Originally Posted by guy1a

My title as a pro bixler crash tester, gave me many chances to break the plane.... but i didn't break the top of the fuselage. Never.

I think flexible & light fuselage is better then strong & heavy.

Moding the planes we use is fun and some times costumizing them to meet our needs is important. But going from here to saying it is a must ... it is a long way. This is a different plane.

Also, about the mixing of the threads .. we where bunnished. ( is this the correct word ? ) from the original thread for going off topic there ... as the majority of this planes users do use it for the perpose of aerial filming or fpv piloting .. whell .. the crowd votes with its legs ..

Having said that... here is the successor of my bixler ( that is undergoing masiv reconstruction ) is this

Guy. Say it isnt so. You are ditching the Blixer for a Wing?

Actually. After I master my Skysurfer (should take a while) I plan on getting a Zehpyr II or something like that. From what i have seen it is a very nice platform for FPV.

Vince

Here is a photo of my Bixler's tail after moving the servos aft. I'm positive that moving the weight back to the tail will improve the FPV experience by letting me use a larger battery for longer flights.


Please note that I used "FPV" in this post.

Just came up with a new super simple adjustable 360 swivel & up and down, very secure for my go pro. For those using the gopro as main camera FOR FPV on the Bixler or Skysurfer. It is low profile and avoids using all the bulky extra gopro mounts to swivel the camera left and right.This will also maybe be useful to the Bixler/SS FPV flyers using a pin camera for flight and the gopro to film.
Pics and more by request.

I am looking to move into fpv with the Sky Surfer, and I'm wondering about what ratio to use. I had a scare the other day where I lost control of the Sky Surfer at about 600 meters with the stock Fly Sky radio. Would a Futaba 7c be a good radio?

Originally Posted by Jcome

I am looking to move into fpv with the Sky Surfer, and I'm wondering about what ratio to use. I had a scare the other day where I lost control of the Sky Surfer at about 600 meters with the stock Fly Sky radio. Would a Futaba 7c be a good radio?

Longer wavelength radios, like the 72MHz, have better range for FPV than the 2.4G stuff. That said, if you fly LOS, it doesn't really buy you anything except some help with video interference when using 2.4G (and 5.8) video links.

Here's the video of the sky surfer going out of range. At 5 seconds in (in the video) I lost control. I then started running towards it and could move the servos and point it back towards me. You can hear the esc beeping. I couldn't re-arm the motor while in the air, but as you can see in the video I could once it was down.

http://youtu.be/2l_oHi9tM98?hd=1

Im adding some ongoing information in my blog, if anyone is interested in having a look!
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=386451

Jcome, how far away was your plane? What kind of equipment are you using?

Originally Posted by Jcome

Here's the video of the sky surfer going out of range. At 5 seconds in (in the video) I lost control. I then started running towards it and could move the servos and point it back towards me. You can hear the esc beeping. I couldn't re-arm the motor while in the air, but as you can see in the video I could once it was down.

http://youtu.be/2l_oHi9tM98?hd=1

Lucky, very lucky. To re-arm, did you bring throttle back to zero and leave there for several seconds? The beeping sounds as if the throttle stick was not at zero.

Originally Posted by Maddmax

Jcome, how far away was your plane? What kind of equipment are you using?

The equipment was the stock Fly Sky 4 channel tx and 6 channel rx. It was at about 600 meters away (and quite a bit up, but I don't know how that affects range).

Originally Posted by baddb1

Lucky, very lucky. To re-arm, did you bring throttle back to zero and leave there for several seconds? The beeping sounds as if the throttle stick was not at zero.

I think that must have been it. In my panic I probably didn't do it until it landed.

As a follow-up to my previous post, I'm thinking of buying an radio system that I can trust a bit more. Would a Futaba 7c be a good choice? I tried reading whether it would be an easy conversion to a lrs system such as dragonlink or ezuhf afterwards, but couldn't get any definitive answer. From what I can see, the 7c is not modular, so it would not just be plug-and-play, right?

I use a Spektrum DX6i

if the ESC had a under power cut, you can re activate the motor by moving throttle stick to zero. then move it back up, but remember that there is no power in the battery so you will end up with a cut again very soon !!

my futaba ex6t 2.4 can work very good with 500 mili watts video tx on board for 800 meters in 3 meters height ! (i have it on video) with an orange compt rx from HK

the flying wing was prior to bixler !
i started with a swiftII, then upgraded to maxi swift which i sadly lost , then a copterx 450, then a xen falcon, then a bixler and now back to maxi i also have a quadcopter for fpv ...

usually my planes are like the phoenix, they die and get up to life again and again i am having FUN .. without letting the fear of crash stopping me. ... only the balsa plane is being taken care of ..

you can see the balsa here:

10-12-2011 (8 min 24 sec)

Jcome, nice job on the glide home and deadstick landing. Something I have read that might be worth trying is to hold your RC Tx antenna parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the plane, not at it. Holding it higher in the air also may help, though clearly your running after it also did the trick.

_Scott

Originally Posted by Jcome

Here's the video of the sky surfer going out of range. At 5 seconds in (in the video) I lost control. I then started running towards it and could move the servos and point it back towards me. You can hear the esc beeping. I couldn't re-arm the motor while in the air, but as you can see in the video I could once it was down.

http://youtu.be/2l_oHi9tM98?hd=1

Insignia 7" FPV Ground Station Test (0 min 30 sec)

A ground test of my new ground station viewing device! Insiginia 7" DVD player, NO BLUE SCREENING, and the quality over the preview on the laptop is so much more amazing, though with this I do not have a recording method ATM.

I was thinking it would come with AV breakout cable, but alas it did not, so I had to DIY style, no audio ATM, as the audio patch cable I sacrificed doesn't have proper enough ribs for both video and audio channels.