Ahhh, the rain...

Flew last night and last Monday (it was >30mph then). It was really green last night and I got a flight in at 7PM between rain storms, and pretty calm. I put a gyro on my roll to see if it would help stabilize some of the pitching (it works ok, but need to dial the gain a little). I think I’m exceeding my BEC for the receiver, with the gyro, all the servos and the OSD. I kept getting dropped throttle, then it would go into failsafe, and was only about 150 yards away…RTH saved my butt a couple times and powered up, then I got connection again. Happened Monday too. This eventually lead to a crash. Further research on this lead to this FAQ that points out that it is a low Rx battery warning...well, that answers that. Didn’t get video from Monday, but flew really low over the Falcon Creast GC. Kept the motor slow to not disturb the putts. Grin.

WINDY!!!!

Went out today and tried out the new filter on the video Tx antenna. It didn't help, but I think the cheap HXT servos are just picking up noise from it. Also tested out the gyro on the roll axis for the ailerons, which is set a little too aggressive on the response. Too bad I forgot my sony miniDV recorder. I also got the pitot tube airspeed kit in. Worked MUCH better than the GPS speed, especially with the wind, which was gusting up to 25-30mph. I got a couple low flights over the golf course, and the return to home saved my butt when I was a little low and lost radio transmission...fortunately the motor powered back up and it climbed to where I could get reception again. Also got one of the cheap head trackers, but didn't have a chance to try it. The 3600mAh 3S lipos are heavy.

Ahhh...the fog...

Took the plane up to the cabin to try some scenic mountain flying. I've been waiting to get a better distance and practice before trying in trees and tough recovery locations, like mountains and dense trees. Well, with the last couple flights and testing out the eagle eyes diversity and antenna tracker, and with spring setting on, I figured it would be a good time to try. So, packed it all up. I always forget something, but it is better now with a dedicated tote box of stuff. I still forgot any way to recharge the futaba 9CAPs, but made due. Well, Saturday morning hit, and there was a dense fog (typical in Cascade, ID) from all the snow melt and warm weather coming after a chilly night. It stays low in the valley and can be pretty spectacular when I've rode my dirt bike up the ridge to get above it. So, I wanted to see if I could get video.

Mile High Club!!!

So, I finally made it up over a mile. 5280ft above the ground. And on that SAME day, I flew two other ~20 minute flights. The last one, of which, also got up to about a mile high, but also was almost 11,000ft (over 2 miles!!!) line of sight away. And the subsequent glide back down was long and peaceful. I had a great time. I'm now pushing about 2ft/mAh of battery with the 2835 Turnigy inrunner and an APC 6x4E prop and around a 40oz plane AUW with 2600mAh lipo. Everything went well. I'm still getting some ground loop noise on my second channel video rx with the 3dbi omni antenna. I've decided I'm just going to have to isolate the Eagle Eyes from the rx's with two separate lipo batteries.