Baron's Hobbies - Online Hobby Magazine

FPV Cobra; Ready For Combat

aaronredbaron — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:55:20 +0000

I felt the only thing missing in my FPV experience was having the perspective from a military aircraft. I’ve been fooling around with trying to put the camera in the cockpit on the bench, but I haven’t been happy with the results. While trying to come up with a good way to convert my Mini Titan for FPV, I decided to take advantage of a Super Cobra conversion kit I already had. The raised tail is put to good use to help keep the tail out of the grass while landing FPV, and I wanted to put the cannon in the camera view. At first I tried the cannon under the camera, on the nose of the heli. I wasn’t happy with this arrangement and the cannon was out of focus. After going back and forth about how to mount it, I decided on a side mounted location which keeps the nose of the heli in view on the far side of the screen. I get to see just enough to add some realism, without taking up a lot of valuable real estate on the screen, and I kept the cannon in focus!

To tame the Mini Titan down from its wild 3D setup, I added the heavier paddles which came with the Cobra conversion, and I also added some Trex 450 flybar weights. I choose the Mini Titan from the onset not only because I have one, but because they are very stable, very smooth little flying machines, and I have always liked the “big machine feel” they posses. I am happy to report I have no issues flying the little gunship watching the video feed the entire flight, from takeoff to landing, and I’m finding additional stability assistance unnecessary. Even in a low hover, I have no problem maintaining complete control of the aircraft.

Using an old Sharp board cam with a ~100 degree lens, no OSD and a 1.28 gHz video transmitter I’m getting great results with my home-made dipole antenna. (please note you must have your HAM licence to use 1.28 gHz in most parts of the world) Please click here to see IBCrazy’s thread here for info about building your own FPV antenna. I’ve been trying to integrate everything I need for my base station into my TV case, and I’ve added a power distribution box to filter the power going to the TV, eliminate ground loops, and provide 5 volts to the video recorder.

Control Your RC Model With Your iPhone!

aaronredbaron — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:04:36 +0000

With the iPhone’s built in accelerometers, its capable of knowing the attitude of the device. Creative software developers have taken this ability and turned it into a method for controlling an RC model! Using the audio jack on the iPhone like a buddy cord connection, this setup still uses a conventional RC transmitter (or a custom enclosure for a transmitter module) to send control signals to the model. Using the iPhone as a gimbal, all you have to do is tilt the phone in the desired direction of control. Throttle and rudder are controlled with a sliding touch screen button on the screen. If you have a stable airplane, a radio with a buddy cord and iPhone, you could put this together yourself without too much trouble!

please click here to see the developer’s website

Improving My FPV Heli Experience

aaronredbaron — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:32:22 +0000

Flying an RC helicopter can be a rewarding endeaver, but few modelers have taken the plunge to fly their heli from the first person viewpoint. I began flying FPV helis about a year ago with my trusty MSH Protos. After a year of flying, it recently had a minor crash and needs to be re-built, so I’m reexamining my setup and looking forward to doing more with it. I’ve also been inspired by the monthly video competition going on over at FPV-Community.com (click here to see June’s competition thread). Every month the quality of the videos have improved in the competition. It doesn’t seem like my videos are up to the competition, but I’ve been trying to post something in there anyway.

In the next month I’ll be putting my Protos back together and I’ll go over the setup and hopefully finish it with some FPV flights. There is a remote chance I may put it back together and offer it for sale once I’ve got it working properly again. I’m considering going with a different airframe, but I haven’t made any final decisions.

Here is one of my videos flying the Protos this summer without the OSD

Here are some of the videos I’ve been inspired by recently.

FPV Two 2010 from Wolfgang Lienbacher on Vimeo.

FPV Three 2010 from Wolfgang Lienbacher on Vimeo.

And proving the viability of the Tricopter for FPV

Spring Brooks 2010

aaronredbaron — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:06:59 +0000

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Brooks, Oregon, June 16-20, 2010: This year’s fun fly was one of the best I have ever had! I was able to get in more flying this year than ever before, and I still managed to get over 200 pictures of people and helis, and several HD videos! Several friends came up from California for the first time; Chad Sackman from Pegasus Hobbies in Montclair, CA came up a week early to attend my wedding and stuck around for the fun fly, and the Castle Creations R&D team of Tim Jones, Ian Crane, and John Riperti came up Thursday for the fun fly. We were excited to have nearly the entire flight line full of helis all weekend. With up to 10 active flight stations, there was some great flying going on by all! One thing that seemed a little different from years past is everybody was very focused on just doing their thing and getting as much flying as possible. There wasn’t as much flying going on right at stage center as years past, it seemed to be more spread out up and down the flight line.

