Cularis - Better Starts!

Cularis Wingmounts, Start and Landing By Mario Schimanko
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This is to show the off standard servo connectors on the wings.
This is my first good start - due to a mix of down elevator to gas (the other starts were to steep in the sky - too slow therefore and aileron response was bad because of low speed - whatch my maiden video for example: http://vimeo.com/3945268

Twinstar - 3 videos with new FPV-Cam position!!!

3PV stands for thrid person view - instead of FPV this time :-)
I thought mounting the cam on a panservo on the vertical stabilizer would give an unique fiew of the plane while flying:


I love to see all the control surfaces working - and of course the wing-flex while flying fast.

Music: Rammstein (Sonne, Amerika, Feuer Frei)


This was the second day with the new cammount. This time I tilted the cam a bit more down.

I'm getting used to the low pass flying (but I'm cautious).
I got a way better video-signal by mounting the video TX antenna on the plane in a straight, vertical position.
On the las vid (Easter Special) I had it some 45degree - but this wasn't a good idea. I even had a blackout of about 15secs! Wasn't a nice experience not knowing where I fly (lucky that I was high enough).

Music: Cat Powers - Willi



This is some kind of bonus feature. Didn't do much editing here - this get's to time consuming otherwise.
Btw. the video is darker on vimeo than on my PC - does anyone know this issue?

Music: Franz Ferdinand

Cularis Crash

Cularis Crash (after FPV tests) By Mario Schimanko
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I tried to transfer my FPV equipment from Twinstar to Cularis (she should handle the weight much easier) and made a simple mistake:
The Lumix has some ammount of drag - I think that alone wouldn't be a problem.
But I centered the lense and not the cam - so the weight balance was moved to the right and also the drag accounts more to the right side.

The outcome is this video, some repairs and last but not least the gathering of some knowledge (this is why I posted this here - learn from my errors, don't ignore weight balance and aerodynamics...).

The plane is OK now, don't worry!
This is the repaired nose - should even be more sturdy with the tape now:

Flieger

Greetings,
RCSchim

My biggest and my smallest plane!

Cularis Maiden Flight from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.
As promised - here's the vid from my first 10mins of flying the cularis. A great plane and my entry to sailplane flying.

First few seconds scared me 'cause the cularis instantly points its nose down when entering a curve with ailerons! That feels so different to the Twinstar flight characteristics!!

But soon as I gained some height (which goes incredibly fast with the strong motor) you can turn of the engine and lean back! Soaring looks so majestic!

Last but not least - the butterfly (flaps and spoilerons) worked great and helped me slowing down the bird for my first landing.

Battery use: 3mins 35sek and 78% left after flight, using a 3200mah 3cell battery.
Gives me a good point to start my FPV flying on the next level.

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Vapor HD (720p) from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.
This is a funny slowflyer! Not really for home-indoor use - as long as you don't have a really huge villa...

With little or no wind it's great for the backyard.
It's also nice to sail against a light wind - you get the kite feeling.

As this plane is compatible to the Blade mcx micro heli I already had - I bought the "bind and fliy" version only. After some flights I modified the battery-connector to fit to my homemade batteries (longer fligttime!).

Twinstar 2 Schlosswiese

Twinstar2 Schlosswiese (720p) from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.

This was my 2cond flight with Lumix and Blackstork OSD - and it was windy again. But I was so anxious to go out and fly... I had to use the Adobe Elements stabilizer again - looks weird but helps the vid-smoothness.

I'm really waiting for a nice calm day now - but we all are - I know.

This time there's some sightseeing included (Our local Castle, a Church and the Company I work at).
The drilling truck which you see on the landing approach is there to prepare the construction of an huge railway-tunnel.

Flight:
Furthest distance from "home": 370m
About 130m high

The start includes a short belly-landing-touch-and-go thing (which I did't plan that way :-)
On the landing I used full flaps again which really brings down the bird quick! This time the airspeed was too low and I could hardly balance the plane.

