My 2011 FPV Platform - Skywalker

[venquessa]

So I finally got everything I needed and got round to gluing the fuse together.




... expoxied on the motor and hey presto it looks like a plane at last!




A few odds and ends remain, things like velcro for the battery, tiny stuff.

I'm not sure about the camera though, seems to be putting out levels too high for the Vtx as bright areas are all distorted.  Dropping the shutter speed to the lowest or second lowest setting helps a lot, need to see what it looks like outdoors, might be fine.

The LOS maiden should be some evening this week now the late evenings are available :)

Paul

[Coyote]

Looks awesome Paul, really like the build. How come you positioned the camera so high ?

[venquessa]

Go Pro will be on the nose, so FPV cam needs to be above it and the Skywalker had a slot cut already for a pan servo there :)

[Coyote]

Ah right, nice !  I did wonder at first :)

[venquessa]

Wooo hooo!

It flies and it flies great.  Feels much more "in it's element" at 1900g than the AXN did at 1000g.

It's surprisingly neutral, when I threw it on launch it just tracked straight forward on the angle I launch it at.  Pretty much flies like that, point the nose, give it enough power and it locks in on that attitude nicely.

It only gets a little messy in high bank angles where it tends to sit very "nose proud" in the turn, but of course that's what the rudder is for :)  It also still likes a little (I have 15%) rudder with ailerons.  Makes the banking action 'feel' smoother.

Landing is a joy, it's just so stable and stalls initially flat, no wing drop or nose down, just drops onto the grass like it's got bored of flying.

I haven't explored her envelope (ooeer!) yet, but with people popping wing spars and folding them, I thought I'd get some enjoyment out of it before I tried stalls/spins/rolls/loops.

Nearly forgot the video:
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Paul

[venquessa]

Okay, so hopefully this version of the video will work better :)
Skywalker FPV Maiden

[Coyote]

Ah thats better i can see that one :)

Yes it does fly lovely, i deffo want one.

[Pasty]

"My 2011 FPV Platform - Skywalker"

Does this mean you go through an FPV plane every year?!

Now its time to get us some fancy Go Pro vids :)

[venquessa]

"My 2011 FPV Platform - Skywalker"

Does this mean you go through an FPV plane every year?!

Now its time to get us some fancy Go Pro vids :)

As soon as the weather is good I'm going to take it back down the mountains, this time it will be summer and they won't just look like stained brown student's flat carpet, like they do in Autumn.  Stay tuned. 

The scenery I'm looking forward to is the Causeway coast along the north coast of Ireland, but....  need to proof the plane FPV first and the north coast needs a gentle north wind, as I don't like the idea of flying anything on the down draft side of cliffs!  Even if it has a motor!

And...  2011 FPV platform cause I wrote off the 2010 one :D  Not saying I'm going to write this one off though, depends on how it holds up and how my flyin is :)