I was able to get in 18 FPV flights with my Stryker, including two at night that were absolutely incredible! My Stryker finished the weekend without a scratch, but I did mangle my FPV Protos. After one successful FPV heli flight, I tried to “put it on the X” and tipped it over. I’ll be putting together some video’s from this weekend, but I wanted to get this short article up with pictures ASAP!

Night Stryker Video

Amazing Autonomous Quadrotor; Doing the Impossible

aaronredbaron — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:33:04 +0000

Occasionally I see a video that just about makes me jump out of my chair, and this clip certainly did it! This group of engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed an autonomous control system for their simple quadrotor flying machine that gives it incredible precision and agility. A quadrotor helicopter is nothing more than 4 electric motors spinning airplane propellers; all of the stability comes from integrated electronics. While we are starting to see models like the Gaui x330 pop up on the market (click here), flying through tiny windows at odd angles and perching the vehicle on a wall are way out of its capabilities. Maybe someday we’ll be able to buy a model like this off the store shelf, but for now, the accomplishments in this video make it look like it came straight out of the future!

Danny Szabo Joins Team Gaui

aaronredbaron — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:08:24 +0000

Danny Szabo is one of the most recognized names in the RC helicopter hobby. Empire Hobby sent out a press release on 5/18/2010 welcoming Danny to the Gaui team. Empire included this quote from Danny in the press release. “The new Gaui lineup is absolutely world-class and we are willing to put it up against any machine out there. I look forward to getting out to San Diego and IRCHA this Summer and showing pilots just how much this machine really rocks”. Danny is speaking of the new Gaui X5, which is not released yet but should be hitting store shelves soon. Congratulations to Danny and the Empire Team. Danny is a talented pilot and an all around nice guy, and the Empire people are great to work with, so I wish them both the best of luck!

Here are the X5 Features:
1. Newly designed Main Rotor Head and Swashplate for quick control response and excellent stability.
2. Kit comes with SCORPION 910KV(1820W) BL Motor, a GAUI 100A ESC , and 500mm carbon fiber Main Blades.
3. New layout for Direct-Drive CCPM servos which provides accurate control to the Swashplate.
4. Carbon fiber main frame features an integrated CNC servo / motor mount resulting in an exceptionally rigid frame built to handle the rigors of modern 3D flying.
5. Equipped with heavy-duty torque tube driven tail.
6. Pre-painted fiberglass canopy.

X5 Specifications:
Overall length: 1000mm (including cabin & canopy)
Main rotor diameter: 1120mm
Tail rotor diameter: 235mm
Tail blade length: 82mm
Overall height: 343 mm
Overall width: 160 mm
Motor: SCORPION 1820w/kv910 BL motor
ESC: 100A ESC
Total weight: 1900g (Equipped with Blades and all electronic gears except Battery).
Main rotor blades: 500mm to 530mm
Flying duration: 4~5 minutes with 6S1P (22.2v/4200mah)

Please click here to visit Empire Hobby’s website for more information

Danny Szabo – The New Face of Gaui from Empire Hobby on Vimeo.

Force Feedback Controller for FPV!!!

aaronredbaron — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:06:05 +0000

Imagine being able to use a sophisticated force feedback controller for your FPV RC model. Using a gyro sensor on the model, the feedback controller not only is able to give the pilot a connected feel with his or her model, but can be connected to give you on-board stability augmentation. With the ForceFly from NGHobbies, you can make the connection between a Logitech Force 3D Pro joystick and your radio’s trainer port. The ForceFly offers many programmable options, such as assigning any channel to any axis of the joystick, model memory and a programmable multi-function hat switch. The on-board 2-axis gyro transmits it’s signal through your video’s audio channel, so this system is limited to models with a video downlink, but the setup should be pretty incredible, as it allows the pilot to really “feel” the flight. Any buffeting or stalling would actually be felt in the controls, giving the pilot a much more connected experience.

click here to go to NG Hobbies website for more information

Jarel Aircraft Design

aaronredbaron — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:31:27 +0000

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Its always exciting to see creative people doing their thing with the hobby. When I saw the Jarel Aircraft Design webpage I knew I had to share it with you, my readers. With a small but exciting product line, Richard Jarel offers several kits that hark back to the good ol’ days of RC; when you had to build it if you wanted to fly. With the abundance of quality prebuilt airplanes on the market, its a shame there aren’t more kits for flyers who enjoy building. Visiting the Jarel Aircraft Design products page, visions of my youth and summers building airplanes come to mind. Anyone who has ever built a model from a kit can tell you; when you take a pile of materials and create a finished product that is capable of flight, there is something truely magical about it!

