Anyone flying Drone here? Or any other RC Planes/helicopters?

[Josh Matta]

So after watching some video of first person view drones, aka drones you can actually pilot from a real time camera mounted on the drone.



I have come to realization that there are people using drones to get either footage from an eye in the sky perspective, or people who are piloting them from a First Person Point of View in sometimes extremely tight quarters. Inspired, a couple weeks ago I started reading about how to go about actually accomplishing my goal, which is Follow cam drone in extremely tight woods for skiing/MTBing. Well it turns out your first step is to not go out and buy a costly and potential dangerous FPV class 250 racing drone. I knew that but just letting you guys know......

After reading around about potential starter drones and what ones actually teach you how to fly the right way I settled on little, durable, and relativity easy to fly Hubsan X4. At less than 40 dollars for drone/controller is a damn good deal and you can buy spare batteries, spare props and extras for really cheap. By relativity easy I mean its like pretty freaking hard for someone who has never flown a rotors driven air craft in full size or miniature. The drone it self has put up with my abusive flying and is small enough (less than 5 inches squared and about 55 grams) to not be danger to anyone or basically anything After two days I can control it to the point that it doesnt just tumble out of the air if I blink, I am long way off from being able to follow(safely) a human being in the woods with a much larger, faster drone

So far I have been spending my first battery learning to hover in different orientations, and the second just having fun and messing around.

but basically curious if anyone here is doing this?

 

[crgildart]

I got a little one for Christmas. Got some spare batteries for it then wrecked it within about twenty minutes of having a stack of batteries charged and ready to rock. I came to the conclusion that the small ones suck if there is any wind to speak of where you are trying to fly them. Big ones are way better but also require FCC registration, FAA for really big ones I believe.

A bought a replacement copter so I have a working set again.. didn't have to buy the whole set, old radio works with new copter.. but haven't gone back out since testing out the new one to make sure it works. I'd love to have access to a big gymnasium or other large indoor venue to fly the little one I have. Outdoors they just get knocked around too much when the weather isn't ideal.

 

[Josh Matta]

ummmm wouldnt wrecking it be your fault? I am flying a very small Hubsan x4 and I wrecked it tons the first couple flight, but the little things keeps on ticking. It even can fly in wind as long as you have practiced your orientation flying at every possible combination. IE 12,3,9,6 and then all of the in between. I have found really trying to think about about the drone's perspective helps me be able to make small corrections. The thing about what I got is I can fly indoors and not endanger anyone.


As for the regulations, what I want to do eventually, which is build a first person view drone with a second camera for recording and eventually using the skill as marketable commercially viable skill is illegal, and there is no amount of paper work makes it legal. Those videos I posted are technically illlegal as well, since they made money of a FPV RC vehicle. I will never register anything I own with the FAA until there is way to legal do what I want to do. The FCC thing is only flying un certified radio gear and you only need to do a online exam. again if I can have legit paper work to do what I want to do, I will make everything legal. Currently any FPV RC vehicle can only be flown "recreational" and any money made of said vehicle is done so illegal. So far the State has proven extremely ineffective at enforcing any of it. BTW as long as the craft is less than 50lb it can be flown with out and special licensing.

Not sure which one you had, sorry you crashed it but a lot of the new little one have the stuff needed to fly outside.

 

[Dave Petersen]

This small helicopter has been sitting behind our neighbor's house for about a week. I am intrigued...it's almost like a giant toy. I will get a better pic once the sun is higher in the sky.

 

[crgildart]

ummmm wouldnt wrecking it be your fault? I am flying a very small Hubsan x4 and I wrecked it tons the first couple flight, but the little things keeps on ticking. It even can fly in wind as long as you have practiced your orientation flying at every possible combination.


Not sure which one you had, sorry you crashed it but a lot of the new little one have the stuff needed to fly outside.

I have the Syma X5C. It does fine as long as there isn't a lot of wind but one 10+mph gust will send it 100 feet over a neighbors fence in a heartbeat even with full stick opposite of the gust.

It's not really big enough to hurt anyone but my kid did fuss when he picked it up and hit the throttle whacking his finger with a prop.

 

[Josh Matta]

yeah even the tiniest of them produce enough power to hurt you. yours dwarf mine.

with that said I have been flying it outside even in wind and in expert mode I can control where it goes not ideal but the Husban is tiny so flying it inside is far easier than what you have.

This is me practicing some orientation flying and then just some having fun with it. Our field is almost always windy.

