My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby RCModelReviews » Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:05 am

You tend to get used to landing with the glasses on pretty quickly. Just line up and slowly bring back the power. Eventually the ground will interrupt your descent ;-)

Judging altitude when you're that close to the ground is not too hard.
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby bmsweb » Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:49 am

RCModelReviews wrote:Eventually the ground will interrupt your descent ;-)

Love it!! :lol:
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby Oops » Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:48 am

Now, this morning flight #3. I noticed that the 1300mA transmitter battery is ample for powering the 500mW 5.8GHz, camera and OSD. Recharging puts only 350mA back in (with lengthy dry testing before). Initial I didn’t think the flight was going to happen with a breezy Southerly but this suddenly died down. Clouds higher up indicated that the mountains probably blocked the flow at lower altitudes.

Took off from the estuary side of the island (where I had made the first out landing) and heading into the very light breeze. Soon found myself a few hundred meter up and a few hundred meter upwind. Amps around the 20A till into cruise down to 3-4Amps which gives me just over 30km/hr. Before I knew I was 800 meters away and signal was still good. I switched to auto altitude and kept on cruising. One of the two spotters had binoculars and could follow the flight for some time. The frontal (and tail) area of the phoenix 2000 is small though and easily lost. Lets see if a 1000meter still works. No problem, just the odd few second outage. 1100meter, 1200meter. I should have turned around I suppose but then thought, I have altitude, the tide is out so plenty of estuary to land on, heading into the wind, I can flick the RTL switch or the RC receiver failsafe (with RTL) will kick in.

So kept on going, passed both miles (~1500 and ~1800 meter) without too many seconds loss of signal. Past the 2000 meter and still good, 2100meter a long period of signal loss (~5 seconds) but then it got clear. The radio started to beep at this stage and so I decided to slowly turn without too much banking and got to 2250meter while still in control and good picture. Both spotters had lost the model which was now above the orchards and low hills of the mainland.

During the first 10 seconds or so of the return I lost the video signal completely but this soon cleared up. It does not take long to get to this distance (and back) so if you ever try this (and you will) watch your distance, battery levels and have enough altitude. Just in case you loose height and then loose your 5.8GHz signal.

Soon I (or more accurately the plane) was overhead and I headed to the seaside of the island which means flying over the high pine trees. I was about 200 meters away and down to less then 100meter and suddenly lost A/V signal for long seconds, too long to be comfortable. I switched to RTL and some grainy signal returned but to my horror I could just make out that the power stayed at about 3.5A despite full throttle to climb into better reception. The picture was only just good enough to see what was going on. The spotters yelled that the plane was in an unusual attitude which I could indeed spot with nose down and too much bank: likely stalled. For a second I contemplated to land on the beach but with the already poor signal that would not be an option. I managed to level and fly over the lower parts of the trees and soon had a good video again but still only just over 3 amps.

Cut the power, flaps on and a long final approach which was followed by a smooth and uneventful landing other then that it was an FPV one.

Back with the aircraft in my hand I check the temperatures of the A/V transmitter (cool), motor/battery (both not more then warm). The ESC is out of touch under the plywood (with enough room around for breathing). Again put on full power which still showed just over 3 amps. I had the 2200mA 3C battery recharged which put in 1400mA and produced full power after that.

Now, the important thing, what was the battery voltage during flight? I think still above 11v but cannot be sure. I tested it again about 30 minutes later and let the motor run a bit longer which dropped it to 10.5V but still low Amps. Did the 35A Waypoint ESC lower the output? In the instruction there is no information on this.

Again a lot of new tricks this old dog had to confront. As we know, and as this flight has proven, 5.8GHz is very useable as long as there is no obstruction blocking the signal. Don’t fly behind trees, buildings, hills. A/V signal will suffer quickly. Also keep the plane level when a long way away.

A few things on the agenda:
-I really need to record the flights so hopefully with the Jaycar A/V recorder I can document the information.
-sort out the loss of power problem, might put in the 30A Turnigy ESC which I have a programmer for.
-dedicate a switch to a certain power setting for cruise.
-still want to put the camera pan and tilt on but this will mean a fixed OSD setting and loss of flaps.
-tuffs on the wing and nose to follow aerodynamic flow condition and side slip. On a calm day this might give me stall speed.
-streamline the antenna and camera. Will plastic tape influence the signal?
-look into directional antenna, dual antenna, I don’t know. More trick to learn…
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby rogueqd » Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:18 pm

Great write up of your flight. I often skip through long posts but I read every word. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby Sid Sideslip » Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:39 pm

rogueqd wrote:Great write up of your flight. Thanks for sharing your experiences.