Richard Jarel has an extensive background as designer, fabricator, artist and engineer. As early as the 1970’s he was designing and building his own sailplanes, and after a diverse career ranging from Hollywood to Aerospace, Richard has decided to introduce some of his own design model airplane and sailplane kits. Richard’s aesthetically pleasing designs are complimented by his background in plastics; the molded parts included in his kits add a degree of sophistication to some very simple airframes.

Click here to see the Jarel Aircraft Design Website.

Trimersion Video Goggle Hack

aaronredbaron — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:21:50 +0000

If you have been interested in FPV (First Person Video) hobbies, but you don’t want to dump a huge bucket of coins on a decent pair of video goggles, you can hack your own from the unsuccessful Trimersion gaming goggles. Originally outrageously priced at $500, the Trimersion set probably never worked correctly for 90% of the few consumers who actually bought them. After a short time on the market the company went under and the units have been selling on sites like Ebay and Amazon.com for around $100. If you are comfortable with soldering and basic electronics you can hack your own Trimersion set for basic A/V operation. With 640 x 480 resolution these goggles are comparable to many of the ~$300 goggles on the market.

A thread popped up on one of the forums where people began hacking the goggles and re-wiring them for basic A/V operation. Out of the box the Trimersion has a head-tracking gyro (only works for gaming) and is wired to a plastic “shotgun” game controller which powers the set with 4 AA batteries. The gun/goggle set is wireless from a base station which plugs into the A/V signal and game console. Unfortunately this wireless video link is very poor and prone to interference from many common electronics (primarily WiFi). On the forum people began to hack into the goggles and discovered several methods to rewire the goggles. The onboard 2.4 gHz receiver can be used, but its not stellar quality. Most people prefer to simply add A/V connectors directly to the goggles, and wire them so they can be powered directly from a single cell LiPo.

While the original thread outlines several great modifications, its hard to sift through all the info to find what you need to do the hack. Here is the process I took.

1. Remove A/V connectors from Base station with a soldering iron and solder sucker and/or de-soldering braid.

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2. Flip the goggles over, remove the screws and take the unit apart.

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3. Very carefully use your fingernails to grab the small 6 pin connector going to the LCD board, and while holding the LCD board with your other hand, gently remove the connector.

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4. Remove the 3 screws holding the remaining circuit board, remove cable to gun, and disconnect the three connectors going to the bottom of the case for volume, brightness control, etc. The wires to the headphones will remain connected to the board for the remainder of the hack unless you want to change it to an in-ear bud or put a headphone jack in or something.

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5. Gently tape back the wire harness to expose the five solder pads holding the headtracking gyro in place. Remove the headtracking gyro with a solder sucker and/or de-soldering braid.

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6. You can remove the antenna, it serves no purpose laying down against the RF sheild as it comes from the factory. You can either just leave it off, or there are already provisions for making the RF part of the circuit work better than ever built right into the circuit board, but this only offers limited performance on 2.4 gHz. In a later article I will outline how to add a switch so you can use either A/V in or the built-in 2.4 gHz receiver.

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7. Find the connector where the cable to the gun plugged in and flip the board over, your power connectors will be added here, as well as a jumper to make the headtracker on/off switch function as your main power switch. On the last pin next to the 45′ angle on the board (we’ll call this pin 7), scratch off the green coating from the ground area just outside pin 7 with a hobby knife. Place a bead of solder between pin 7 and the ground for the jumper.

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8. Add your power wires, with plenty of lead length to work with. The positive goes to pin 1 and negative goes to pin 6 as shown.

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9. Add your A/V input wires as shown; brown is the common ground, orange is the video, and white and red are audio. I found servo wire to be perfect for this job.

