AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, I got up and left the house with my DW Foamies BAF 48" Yak 54 and my Tiger 2 electric conversion plane in my back seat with plenty of batteries to fly. Temp, a chilly 33'F. Got over to a sod farm that people are flying regularly at over by Eagle Road, and no one was there, but the wind wasn't up yet. Perfect. Flew the Yak for about 4 packs, and had a great time. Wind coming up a bit and my hands are freezing. But I decide to try the Tiger. Hum, forgot my ch 30 module for the plane...sigh. Ok, lets rob the Rx from my Yak. Got it all pulled out and switched over and set all the radio up (first time it has been setup on this new Futaba 9CAPs). Also got the CoG set about 4" back. Hum, ailerons seem to be binding a little. Oh well, lets fly. Full throttle on the 5S1P 4000mAh pack, and it is off like a rocket. Hum...seems tail heavy...and WTF! it wants to roll left ok, I now have full right aileron to try to keep it in the air. Keeps pitching up...trying desperately to get trim set. Long story short, I managed to bring it back around and land safely after a couple terrifying minutes. Turns out, the control horn on the aileron servo was stripped, and it was slipping when I got to full throws..which means it wanted to return to center with a LOT of opposite throw...and to get it to click back, I was having to push the aileron full right to push it back (pretty unnatural response when it was wanting to push the wrong way). Got that fixed and should be good to go...I hope.

OSD Pro Screen Elements

I took a sample screen of my Eagle Tree Systems On Screen Display (OSD) and highlighted what each element of the display is telling you. Just hover over the large image below.

Flying in the sun

Got some video of my Yak 54 from DW Foamies today. Thanks to my wonderful wife for video taping! Here is an iPhone version. Also, here is an iPhone version of me flying the pluma.

FPV 13 - Crash!

Well, in an attempt to get the 3dbi video Tx antenna moved as far away from the servos and Rx as I could, I ran an SMA 24" extension cable out to the end of the wing and put the antenna on there. Figured it would be a little unbalanced, but not completely uncontrollable. Also was a little worried it was running the exact same direction as my Rx antenna (grin). Field check showed it ok for interferance and I powered it up and hucked it. Ouch. I'll get the SHORT video uploaded soon, but I'm gluing things...nothing too serious, I don't think, but it hit straight in and busted the camera clean off the mount and found it lying 25 feet away...and there might be a slight blemish on the lens. Oh, well, was looking for an excuse to get a 2.8mm lens with a little wider angle anyway.

Bright Shiny Day!!!

Well, I put the 3dbi longer antenna on the Video Tx (compared to the slightly shorter 2dbi one). I get all sorts of servo jitter and massive interference. Hum...it goes away when I unplug the video power, and is almost completely cleared up when I go back to the 2dbi Tx.

I may have to just move to a flying wing like everyone else here and separate everything out really far. I'm still not happy with how tough it is to get everything crammed into my new EZ* with the modified belly hatches. And I think I need more lift (grin). I got just short of a mile out on my last flight, and looking at my elogger, with my 5.5x4.5 prop on that Turnigy 2835 2700kv brushless inrunner, I'm putting out just over 250W on 3S and I can basically climb just a little over 1ft/mAh. Meaning I'm not going to be able to get much over 2700ft AGL with just this one 2600mAh battery on a 40oz AUW plane and this lift. I need to step it up, get a folding prop outrunner with more lift and more separation. Maybe this Zephyr?

Latest FPV!!!

Had my best two FPV experiences to date late yesterday. Fixed the issues with the video I was having and sounds like it is a problem with the hardware and ground loop with the pan servos. Weather was beautiful and there were big puffy low clouds all around. My elevator servo has been slowly striping out, and I was getting worried it was really bad, but it was giving me about 15% of movement (grin) and I wanted to fly. Got two separate flights in on two 2600mAh lipos. Was running full out most of the time, trying to get up over 3000 ft. Also tested out my new plan for fail safes and RTH testing on a single switch (it all worked GREAT). Need to get my head tracker from China when they get back in stock, but the pan/tilt worked great on my analog sliders on the raido. I took some time on the 5 minute glide down to just look around and stuff. That was cool.