did 'YOU' fly today??

[Bad Raven]

Yes, Video PLLEEEEAAASSSEEE.

I generally don't post videos now as since I'm flying only at one field, with limited scope for something "different", its not worth it.

I have continued to improve, I can now consistently manage screaming huge flat out circular power loops exiting accurately at point of entry or even deliberately back before it due to extreme throw back, and can track left or right reversals (wrongly called split "S" by Rotor Riot, etc) on a line that does not vary laterally or vertically, but its simply not photogenic enough to bother.

Since we "pruned" the lower branches of the big conifer, our two main turn pylons get flown under just as much as around.

The house looks a tempting target!

MANY years ago a few of us were asked to go to a large "country manor" and put on a demo of 1/8th scale RC Stock Car Racing. The "Lord of the Manor" was most impressed, said he could do that, too, and disappeared around the building, reappearing driving his Rolls Shadow, which he proceeded to thrash drift turn tarmac oval "race" circuits round the huge house car park and shred its tyres!   

[badger1]

arrived at our flying site today to find all the locks/gates sawn through & was expecting the field to be full of representatives of a particular local community ...

but it turned out it was the fire brigade cutting their way to reach the field neighbouring ours which had gone up in flames yesterday evening.

I stuck a quad up to have a look at the damage & there's at least a couple of acres burned down to the soil. 

we were pretty lucky not to have our field go up too as it's the same above-waist-high tinder-dry grass (except for the cut strips) as the field that went up.

[Bad Raven]

Been there several times recently, DAYS of fresh fires in stable straw compost piles and on hay stubble. The local cretins have been trying to set light to the farmers maturing barley field, not yet succeeded.

Also had gate chain cut AGAIN, no-one knows who.

[Bad Raven]

No flying today other than my latest hybrid 65mm, which started life as a BetaFPV 65X and now sports a 5 in one AIO ELRS.

Its 34C in the shade north outside as I write, but by closing off the complete south facing side of the house, where I am hiding, which is north facing, is "only" 26C, and IMO 8C down is a pretty good reduction for no costly artificial chilling or fans. 

I did try to do some model making early in the day in my south facing workshop room but it got too uncomfortable after 20 mins. I painted a gloss enamel black windscreen surround on a 500 Heli scale body and it was drying as the brush moved. It was full on dry in 10 mins! 

Next door had major building changes in the last year, and as soon as I saw the floor plan, with more than 3/4 of the ground floor open plan one huge area inc kitchen, and a complete glass "sliding wall" 3 metres high and 20 metres long facing sun all day, I knew the architect was missing any common sense and the owners had no idea what they were letting themselves in for, even discounting this "exceptional" heat.........  They have had to go to relatives to escape heatstroke even before this period! .........

Tomorrow night an Indoor Flying session.........   

[ched]

Next door had major building changes in the last year, and as soon as I saw the floor plan, with more than 3/4 of the ground floor open plan one huge area inc kitchen, and a complete glass "sliding wall" 3 metres high and 20 metres long facing sun all day, I knew the architect was missing any common sense and the owners had no idea what they were letting themselves in for, even discounting this "exceptional" heat.........  They have had to go to relatives to escape heatstroke even before this period! .........

Tomorrow night an Indoor Flying session.........   

Open plan with big walls of glass is the way people are going!!! I see lots of them recently and some are South facing, I dread to think how hot they are this week! Lots of new builds are having floor to ceiling windows as well again seems mad as heat coming in in summer and they will lose heat in the winter - not sure how they get on energy efficiency ratings with that much glass in a new build! Plus black roofs and dark window frames... Can't be fun.
Luckily our bungalow is white so stays a bit cooler 
Good luck for tomorrows indoor flying - think temp is down tomorrow so I will be back at work 

[Bad Raven]

Yes, inevitably, black frames, black garden seating (so impossible to sit on), black plastic covered decking (so impossible to walk on), black painted fencing, large black SUV, not for nothing are people in the road calling it "The Black Hole" !!

Well, Indoor Flying this evening cancelled, partly because I checked and the school has had to vacate some classrooms and is using the halls for lessons, breaks and lunch. Imagine the state they will be in later, esp as they have no forced ventilation and no roof or wall vents!!

Currently 36 C out, and my room is holding at around 28.3-4.

[Bad Raven]

Yet again, a tale of two quads today.

GEPRC Mk5 6S on 1350mAh - fairly aggressive freestyle for 7.5 to 8 minutes

iFlight Nazgul Evoque 4S on 1800mAh - have to throttle manage it far more, and its exceptional to get 5 mins, often 3.5-4 mins. Same packs on EMax Hawk5 and on EMax Sport Hawk give 7-8 mins so it IS the quad.

