did 'YOU' fly today??

[Bad Raven]

Base wind 15mph, gusts to 25mph, Babyhawk II HD @ less than 250g, Recorded direct on GogglesV2 so lower quality than vision from screen.

Full flight raw recording.

[Bad Raven]

Flying yesterday, and while I was up and about there was a huge earth shaking thump, and my spotter remarked quite forcefully that he was a trifle surprised by what he'd seen!   

I took quad over and looked, and then later we walked over for a closer inspection.

A large mature oak on the close bordering tree line had split off roughly a third of itself, which had fallen to ground from 4-5 metres height. Not a dead branch, a very large section of the tree that was fully leafed up. 

Externally the tree looked normal, but it was visually badly rotted internally and the main trunk was more a tube than a solid wood structure.

Makes you wonder, how many of our much more numerous fixed wing brigade had climbed it and maybe others like it to recover a model in the past?............   

Be CAREFUL out there!

[Bad Raven]

A rare opportunty for the two of us with two spotters to fly circuits at the same time!

https://youtu.be/KHOn_GRqRjA

I said I'd just follow, and I did for a bit, but then, you know, well, I tried not to, but he slowed up, honest, really..............   

[Bad Raven]

And today? The lightest of drizzle, just enough to obscure the lens, but constant. Gave up after an hour as it got more.  And three miles away at home.......... NO rain.

[Bad Raven]

Indoor last night, six of us got together, nice big hall, great fun.

I managed to fly a rather beat up and now overweight version of the first ever commercially available ultra micro indoor plane, though the poor 13 plus year old brushed motor was a "little" tired!"

Called the "4-site", it was soon re-dubbed the "foreskin" and if you've flown one, you'll know why.........   

The Mobula 65 HDZero reframed to 75 flew MUCH better!!

[Bad Raven]

Finally got my second GEPRC Mk5 Pro frame in the air today. WHAT a struggle, three weeks of wrangling the FC and VTX and camera into submission via bad information, firmware bugs, Betaflight issues, and a smidgeon of personal stupidity confusion arising from the first three! (I'll save you from the sad details).

SO, here's a comparison of the bits that matter, (1) is DJI Vista (2) is HDZero Freestyle.

(2) is 36g lighter, despite the Freestyle VTX weighing in at near 30g and having additional things like a LED strip.

Unfair maybe to comment yet on how they compare flight wise, but (2) has got a lot to live up to, as I have been flying (1) to the exclusion of all others in my collection.

What better way thought I to see which HD system performs best. Well, I can say that DJI was a whole lot easier to get going!

More after a few more flights...............

[Bad Raven]

Well, it flew again, and flies really well on std latest Betaflight PIDs.

Damn Xing motors give a minute and a half less duration though. And I cannot use the greater power due height and space limits.

OSD is a nightmare though.  Its HDZero, so use the HD setting in Betaflight?

This gives a screen resolution of it seems the right size, BUT the OSD data fields stay up and left to a std analog resolution area, and while they can be moved down right, they disappear even on PC Configurator screen, and this is copied on the goggles.

Tried everything I know, still useless..................

[Bad Raven]

OSD Sorted, no idea how, it just suddenly worked and has continued to work.

13 packs later...............    

[Bad Raven]

Most of the forecasts said dry.

One of the forecasts said a single shower late morning, but only a 33% chance.
 
One of the forecasts said rain most of the morning and thunderstorms.

Rain Radar was clear upwind for 100 miles as I left for the ten minute drive to the field.

AND........  we had several torrential very large spotted showers, no thunder.

Oh Well.........It dried quickly. 

Back to backed the two Mk5's.   DJI better, totally interference free, while some resolution pixellation under trees, etc. HDZero for my flying style (STYLE.... ???    ) gives no significant latency advantage and def does not like being the other side of wet trees.

Its very likely that I'll revert to original intent, and use HDZero only for sub DJI sized models.  I have just about fully explored the "Freestyle" VTX and found it wanting.  I'm SOOO close to ripping it out and putting in a (spare) Vista! One thing left to try, and that's play with antennaposition and type/make.


Incidentally, I'm not quite sure why, but the GEPRC Mk5's front end metal frame seems to keep rain off the camera lens. Didn't get one spot get on either of them despite getting caught in three sudden downpours before being able to land.

[ched]

The forecasts are terrible. I work outdoors and try and plan work the evening before and the amount of times it says rain and there isn't any and I haven't booked work in. Then the times when it says it's dry and the heavens open!!!
I find HyperLocal to be reasonable for the next 90 mins forecast.

