Drones, not just for .gov surveillance anymore

[RattlesnakeDan]

I haven't flown planes in a bunch of years, but I fly people out in the Gulf of Mexico to rigs and boats in helicopters.

Very Cool! I have a friend in Bozeman, Mt that flies his Helicopter all around the states for fighting fires and does mountain shots for outdoor shows etc...

 

[Ratdog68]

Hey Frank... not sure of the video quality, but a ready to fly package for FPV... for not a lot of money.

http://www.spyhawkfpv.com/collections/aircraft

 

[FrankT]

Thanks RD, you know I am wondering if a fixed wing might be easier to fly and a longer in the air time for scouting

 

[Ratdog68]

I wish I'd've seen this one earlier. I've already ordered up a Bixler and an FPV mounting kit to add my Go Pro to. This one has a screen built into the radio, and you can record to an SD Card. Ready to Fly for right around $200 is a good deal, especially with the built in gyros to stabilize flight for you. M'be just need a camera/lens upgrade, but that shouldn't dent the wallet too bad either.

 

[Ratdog68]

Here's a wild set up. ONE motor turning all four rotors with belts/pulleys, each corner is basically a collective pitch tail rotor type set up. This guy does some flying that's just NUTS with this thing. He calls it "The Stingray".

 

[FrankT]

Pretty cool RD

 

[Ratdog68]

A drone, delivering a drone, which delivers a drone, which delivers another drone, which delivers a package. Gotta love it.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I found a guy who is a friend of a friend who knows a guy that flies these things. I drove around until I saw a model airplane in this guys driveway.
I went in and I impressed him with my 3" ladybug I think.?
I explained how the thing had issues and refused to behave. He fired it up, hovered around zipped over here and there, then he put it on the advanced mode and had a ball with it. I thought I wasn't going to get it back. ( I was having control issues(2 kinds)
He showed me how to operate it and got out 2 controllers, a master and a student and pulled out one of his. I got the basics down with his, but had to leave, had a customer waiting on me.
I tried mine at home later and made progress although I had to do some super glue repairs to it last night. I will try again today without half the neighbor hood kids poking fun at me and wanting to "help" me. lol
When a 5 yr old wants to take over because he sees you are struggling that's bad.

 

[FrankT]

good idea Dan, you will get the hang of it! I see some are apple and android phone controlled too.

 

[Ratdog68]

Hey... a fruitful outing is a good thing. Keep building that confidence with new skills learned. (Damned kids, anyhow... don't they have homework to do?) LOL

 

[Ratdog68]

Hey Frank... give this one an eyeball for learning on. Complete RTF package for under $100. Three channel plane, throttle, differential thrust (instead of rudder), and elevator control. CHEAP for extra battery costs too.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/product...te-control-aircraft-/trainer/duet-rtf-hbz5300

 

[Oso Grande]

Hey Frank... not sure of the video quality, but a ready to fly package for FPV... for not a lot of money.

http://www.spyhawkfpv.com/collections/aircraft

I'm told the range on the skyhawk stuff is pretty short. It's too cheap to have decent quality gear in it. However it's cheap enough it might be a good trainer. Let us know!

 

[Oso Grande]

I found a guy who is a friend of a friend who knows a guy that flies these things. I drove around until I saw a model airplane in this guys driveway.
I went in and I impressed him with my 3" ladybug I think.?
I explained how the thing had issues and refused to behave. He fired it up, hovered around zipped over here and there, then he put it on the advanced mode and had a ball with it. I thought I wasn't going to get it back. ( I was having control issues(2 kinds)
He showed me how to operate it and got out 2 controllers, a master and a student and pulled out one of his. I got the basics down with his, but had to leave, had a customer waiting on me.
I tried mine at home later and made progress although I had to do some super glue repairs to it last night. I will try again today without half the neighbor hood kids poking fun at me and wanting to "help" me. lol
When a 5 yr old wants to take over because he sees you are struggling that's bad.