 

[tball]

Josh, I thought you would enjoy this review of an autonomous drone built to follow you during action sports:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/04/airdog-action-sports-drone-in-depth-review.html

 

[Josh Matta]

could never follow though trees Tball only from an eye in the sky perspective which considering anyone with enough dough to by the airdog or any of its competitors can film does not actually interest me. I want to be able to follow people below the canopy and currently there is not single autonomous drone on the market that can accomplish this.

 

[Josh Matta]

Tball well I am sure that automated drone is going to work for lost of people. I need the camera rig to be able to fly after MTBer and skiers in the woods at speed in really close quarters.

You need an first Person point of view feed and goggles as well as proper drone to make this happen. If you look at this video you will see what is capable during FPV flight.

 

[cantunamunch]

Lookee what's being demonstrated just down the road.

http://arstechnica.com/information-...oint-and-shoot-command-hacks-at-pesky-drones/

 

[Josh Matta]

silly and pointless plus I am flying over my land if someone even tries to shoot down my drone(which they wont). The thing is people looking to defend thekmselves from "drones" first are fearful of something almost no hobbiest are actually doing and most of the custom made drones will be immune to this jammers since they do not have return home or land now functions but are on complete manual controller with varying frequencies. If the jamming device has to comply with the FCC, someone flying a drone that does not comply will always have the leg up.

 

[cantunamunch]

silly and pointless plus I am flying over my land if someone even tries to shoot down my drone(which they wont). The thing is people looking to defend thekmselves from "drones" first are fearful of something almost no hobbiest are actually doing and most of the custom made drones will be immune to this jammers since they do not have return home or land now functions but are on complete manual controller with varying frequencies. If the jamming device has to comply with the FCC, someone flying a drone that does not comply will always have the leg up.

Almost no hobbyist is not no hobbyist - we know there are - ahem- aggressive hobbyists because they have landed on the WH lawn. And non-compliant drones are not immune to what is now in place in - selected - locations. Third FCC compliant command hacking may be pointless as a complete control solution - but it is not pointless as an annoyance and I can promise you there will be those who use the devices just so.

 

[Josh Matta]

so some new laws just came out. Any aggressive action taken against a drone is now a federal offense while its in the air. also you do not own your airspace nor do I own my airspace. Airspace is literally anything in the air.

With that said you would be an idiot to fly around other people houses especially with larger/faster quadcopters. Despite the laws being in the favors of the UAV pilot, the public's perception is not.

this is my current fleet of first person view flyers.

The one on the left can easily do 50mph outside and complex acrobatics. All up weight is 63 grams with a 230 gram thrust value. The one on the right is best indoor flyer and has an All up weight of 23 grams. Turns your own home into a giant playground. I have no ability to DVR my radio transmission yet so I ll just post some video of the same exact build flying.

 

[crgildart]

Lookee what's being demonstrated just down the road.

http://arstechnica.com/information-...oint-and-shoot-command-hacks-at-pesky-drones/

I'll see yours and raise you this..

 

[Josh Matta]

I am pretty sure that is actually fake.

 

[Carl Kuck]

I used to fly R/C sailplanes at Torrey Pines, those would have been cool with a GoPro-style camera; but I don't have any real interest in "drones". Personally, I think the term "drone" for a quadcopter with a camera is a bit misleading, as they are not autonomous flying robots...

 

[Josh Matta]

it is I only useded it so more people would understand...... but yes there is nothing autonmous about any thing I have, and truthfully Autonomous is something I would never fun doing.

we are not using go pro style camera either. We are using sub 4 gram camera/Video transmitters in one on these little guy. Some of the bigger quad copters/RC helis, and plane will run a Gopro just to capture HD footage. Flying FPV anything is a pretty cool experience and honestly the skill involved is very addicting.


Flying literally from the pilot's seat is kind of coolest thing ever.

 

[crgildart]

I am pretty sure that is actually fake.

Obama's got some real ones.. Just ask ISIS!

This one's real too..

Handgun-firing drone appears legal in video, but FAA, police probe further

 

[Josh Matta]

Obama does not have Quadcopter with machine guns. Also that quad copter shown in the machine gun video is collective pitch. Collective pitch is pointless on a quad copter since it can pitch, roll and yaw with varying torque from motors. If you knew anything about flight dynamics you would know that........


Obama has fixxed winged semi autonomas predator drones that weigh as much as normal airplane. Quadcopters are not really a great weapons platform yet......

 

[crgildart]

Obama has fixxed winged semi autonomas predator drones that weigh as much as normal airplane. Quadcopters are not really a great weapons platform yet......

Actually they can deliver things like small bombs and grenades pretty effectively. That's why the government wants to know and should know about everyone that has the larger capacity ones.