[Bad Raven]

Thanks for the tip on Hyperlocal, didn't know of it, and it seems so far to be as good as you get!

[Bad Raven]

Flying Buddy wanted to cry off this morning due "rain all morning" forecast. But it was really good, and I ended up getting through 14 packs...... Phew............

Early on I flew an 85 I'd cobbled together in 30 minutes from a self built NanoLR (3D print frame) that had reached end of life with a broken battery bay, and anyway had always struggled to keep the FC core temp within limits despite additional cooling.

It had/has the Crazybee4S1280 analogue ELRS 5 in 1 AIO, Flywoo ROBO 1202.5 motors, CADDX Ant, and I reduced the prop size to 2" to fit the BetaFPV Meteor 85 frame, still two blade.  (I think the normal motors would be 1102's?)

I'd cruised it around the garden on Sunday in angle/horizon, but at field today explored its aerobatic capability in acro............ and it was a bit of a surprise, being FAR better then expected. OK the "ducts" are more guards, being only 8mm deep, but it managed smooth freestyle transitions like there WERE no ducts. I hadn't shortened the motor wiring, so there is some more weight to be saved, too.

Managed 6 minutes on a HV 660mAh 1S, with a LOT of rolls, tumbles, reversals and power loops.

I have decided I'm a far better designer when I don't design........... 

Good though!

[Bad Raven]

Indoor session at Sports Hall booked for friday night.  Getting there was unusually a right pain, traffic extremely heavy, then far too young female on desk duty o be there solo only other person there, all weather pitches empty, Gym empty, other sports hall empty. Due to various issues, only three of us there, too.  So we felt responsible for her safety, and left early.

My scratch built "Indoor Panic" lookalike biplane is finally after only very intermittant use flying well, its ultra thin EPP and so a "bit" floppy  , but rather than load it with carbon weight straight off, I have over time slowly added a piece at a time to keep it super light for its size.  It is only 130g and is 620mm wingspan.  It flies level super slow, and the 2204 driving a 8x4.7 slofly cut down to 7.5 offers near silent flight and half throttle instant take off and super tight loops. 

Final thing is I'm going to have to free hinge the dual wing 3D sized Ailerons as the twin 3g servos give more wing warping twist than hinged movement!

Only other thing of note, I flew the Flywoo Firefly 1.6" LOS and let the other two experience micro HD video for the first time in the HDZ goggles, they were absoutely gobsmacked by its clarity and freedom from multi-pathing interference (the hall suffers badly usually). It really is a quite exceptionally agile freestyle little beast. 34g and still only 49g with a 660mAh HV GNB.    Only downside is the absence of a decent buzzer, which is limiting my enthusiasm for field flying over the long grass outfield. Motor buzzers are rubbish at that 1002 size!

Its claimed to fly even better on three blade. At one point Flywoo were indicating thats' how it would come, and they supplied Bardwell with 3 and 4, but mine came with only four blade 1609's!! 
Must get some 3's, and a more visible colour than the transparent ones supplied to help find it if downed. Be an expensive loss!!

Battery range used is 530 to 750, motors stay cool.  Punch out is "impressive"!

[Andy7]

A lazy couple of packs at lunchtime down at Boars Hill in the GLORIOUS October sunshine.
Just what I needed to make the world right again. 

As always, the dog walkers there were cheerful and polite. Makes me smile when I hear sniffing at my ankles. Didn't bring Sirius this time 'cos there wasn't a lot of time and he'd want to go do dog-stuff first. He always gets excited when he sees me carrying the quad gear to the car.

I'll take him up to the field for a run about this evening. 

[Bad Raven]

As long as its sniffing and not a leg being raised............ 

What are you flying at the moment?

[Bad Raven]

After being away, and then suffering what felt like covid (again), I got to the field today.

Most of the time flew the 6S GEPRC Mk5 on DJI, but did have a maiden flight of the Hee Wing Ranger T- VTOL.

Flown VTOL before (own a model Osprey currently) but this one was a new (and scary) experience as its on Ardupilot, on which I have zero experience.

So flow only today in VTOL (Tricopter) mode, what can I say?  Its odd handling, VERY odd!

Low breeze but facing into or down breeze its super stable, easy hands off hover.

However, either direction facing cross breeze moving or hover its not at all confidence inspiring, wallowing/twitching in roll. It corrects itself, but just leaves the impression that it suddenly might not!

