Originally Posted by tech69x

Well I have been buying everyone else Christmas gifts so I decided to get myself one got me another Naza on the way WOOT!

Having a second or even a third NAZA is wonderful! Just ask T J !

Originally Posted by goldsworthy

Having a second or even a third NAZA is wonderful! Just ask T J !

I have two flying, and a spare...
It's good to know I have a back-up!
Starting to follow GW's lead and build a spare parts stock.
Since today is supposed to be the end of the world, you never know what you'll need...

Originally Posted by dslack67

Hey there fellow NAZA friends. The wife and I just got back from Cancun last weekend and I edited up some footage.

All shot on location with NO GIMBAL, just static mounted two cameras on a stock QAV500 frame and FPVManual FM4008 motors.

Quad is a whopping 2100g AUW with both cameras and full FPV gear, but she still flies sweet and stable.

Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlpIgtalarM

How utterly beautiful! We're heading to the Bahamas pretty soon and I'd love to bring my F450 with me but I don't know if it's worth the hassle. Was a logisitcal nightmare getting your quad to/from Cancun?

@dslack67:
"Beauty Dave. Looks like you had the whole place to yourself."
For flying around public places, this is one of the best videos I've seen.
Most of the bystanders you flew close to seemed to know what to expect, and you were apparently out early before things were crowded.
This footage could definitely be used in a commercial for the resort.
I'm impressed...

Archaeology really must be getting desperate these days! Look at this E Mail I got from the local university here-Hi John,




I was just talking with a guy who volunteers at the Ironwoods National Monument near Marana. He is looking to take aerial images of petroglyphs located at several sites within the area. This project is to catalog the petroglyphs as a means to prevent theft of the artifacts. My equipment is not yet up to a capability to do this project.


Would you be interested in talking with him about a possible use of your skills with the quad and camera to assists with this project? MY SKILLS? I guess I need to refer him toMCrites for a reference! I know he will set em straight!

Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

Beauty Dave. Looks like you had the whole place to yourself. Did you have any trouble travelling with your gear? I have the QAV500 also and am looking forward to flying it this summer. I hope they compted you for such a great video showing the resort.

BTW Dave, the video you made of the resort, I think, is just the tip of the iceberg. Tourism business is big and I think their is a huge market for multirotors to take part in it. If the resort linked your video, potential customers will get a way better image then just ground based still pics. I would definately think about this place the next time I plan a vacation.

I did meet many of the staff as well as one of the Sales managers. I am putting a 1.5 to 2 minute "commercial" together with their stills and my aerial footage, and if they like it, will comp me one of their 2 bedroom villas for a week. It's an awesome place actually, I highly recommend it.

I had no issues traveling with my quadcopter, which I packed in a Pelican travel hardcase. The LiPo's were a bit of an issue coming back as the Mexican airport authorities would not allow the Lipo's passed security. The airline took care of that for me and transferred them to the plane similar to "Duty Free" items, then gave them to me on the plane. Of course, I do have each LiPo in it's own LiPo safe fire retardant bags. Which, I do think helped the situation.

Other than that, no issues and neither airport even looked inside my pelican travel case. Cheers!

Originally Posted by Mike_Then

How utterly beautiful! We're heading to the Bahamas pretty soon and I'd love to bring my F450 with me but I don't know if it's worth the hassle. Was a logisitcal nightmare getting your quad to/from Cancun?

It was very simple and no hassle at all from a Quad perspective. The only challenge was the LiPo's coming back from Mexico, which, now that I know are an issue for the Mexican Airport authority, I will simply tell the Airline check-in staff to treat them as "Duty Free" items and give them to me on the plane. It was that simple and the Airline check-in staff seemed to be familiar with this issue, so it was no big deal.

First, The "GemFail" Check out the picture below of the Green GemFan prop hub. I found this while doing some prop testing in the shop this morning.

INSPECT YOUR PROPS!!!

Next up, my prop testing results. I mounted 7 props of common brands and sizes on the bench tester today and thought you might like to see the results. The two pictures below are the result charts and a graph of one of the props. The top chart is normalized on a single voltage (11.40v) and the second chart is normalized on a thrust value of 16.4oz. The column "T/100W" is simply thrust per 100 watts which is a simplified view of efficiency and "Runtime" is a theoretical time comparison at a steady state (another view of efficiency).

Enjoy!

I watched the video last night, have to say it was done very professionally and as Buffy said, it should help people decide on whether or not they want to vacation there. Your video was rock solid ans extremely stable, you did a good job setting up your machine!

Gary

GemFail and some prop testing

This was a super post. Good warning on props and really interesting data. It is surprising how relatively similar in efficiency these very different props are.

Originally Posted by Gary Morris

I watched the video last night, have to say it was done very professionally and as Buffy said, it should help people decide on whether or not they want to vacation there. Your video was rock solid ans extremely stable, you did a good job setting up your machine!

Gary

thank you Gary. Much appreciated.

Prop failure still depends on aircraft weight and maneuvers being performed. Overweight machines will take out good props even when they work well with lighter machines....JJ

Having done a little failure analysis at work, I've got a question about the attached photo.
Could that crack be the result of a prop nut being torqued down too tight? It really appears to be a failure of that sort.
I'm assuming in your tests that the prop didn't strike anything...

Also, FWIW, I think everyone agrees that the colored gemfans (not carbon) are not acceptable anyway...

I can see a depression on the top of the hub where the nut / washer was looks like it was a little to tight

Originally Posted by tech69x

I can see a depression on the top of the hub where the nut / washer was looks like it was a little to tight

Where we are here is a very slippery slope...
You want a prop to stay on.
If there's a collet mount involved, you don't want it slipping on the shaft.
Non-loaded plastics deform easily.
An over-reamed bore allows more deformation.
So, what is tight enough and what is too tight?
Don't ask me.

FWIW the loaded plastics are harder, and deform less. That's probably why the colored gemfams are considered poor. I've never seen one in person, but they appear to be made out of something in the polyurethane family. Flexibility is probably a virtue here, but it also encourages splitting under compression loads.