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10. Cut off the yellow A/V connector from the group, and bend the tabs to arrange them together closely (be careful the tabs can’t short out). Break off the plastic tab where shown below to make room for the A/V connectors. Use the tabs to help find the spacing to drill holes for the A/V connectors.

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11. Drill holes for the A/V connectors and test fit them. Run the ground (negative) wire to the tab connected to the outside off all three AV connectors. Run the video to center of the yellow, and the red and white to the center of corresponding red and white audio connectors. Use hot glue to hold the connectors in place, being careful not to get any glue on the connectors where it would prevent contact.

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12. Put the unit back together, you can feed the power leads out where the gun cable used to come in, and use a grommet for a 50-90 sized helicopter canopy to make it look finished. Scratch off the “Tracker” lettering, the switch will now serve as the main on/off switch. Another option is to mount a small enough battery inside the goggles with a connector accessible behind the rubber shade flap. The goggles can be powered from any 3.3-5.0 volt source, so a single cell LiPo is perfect! It pulls about 350 mAh, so you could safely get a little over 2 hours from a 1000 mAh cell. If your head is too big to fit, just make one cut on one side of the head strap. I used a piece of velcro on the top of the head strap for my 2000 mAh single cell LiPo.

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The information to do this hack all came from the original RC Groups thread, click here

For a note from Bob Ladrach, the inventor, about what happened with the Trimersion, click here

Looking For Reader Feedback- Comments Fixed!

aaronredbaron — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:46:40 +0000

With more changes taking place here all the time at BaronsHobbies.com, I’d like to hear some feedback from my readers. Do you come back frequently? What do you like, and are there aspects of the website you would like to see changed? As I pour daily effort into making this website a known source for hobby news, its important to me that my readers are involved in the development. Everything I am trying to do with this website hinges on the readers coming back for more, so please let me know what you think! All you have to do is create a user name and log in, I’ll approve any comments received that aren’t spam, even if they are negative. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy BaronsHobbies.com

Happy Landings

-Aaron Shell

PS- we recently discovered a glitch in our comment system, but its fixed now. Please leave some feedback!!!

Tubular Shrink Tubing Savings

aaronredbaron — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:52:36 +0000

Every RC Hobbyist has a use for shrink tubing. Available in a wide variety of sizes, shrink tubing is most commonly used to insulate electronics, but its also handy for umpteen other hobby applications. If you need to bundle wires together, protect a battery, make a spacer, or repair wires that got chewed up, shrink tubing is greatly beneficial! All you need is a little heat from a heat gun or a lighter in a pinch, and the tubing will shrink taut. Shrink tubing is often packaged at hobby stores in small quantities, and electrics stores in longer lengths. I’ve paid as little as a few dollars for a 3 foot length at an electronics store, but a recent trip to my local Harbor Freight opened my eyes to an even less expensive option. For under five dollars, you can buy 5 four foot long sections of shrink tuning, in 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2”, 3/4”, and 1” diameters. Considering these larger sizes are generally more expensive to begin with, this is an incredible value! This tubing is the nicer flexible material I prefer, not the brittle hard stuff sold at some electronics stores.

click here to see Harbor Freight’s website

Setting Up A Scale Helicopter- A Few Things To Consider

aaronredbaron — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:34:08 +0000

Scale model helicopters offer exciting realism, but with the pretty body on board the same airframe that could be a wild aerobatic machine needs to be treated gently to operate well as a scale rig. Although most model helicopters can be adapted for scale use, it could be a disaster to use extreme headspeeds and wild travels with the fuse on. Scale models are prone to more vibration at high headspeeds, and they should be set up tame and gentle anyway to make the flight look realistic. I recently had the opportunity to help a friend set up his Hughes 500 with Sceadu 50 mechanics (his helicopter and Lamborghini are pictured) and during the project I went through many steps to ensure the Sceadu would fly well after adding the Hughes 500 body.