Glad you're having some fun with it and getting the hang of it! It's just practice as you're seeing.

There's ALWAYS a neighbor kid who "knows it all".....

Here's a wild set up. ONE motor turning all four rotors with belts/pulleys, each corner is basically a collective pitch tail rotor type set up. This guy does some flying that's just NUTS with this thing. He calls it "The Stingray".

That guy is incredible with what he can do with that thing. However as cool as the design is, he's taken all the negatives about collective pitch heli's and added 3 more rotors to break.

Some of this stuff is just fun to watch and wonder how the heck they have any idea which way it's facing.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

That last video was amazing. There is some serious time and skills spent there. wow.

 

[Ratdog68]

I'm told the range on the skyhawk stuff is pretty short. It's too cheap to have decent quality gear in it. However it's cheap enough it might be a good trainer. Let us know!

I'm going with a "Bixler" by Hobby King for my FPV plane, and will be using my Go Pro 3. Initially, probably fly line of sight and view recorded video later. Once I settle on a unit, probably one of the Fat Shark goggle set-ups for real time FPV flight. I'm watching a PILE of YouTube to try and get an edjumication of the basics before I go hands-on to learn the hand/eye feel of things. Trying to get some concepts down.

I'm also going with the Blade 350QX3 for my quad copter video recording. It arrived at my buddy's house yesterday. It'll be a month or more before I get to fondle it though. (Sigh) Until then... I have a Blade Pico QX arriving in a day or two to play with while here (good travel size unit too).

 

[Ratdog68]

Glad you're having some fun with it and getting the hang of it! It's just practice as you're seeing.

There's ALWAYS a neighbor kid who "knows it all".....



That guy is incredible with what he can do with that thing. However as cool as the design is, he's taken all the negatives about collective pitch heli's and added 3 more rotors to break.

Some of this stuff is just fun to watch and wonder how the heck they have any idea which way it's facing.

That's some crazy good flying right there. Some nice components too. Wonder what he's using for a brain board on it. Quiet running too. I don't know how he keeps track of craft orientation... unless it has a similar type of software built into the Blade QX3 I have coming. In "Safe" mode, it flies according to the direction the user is facing and, no matter the orientation of the unit, left for the user is the direction the copter flies. Switch to a different mode of flight and it's conventional... stick movements are opposite of craft movement when the craft faces you.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

RD,
I hope your learning curve is quicker than mine. lol I went out to a parking lot today, the wind was blowing 10-20 mph so I flew into it and had fun doing it. Lotsa crashes, thankfully these things can take some abuse. I did use a little camo Gorilla tape to patch her back up a bit. The little one I have did pretty good against the wind when I kept it low but when I got too high I would lose control and crash it. I used up both of my batteries but did spend at least a 1/2 hr with it all together. I want bigger already.
All in all, it was my first time by myself focused on doing it and see that in good conditions you can get it down pretty good pretty fast. We get a lot of breeze here from here on out so need to get used to it.

 

[Ratdog68]

Dan, that's a LOT of wind for a tiny craft to fly in. If you were able to maintain some control in that, you're coming along pretty well.

Now, to get HOME so I can begin to learn/enjoy it. Also have to learn the whole sharing video aspect of it, editing... lots of new tricks for this ol' 'Dog to learn.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I ordered a couple 808 mini key fob cameras for super cheap but Hobby King has an airwing camera for like 32.00 that my "new" friend has, it is pretty cool and has sd card slot, usb, and has cable in to tv or computer cable type set up. Small and light and impressive video really.

 

[Ratdog68]

I ordered a couple 808 mini key fob cameras for super cheap but Hobby King has an airwing camera for like 32.00 that my "new" friend has, it is pretty cool and has sd card slot, usb, and has cable in to tv or computer cable type set up. Small and light and impressive video really.

Some of the tiny cameras have plastic lenses, but glass lenses are available for about another $10 (so I'm learning). Some come with a narrow angle, some are wide angle.