DAY .. 28.February 2009
- F3J practice
Practice before the first "F3J" competition this
year and the Lillehammer guys was not quite sure
what they had invited too. Lots of pilots
appeared from far away and was ready to
practice. I guess the local power guys was
caught with the guard down I think as we were
many pilots that did occupy a bit of airspace..
We had a couple of 30min brakes for some 50cc
flying that wanted to fly alone but we got some
good flights in also in nice weather and
interesting conditions. The club had hot food on
the ice and we discussed what to do next day
with snow expected during the night and a road
we could not use before 12:00. Me and Fredrik
stayed home after looking out and I heard the
guys spent a lot of time drinking coffee.
DAY .. 26.February 2009
- F3J practice
Wonderful day with no wind and the sun warming
us on the ice. Me and Fredrik did some very
practice flying on the ice. I flew Perfect and
Fredrik flew his Supra and Giga2000. A few other
guys also had a nice time. We are so lucky in
our club that we have a nice big field. This
means I can have my winch both ways and is not
in the way for the power flyers.
Lots of pictures HERE
DAY .. 24.February 2009
- Easyglider / Perfect
Fredrik flew a lot of Easyglider today and I
flew finally the Pike Perfect electro with FPV.
THAT is something else and so great. I do have
to work on the range because the vide tx makes a
bit of trouble but I did find that this is
possible. Video
HERE
Lots of pictures on the other guys today. The
sun was great for closeup pictures.
See them HERE
DAY .. 22.February 2009
- Easyglider / Perfect
Fredrik (my son) flew a lot of Easyglider FPV
today and got his first FPV landing. We also
flew the Perfect electro and will probably
continue the whole week as the season starts
soon. About time we get some flight time on the
F3J models. Lots of guys on the field and
wonderful weather. Geir Atle and Morten did a
fantastic work of cleaning out the snow that
came yesterday.
DAY .. 18-21.February 2009
- Easyglider
Flown every day FPV and instead of making a lot
of videos
here are a compilation of them. Tried out
Vimeo to see if that works.
Last day I flew in the skislope and that was
cool but they were making snow and that clogged
my camera... and I hit a 5000V powerline on
landing! All went well.
DAY .. 17February 2009
- Easyglider
Drove Gudmund to Hamar were his car was being
repaired and we flew some FPV and testing some
antennas. The area is flat and after flying
visually to fairly far away I decided to go over
to the video. Problem was that it was windy and
we flew for a while downwind before we decided
to turn and did not recognise the launch
place... Flew even further away before we
understood it was the wrong way since the video
signal was poor. It was a long way back
uncertain if we were to come "home" at all. But
this is what we live for. The Adrenaline rush is
awsome and we did manage to get home by using
the patch antenna to check the direction.
Gudmund also flew some and got his first FPV
landing on a small road. The guy knows how to
adapt ;)
DAY .. 15.February 2009
- ASW28-18 9meter 26kg
The ASW was bought almost ready with servos and
after lots of beers and programming the receiver
(12ch in and 20 servos out programmed by laptop)
we were ready. Well not exactly because I had
programmed it and Gudmund flies the opposite way
on elevator. But Gudmund flies both so it went
well and we had some great flights on the ice
with me towing him with the Extra300 3meter. A
bit snow and low visibility but no problem. So
almost correct 1/2 scale the whole deal (though
there is nothing in real life were a Extra tow's
a sailplane... Extra was transported inside the
car and the ASW on the. My car is just great ;)
A tiny
video of a flight HERE (13mb .wmv)
DAY .. 14.February 2009
- Easyglider
We did not manage to get Gudmund's ASW ready so
we flew the "next best thing"... Kind of the
other end of the hobby. Easyglider off course ;)
Lots of other guys on the ice also.
DAY .. 13.February 2009
- Easyglider
Flew Easyglider and have bought a spare one used
from one in the club. This one flew much better
and I belive it is just because I got this guy
to sand the wing and tailplane. Had some nice
spring thermals with it today. Picture looks
funny because one of them has no joiner... I
also went and collected Gudmund and his new
plane. His Turbo said goodbye when he was on his
way to collect a gorgeous ASW28 that Petter had
in stock.
Pictures of it HERE
DAY .. 10.February 2009
- Easyglider
Still not finished with the testing but are
getting the hang of this. Tested 3 different
antennas today and also hided the antennas
behind the car to check out fairly safe flying
behind a kind of island on the lake. Almost
managed to fly to my mothers place. Dont be to
sure mother.. I might come and make a movie on
you ;) Arne Ivar cut himsel on the propeller and
did not get to fly but Robert got his engine to
run after heating it for a looong time. When the
sun went down we went -21 blue cold. But he
flew!!
They have their own site at
http://www.flygutta.com/
Fairly
long video HERE (52mb .wmv) -
Video
of my new pan/tilt system HERE (2mb .wmv)
DAY .. 9.February 2009
- Easyglider
Flew on the ice untill the sun dissapeared and
then flew on a higher location. Nice view. Did
not make video from here.