[Bad Raven]

Ruddy cretins are having under age sex parties on our patch now, many condoms and lady pads strewn around today.............     

Felt like putting up a sign "Thanks for the DNA samples, we now know who you are and where you live"

[Bad Raven]

Today I flew :-




Newly reurbished Rex 500 Bell 222 "Airwolf" style (but not colour) Body.

Came to me pretty thoroughly tired, split and roughed up, mashed front canopy with 5mm lumps of filler everywhere, broken windscreen, broken tail fins. All that, removal of ancient 35MHz gear, and a fair bit of base paintwork renovation, then red striping and stickers to brighten up the metallic blue/plain white base finish.

Fictional GWS company helicopter reg G-WSWS.


I also had a decent session (4 Lion Sony VTC6 packs) through the tiny 1S REKON3 (NanoLR) pushing it around a "circuit" above the field grass. Note I have clipped it drastically but though the throttle level increase over 10 mins flying might be of interest. IMO the Lion cell holds up well, and 15 mins plus is possible with no limits on speed. YouTube is cooking it as I post.

[Bad Raven]

Heli day today for the three of us. I managed a 600, the bodied 500, pod n boom 500, two 450's and a 330.

Dismal failure on my 450 based "Air America" Huey not flown for years,  forgot it was old style 3.5 bullets, and didn't have converter lead with me.......   

THAT won't happen again, its now XT60!!

Had another go with the REKON3 and flying buddy was pretty surprised at its range and ability to shrug off being behind a mature fully leafed up Oak over 1/4 mile away, near no flicker on Video.

Flown hard for all the flight and taking a Sony VTC6 down to 2.9v it manages very close to 15 minutes.

[badger1]

fun and games at the field today.  not much forecast wind, but rather a lot of thermic gusts at times.

and two dust devils!    or rather, hay devils in our case as our field of waist-high grass was cut in the week & hadn't been baled.

the first one was 2-3m across, came across the field & through the pits  it picked up my HK Tundra & would have taken it who knows where if I hadn't grabbed it.

the other one, while I was flying, must have been 20m across & from what I could see (my attention was on flying into it!) the sky over half the field was full of swirling hay. 

it livened the day right up 

took my iNav AR900 wing out for a play for the first time in a while  it all still works.  turn on auto-launch, sling into the air by a wingtip & off it goes. 

[Bad Raven]

Ah, dust devils, been a while, but do get them at our field. Doubt the Spitfires at the airport like them much!

Many years ago when I managed a lake for Windsurfing (as well as a main job) I was there standing on the bank advising a novice in rigging his sail when a whirlpool started to move across the lake, and the wind, feeble before, lifted to a force four.

Before I could stop him a youth launched and sped across the lake straight at it.  Entering the eye spiral doing at least 30mph, in footstraps and sail raked to the deck, the wind reversal instantly pile drove him and the rig into the water like banging in a tent peg on soft ground, but luckily he emerged unscathed, spluttering "what was THAT!"   Ah, teenagers..............

[Bad Raven]

Having finally negotiated FPV use at one of my clubs "Heli Only" field, yesterday was the first chance to fly there.  Have not actually flown anything there for three years!

Anyway, we are on request not to overfly the two tracks till people (not that you see any!) "get used to us being around".

This makes it a pretty featureless flat field with no obstacles, and yesterday we did not put out gates/flags.

For your interest, I'll put the "spectate" part of a 7 minute long aerobatic freestyle flight with the GEPRC Mk5 up here as video. The furthest west edge of the field is being made a village bypass, so all bridleways and footpaths in the area are closed, but then the history is that other humans are a very rare sight there anyway. LOTS of Hawks though, Buzzards, Red Kites, Hen Harriers, Kestrel. 

The triple lines in the field were done while we were there by a tractor unit with what looked like three hydrofoils (NOT turning the soil, decompacting and opening it up) .  I assume they are to break the soils surface and let rainfall penetrate before full ploughing can commence after the long drought.

It will likely default to 720p so set to 1080.

[Bad Raven]

Bit quiet on the flying front last week, but flew Mon and Tues this week, though won't manage more. Had a good few Heli flights for a change yesterday.

We were under imminent threat of the farmer having to crop the field with Legumes (2-3 foot of tangled nightmare) rather than the usual grass for stable hay, but he's got round that "instruction" and has now in the last two days completely ploughed, fined down and sowed new grass on all the out field.

He said since the drought the old grass was too weed riddled, he'd tried weed killer (the drifting overspray affecting those there one Sunday!!    ) but to no good effect he said.

I'd have left the site when the tractor was getting close enough to be finally "in range", plenty of warning, but some of our members don't see danger till well after it strikes. 

