2015 wasn't my busiest year of flying and video making (that was 2013), but the COFPV
crew really packed in some fun flying.
Early in the year we discovered some nearby steep mountain ridges that had pretty good Rf
LoS for 2-5 miles, so we started flying formation down them as low as possible (and sometimes
a bit lower than that). ezikiel121212's Chimera was a pretty good match for my Skyhunter so
he has many videos chasing me, and me chasing him.
I was given a very large efficient one of a kind plank called the Graugans capable of
140mph in a power off dive. It's featured in 2-3 of my own videos and ezikiel's Moab vid part 2.
Late spring we scouted out some interesting locations on BLM land south of Moab and
3 of us made a quick trip down there to fly through Corona Arch and explore
the ridges and cliffs near the Potash ponds. Discovered later that this is also the same
location that some of the last scenes in Fast and Furious 6 were filmed.
I finally got around to moving all the video and control gear from my original Daemon Relay
into a fixed wing platform (Skywalker 1900).
The relay quad could fly for about 12-14 minutes, which meant it could only sit on station for 9-11 minutes at most
which didn't give much time to explore with the FPV quad.
The Skywalker with the same sized battery pack, will orbit for a full 30 minutes plus
time to get on station, and glide home if...Continue Reading
crew really packed in some fun flying.
| Best of my 2015 Adventures in FPV (2.7K) (14 min 0 sec) |
Early in the year we discovered some nearby steep mountain ridges that had pretty good Rf
LoS for 2-5 miles, so we started flying formation down them as low as possible (and sometimes
a bit lower than that). ezikiel121212's Chimera was a pretty good match for my Skyhunter so
he has many videos chasing me, and me chasing him.
I was given a very large efficient one of a kind plank called the Graugans capable of
140mph in a power off dive. It's featured in 2-3 of my own videos and ezikiel's Moab vid part 2.
Late spring we scouted out some interesting locations on BLM land south of Moab and
3 of us made a quick trip down there to fly through Corona Arch and explore
the ridges and cliffs near the Potash ponds. Discovered later that this is also the same
location that some of the last scenes in Fast and Furious 6 were filmed.
I finally got around to moving all the video and control gear from my original Daemon Relay
into a fixed wing platform (Skywalker 1900).
The relay quad could fly for about 12-14 minutes, which meant it could only sit on station for 9-11 minutes at most
which didn't give much time to explore with the FPV quad.
The Skywalker with the same sized battery pack, will orbit for a full 30 minutes plus
time to get on station, and glide home if...Continue Reading
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Here's a teaser for my latest project. Everything pictured here acts
as a complete system. The only thing not shown in the pic is a set of goggle and the DVR.
Yes the quad on the right got beat with an ugly stick, but it's fully functional
and those long wires let me set it up with arms up to twice as long, in only a few minutes.
The complete system has been flown several times, and proven to work, so all I'm waiting on
is good weather and an interesting location to demonstrate its capabilities.
Some elements of this project have been done before, but in many ways
its totally unique. Stay tuned. All will be explained.
Feel free to speculate in comments on what it is, and how it works.
ian
as a complete system. The only thing not shown in the pic is a set of goggle and the DVR.
Yes the quad on the right got beat with an ugly stick, but it's fully functional
and those long wires let me set it up with arms up to twice as long, in only a few minutes.
The complete system has been flown several times, and proven to work, so all I'm waiting on
is good weather and an interesting location to demonstrate its capabilities.
Some elements of this project have been done before, but in many ways
its totally unique. Stay tuned. All will be explained.
Feel free to speculate in comments on what it is, and how it works.
ian
Sticky:
Best of my best FPV for 2013
Through patience and persistence, finally got myself an Openpilot CC3D board
to replace the cobbled together KK board + FY30A stabilizer. That combo
actually worked pretty well, but the CC3D board is in a league of its own.
It's allowed me to really explore the limits of this beater airframe.
One thing I added was another anti-vibe mount for the controller itself. Using thin
ply, and 4 earplug halves, with notches in their sides to reduce the amount of foam
for the lighter weight board. It helps me cut some vibes the board was seeing.
Had to tape the servo wires down so they wouldn't blow in the wind, and yank the
board around. May put a plastic cover over the whole area too.
Couple vids showing what it's capable of, and I'm still just getting comfortable with it.
...Continue Reading
to replace the cobbled together KK board + FY30A stabilizer. That combo
actually worked pretty well, but the CC3D board is in a league of its own.
It's allowed me to really explore the limits of this beater airframe.
One thing I added was another anti-vibe mount for the controller itself. Using thin
ply, and 4 earplug halves, with notches in their sides to reduce the amount of foam
for the lighter weight board. It helps me cut some vibes the board was seeing.
Had to tape the servo wires down so they wouldn't blow in the wind, and yank the
board around. May put a plastic cover over the whole area too.
Couple vids showing what it's capable of, and I'm still just getting comfortable with it.
| FPV - OpenPilot CC3D first session (3 min 22 sec) |
| FPV - Tricopter Flips and Rolls (4 min 18 sec) |
My first Tricopter started life as the simple wooden framed Mongrel Gear Trilogy
using 4 cheap rate gyros, 3 cheap ESCs, 3 cheap motors and the RC Tx's CCPM mix.
The rear motor was mounted on a platform supported by a heli blade shaft and pivot
which is a popular option for Tricopters.
However, during the learning process (having never flown any rotor-craft before), I
found that any crash on the rear arm bent the heli blade pivot. In fact any
hard landing would do it as the weight of the motor simply bent the shaft down.
That meant the yaw trim changed constantly and eventually the shaft just
snapped off.
I rebuilt the rear tilting motor mount using steering parts from a crawler
so that it was a tilting platform with the pivot point directly over the center
of the rear arm. That mount is totally cobbled together with zip ties
but it has been absolutely bulletproof. I tweaked the servo position but otherwise
transfered that mount over from old frame to my new one, unmodified.
It wasn't long before I was buzzing around low between and below trees, over water,
etc. Accumulation of crashes including an inverted water landing went through
the first batch of motors pretty quickly. When I got into the 2nd batch
of motors (and some ESCs) ordered from HK I found some un-subtle differences
in power. I was having to use a-lot of trim to get it flying level. Problem is,
that wasted precious flight time, and if I tried to leave it trimmed when changing
...Continue Reading
using 4 cheap rate gyros, 3 cheap ESCs, 3 cheap motors and the RC Tx's CCPM mix.
The rear motor was mounted on a platform supported by a heli blade shaft and pivot
which is a popular option for Tricopters.
However, during the learning process (having never flown any rotor-craft before), I
found that any crash on the rear arm bent the heli blade pivot. In fact any
hard landing would do it as the weight of the motor simply bent the shaft down.
That meant the yaw trim changed constantly and eventually the shaft just
snapped off.
I rebuilt the rear tilting motor mount using steering parts from a crawler
so that it was a tilting platform with the pivot point directly over the center
of the rear arm. That mount is totally cobbled together with zip ties
but it has been absolutely bulletproof. I tweaked the servo position but otherwise
transfered that mount over from old frame to my new one, unmodified.
It wasn't long before I was buzzing around low between and below trees, over water,
etc. Accumulation of crashes including an inverted water landing went through
the first batch of motors pretty quickly. When I got into the 2nd batch
of motors (and some ESCs) ordered from HK I found some un-subtle differences
in power. I was having to use a-lot of trim to get it flying level. Problem is,
that wasted precious flight time, and if I tried to leave it trimmed when changing
...Continue Reading