DAY .. 8.February 2009
- Easyglider night
We need to push the limits dont we? The moon was
full and I felt the urge to go hunting for
excitement! The camera I have on the FPV
Easyglider is good for 0,2lux and I have done it
before but had to navigate by the lights mostly.
But with a bit of moonlight and a clear sky I
had luck. It was easy to navigate and what a
feeling to really high. I even flew by a pilot
in the club and called him on the phone to get
him out. Cool UFO? I had installed a couple of
LEDs on the underside and they were clearly
visible to him as a strange blue light flying
around... It was rather cold with -15 but I
found I could sit inside the car and fly. I just
installed the screen in the front and with
antenna out the window and with heating on full
power. Flew a 17min and a 16min flight with a
bit over 5min motortime on both.
This thing rocks!
A video
can be downloaded HERE (70mb .wmv). Video is
a bit dark since the compressions ruins it a
bit. It was better on the screen while flying.
Sorry if you don't like the music or think it is
too long. Cant help you ;)
Altitude log HERE
DAY .. 8.February 2009
- Easyglider
Maybe about time to fly some "real planes". But
it is so much fun in flying this FPV stuff. Need
to find some canyons to fly in and thermals!!!
Did some slope/wave flying today estimating were
it was blowing from. Cool. Also went out of
power flying low today so will have to install
the mah reader visible in the camera. Had to
walk in 1m snow to collect the model (yes that
much snow some places).
Missing something guys?
oops. Morten caught me flying and landing out...
DAY .. 7.February 2009
- Easyglider / Headwind
Received a tiny cctv camera with integrated
2.4ghz tx and a rx to fit from a ebay shop. Paid
a silly 26$ for it and received it within a week
from China. This is meant for surveillance home
or in a store with 10m range. Had read a bit on
the internet that it could be used for close
flying if the rx antenna is ok so had to test.
What I immediately found is that polarization is
important so the antenna had to be bent down or
reworked a little inside. The plug is for 8-12v
but I knew from reading that the plug might have
a 12 to 5v step down so I cut it away and
plugged it directly into the plane rx instead.
That worked well. The whip that followed the rx
seemed to work but I mostly used a bigger one
though no big difference in range strangely. It
surely can be used in close slow flying if the
light is good and I think you can screw in a
better lens (have not tried yet). Usable range
is 200m but not more. Might try a better tx
antenna later to see if that can be improved.
I also flew after the Arne Ivar's Decathlon and
did some range flying with the Easyglider. I
think I was at about 3km and 1030m high today
with good range both plane and video. Seems the
conditions was good even though it snowed a bit.
Today I used 3xA123 and got less power but much
more safe regarding the cells since they can be
empty and not be destroyed like the lipo's in
the cold. But another problem arises when I then
charge them and see I only have 100mah left...
Guess I either need to get a new programable
speed controller for A123 or maybe an extra rx
battery? I want to glide away after using the
motor juice. Today I glided all the way home
with a lot of altitude to spare.
Video following other plane HERE (15mb .wmv)
-
Video of 10mw camera HERE (25mb .wmv) -
Video of
1030m flying HERE (26mb .wmv)
DAY .. 6.February 2009
- Easyglider high
What a wonderful day. But guess I am kind of in
the "sky" after being on top
of it.
Model is Easyglider from MPX and motor is some
old hobbycity motor I have had for a long time.
Old 3200Kokam cells that is only good fro 2000mah in
the cold... Video is lawmate rx/tx and the
antennas is stock in plane and a 24db whip on
the ground. It gets power from the 3S3200 and so
does the servos thru the BEC in the esc.
Distance beetween video-tx and 35mhz rx is
needed and a channel that does not interfere
(some of mine actually did and I crashed in the
snow). I look at an old DVD player but will
hopefully look at my pc or a better screen soon
as I think the dvd player only got 320pixels.
But it is working and it does not have to be a
expensive project. Video is captured on a cheap
card reader/writer I found on the local shop.
All in all a couple of hundred dollar if you
have the plane and a screen.
Check out
the cloud video HERE (76mb .wmv)
But I also flew my Extra 300 fairly hard today.
Video by Kay Arne
Video of that
HERE (27mb .wmv).
A video of the guys flying is also made.
These guys started flying last summer. Talk
about progress!
Video of them
HERE (27mb .wmv)
DAY .. 6.February 2009
- Easyglider
Snowing outside so lets try the FPV in snow and
see if that works. It could take cold so why not
snow...
Did not fly that much on the screen as it was
all white...
Here is a
small video (22mb .wmv)
DAY .. 2.February 2009
- Easyglider
Flew some flights in the daytime and I must say
I am kind of hooked on this FPV thing. Cheap so
far and loads of nice pictures. Maybe it even
gives me a new way to look at F3J? BUT in the
night at 21:30!!! That was something. Dark but a
car each way with lights on and the Easyglider
in the air flying on video. Very cool and
adrenalin was pumping. All went well and I could
navigate on the lights and the town Fagernes.
And it was -22C when we said high five and hey
it IS bloody cold... ;)