He's laughing claiming it'll now be flatter and smoother than our runway.     

Anyway, only three of us there both days.

Freestyle Quad flying has done wonders for my 3D Heli flying, much more confident throwing them around with the quad learnt muscle memory to help.

I'm actually considering trying FPV Heli.................  only the landing phase concerns me currently so have set up a quad to be extra nervous and am practicing hovering low as a "trainer".

Really don't want a touching down/spooling down Heli falling over. 

Yes, I know I could remove goggles while in slow farward flight and land LOS as usual, but want to do the whole bit "from the cockpit" !

[ched]

I'm actually considering trying FPV Heli.................  only the landing phase concerns me currently so have set up a quad to be extra nervous and am practicing hovering low as a "trainer".

Really don't want a touching down/spooling down Heli falling over. 

Must admit I always wondered if it would be easier to learn to fly a heli similar to how it's easier to fly a quad in acro fpv.

[Bad Raven]

Must admit I always wondered if it would be easier to learn to fly a heli similar to how it's easier to fly a quad in acro fpv.

Having gone the other way, Heli to Quad, I'm reasonably convinced that straightforward Aero like loops, rolls, stall turns, reversals/Immelmanns, are not going to feel any different, its the more 3D moves like tic-tocs, pie plates, etc that will be challenging to do.

FACT - Power looping a Heli in Idle Up is EXACTLY like power looping a quad in Acro, both feel and visual when in LOS, and I'm sure the same in FPV.

Been practicing sideways flight as a preliminary to adding the "pie" rotation, so far so good but its early days. Its when forward movement is negligible that it gets "interesting" (and very confusing to a spotter    )

[Bad Raven]

Was going to put a video up, but even 24 hours after posting to YouTube its still not available as HD, and the SD version is complete rubbish............  SIGH...............

[ched]

Is it normal for youtube to delay publishing HD vids?

[Bad Raven]

It usually takes longer, yes. They do the processing for SD and output that first to minimise the overall delay time. Never had it take so long though, still not done!   

Here's the current (lower) 720p quality.

The point of posting was that it was extremely windy, 28-40 mph!!    

Probably the highest wind I have flown a quad in, though I have flown slope gliders inc dynamic soaring wings in stronger.

You'll notice the poor conifer is suffering branches being ripped off.  The quad is the Nazgul Evoque, HD Dead Cat frame, and while it might look like a stabilisation mode was on, it wasn't, that was just me fighting it!

Good fun, actually!

[ched]

That tree did take a battering!
It does look quite windy, nice to see flying in the wind. Looks like you had fun battling the wind.

[Bad Raven]

Anyone looking for a cheap indoor quad that can go FPV? 

The Eachine E017, made by Althe Bule (Yea, another stupid name), and add one of the lightest weight 25mW Camera AIO.

https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-E017-Mini-2_4G-4CH-6-Axis-Altitude-Hold-Headless-Mode-RC-Drone-Quadcopter-RTF-p-1965599.html

and:-

https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-TX01-NTSC-Super-Mini-AIO-5_8G-40CH-25MW-VTX-600TVL-1-or-4-Cmos-FPV-Camera-p-1088374.html

The quad has dedicated firmware but flies very well straight from box for a decent flight time. I have four so far in use, more on order, and their quality control appears pretty good, as none have needed anything so far.

Roughly £35 for a FPV 65mm FPV Tiny Whoop.   

[Andy7]

... banggood though.... I'm kind of done with those guys even though they DID send me two tiny little "fpv" drones a few years ago "by mistake" - they wanted me to pay for them but I said nah, come collect them and they just said I could keep them. 

[Bad Raven]

A LOT of people are "done with Banggood".

With the school club using EACHINE E010 as its base model, I'm locked in that love/hate state.

Given the difficulties of trading from halfway around the world, the language and cultural barriers, etc, their continued lockdown, its quite amazing it works well as it does.

Maybe my policy helps. I usually if buying multiples order one, wait a few hours, and order another. Splits the risk and only minimally increases overall cost due sometimes dual shipping costs.

When I get issues, I try to visialise me doing the reverse, trying to trade with them. I don't always succeed, but I try! 

Oh, and to stay on topic, yes, it might be only 08:30, but I have flown around the house with the E017 "FPV".    

[Bad Raven]

Managed three hours at field with flying buddy today, started by flying the 4S Nazgul Evoque on 6S.

I know its quite cool out there (actually sunny and 13C!) but with lots of people giving dire warnings of woe woe thrice woe on motors burning straight out they were coming down with only the slightest temp to them. I ran three packs, getting more aggressive each time.

NO issues, and not using any throttle limits.

