WW2 Pill Box at Cliffe, Kent

[Hands0n]

After yesterday';s weather shenanigans I took an early morning jaunt out to a field just outside of Cliffe where there is an old WW2 Pill Box.  For years I have wondered about it as I have driven past. Today has been great to see the thing up close and personal 

I woke up at 8am today to blazing sunshine and bright blue skies! There were only white clouds all around.  But in the distance, across the river, over Essex dark ominous black clouds loomed. So it was time to get out while I could.  And it worked 

I used up five LiPo that had been charged the previous weekend. They were showing good voltages, although one did cut the flight short unexpectedly as the Naza M Lite decided the voltage was too low and it landed in the wild ground.  I might have to turn that "feature" off and fit an audible alarm on instead. It would be too dangerous to fly over water or at height beyond 4 minutes with the 2200mAh 3S I use.

Stability seemed to be a problem this time. I have fitted a set of 600 helicopter landing skids, they seem to have affected the in-flight attitude so I';m having to almost constantly adjust, even in GPS Atti mode. I had a solid GPS lock, so thats a bit odd. I';ll have to investigate that more at the next flying opportunity (next weekend!).  So I hope the movement isn';t too off-putting.

The video is an edit of five separate flights with some stills at the end. 

http://youtu.be/04y9EAplKmA
Best viewed in full resolution on YouTube

[flybywire]

Glad you';re making most of the weather Danny!
I see yr getting used to fpv, takes some getting used to eh?  Nice footage for second time out, you';ll soon be throwing it around all the angles.

Any time you change the auw of the craft, u may need to tweak the gains a little.  Do u have the bluetooth unit/ios assistant?  If u do u can do it whilst hovering.

Keep it up mate

Andy

[Hands0n]

Cheers Andy. It is certainly an experience of a lifetime!

I do not yet have much notion of my position in space - height from the ground when flying low baffles me right now. I have to pop the goggles off my eyes to see that I am still a few feet in the air    Similarly, getting close to an object like the pill box was a bit scary at times. It looked as though I was going to hit it, so I throttled up and flew over.  I suppose that will all come with more practise.  I don';t doubt there is an element of accident yet to be had ::)

I haven';t got anything to adjust the Naza M Lite in flight - I don';t know or think it will support that.  I';ve been thinking of swapping it out for an APM 2.5 with full telemetry and OSD (thinking of minimOSD).

More FPV next weekend I hope.

[flybywire]

Naza lite?  Ah.  Ok, i';ve no experience of apm, i would personally recommend persevering with naza, can u add osd mini?  Alternatively, if pennies allow, build two craft, obviously you';ll have some redundancy then, if you have a ';mishap'; with one, you';ll still be in the air!
I';ve stuck with dji myself (lazy! Only have to learn one system, plus parts are interchangeable to certain extent) but i know other folk like to ';dabble'; a part of the hobby!
Oh, i would also recommend investing in a camping stool, or shooting stick thingy, most find fpv easier in sitting pos, osd will change your game though, it did mine!
Good luck.

[Hands0n]

I';m definitely in the "dabbler" camp - just love experimenting and finding out about technical stuff. This hobby is giving me a decent fill in that respect    So you won';t be surprised then to know that I have the Naza M Lite in the Alien (dead cat';ish) air frame - but also have an APM 2.5 in a Firefly 450 (DJI clone).   The DJI flew OOTB whereas the APM 2.5 took a great deal of learning and setting up.  Once done, though, I do think both fly equally well - if anything the APM has the edge on the Naza M Lite in terms of precise control (I feel).

I have a "spare" APM 2.5 FC which is why I was thinking about swapping out the Naza M Lite.  Some chap on eBay was selling them ridiculously cheap, including GPS, for about £45 so I couldn';t say no! (@fruitsalad spotted it).  I was thinking "spare" but now I';m thinking "alternative".  I';m just waiting for the next release of Arducopter - that has PID Auto-Setup - and will give it serious consideration.

