did 'YOU' fly today??

[Gav]

Starting this thread for an excuse for us all to post our multirotor flying experience of the day.  No matter how short of long / close or far away you flew.  This kind of thread works well on other forums, so I will start the ball rolling here too  :)

I actually did fly some FPV today, 3 lipos worth before work and loved it.  Location Just outside Ludwell, Dorset nr Shaftesbury https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=50.982006,-2.118022&spn=0.007889,0.019956&gl=uk&t=h&z=16&layer=t

Absolutely beautiful day and thoroughly enjoyed all 3 flights.  Flew higher and further away than before but still excellent video reception and gaining confidence on every flight.

Got some nice GoPro video but not had time to edit it up. 
quick snap attached

please post your flying stories of the day including crash stories for the unlucky ones lol  :...

[Gaza07]

Been busy all day and now I';m knackered and just cant be bothered   

[robshaw]

Yep, I flew today.  Flew about 10 lipos in the garden tweaking the PIDs and trying to get sonar to work properly (failed). Flying well now tho but unfortunately sonar is disabled although dont really need it to be honest.  Just fitted it because I could.

http://youtu.be/3D_SWdHPmTM

[dp106]

5 flights today with my new naza m controller fitted. Happy to report no crashes however I did stay in attitude mode.

Quite annoyed, it looked really still first thing but by the time I got out the wind had picked up a fair bit.

[turkuss]

flew about half a lipo in the bedroom with a twister

[teslahed]

http://youtu.be/ZrWFQ5hibG8

That was the last flight of the day - the weather was too good not to get out.

[Gav]

Amazing flight, Chris.  Enjoyed that!

[steve fh]

flew out one lipo this evening in breezy conditions. Frustrating as i';ve been away with work for two days in perfect still sunny conditions

[dp106]

http://youtu.be/ZrWFQ5hibG8

That was the last flight of the day - the weather was too good not to get out.

Nice. How do you get the video so smooth, no hint of vibration that I could see. Taken on a go pro I presume?

[FlyinMarty]

Teslahed, what are you using Quad & Camera wise...fancy something a bit different to my helis.

[teslahed]

[smg id=210]

http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=1809.0

It';s a mini plywood / carbon fibre hexacopter of my own design. The GoPro 3 silver was recording in 1080p at 30fps - not the most forgiving setting that for jello and vibes that either.

The smoothness of the video is down to a couple of things i think. Firstly i have the GoPro suspended from a cross beam bundled up inside a load of duct tape and shock absorbing jell, so it';s hanging down and cushioned from the vibes by the jelly surround. Secondly the props i am using are 5 inches - tiny things. The motors are spinning at 2200kV. I think the noise and vibrations that i do get will be higher frequency and lower amplitude as a result.

The hex flies great but i get 5 mins of battery life out of an 1800mAh 3 cell and it';s not going to be happy carrying much more weight than you see in the picture (about 750 grams total flying weight). I have a quadcopter that flies using the same batteries on 4 x 8 inch props at 1100kV and that gets almost 15 mins on the same charge - so the hex is not terribly efficient.

I have a smaller quadcopter design based on the same layout made from fibreglass and carbon fibre;

http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=2102.msg16638#msg16638

which is available in Kit form (and i have a couple as almost ready to flies with motors, speed controllers, flight controller etc. Not so good for carrying FPV gear as it lacks lifting power but if you keep the load light it';s great for line of sight acro flying. I would like to make the hex available as a kit but i need to do some more work on the design - i want to try stretching the main plates to give more room to mount all the FPV gear without raising the centre of gravity quite as much as i have had to on my prototype.

[philtrum]

is that a new goggle setup chris ?

[teslahed]

Yeah i';ve change the tunnel - but i think i prefered the old system. I might rebuild the FPV helmet with a larger screen at some point.

[Biffa]

That was a great flight Chris, most impressive

[Gav]

Flew out 4 lipos on the Heli and 2 fpv flights on the quad this afternoon.

Pretty nice to get down the field for once.  First time I';ve flown the heli for weeks but was nice to get the nerves going again with plenty of inverted practice.

[Jake Bullit]

And travelled back in time to 1970 as well i see:D

[Biffa]

Flew out 4 lipos on the Heli and 2 fpv flights on the quad this afternoon.