Wind rose markedly so went down to the 3.5" Babyhawk II HD to have some "fun" forcing lines around the trees against the winds influence.

The good news is that the farmer has cleared up all the wind removed branches around the conifer, the bad new being he's piled them up under our low level pylon turn area.    

Buddy had his traditional and apparantly compulsory "quad fall from the sky for no reason", no damage, and we ended when the clouds for the forecast rain later on started rolling over.

Local business airport VERY busy, exceptionally so, Lears and above sizes pumping into the air every few minutes, so it seems few of the "Top 1%"  seem to be taking Christmas week off! 

One GA came over at high level (for a four seat sized GA) extremely deep engine roar and going very slowly. He's going to be deaf before he gets where he's planning!

[Bad Raven]

Hardly ideal today, low wind but low temp and a horrendous dew after overnight rain.  The busy rat run lane/road past our gate entry is like the Somme, it has so many deep potholes all over ripped through the surface and heaped up loose gravel and mud washed out of the holes. Not even remotely possible to pick a clean path through it.

Anyway had three hours plus fun with a 3.5" (Babyhawk II HD) and a 5" (Hawk 5 with DJI) and later a Blade 330 Heli doing idle up aerobatics. Got "interesting" at one point when an Immelmann, half loop into a half roll at the top, ended up screwed with the Heli exiting very fast sideways.......... 

Four of us there, though one left an hour early, one arrived an hour late.  Almost a crowd for our field!! 

[Bad Raven]

I wrote this earlier and it disappeared!

Got my new OMP M2 EVO delivered overnight from good old Midland Helicopters up and running. Direct Drive, no gears, no wasted power, no slop, no noise,Yummy!



Only a part battery duration hover and turns in a very iffy blustery garden at default settings.

Got lazy and instead of using the internal OMP receiver and Tx Multi Module, put a Serial Spektrum receiver on the provided satellite socket and used my DX9.  It also has an SBus socket, its that well thought through. Setting it up to fly was literally seconds work.

This buy came about as I'd flown a buddies little M1 which is as stable as a stable thing in Stablesville while still being properly 3D agile when called for.  Extremely impressive, but too small for flying field use.

We are both actually waiting on the "M5" 500 sized that is somewhere in their pipeline (hopefully) for a 2023 release. But......... I ran out of patience.......and I wasn't supervised.......   

When the 500 appears, I'll likely put FPV on this M2. 

[Bad Raven]

.

it was the fire brigade cutting their way to reach the field neighbouring ours which had gone up in flames yesterday evening.

I stuck a quad up to have a look at the damage & there's at least a couple of acres burned down to the soil. 

we were pretty lucky not to have our field go up too as it's the same above-waist-high tinder-dry grass (except for the cut strips) as the field that went up.

That from 6 months ago last July.

And now?

Here we are trying to keep head above water, avoid being stuck in the mud or disappear down a pothole, while being blown around by gales.

At the same time here we have lost a big slice of our indoor flying access due to the Centre restricting its hours to reduce energy and staff costs.

And a few months old CH boiler under warranty has catastrophically failed, with the maker unable to provide spares for possibly another month, so we have no (affordable) heat source, and a place at risk of freeze damage.

Oh, and we keep losing water supply due to a nearby main leak that they keep having to turn off while trying to fix it (without success so far after a week) and most of the time our pressure even if on is often only a trickle.

Happy New Year............... 

[ched]

That doesn't sound good at all. No boiler and very little water! What is the UK coming to?

[Bad Raven]

Ruddy wet wet and more wet.     Lurching towards halfway though January and SO little fying done, way less than last couple of years.

The new M2 Heli sits there looking accusingly at me along the lines "why did you buy me and not fly me?" 

At least its not wet (and cold) inside the house now, as Glow-Worm/Vaillant eventually buckled under the pressure and replaced the whole boiler.

SO glad I can fly indoors. Most used model is the own "design" 75 based on a Trashcan frame but with 65 sized motors.  It's plenty aggresive, powerful, and fast enough around the house and school halls while having easy smooth thottle control over its full range, and its LIGHT. Took a chance some time ago on the idea being worth trying, SO glad I did.

Since (sadly) it seems nobody is going to make a micro sized light enough DJI compatible VTX, looks like HDZero is in my future on another of these hybrids. Still hoping though someone like the WTFOS team now they have root access licked might come through with something......... 


EDIT.......    Oh, and the gridlock inducing traffic lights round the burst main, that had gone, road back surfaced, are back, though we have yet to lose water totally, only low pressure.

[ched]

Just wait for next week, dryer after the very wet weekend, then cold!
Glad to hear the boiler is finally sorted.
Weather has been terrible this week, I've been dodging showers all week.