+ 1
What goes up...better bloody stay up (until I say otherwise).
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby bmsweb » Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:41 pm

rogueqd wrote:Great write up of your flight. I often skip through long posts but I read every word. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

No two ways about it! Nice one
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby Oops » Sun Sep 04, 2011 4:47 am

Thanks guys, I didn't mean to make it this long. I have the camera working now and a very nice flight yesterday with a good recording. The colours came out well and I am happy with the 171 camera.

Reviewing the flight there are things I didn't pickup on before. The Rudder may be too sensitive on the giro. The tail is wagging a little. The pitch shows a positive number, even when gliding, which could indicate that the autopilot is nose low installed. The power behaved itself with a different 2200mA battery on this trip which lasted over 20 minutes and just over 1100mA. Even at the end I could get up to 17Amp or so. At one stage the variometer showed positive readings while gliding which was caused by the updraft over the pine forrest. This was at about 100 meter up and I could have stayed up there for a while, just like the seaguls!

I also noticed a lot of A/V glitches with perfect A/V around it. Less then a second every few seconds but anoying while watching the movie, not so much the picture but more the static of the noise. Interesting to hear the rudder and elevator servos working away in the background.

Unfortunately I had and still do computer work today otherwise it would have been another beautiful day to be up.
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby QiW » Tue Sep 06, 2011 6:46 am

rogueqd wrote:Great write up of your flight. I often skip through long posts but I read every word. Thanks for sharing your experiences.


+10 ;)
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Re: My first FPV … followed by forced FPV out-landing

Postby Oops » Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:54 am

Pleased you enjoy it, guys. Today, after a very busy week at work, I spend the whole day installing the pan/tilt for the camera and changing the ER9X. I stole one channel from the OSD which has now the jumper in and is fixed to the "radar" screen. I also came up with a solution to the problem that the stability channel should not be left disconnected. I gave it the same input as the autopilot! This means I have lost the RC and fixed altitude modes but retain the RTL, circle and stability.

All was ready to go and was testing inside the new setup with the goggles on when the following happened. I did hear, just before, that the ESC/Motor started a few times for no apparent reason. While looking through the FatShark goggles I noticed the very high amps and thought what the heck. Threw off the goggles and raced over to the plane where by that time the heavy smoke indicated that money was burning up (and more overtime in the new week was required). I managed to burn out my reasonably new Waypoint ESC. Have no idea why because the throttle wasn't touched and all the way down.

The ESC had blackened the wooden front battery frame and the plastic fuselage. Luckily all superficial and on the outside only the smell reminds me that something had gone wrong (which my wife reminds me of every few minutes). Still have no idea what caused this failure.

This loss was offset with a very good flight using the pan/tilt camera. The only worry was that I used an ESC with only 2A BEC output. Before the flight I tested the loading of four servos going flat-out which came to just over 1A. Besides the FPV electronics there are now eight 8g servos installed so I was right to be worried but during gliding it never got over 1A, even with full flaps. Just to be sure I stuck some aluminium tape over the ESC to stop any more flames getting to the other electronics.

The three giro settings I halved and the tail wagging is much reduced which makes for a steadier flight and easier landings. This plane only needs about 3A for a (low) speed cruise of about 33km/hr. A 20 minute flight used up 1100mA with most of the time climbing to about 200mtr - 250mtr (close to the cloud ceiling for today), the rest gliding at a similar speed. A previous flight I got it to 110km/hr but for this flight I kept it all low key to relax the servos.

Another improvement (I think) is that I took out the Velcro mounting from the autopilot. Previously I had taken out the vibration isolation platform which comes with the FY21AP. In particular with the latter I had problems in keeping the FY21 from pulling around by all the wires connected to it. Unfortunately I cannot see what the pitch and bank is with the osd in its simpler mode but the auto circling modes showed a steady altitude with hardly any pitching.


The flights were very smooth and looking down on our little island from 200 meters up felt very relaxing. Flying over the tall trees it even looked three dimensional.

The weather is supposed to be crappy tomorrow but if not...
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