little O/T, Zephyr ZII FPV

[kloner]

Barely got this one to the 2nd-3rd out of 10 on the gain and it wants to osscilate like mad. not sure if that's the wing in it or what. most of this was when i was just starting to understand how to turn the thing. I gotta figure out a way to level it out on the ground cause they bob around so much, by the time i navigate 5 clicks in to reset level flight, it's not level any more. theres alot going on with a plane like this, especially the first time you toss it up

on the first few seconds here, first time up and the dam thing rolled on me, ail were off just enough, that once she lost lift and went sideways, it was over. it was close looking from my view, thought i was just gonna save it. Went in full power, put a new prop on then made the flick. One of the props chopped into my aileron and the center landing gear needs a fresh set. The good part is cg is perfect, the ailerons are dead nutts centered off the wing for level flight and the wing rock is alot less on this one than last. Gonna turn down all the gains in the software and try this again next week. my dial goes 1-10, think i'll make it do something like 1-5 for now till i see it needing more, should give me a better shot at finding the sweet spot


I cut in here 10 minutes in once i got it somewhat trimmed and set to fly level.

 

[hjls3]

Kloner if you can get your wing to fly straight and level, you are lightyears ahead of me. I am starting to become convinced that it is all in the build...and im not a very good builder

 

[kloner]

i had to build it twice to do it..... This thing is still super light and clean other than my kapow at the begining there. the 10x4 prop probably didntt help in that scrash, running 9.5x6 in the video where it actualy left the ground

 

[kloner]

heres the whole flight. the guardian was hard to understand till i flew something with a rudder and it. now all my fighting this thing makes since.

 

[kloner]

I had an amazing time flying this thing 2 mornings in a row. Got it pretty dialed in. the multiplex got a better tune but i can at least fly off in this thing now and understand what i'm looking at. We had a ton of water in the river this trip so i had to wait for a group of people to leave to get there sand so i had a runway to set it down. With 10-15 people that don't usually see me fly much, i pulled this maneuver

Blew my gopro off in the water again. Got an rma for it from another issue, hopefully theres not too much water left in it. was around 108f when it happened so the stuff dried out pretty fast

 

[DucktileMedia]

I am about to pull the trigger on my Z2 as i got a local guy who flies on the beach outside our place and it is making me really want to join him up there. I have flown zagis years ago and i do remember just how fast and agile these were. Here's some more questions for you all mighty one:

1. would you take 1.3 over 5.8? I am in the SF bay area and things get dense. If I'm gonna do this I want a good solid mile of range.
2. What exactly is the issue with just using the gopro for video feed? Is it unreliable? It seems most use a separate fpv cam.
3. I really dont want the autopilot and extras, just range and fpv. What is the bone minimum to get a 2.4Ghz radio up to speed?
4. can you get decent video flying in 20mph+ wind? I am into kitesurfing and part of the reason i like this is that my helis are just too damn expensive to be flying in wind over water.

I am hoping to use my heli's fpv setup on this which is 5.8Ghz. I have an uno rx. If this is going to involve all these crazy antennas and trackers then F it, I'll stick with my LOS helis. I'm just too buried in toys right now to justify it.

thanks

Yuri

 

[kloner]

1. If theres nothing to get between you and the craft, i'd take 5.8

2. no issue with gopro live feed. the advantage to having a board cam is the features, they got the wdr, they go black and white in the dark and you can pretty much fly when you can barely walk. if your filming in 1080p gopro, sort of dark is all grainy and hard to see through. 960p has a decent picture, but gets dark when it's dark. Good board cams are $40-$90

3. so it's easy and works, you need this
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=40&products_id=926
the complete kit, plug and play for one plank. once your around it, you'll want it for everything, super solid link

4. how good of a builder are ya? that's the bottom line to how they do in the wind. My first one wagged in no wind, this one is rock solid in no wind, but gets a little wag going in 15-20 plus. i haven't tried any more, it wasn't windy this weekend like that. not sure if theres a way to add more stability and get less efficiency, but that'd help if there was.

you don't need a tracker. this weekend i was all manual, antennas were on my tripod with my 7" monitor, when it got out of my antennas path, i moved the tripod so it was. say you wanted to do a few miles out, something like the 4.5 turn helical would be perfect. 50ish degree beam, can fly to the sides pretty far, etc.

vids got uploaded, i'll make seperate post

 

[kloner]

the vids. did 3 flights. This first one i had flown it, had dove opener going on and everytime i'd get over to one area in this vid, the shotguns blazed, then i was concentrating on getting it to fly level so hard i totaly forgot about the batteries. you'll notice when she lvc's that the packs are smoked.... sucks but i got it tuned and back from the crash. using a directional antenna to find my was turned out to be key and super easy to do.

Then i moved to get away from them guys over to the airport. every time i roll into camp, i pass these mountains and been wondering how far away they were. Wanted to surf em or so i thought, when i got out there they were way closer than i thought and no where near as big as i thought they were. The second trip to em this flight, i almost stalled it 6000+ feet away. Wing rock, man, i gott get that tuned out of it. not sure if the guardian is doing this or not

if you only watched one, fast forward this to 10:00 miutes, where i finally get the guardian happy

Flying this thing fpv with stabilizers is awesome. covers ground like i only wish my quad did. when i threw it with wind at my back and it went into the water, i had a mission planned, next time i'll get r done.

 

[kloner]

when i tried to fpv this thing the week before i went on vacation, the video was fubard, went from perfect to nothing in 1300 feet, when i saw that and knowing i was trying to maiden the thing for the holiday, i freaked out, came home and bought 2.4 transmitters for everything including this so i kinda had to hack it in, everything was set in with gorrilla glue so it wasn't easy, but got it done and it worked alright. gonna redo the antenna further to the wingtip. that one was crashed on the 1 flight bixler my dragonlink ate.

here it is

gotta make some new covers, antenna for next trip, looks like the san diego fpv meet then the river a week after that again

 

[kloner]

I hadn't really looked or even thought to be honest, but i posted the google earth track of this fpv maiden flight and it went 14 miles........... that's pretty frigin cool if you ask me. bet i could easily milk 20 miles out of a flight with no wind and just plug along 9-10 amps