Spent the past week wringing out the Twinstar 2 hybrid (with Transall C-160 stock wing) and its a winner. Changed out the 9" 3 blades for 8" 3 blades instead for better ground clearance. G10 motors are overkill, changed out to Turnigy D3630/14's instead, much lighter. Rigid wing makes for a great acrobatics. Really crisp handling. 3 1/2 lbs all up weight and 6 lbs thrust with a 4 cell battery (5 lbs with 3 cell). Unlimited vertical/hover etc.

Installing the Rangelink UHF system I had on the original Twinstar. 5.8 video for now, 1.3 later. Test flight this weekend.

Originally Posted by ecworks

Spent the past week wringing out the Twinstar 2 hybrid (with Transall C-160 stock wing) and its a winner. Changed out the 9" 3 blades for 8" 3 blades instead for better ground clearance. G10 motors are overkill, changed out to Turnigy D3630/14's instead, much lighter. Rigid wing makes for a great acrobatics. Really crisp handling. 3 1/2 lbs all up weight and 6 lbs thrust with a 4 cell battery (5 lbs with 3 cell). Unlimited vertical/hover etc.

Installing the Rangelink UHF system I had on the original Twinstar. 5.8 video for now, 1.3 later. Test flight this weekend.

WHOA! that girl looks sweet EC!

Originally Posted by demondriver

WHOA! that girl looks sweet EC!

Thks!

1.3 ghz vid installation will be tricky. Below is the layout I'll be going with, which will keep the vid tx near the center of the fuselage over the wing with an antenna extension going out within the hollow wing. Fishing the coax thru the wing which is already glued together will be a challenge. Other option is to run the coax along the leading edge of the wing. The coax will effectively become the leading edge. Yellow motor nacelles will go back on when my replacement motor comes in. The left one is damaged from a previous crash on another model and vibrates too much.

2.25 mile ground test near the field I fly out of alot.
Mainly tested the 5.8 ghz vid with cloverleafs. I've already flown the Rangelink out to 8 miles and back with no problems. 600 mw vid tx with the cloverleafs works fine at this range when the lobes are pointed back at the receiver. 2.25 miles is a nice size circle to fly in!

Red x in the background is where the 5.8 vid receiver is located (Fatsharks)

Originally Posted by ecworks

2.25 mile ground test near the field I fly out of alot.
Mainly tested the 5.8 ghz vid with cloverleafs. I've already flown the Rangelink out to 8 miles and back with no problems. 600 mw vid tx with the cloverleafs works fine at this range when the lobes are pointed back at the receiver. 2.25 miles is a nice size circle to fly in!

Red x in the background is where the 5.8 vid receiver is located (Fatsharks)

Beautiful Photo! I can't wait to see more video!

Twinstar II hybrid (with Transall C-160 wing) using 433 mhz and 5.8 ghz vid a sucess!

Here is the setup:
My flying buddy Erik will launch the Twinstar from Misty Ridge (33.429423,-117.600754) which is 2.25 miles away from where I am standing, a soccer field, (33.443229,-117.633902) with the Rangelink transmitter. Despite a successful video ground range test yesterday, today I can't see anything thru my Fatsharks, just static. However Erik has his Fatsharks on at the launch point at Misty Ridge and can give me direction cues via cell phone so we decide to launch and he'll guide me toward the soccer field via cell phone until my video signal improves.

Here is the flight:

Twinstar flight from Misty Ridge to Shorecliff field (2.25 miles) (12 min 57 sec)

Nice flight vid. Got any on your point of view

Originally Posted by clsink1128

Nice flight vid. Got any on your point of view

No, but on the next one way flight attempt I'll be launching and controlling the Twinstar from Misty Ridge and landing at the soccer field. That will be with 1.3 ghz vid gear. Always wanted to try that.

Yet another Great FPV Video! Hey can you please show us the FPV equipment you use Sir? Links if possible.

Camera: ReadyMade RC RMRC 600
Video transmitter: 5.8 ghz 600 mw output from Readymade RC
Vid antennas: matching 5.8 cloverleafs from IBcrazy
Goggles: Fatsharks
Recording vid cam: Keychain camera #16
Gyro: FY-30a

UHF:
Rangelink 433
(stock tx and rx antennas)

One of the things we learned was that when we're trying out new configurations on long range flights its a nice layer of additional safety to have a spotter 1/2 way down range with his own video receiving gear and a cell phone so if the video back to the pilot gets marginal or worse the spotter should still have good video and can relay directions the pilot so he can return safely hopefully.

I'll never forget the feeling when I was flying the Twinstar 8 miles out and my 1.3 signal went completely gray static. I turned around until I thought I saw some brighter gray static which I guessed was the sun and flew towards that. More than 2 minutes of flying like that until signal came back. Not a good feeling. However one of the FPV skills you sort of acquire over time is flying with marginal video at times and not panicking. A gyro helps because you know the plane won't do anything really weird. But after a while its amazing how you learn to interpret the static pixels enough to continue flying.

Originally Posted by ecworks

Camera: ReadyMade RC RMRC 600
Video transmitter: 5.8 ghz 600 mw output from Readymade RC
Vid antennas: matching 5.8 cloverleafs from IBcrazy
Goggles: Fatsharks
Recording vid cam: Keychain camera #16
Gyro: FY-30a

UHF:
Rangelink 433
(stock tx and rx antennas)

Thanks for the info Sir!

Good things never last. Twinstar/C-160 hybrid went down hard this afternoon.

Long distance FPV not the reason, got to the field and forgot my goggles so I decided to do some close in flying and with 30 seconds I was flying inverted, rolls, etc. Extended inverted pass went out to my bad corner and I lost orientation or either didn't anticipate my next move, and I was closer to the ground then I've ever been inverted. Went in hard.

Damage tally:
Rangelink gear: fine
FPV gear: fine, except the camera, RMRC 600 went flying like a missile, did no find it.
Aileron servos: stripped
Elevator servo: fine
Motors/props: Both props snapped and the motors took some of the impact but this is not the first time for them, they've been vibrating a lot since I installed them originally. New ones have been on the way.

Fuselage: bent, but re-formable with some hot water/towel
Wing: not so good. Right wing took the impact, left is fine, was able to feed a lot of epoxy into the key areas to join the structural elements that snapped or cracked. Was able to pull the wing up and back into alignment. Cracked or split balsa sheeting I expoxied back down. Seems pretty rigid again.

Main worry is the Rangelink, the rear portion of the fuselage pulled away from the front half and the Rangelink UHF coax kept them together. UHF is very sensitive to damage or loose connections so I might have to replace the Rangelink receiver and antenna. Have an extra so I think I'm ok.