Stambo's Flight Log

[cml001]

Nice!

[Stambo]

Had another couple of FPV flights with the Sparrow on the weekend.
I am so used to everything happening automatically on my miniquad that I still forgot to hit record on the Dominators.
Anyway to cut a long story short, I crashed, more than once, both of the worst ones due to equipment failure.
First time, I had a bad launch and a heavy landing (not a proper crash after which I picked it up and flew without checking for damage.
Bad move, half way through the battery and my video went away.
The heavy landing had pulled the cable partially out of my camera.
I throttled down and waited for the inevitable.
After recovering the plane and surveying the damage i got off quite lightly I thought.
Some broken rubber bands and a slightly bent nose and that was about it.
A few repairs and a battery charge later and off I went again.
This time something was not quite right, I kept getting RSSI low warnings from the Taranis.
I was a few hundred meters out by now so I turned back home and got the dreaded "RSSI critical" and then "telemetry lost".
After that I was just along for the ride and the inevitable conclusion.
The plane is repairable, just the nose a bit worse for wear and one servo detached.
The camera on the other hand is a different story.

2016-03-02 07.18.32.jpg (1.01 MiB) Viewed 3770 times

[cml001]

Maaaaan! That bites a bit... I've done that before too.. Pick it up run with it without scoping for damage only to make it worse.. Those crashes are the worst cause u know in the end it didn't have to be that bad.... Alway re-learning a lesson learned it seems.. We all do it.

[Stambo]

Had a few flights with the repowered miniquad on the weekend and did a bit of tuning.
I had been flying it on stock BetaFlight PIDs and I started tweaking them a bit.
I bumped the P an I gains a bit and it feels a lot more locked in then I started bumping up the D gains.
Huge difference, it is so much smoother.
I have always resisted pushing the D too much thinking it would make the craft softer on the controls but I am happy I did.
I think this is the best this quad has ever flown.
I will now work on pushing the RC rate up a bit for faster yaw, rolls and flips.
No video, I am sure you guys must be pretty bored with seeing me fly over the same bit of dirt over and over although I may upload some once I am happy with it.

[Stambo]

This is the third flight of my FT Arrow.
Get your barf bags ready, it was a rough flight.
I think I still need to tame it down some more but this is a bit better.
Was a windy day so it is still not smooth and I had couple of close calls, but it landed in one piece so I am happy.
I don't think I will be able to hit full throttle LOS, my reactions are just not quick enough.
I still didn't go much past half, FPV will be a different story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwYr7vH ... nel=Stambo

[Derek]

It's definitely a twitchy ride but it flew really well! Really good job, Stambo!!!

[Stambo]

Twitchy for sure, I have just moved the servo linkages in one hole, that should tame it down a bit more.
Looking at the video again it also looks like it could do with a bit more up trim, what do you plane guys think?

[Derek]

Its hard to tell what kind of trim the plane needs from the video. Id suggest trying to fly some half throttle level and straight passes to see what the plane does. Is it pitching up or tipping down? Is it rolling left or right? Just fly 1 or 2 packs to see what it wants.

[Stambo]

Its hard to tell what kind of trim the plane needs from the video. Id suggest trying to fly some half throttle level and straight passes to see what the plane does. Is it pitching up or tipping down? Is it rolling left or right? Just fly 1 or 2 packs to see what it wants.

Lol, that's what I was trying to do, but half throttle is just too fast, and it was a bit windy.
I also need to work on turning right, I don't know why but it just seems harder.

[Stambo]

Had a couple of batteries to run down a bit the other day so I went out and had a little play.
Nothing fancy, just throwing it around a bit.
Now that the good weather is arriving I might be able to do a bit more flying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fxbdEx ... nel=Stambo

[cml001]

Nice.. Love to fly at ur spot too! Very nice!

[Stambo]

Nice.. Love to fly at ur spot too! Very nice!

That's my back yard.

[cml001]

Nice... I'd be fly'n everyday if it were mine!

[Stambo]

Decided to try my new Eachine TX03 micro FPV setup on my Sparrow.
I am quite pleased with the results, this video really does not do it justice.
It was quite late in the day and the sun had already disappeared behind the hills.
This was recorded on my Dominator V3 DVR with the VTX set at 50mw. It is capable of 200mw but for this little plane I don't think I need it.
I chopped the middle of the flight out as 8 minutes of this would probably get a bit boring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-1GF_4Gutc&t=5s

[Graham Lawrie]

She flies pretty good:)

[Stambo]

Had another FPV flight with the Sparrow, was a little gusty and was getting tossed around a bit but I still had fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqSoQpBqLgo

[Graham Lawrie]

That was good Stambo:) landing was nice:)

[Stambo]

I can't believe my last posted video was January.
Here's another Sparrow flight, trying to go a bit lower.
VTX set to 200mw now and seems to be much better reception.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaM1FBzHV6o

[Graham Lawrie]

Great video Stambo and music:)

[cml001]

Nice!