jt's Falcon EVO! now with maiden video!

[jt]

 Thanks  ;D, it seemed tricky to stay low, it just wants to get up there lol.

Currently wondering whether to try my pixhawk in it or just keep it simple.

[iPeel]

Rob's got an AP in his, but for me the Falcon's about keeping it simple and great handling.

[Brucey]

Yeah keep it simple and fly the nuts off of it!

[BlueFlyer]

I've flown my Falcon first with just a standard OSD with no stability, and more recently with Vector OSD... full on flight controller with stability and RTH.

The safety net of RTH saved my falcon twice on Friday, the problem was caused by the 4ch lite ezuhf receiver glitching and not coming back into contact with the tx on my 9XR Pro.

I was only a few hundred metres away, but it would have been a nightmare to find.... most likely would have never found it.

I choose to have RTH on my Falcon because I have a very expensive (compared to the rest of the airframe) GoPro 3 Black on the nose.

At any time I can turn stabilisation off, and I do so very often as I love flying it like a fighter jet.

[jt]

 You're probably both right lol, I just got to thinking about 4000mAh Multistar lipos, going out a bit further(only couple of Km either way) and RTH  ;D

Forgot to say, I got 19 1/2 minutes with a 3s 2200mAh pack with 2200kv motor and 6x5(looks far too small on there), it did completely drain it (and come down in tall wheat 1/2 km away) as my lipo alarm didn't sound and it doesn't have any OSD yet. So I set my timer for 15 minutes and still had 11.2v left in so that should be kind to the batteries. I'm sure if being really economical with the throttle and gliding a lot, it would stay up for ages on a pack.

[iPeel]

That's a pretty good runtime on that setup, I'd be happy with that.

it all depends on your comfort level and how well you know the area you fly in. This was with a Falcon V1 and no autopilot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdsVxZFia0E

[jt]

.......it all depends on your comfort level and how well you know the area you fly in. This was with a Falcon V1 and no autopilot:

That was really nice, what antenna setup did you have for the FPV?

[iPeel]

That was UHF on OpenLRS and 5.8 for video. I think the antenna was pretty dodgy though, I knocked it up after I'd had a few.

[jt]

Lol, was just impressed that you were down to 50m altitude at distance and kept the video signal! :)

[Billy_boy_2010]

I have put a vector in as I'm hoping this will become my go to wing. I think it will be about to do just about anything 90% as well as a dedicated craft.

Want long flight times? 4000 multistar
Want agility and speed? It's pretty quick as it is! Have a 4s compatible motor if you want real speed.
Want Hd video? This can easily carry a gopro in the nose.

It's only weakness appears to be medium or high wind. The wing tips are huge which must take a hint with a crosswind. I'm tempted to experiment with smaller wing tips to see if the resultant tail waggle is minor.

I'm currently working out if I can add a removeable 150g weight right on the centre of the CG line to make her handle higher winds too. Obviously she won't glide as well but a shorter flight loaded up with mass is better than no flight at all :)

[jt]

 I have, for now at least, put a remzibi OSD in it for the basics. I may look into getting a 'proper' plane AP in at some point when I'm less skint, instead of keep thinking about putting the pixhawk in, mostly because I would like to try one out lol.
Took it out this morning in the breeze(10-12mph or so) it handled it well and I got 103Kph into the breeze and 111Kph with it(tired battery on the with the wind one) so it's not too slow on the 2200mAh 3s, 2200kv motor and 6x5 prop ;D
Then on the second battery the ESC packed in, it just sounded like the braking came on and that was that, lucky these things glide so well for so long lol. 5 batteries through an ESC before it dies is a bit annoying though. I've just ordered a 40A skywalker to replace the HK f30A, I may try a 7" prop when I get it.