Converting from a 3D Heli to Scale

The Sceadu 50 we used for the Hughes 500 had been well dialed in as a 3D heli. It was outfitted with a CY ATG v3 governor holding a 2000 RPM headspeed. It had most of the metal parts offered from Hirobo for the head, and the cyclic travel had been maxed out to get the most agility. When I began the conversion, the first thing I did was tear it all apart and clean everything, and change the ratios in the head to far more conservative settings. I replaced the dampers with new lower durometer ones to offer a smoother head, and set the governor for a 1600 RPM headspeed to begin. Before I installed the Sceadu back in the fuse I put it all back together and test flew it, this step is critical to ensure you don’t get ahead of yourself and install mechanics with issues into a new fuselage. Once the mechanics are installed in the fuselage its much more difficult to access them. With this particular Sceadu the installation was a snap because it was outfitted with Hirobo’s metal clamping tail case. The upgrade tailcase allowed the belt tension to easily be set and adjusted from the tail, greatly simplifying the overall installation. Along with all the other upgrade this model was set up with the upgraded delrin gear set and sprag bearing, making it very quiet. After completing the installation, the test hover indicated the headspeed was still a little high. We settled for 1500 RPM, and at that speed the heli hovers smooth, stable, quiet, and is very realistic!

Things to remember for your Scale heli

-It should be set up with minimal travel for both cyclic and collective. The collective pitch range only needs to be something like -3 to +10.

-Headspeed will need to be much less than the same heli without the body.

-Be sure to go through it and work out any kinks or bugs BEFORE you install it in a new scale body. Even if you only make a few changes to adapt a machine for scale, do a short flight in the configuration you intend to use in the body before you proceed with installing the mechanics.

CY Enterprises Announces the Rave ENV- World Class 700

aaronredbaron — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:24:46 +0000

CY Enterprises is very well respected in the model helicopter scene for good reason, their founder Curtis Youngblood is often referred to as the “godfather” of 3D heli flying. With Curtis at the helms of CY Enterprises, the heli world has been introduced to a whole line of products developed in house by Curtis and his father Dave Youngblood. CY’s growing lineup has included carbon fiber rotor blades, gyro and governor systems, tuned mufflers, and more. The Rave 450 has proven to be a potent performer in the hotly contested 450 size class. Now, CY Enterprises is introducing perhaps the most anticipated 90 nitro sized helicopter in recent memory, the Rave ENV.

700 class/ 90 sized

Only a few years ago there was no such thing as a 700 class helicopter, we just called them 90 sized. Although the size scale is a little convoluted (a 450 class doesn’t run 450mm blades, but a 600 or 700 class does run the corresponding 600mm or 700mm blade), the 700 size class swings 700mm rotor blades, and its generally considered the largest and most popular helicopter size for flying 3D aerobatics or FAI precision flying. The 90 size class usually represents the pinnacle of performance from a given manufacturer. With Curtis Youngblood releasing his own design 700, the helicopter world is sure to take serious notice. With a competitive price, Curtis may just have a huge winner on his hands. Just a few short years ago a $1000 price tag for a bare kit was the entry point for a high end 90; today the popular T-Rex 700 Nitro can be had for a little over $700. CY Enterprises has set the MSRP of the new RAVE ENV at $799.99

Enter the Rave

Available from the factory as either Electric or Nitro right out of the gate, many fliers will be thrilled to have a factory route to go with a high powered electric system as opposed to having to do a conversion to fly an electric 90. With most of the parts being universal between the nitro and electric, it will be easy for hobby shops to stay stocked up on critical parts. Naturally the RAVE ENV Features all the goodies one would expect to find on a high end RC helicopter; carbon frames, lots of machined aluminum, easy maintenance, torque tube tail, a high flow cooling fan, and more. But it also has a few tricks up its sleeves. Cooling baffles for the engine are adjustable to maximize your engine performance, special Next-D links are made to be resizable, a control surface pinning feature is integrated to ease setup, multiple control options allow easy fine tuning, and flybarred or flybarless heads are both factory options.

Combined with CY’s own soon to be released flybarless control system, the RAVE ENV will surely be one of the most potent, high quality helicopters available.

Please click here to see CY’s website for more information

Getting Into FPV- A Few Links to Check Out

aaronredbaron — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:16:06 +0000

I have had a lot of people asking me where they can find more information about flying FPV, so I decided to compile a short list of places you should check out if you want to get into the hobby. There are many more sources out there, but these are some of my top sources of information and products for FPV.

Shops
www.hobbywireless.com
www.readymaderc.com
www.rangevideo.com
www.nghobbies.com
www.dpcav.com
www.iftrontech.com

Forums/Advice
www.fpv-community.com -Forum dedicated soley to RC First Person Video
www.rcexplorer.se – Tons of good advice on building antennas, tuning, hacking, etc
www.rc-cam.com – The original! Still has tons of good advice for today’s stuff. Has plans to build your own patch antenna, the “goof proof” (GP) patch.

