor for Stryker ordered ! All this will set back my hobby cash reserve a bit...

I'll tell ya I'll be cautious with the next FPV plane, this one will fly close for a while and be tested thorouly !

I think that this is very important, small steps, getting more and more experianced flying FPV and testing your equipments capabilities as you go. I've had a couple of flights that didn't go as expected, if I had been a long way out, I would have probably lost or crashed the plane. FPV takes a lot of concentration, anything that takes your attention away from flying can bring lots of trouble... getting lost, etc.

Originally Posted by Art Newland

I think that this is very important, small steps, getting more and more experianced flying FPV and testing your equipments capabilities as you go. I've had a couple of flights that didn't go as expected, if I had been a long way out, I would have probably lost or crashed the plane. FPV takes a lot of concentration, anything that takes your attention away from flying can bring lots of trouble... getting lost, etc.

Spot on commander
OK so I talk a lot but don't show much so here is a little fun and games for you from the UK , hope you enjoy

FPV fun, the beauty and the beast (6 min 25 sec)

Originally Posted by Art Newland

I think that this is very important, small steps, getting more and more experianced flying FPV and testing your equipments capabilities as you go. I've had a couple of flights that didn't go as expected, if I had been a long way out, I would have probably lost or crashed the plane. FPV takes a lot of concentration, anything that takes your attention away from flying can bring lots of trouble... getting lost, etc.

I think all my steps were fine until I tried fleying at a new location. I should have done the following:

- Inspect the video system connectors and antennas (since i lost video signal, it may have something to so with the problem)

- Fly LOS with a flycam to see the view of the field and recognize the landmarks (what you did at the beginning Art, as well as I at my club field since I had flown there with flycams for 2 years)

- wait for a calmer day to try the new place.

- Fly LOS while recording video signal to see if there was interference at that location.

Hope this will help others avoid the mistakes I made and will help them keep their plane.

Very nice RCM, thanks for the entertainment. Looks like you have a wonderful place to fly.

I always have Chuck, or anyone handy watch the monitor while I fly around LOS if I'm trying something new, quipment, placement, etc. If the video link looks OK I do some FPV. Sounds like you were using your monitor, not the goggles, that's a good idea so you can look to the sky in a hurry if you have to. It's still very difficult to find the plane without a spotter. Sounds like a lot of guys use google earth to get a good veiw from the air before trying to fly in new areas. I did this before taking the slow stick out on the mission over the ponds. Not sure how much that helped as was too windy to fly much FPV anyway, and I'm pretty familiar with the area anyway. I do have a few flying sites lined up for future missions with permission from the owners for when the weather gets better.

I looked at the monitor yes and tought it was safe enough. But as soon as you fly FPV you go farther than LOS and then there is wind and the cloudy sky with the white plane and....

Google must help but I found that when flying there (the new spot), I thought I was over a football field when in fact I was before the field, because the camera looks horizontally and therefore if you are over something, you don't see it, you see beyond it, so you always have to think where the plane is relative to you and it becomes hard after only several seconds of flying FPV in a unkown place. So it can be tough to find out.

BTW, thinking of a very flashy paint job on the Stryker...

Originally Posted by carguy1994ca

I looked at the monitor yes and tought it was safe enough. But as soon as you fly FPV you go farther than LOS and then there is wind and the cloudy sky with the white plane and....

Google must help but I found that when flying there (the new spot), I thought I was over a football field when in fact I was before the field, because the camera looks horizontally and therefore if you are over something, you don't see it, you see beyond it, so you always have to think where the plane is relative to you and it becomes hard after only several seconds of flying FPV in a unkown place. So it can be tough to find out.

BTW, thinking of a very flashy paint job on the Stryker...

I personally think the looking around in googlemaps or earth is a total waste of time,
1) google imaging is fairly old, so some landmarks have changed since the last time the area has been snapped
2) the maps are not seasonal. what looks evergreen permanently green fields could be yellow rapeseed in spring which becomes black in automn, so, again..no real landmarks
3)the maps are always oriented so North is at the top of the screen...the plane doesn't do that ....
4) there are many other reasons i guess
the fact is you go up there with a recorded image in your head of the airspace around you and... BAM you find yourself in a totally different Universe

the best way is to do what Art did at the beginning, that is , take aerial shots from your plane whaile flying LOS and then use a spotter to guide you .