I';ve only slown FPV standing up - it doesn';t feel odd other than my head drops to my chest, curiously.   I don';t even realise I';m doing it until I see myself in the FPV or lift the goggles for a bit of LOS to get my orientation back.  Strangely, I find it a bit more challenging when I can actually hear the quad - it feels all wrong in my brain to the visuals that arriving from the eyes 

I';ll give the "sat down" approach a go though, see if its any more comfy.  I thought about sitting in the car, but the metal body is likely to impact the RF signals.

OSD is on my list. If I go APM 2.5 then it is MinimOSD - if I stay with the Naza M Lite then the easiest to fit will be the EZOSD, although it is a good deal more expensive and doesn';t appear to be quite as comprehensive.

What OSD are you using with your Naza?  I';m presuming you';re flying the full-blown M version rather than the M LITE?

[nickyb]

Nice video. Well done.

Were I come from in Essex (southend area) there are plenty of these pill boxes too. I guess the farmers did not take them down as it would have cost too much.

Nick

[Gav]

Hi mate just watched your video.  Well done mate bet you were well chuffed with your flight there?!  Nice little location to fly about.   But I was a bit disappointed you didn';t land on the roof hehe.   Next time eh!

Those first fpv flights after getting the gear are the best mate.  Enjoy.   The trouble is you';ll want to fpv over every interesting spot you find.  Even when out with the family or on holiday you';ll be wishing you had the quad to fpv over stuff lol.  Keep the vids coming.

[mutley2]

What an interesting site to fly around, there used to be a big pill box just outside RAF Locking by Weston-Super-Mare and I thought of having a day trip out to the sea side and doing a sortie on that but I found out the got rid of it. They had to blow it up If I remember rightly because even after all this time it was still in great shape and wasn';t going to be knocked down.
I would recommend flying with-out OSD for a little while to get used to the whole FPV thing, because I found it a big distraction from my fly until I got used to it, just a thought ;-)
Cheers for the vid and keep um coming...

[flybywire]

I';m definitely in the "dabbler" camp - just love experimenting and finding out about technical stuff. This hobby is giving me a decent fill in that respect    So you won';t be surprised then to know that I have the Naza M Lite in the Alien (dead cat';ish) air frame - but also have an APM 2.5 in a Firefly 450 (DJI clone).   The DJI flew OOTB whereas the APM 2.5 took a great deal of learning and setting up.  Once done, though, I do think both fly equally well - if anything the APM has the edge on the Naza M Lite in terms of precise control (I feel).

I have a "spare" APM 2.5 FC which is why I was thinking about swapping out the Naza M Lite.  Some chap on eBay was selling them ridiculously cheap, including GPS, for about £45 so I couldn';t say no! (@fruitsalad spotted it).  I was thinking "spare" but now I';m thinking "alternative".  I';m just waiting for the next release of Arducopter - that has PID Auto-Setup - and will give it serious consideration.

I';ve only slown FPV standing up - it doesn';t feel odd other than my head drops to my chest, curiously.   I don';t even realise I';m doing it until I see myself in the FPV or lift the goggles for a bit of LOS to get my orientation back.  Strangely, I find it a bit more challenging when I can actually hear the quad - it feels all wrong in my brain to the visuals that arriving from the eyes 

I';ll give the "sat down" approach a go though, see if its any more comfy.  I thought about sitting in the car, but the metal body is likely to impact the RF signals.

OSD is on my list. If I go APM 2.5 then it is MinimOSD - if I stay with the Naza M Lite then the easiest to fit will be the EZOSD, although it is a good deal more expensive and doesn';t appear to be quite as comprehensive.

What OSD are you using with your Naza?  I';m presuming you';re flying the full-blown M version rather than the M LITE?