You can compare this flight with an earlier one at the same location (but back then we started from the lower field right next to the company): vimeo.com/2078231

Twinstar flight with Blackstork OSD and Lumix as FPV Cam

Twinstar 2, Lumix and Blackstork OSD (720p) from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.

(click the link above and download the original video from there to have the best quality - and a smooth video)

While this was a very shakey flight, I'm very pleased by the result!

a) It was my first Blackstork OSD experience in the air - GREAT!!!! I can't give this OSD enough credit. It's really cheap, simple to install and of great use in the air.
To see how high, fast and how far you are flying really adds a lot to FPV.

b) I cahnged from my small FPV cam to the Panasonic Lumix FX35 for live video (in my last flight a used it for additional recordingn).
It's really a great livecam also - and you see exactly what you're recording. You can check also IF you're recording - that can be helpful either :-)
So I was able to save some weight of the small cam and it's battery.

get the Blackstork here: www.Immersionsflug.de

Music: SPOON - The Underdog

Twinstar 2 - FPV Upgrade

She's not a beauty anymore :-) but using Lumix gives me the best possible recording quality. Saving the weight of the FPV cam and saveing the additional channel on my radio for the campan are the other "improvements". I now have control over rudder back. Total weight now: 1840g (with battery)



Using the Blacksrork OSD with GPS really adds great immersion to FPV. You sure saw OSD in many other FPV videos. Initially I thought this is to complicated and expensive. But the Blackstork is really quite easy to implement and not very expensive. I bought mine at www.immersionsflug.de
(good price and very good support here!)


(that's the main component - the small thing is the GPS device!)

Blackstork OSD Tests on eSavage

This was my first test of the new Blackstork OSD:

- GPS fix was aquired quite fast (under 1min)

- speedometer worked good for a small car, running down a longer straight would have been a better test tough

- home position indicator also worked good - even in this rather small testing area - when flying FPV GPS surely has an easier job because the distances are greater

- OSD gets a little hot - no problem
(I think this is because of voltage regulator from 12v to 5v for GPS)


I learned from two errors in this test:

1.) while setting up the OSD I wasted most of the videobattery - during the test the battery got empty - picture gone - blind - this shouldn't happen in the air!!!
One has to keep an eye on the videobattery voltage!

2.) a new pan-servo now moves 180deg. - this is great - but you have to secure the cable with some tape - after panning the cam the cable unplugged - again - this would't be nice in the air!!

FlyCamOne III

Hi, I just found this new version of the known FlyCamOne:
Website with infos

It seems like a professional, prebuilt and inexpensive FPV equipment. I did't find exact infos on the resolution and range yet.
But they even have headtracking and video-goggles! Optionally the headtracker can be used with their own transmitter (if you ran out of free channels on your main radio).

Twinstar2 - Lumix Cammount-Tests

Twinstar - Panasonic Lumix FX35 Tests from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.

I found a way to savely transport my digital camera without producing enormerous air drag.

see this post for more details and pics

On this vid I did two flights. First was non FPV to test everything, second was fully FPV - unfortunately the angle of the cam was too much downwards pointing - you can see the result.

But it was a great "proof of concept" - the Panasonic Lumix FX35 can be a great FPV cam.
+ it's an 150g lightweigt!
+ you have 25mm wideangle (gives a great FOV)
+ you record in 1280x720@30fps
- but only about 8:27mins (that gives 2GB - this is the limit even when using 4GB SD Card or greater

Definitly the wideangle is the most important point here! The shakeyness of the flightvids is much lower if shot in wideangle compared to tele (35+mm).
See this vid for example - it's shot useing a standard mini SD camcorder with 35 or 40mm FOV
(OK the colors where great here - but this depends much on the sun!)

Also this was my first video where you can watch the landing from three different views - that's for Paul - to not get complaints about the missing landing :-)

Music: H-Bloxx - Countdown to insanity