I ordered some cheap led strings from HK, thinking about running a different color down each side of the bottom of the fuse and/or wing. Also ordered this little strobe from flytron

Originally Posted by carguy1994ca

Google must help but I found that when flying there (the new spot), I thought I was over a football field when in fact I was before the field, because the camera looks horizontally and therefore if you are over something, you don't see it, you see beyond it.

You need a 2nd camera looking down, and a video switcher. Here's a video with a "looking down" camera. Unfortunately, If you fly at our field where your're supposed to (avoid flying over buildings, parking lot, pit area) there aren't many recogizable landmarks.

Yeah, I know the altimeter isn't right - not sure why.

Feb 21 down.MOV (4 min 5 sec)

Originally Posted by Glenstr

I ordered some cheap led strings from HK, thinking about running a different color down each side of the bottom of the fuse and/or wing. Also ordered this little strobe from flytron

We need a full report on how the strobe works out.

Originally Posted by Glenstr

I ordered some cheap led strings from HK, thinking about running a different color down each side of the bottom of the fuse and/or wing. Also ordered this little strobe from flytron

Would really like your feedback on the Flytron LED strobes, I'll by some if you can really see them like they say.

Originally Posted by Art Newland

Would really like your feedback on the Flytron LED strobes, I'll by some if you can really see them like they say.

Will do, not sure how this new plane will be as it's a lot bigger than my super cub, which I find farily easy to lose orientation with when it gets way out there, given though, that a lot of that is because I'm not that experienced at this.

Anyway, for the price I figured it was worthwhile for me to try, can't hurt anyway.

On a side note, I can be off topic... it's my thread! This info is FWIW.

After playing with my buddies new charger, I was impressed enough with it I bought one of the single output versions. Still capable of 550 watts (most chargers are lucky to do 80) and charging up to 14S in 7 cell packs connected in series. I really think it's wise to balance charge when possible, especially if you are charging at high current. On 12 volt input it is only capable of about 220 watts (can handle 29 v in), but that's still a 5000 mA 12S pack at 1C. I experimented a bit tonight while installing the tail on the senorita, charged 2 4S-4900 packs in series (8S) at 4.9 amps. The charger was pulling 17.5 amps off of my old converted PC power supply. I'm amazed the PS could continue to deliever that kind of current for any length of time, it's rated for 9 amps on the 12 volt output. With only 18 gauge wire on the PS output, it got a little warm. I've been reading the 12v 100 amp PS thread and decided to pick up a more powerful server PS. I bought one of these off ebay;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Good for 72 amps, and what I read is they are series-able (madeup word), could hook two of them together for 24 v output. No conversion needed.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=457

Originally Posted by Art Newland

On a side note, I can be off topic... it's my thread! This info is FWIW.

After playing with my buddies new charger, I was impressed enough with it I bought one of the single output versions. Still capable of 550 watts (most chargers are lucky to do 80) and charging up to 14S in 7 cell packs connected in series. I really think it's wise to balance charge when possible, especially if you are charging at high current. On 12 volt input it is only capable of about 220 watts (can handle 29 v in), but that's still a 5000 mA 12S pack at 1C. I experimented a bit tonight while installing the tail on the senorita, charged 2 4S-4900 packs in series (8S) at 4.9 amps. The charger was pulling 17.5 amps off of my old converted PC power supply. I'm amazed the PS could continue to deliever that kind of current for any length of time, it's rated for 9 amps on the 12 volt output. With only 18 gauge wire on the PS output, it got a little warm. I've been reading the 12v 100 amp PS thread and decided to pick up a more powerful server PS. I bought one of these off ebay;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Good for 72 amps, and what I read is they are series-able (madeup word), could hook two of them together for 24 v output. No conversion needed.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=457

You'll soon hook up directly on the utility pole

Originally Posted by balsabuster2004

We need a full report on how the strobe works out.

They usually blink....


sorry, I'm tired I guess...

Stryker is painted lemon yellow. It will not blink but it will be visible !