Integrating Video and Control Together- Eagle Tree Systems Announces the Eagle Link

aaronredbaron — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:33:14 +0000

First person video flyers have always had to deal with a rat’s nest of wiring when building a model. Integrating a Camera and video transmitter in such a way that it won’t interfere with your control system while also providing clear video can be enough of a challenge. When you add an On Screen Display (OSD) with its associated GPS receiver, current sensor, and etc etc, it can become a huge stumbling block to integrate all the wiring in a organized fashion. Eagle Tree Systems announced the upcomming release of their new Eagle Link to address theses issues.

Full Function Control and Video All In One

Using the trainer cord plug from most common radios, the Eagle Link Ground Video/Audio/RC Transceiver offers up to 12 channels of control while also picking up the video signal from the airborne Eagle Link Transceiver. The unit will offer full integration with the Eagle Tree OSDpro and Eagle Eyes base station; together creating a complete, integrated system for FPV. Frequencies are going to be on 900 mHz and 5.8gHz, meaning users will have to obtain a proper FCC amatuer (HAM) licence for use.

For more information there is an ongoing thread about the products development here

Click here to see the Eagle Tree Systems website

FPVicious- Purpose Built FPV Parkflyer

aaronredbaron — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:19:27 +0000

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FPVicious is the newest member of the Simplicious family, designed by Scotty Bouck Click here to see the article on the Simplicious. Specifically intended for First Person Video flying, FPVicious is set up with a pusher motor to keep the prop out of view, and a simple pan only configuration on the camera. Its meant to provide a slow speed, stable platform to cruise around with under first person control, but still provide plenty of aerobatic capability. Despite its odd flat airfoil sporting flat surfaces and angular leading edge, FPVicious is slows down with good control and does very well inverted.

All of the construction on FPVicious is 3mm Depron. It has top and bottom sheeting, with a vertical spar and a little tape in critical areas. Its all up weight ready to fly with battery is 15 ounces. For this prototype experiment we used a Purple Peril little screamer outrunner motor swinging a 6×4 prop. Powered by a 3 cell 1300mAh LiPo pack running through a 25 amp speed control, the flight time is well over 15 minutes. The video gear is a CX-161 camera and a 2.4gHz video link, all powered at 5 volts through the receiver. Although Pan and tilt for the camera is nice, Pan alone seems to be sufficient. I used an HS-81 servo modified to provide more than stock travel for pan, and HS-56 servos for the elevons.

FPVicious is capable of low and slow flying, stable inverted flight and more, but perhaps the most fun manuever is the full up elevator parachute decent. Set up with the proper amount of elevator travel to prevent a full stall, FPVicious will hold its nose up high without dropping a wingtip and just sinks nearly straight down at a moderately slow speed. If you have a soft landing zone, its not impractical to do the decent all the way to the ground.

Scotty is working on getting the plans available in PDF format if anyone is interested in building one. Construction is pretty simple, you could build one in a few evenings without much trouble. Email Scotty at GTRScottyRC@gmail.com if you want to build one, he is asking $5 for the PDF plans.

Perfect Day For Flying At the Beach

aaronredbaron — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:33:41 +0000

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On the spur of the moment my Fiance and I threw our stuff and the dog in the car and headed to the Oregon Coast, the day was simply too good to miss! When we arrived, we were treated to 60 degree weather and a mild breeze. I set about getting my ground station assembled, and proceeded to put in some spectacular flights. Not only was the scenery fantastic, but my video reception was super crisp. I was able to go out past 2000 feet (about as far as you can see it line of site) with minimal video breakup.

Stay tuned, I’m excited to be introducing a scratch built depron flying wing purpose designed for FPV.

Early Video Of Thunder Tiger Mini Titan E325 V2

aaronredbaron — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:22:19 +0000

Thunder Tiger pilots everywhere are excited about the release of the new Mini Titan E325 V2. With many of the parts being compatible with the original Mini Titan, expect to see a lot of Mini Titans being dusted off and upgraded. With a new carbon fiber frame design and shaft drive tail, the updated version should a great option in today’s hotly contested 450 market. Take a look at this early video out of Asia showing the Mini Titan begin put through its paces. Internet rumors indicate the release to be mid to late March 2010, but there is no official word yet from Thunder Tiger.

