My Wildhawk FPV/LoS platform

[Coyote]

Looks stronger, looks like Blue Peters been to your house :)

Must be better to see for sure

[FPVSteve]

Haha. Yea it is much stronger, which was fortunate given the wing flex today .. a bit more and I'm sure the foam would have cracked.

Now done the underside too.

[FPVSteve]

Okay bear with me...

Anyone ever used their phone as an OSD?

If I could "see" this display from my flight camera, it would work quite well... live GPS tracking via CoPilot on my phone... I want an OSD for a "home arrow" - this could work quite well if I can figure out a way to mount it heh.





Thoughts?

[Coyote]

It looks an interesting project, very handy to have it on your GS too

[Funky Diver]

It would be wise to check whether your phone is true GPS or not.  Most mobile phones have pseudo GPS using base stations to triangulate the phone's position (BADLY, IMHO) which might be rather pants if your GPS is telling you that you are only 200m away, when you could easily be 500m away from you.

[FPVSteve]

Well, as a few of you know, I've been struggling of late with FPV - nothing to do with my kit, it's working great; more my own confidence (or lack of). I have been finding it really difficult to force myself to use only the goggles to fly and I kept looking up at the plane and/or ripping the goggles off when I was unsure of the planes location. Crap experience.

Well, not any more - I had enough, so I unleashed The MotherF***ing Fury(tm) tonight and pulled up a camping chair. The way I saw it was, I had to relax and enjoy it, so what better way to do it than to sit on my big fat backside :D Sounds strange, but it was actually much easier. When I was standing up, I could turn to face the plane which kinda kept me in "line of sight" mode. Sitting down, I had to stay facing forwards and it was easier to use the goggles because I physically couldn't twist around in the chair to view Line of Sight.

My master plan also included sticking to a pre-determined flight plan within a certain range, so that I'd be comfortable seeing what I expected to see depending on the orientation of the plane - it worked a treat and I was actually fairly relaxed for the 6 flights I managed before my battery started running low.

Here's one of them, nothing special, just flying around and having fun :)

FPV - Back to Basics

A few more flights like this and I'll keep extending range and altitude until I get the hang of it. I managed about 35 minutes of FPVing tonight and enjoyed it more than I have for weeks trying to just fly around at full throttle without planning anything.

What were your first few FPV flights like? I'd be interested to know.

Funky Diver - it is a "real" GPS, works in airplane mode on the phone too (it powers CoPilot Live satnav software and is pretty accurate).

[sheep600fx]

nice flight mate, very smooth, you can tell you were relaxed lol, And what a cracking visual aid having the train track there its like a home pointer on a osd lol

[electricmick]

Well done Steve. Good flight. Feels good to be more relaxed, makes it far more enjoyable. I agree sitting down helps a lot but also having an active spotter to give you some information on height and direction is really helpful, even with an OSD, until you get some calibration on the view and the data. He can also take control before you crash.

What was my first full FPV flight like? In a word: "terrifying". Only by the third or fourth flight did I start to really enjoy it.

[Funky Diver]

Looks like its all coming together beautifully!!!  If my progression from LOS to FPV is as simple I'll be a happy chappy :)

Now to dig out a suitable chair!! Another thing to add to the list of "stuff" :D

[Brucey]

Nice one mate, I like the tip of getting a chair. I'm still struggling with confidence and standing still while the horizon in the goggles is going all over the place!

Have you installed your gyro's? how are you getting on with them?

[FPVSteve]

Nice one mate, I like the tip of getting a chair. I'm still struggling with confidence and standing still while the horizon in the goggles is going all over the place!

Have you installed your gyro's? how are you getting on with them?

The chair definitely helps, as ridiculous as it sounds. Your mileage may vary though but sitting down takes standing up and balancing out of the "things to worry about" pile for me - heh. I found I could adjust better to the view in the goggles when I wasn't having to orient myself if that makes sense.

I have one gyro in series with the ailerons and it works quite well although I have it dialled back quite a bit now so that it only tries to correct if there's a massive gust of wind, not every little bump.

having an active spotter to give you some information on height and direction is really helpful, even with an OSD, until you get some calibration on the view and the data. He can also take control before you crash.

Spotter isn't really possible (I know noone who'd be interested in doing it) unfortunately, although I agree with everything you said.

nice flight mate, very smooth, you can tell you were relaxed lol, And what a cracking visual aid having the train track there its like a home pointer on a osd lol

lol, yea it is quite handy.

Looks like its all coming together beautifully!!!  If my progression from LOS to FPV is as simple I'll be a happy chappy

It's not that difficult really, more psychological problems with me "aaauuuugh it's gonna crash! wait, no it's not as it's travelling straight and level! or is it!? *rips off goggles* .. " - heh. I'm getting there though :D

[ZL2FPV]

What were your first few FPV flights like? I'd be interested to know.

My first reaction to flipping the goggles down on the 1st flight was "AAaaaarrghhh!!!" shortly followed by flipping them up again. But I was dead determined to make it work and tried for a bit longer the 2nd time. It does improve with time and almost without realising it, becomes 2nd nature. I agree it is more relaxing have a chair to sit on too. Most of my flights now are FPV from launch to landing and I find that if I need to switch back to LOS mid-flight, that's more scary!

[Coyote]

Nice one Steve, relase the fury lol. I think your really getting into this :)

I always sit in a chair or on the floor if ( almost always ) forget it.

I tried standing, not great, rolls were a case of loosing balance, loops ended up with option 2 being undertaken ( On my arse ) involutary :)

[FPVSteve]

Yea, amazing how hard it is to balance when standing up heh.

Looks like fairly good weather today too, so might find myself out again :D

[g.collins]

Well done Steve :) it looked really good, no panics, and a good landing.
its all good G