EastBay RC: First FPV flight!

Monday, March 7, 2011

First FPV flight!

Andreas received his FPV equipment (details forthcoming), and we went out to try it out at Chavez Park. Brushless EasyStar (a wonderful plane, I can't wait for my brushless pieces to arrive from HK).

There was a Tibetan New Year Celebration at the same time... a lot of people in their beautiful Tibetan native costumes, and some appreciative kids telling us how cool we were. I wish we could have overflown their celebration and got some shots, but safety first!

Chavez Park is nice for flying... Kite flyers stay on the Western side of the island (an old landfill), so we had the air above the Eastern half to ourselves. There's a rise which blocks the wind, making this a great natural boundary. Andreas flew during the FPV sessions, and I acted as spotter. We mounted my OrangeRX Spectrum receiver and used my DX6i, which worked well. There were transient video signal interruptions; Andreas has sent off for a patch antenna.

The GoPro was set at (mode ??? -- I'll get this from Andreas, 30 FPS). The 2G card filled up with about 20 minutes of footage. When the camera stopped recording, it still maintained a video signal to the transmitter. Here's a quick edit; nothing too exciting, but not bad for a first go!