Click here for an older article with more information on the new 450 and Thunder Tiger’s new 50 nitro, the X50.

FAA Looking To Clamp Down Heavily On Model Aircraft

aaronredbaron — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:51:35 +0000

Have you read the FAA recommendation for sUAS (small unmanned aerial systems) from April 1, 2009? If you like model airplanes you might want to, because the US government is trying to restrict your rights as a modeler. Please click here to read it, and read it thoroughly. While we as modelers have always had some restrictions, never have we faced such a huge clamp down from the federal government.

This is how the government defines us.

“Model Aircraft:

A sUAS used by hobbyists and flown within visual line-of-sight under direct control from the pilot, which can navigate the airspace, and which is manufactured or assembled, and operated for the purposes of sport, recreation and/or competition.

Visual Line-of-Sight:

Unaided (corrective lenses and/or sunglasses exempted) visual contactwith aircraft sufficient to be able to maintain operational control of the aircraft, know its location, and be able to scan the airspace in which it is operating to decisively see and avoid other air traffic or objects…

Model Aircraft are limited to unaided visual line-of-sight operations. The Model Aircraft pilot must be able to see the aircraft throughout the entire flight well enough to maintain control, know its location, and watch the airspace it is operating in for other air traffic. Unaided visual line-of-sight does not preclude the use of prescribed corrective lenses.

(This means the Government wants to ban the very concept of FPV flying under any circumstance!!!)

“Model Aircraft shall not use turbine-powered engines (e.g., turbo-fan, turbo-jet) as a propulsion source.”

(Since when did the government decide to BAN ALL TURBINES, and based on what???)

“Model Aircraft cannot be operated at airspeeds which exceed 100 mph (87 knots).”

(Um, excuse me? The US government wants to put a 100 MPH speed limit on ALL MODEL AIRCRAFT?????)

There is a lot more in this document, and no one who enjoys flying models should take this lightly. Keep an eye on the AMA website (click here) for the latest updates, they are batting for us. If there has ever been a time to support the AMA, now is it! Even if you don’t fly at a club field or think you need their insurance, they are the only ones standing up for our rights at a federal level. If this recommendation takes the leap to become policy, we all need to start sending letters to our congressmen (and women).

GET OFF MY BACK BIG BROTHER!!!

aircraft sufficient to be able to maintain operational control of the aircraft, know its location, and be able to scan the airspace in which it is operating to decisively see and avoid other air traffic or objects….contact withUnaided (corrective lenses and/or sunglasses exempted) visual

(This means they want to ban the very idea of FPV flying!)

FPV With A Parkzone Stryker

aaronredbaron — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:15:28 +0000

The Parkzone Stryker has been around now for over 5 years. Originally just released as a low power RTF (ready to fly) model with a brushed motor and NiMh batteries, hobbyist quickly started snatching up the replacement parts for the bare airframe and outfitting them with much more power. I was one of them and beat the living daylights out of mine in full contact combat with other flying buddies. It didn’t take Parkzone long to catch up, the latest version of the Stryker, the F-27c, sits on store shelves with a brushless motor and LiPo batteries, and can be purchased either with full radio gear as an RTF (Ready To Fly), or a PNP version (Plug and Play). My Stryker started life at the beginning of the craze about 5 years ago, and after collecting dust for the last 3 years, it has been assign a new mission, FPV! (First Person Video)

Its hard to believe I let my poor Stryker sit and rot for so long with so much potential for FPV flight. As a combat veteran, my Stryker had a hard life and wasn’t treated gently, but despite its rough character, it flies excellent! For the most part the Stryker flies like other flying wings; its fast, aerobatic, and tracks very nicely. Slow it down, however, and the Stryker stands out in the crowd. Where as most flying wings don’t like to slow down and are prone to tip stalling, the F-27 can be flown in a high alpha (nose high) attitude to bleed off airspeed without dropping a wingtip (similar to the way the Space Shuttle glides). This slow speed ability is tremendously helpful for flying from the model’s perspective. Combined with the Stryker’s other great flying qualities and its low cost of easily available replacement parts, it would be tough to do much better! Outfitted with an Eagle Tree Systems OSDpro, my Stryker is proving to be a rugged, well suited model for FPV.

Stay tuned for an in depth analysis on my Stryker’s FPV setup.