Pretty nice to get down the field for once.  First time I';ve flown the heli for weeks but was nice to get the nerves going again with plenty of inverted practice.

Nice Gav is that an Atom?

[Gav]

Yeah Compass Atom500 with 550 stretch kit.  Picked it up cheap on ebay once.

1970';s?

[Calomile]

I did not fly today, today I wielded a chainsaw and cut half the garden down. It probably wasn';t as fun as flying would';ve been but it is quite satisfying to have wrought so much havoc on mother nature. :evil

[MOFO64]

This was last nights "playtime" :)

Gordons plane

Went to park earlier today 


image hosting 15mb

[Hands0n]

During the perfectly still air and warm day today I went up ... in the Emirates cable car across the Thames in South London.    By the time I got back the wind was up, but I got out into the garden for three LiPo';s worth of APM setting up. Not very successful still.  Put it into Alt Hold, it struggled for a few seconds and then did a vertical disappearing act    I caught it at about 10 metres, flipped back to Stabilise and guided it back to terra firma, combating the wind that was adding to the fun.

So, not a failure, not a success. But yet another lesson in not panicking, reining in control, and bringing the aircraft back down safely.

Tomorrow (Tues) I';m out in  the field at Cliff (windswept again no doubt) to see if I can get this APM sorted for once and for all with some swing space bigger than this garden. 

[philtrum]

had 3 lipos on the pocket quad, sooo much fun and I can flip it in less than a foot of height now from a hover

1 lipo in the nano brushless heli, was doing some high speed passes ... and well did not pass a goalpost 

remarkably, it few again, although i need a few running repairs lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7boat8Oo0

Phil

[guest325]

No flying for me today, after yesterday';s marathon I';d got no batteries charged and ended up taking her indoors down the caravan. Had a nice day despite no flying but having a few packs on the field would have been the icing on the cake, can';t wait to get my second charger and parallel change boards!

[kilby]

No flying for me today as I';m still waiting for my replacement motors and ESC

Had two buddy box flights yesterday with my plane, but that ended in a crash and a fractured motor mount (3 planes lost in the same spot yesterday, all of them stopped responding to the transmitters)

Suspect that the quad would simply have flown home (mutters about buying an APM for my plane)

[guest325]

No flying for me today as I';m still waiting for my replacement motors and ESC

Had two buddy box flights yesterday with my plane, but that ended in a crash and a fractured motor mount (3 planes lost in the same spot yesterday, all of them stopped responding to the transmitters)

Suspect that the quad would simply have flown home (mutters about buying an APM for my plane)

Don';t worry too much about accidents happening when you are learning, I had several bin bag jobs when I started first - it is annoying when something like that happens though, but it';s all part of the hobby!

[orfordness]

Four packs through my 450 this evening, nice and steady but still climbs in loiter and alt hold despite lowering thro_mid to 350 in 50 chunks.

pushed the throttle cut whilst holding it earlier and throttle went to max? nearly lost it !
don';t know why throttle cut sent it off like that?

not tested RTL as need a bigger field and more bottle!

Steve

[mutley2]

Blue sky';s and still air, just on the out skirts of Leominster is the remains of a WW2 army hospital, 95% has been knocked down but the remains are total FPV quad territory, been living near it for 12yr so I took the disco for a peek for the first time. Was just me and a few dog walker, very cool...

[kilby]

pushed the throttle cut whilst holding it earlier and throttle went to max? nearly lost it !
don';t know why throttle cut sent it off like that?

Lost 2 arms, a motor and an ESC to hitting the throttle cut switch (it';s disabled on my TX now)

If your throttle cut took the throttle channel below the threshold then the quad could have been attempting an RTH

[fruitsalad]

6 lipos on my at6 night flyer..
reports of ufo sightings in the morning.. ::)

[Hands0n]

pushed the throttle cut whilst holding it earlier and throttle went to max? nearly lost it !
don';t know why throttle cut sent it off like that?

not tested RTL as need a bigger field and more bottle!

Steve

I presume you';re on an APM 2.5 with v3.0 firmware?  I';m in a similar position with Alt Hold and violent sudden rates of climb.   Had to knock it to Stabilise and use a steady nerve to bring it back down under power rather than dump the throttle and crash.

Thinking aloud - Throttle Cut may have triggered FailSafe - if you';ve got RTL set it may cause that sudden climb - I think the default is 15 metres before it RTLs.