Since Adupilot has PAGES of parameters, many of which are unclearly identified, where to start?

NO idea! 

[Bad Raven]

AND.............. back into using battery heating to get that extra two minutes flight time normal throughout summer.

Farmer used a different grass mix from last year for the main field.  He's only taken one cut, and for the last four months its been left. What has grown after that cut is not grass, almost 500mm high and a combination of a wide range of things, including a coarse clover and a yellow flowered "weed" that has very spiky stems and seed pods with hooks that stick to trousers.  Its not at all nice to walk through, so not good if recovery needed, but it does have the benefit that the local estate dog walkers won't come anywhere near it! 

[ched]

As long as it keeps the dog walkers and their cr@p away it's not too bad.
Weather has been very wet recently, I'm surprised you managed to get out between showers.

[Bad Raven]

I'm still nowhere with the Hee Wing Ranger VTOL. 

Yesterday it flew in tricopter mode quite well albeit not responsive enough for a couple of minutes, then went fully unstable, mostly trying to reverse and crashed (no damage).

Surfaces were twitching all over the place.

Battery tested immediately at 3.85v per cell.................

Not looked since.............. 

[DarkButterfly]

Maidened my UMX Turbo Timber Evo :)

Its the most docile thing I've flown, launching it is really easy, full flaps and a gentle push from the hand and its up

[Bad Raven]

NICE!

Flying Buddy has the non-Turbo one, and an inherited bigger one. 

The OP of the bigger one managed to crash it a few times, though no-one could understand why.

[DarkButterfly]

NICE!

Flying Buddy has the non-Turbo one, and an inherited bigger one. 

The OP of the bigger one managed to crash it a few times, though no-one could understand why.

I'm not sure why either, even if you dumb thumb it, I did a few times, it's so docile, recovery is easy. 

[Bad Raven]

Indoor Event on Saturday Night.  Well attended, great fun.

My two main RC Clubs (65 miles apart) have VERY different attendance patterns. I have been a member of both for decades, so its very much a stable situation at both I'm about to relate.

Club One

Indoor interest has always been limited depite promotion. A series of club supported events many years back was initially well attended, but most did not have really suitable equipment, nor was there much interest to get any. Pretty much fixed wing only, and after 4/5 events it ceased, never to be revived. (The club is very cash rich, BTW, and would not notice the costs even if poorly attend so could easily promote initially).

Members constantly whinge about the poor weather outdoors, yet won't try/support indoor!

To complete the picture for this area, there is a local "private" regular session run in this area.  It struggles to gain sufficient interest to maintain its hall costs.



Club Two

Interest has always been there, and in winter (only) a monthly event held. Over the years  various locations have been used, both on cost grounds and from the difficulty of gaining bookings. Didn't affect attendance. The one year the club did not arrange and support, a member ran a set.  Most people have suitable models, with equal and quite keen support for normal/lightweight/helicopter. Separate alternating "battery long" sessions are run between these sub sets.  Club supported financially for a low entry cost, there are usually even paying spectators!


The difference is SO marked, but why??   

[Bad Raven]

Having received a couple of HDZero ECO combos (micro for whoops), and having a couple of HDZ Whoop Lite kicking around unused, I thought I really ought to kick my own backside into gear and do something about the fairly large collection of analog micro/mini quads sitting unused in ice cream containers!!   

So, I have put one ECO on a ducted hybrid I made four or five years ago for 2S using a Trashcan frame. After a straight VTX/Camera swap, this is now flying, albeit no OSD is working as yet. So long since I flew it I don't know what it had working before, and I did not have the common sense to test it first! 

While the iron was hot I got out my Rekon3 (NANO LR). And I did this time fly it first, or tried to. On these the Gemfan 3018 two blade props are centre hole friction only, screws not fitted, to "save weight". I was dubious about that on 3" power but quite a few flying hours and no issues. However as soon as it spooled up a prop windmilled away until its friction with the ceiling made it slow and fall back.

It had loosened to have nearly no grip, loosest I have ever seen,    The others are OK still, very tight. Weird............

Yes, Yes, should have tested that, too..............   

Its a nuisance and a reason for my ignoring them for so long that a lot of these are F3, and it means raking out an older laptop with an earlier Betaflight Configurator on it.

Off topic, I note that someone in China has unearthed a sizeable quantity (350 plus!!!) of EMax Babyhawk Race quads.  I wonder how many will buy not realising the obsolete FC now requires extra effort to work with? Did a container spill from a ship finally float into port??