First FPV flight

[Riggsbie]

Hi gang !

I completed my first FPV flight today and it was a success (no crashes !).

The weather was cold but sunny and a bit of a blustery wind but pretty good......I have my GoPro connected to my FatShark 250mW VTx using a USB cable and the VTx is powered directly from my TBS bottom plate (I re-jigged my TBS cable to power the FatShark VTx).....

I went to a football field where there was only a couple of kids kicking a ball about so kept well away from them....

I brought a friend.....Rossi was an excellent spotter, constantly calling height and distance....

The flight went really smoothly, not as disorienting as I expected....found standing with my head down the best position.....the sensation of speed was excellent close to the ground but judging altitude was really hard, it was only thanks to Rossi telling me I was 1m off the deck gave the confidence to keep going....

At any reasonable height the perception of speed was hard to judge.....

The video quality was good but there is a lot of vibration on the GoPro (which I still need to figure out), video glitched about 400m away but came the interference cleared immediately.....

I did find it hard to stay focused so flew for 4-5 minutes and then landed and flew LOS for a bit.....

Did notice how my 3S 5000mAh LiPO upsets the handling of the Discovery.....I normally fly with a 3S 2500mAh and it felt really tail heavy and fast yawing gave some interesting wobbles......

Rossi donned the FatShark goggles and I took him for a ride and he loved it......

Rossi also had a few minutes flying at the end and he took to flying like a duck to water....he has flown RC planes and contra rotating Heli';s before.....

I am happy.....next question, should I used my FatShark cam in place of the GoPro for FPV flying ?

Not sure how confident I am to fly FPV solo (without a spotter)....

Good fun !

[guest325]

If you went 4S with something like a 4000mah Zippy compact you would probably get similar flight times (if your motors are rated at 4S of course); their weight would be less of a problem.

[Riggsbie]

Funny you should say that as I have some 4S LiPOs on their way from HK but I am having the ';HK customer service'; feature right now......where the order sits in the ';awaiting payment'; status for an age even thought they have the payment details.....

Got to love HK !