Danny mate, sounds like a plan! 
I';ll give you my thoughts on osd';s and stuff;  Pray indulge me sir!
My original 450 quad had a NAza v1, no PMU/BTU/iOSD etc, just good old GPS.  I felt that compared to a lot of others thereabouts using osd';s, I was missing out, I did originally fit the TM1000 telem unit which at least gave me volts remaining from the quad on the Tx buzzer, (as to say DJI';s power management tool is dangerous would be too kind) but I found it a bind to keep lifting the gogg';s to see how much time/ power I had left 
Earlier I had had the mother of all jobs to get iOSD v1 working with my Wookong M quad        (I returned it to dealer in the end), and iOSD mini had not been released, so I went for an ezosd.  An excellent piece of kit, and something I would not hesitate to recommend to others. 
It was a no brainer for me, as I';m also a big fan of Immersion/Fat Shark gear, it ';just works'; (for me anyhow!!).  Ok, so I recently purchased the £200 Naza 2, and cheekily added the iOSD mini & BTU to my order (in for a penny and all that).
I have today, just finished assembling  and configuring my beloved 550 hex clone, and I can report that Naza/BTU/iOSD mini are all working fine with latest fwares!  Obviously I need to get the thing in the air and use it in anger before making harsh comparisons, but so far I feel this; for setup neatnest/cost, iOSD mini is hands down winner (obviously for DJI usres only!).
For use-ability/usefulness, I have to say the eZosd seems clearer to understand (the ';where am I'; representation seems more obvious, because you really don';t want any ambiguity with that feature, trust me!), plus it has mAh used, whereas iOSD mini does not. 
It does have voltage remaining of course, and I guess that is what I ultimately ';believe'; and fly by.  Oh, and you can get rssi out of ezosd with a little geekery, but I don';t do long range so am unlikely to need it.  Just my HO mind.

Cheers
Have a great day

Andy

[Hands0n]

Cool  thanks for that Andy.  So what I';m hearing, for Naza M Lite with Fat Shark it is pretty much EZOSD (it isn';t horrendously priced at circa £150).   I would gravitate towards MinimOSD for the APM 2.5 stuff as it is fully integrated with the FC and pretty much all that it can put out.

I guess I just need to make the decision on which FC I intend to long-term settle on for FPV.  My own jury is still out on that one.  I have a #16 HD Camera to fit on the Firefly 450 (APM 2.5) to see how I get on with FPV on that combination. That';ll help me decide one way or the other.  What also appeals is that APM 2.5 has Fail Safe (RTL) completely sussed for RX that don';t have that capability built in. Whereas Naza M Lite has to have it on a switch - any range loss results in a fly away (with the Lite).

Decisions, decisions ...

[xxpitt]

got it in the air just in time, before the bus flattened it  nice especially if its your second time fpv';ing. definitely takes a few goes to get used to the fpv even more so with goggles on, i kept trying to move my head to look around instead of yawing my quad. still find my self now a little, keep looking up when my quad is pitched forwards to try see more of the horizon

dave

[Hands0n]

  The trouble is you';ll want to fpv over every interesting spot you find.  Even when out with the family or on holiday you';ll be wishing you had the quad to fpv over stuff lol. 

Thats too funny. This Summer, on holiday in Corfu, I was a complete RC bore to the Mrs, picking out places I';d love to LOS/FPV video if I';d only had the quad with me. Mind you, I';d only been at it a few weeks and would have lost the entire kit. 

BTW, I should mention that was also the first flight with the skew planar twigs.  They performed beautifully    Very impressed with the difference.   

And this time I had the Brightness/Contrast set correctly so I could actually see where I was going  unlike the first time out ("What does this button do?").

@xxpitt - Thanks mate. What you can';t see is the quad is shielded by my car and me by the roadside  ::)  So plenty of room for the bus to get by.

I did have some segments on the original video stock for a bit of a blooper reel but they didn';t get across into iMovie, not sure why not. Will see about putting them into a shortie