Tucam Solution Maiden Flight and Flight Nr2

and here goes the maide flight

As you can see everything went well. I just flew a few rounds here. The low speed is amazing! AUW 2kg.
The pusher config is great, I haven't seen vibrations on the onboard video so far - that's a good sign.

Here is the second flight:

First test with FPV equipped bird (but normal flown).
Lumix works great here - only the 8:30 limit is a little downside. But the bird flies like a charm!
This time with 11x10 prop way better!

Cularis FPV Tests and Crash

As requested here comes the (quickly cut together, Music stops after the half - sorry) version of my first flights with the FPV gear on the Cularis.
The location is the same as on the last Video - Eichberg.

FPV equipment worked flawless on this testflight! I landed the plane after 20min because I was afraid to crash her after getting too relaxed in the air. Battery (3200mah) had 46% left after 4:45 mins of motor Time.

This was last Saturdays Testflight - see what happend the next day when I was ready for FPV with her...

Here I had one: elevator stuck upon restarting the engine to gain alt. In fact I think I had a radio glitch and after starting the motor I had no further control (I only tried to use elevator to hold her "up" - didn't try left/right...).

The Cularis crashed 3m ahead of an tarmac road - this was my luck! The road would have killed her!
But here, in the high green the impact was absorbed well - damage is little (prop is broken, forward section is bent a bit, on servo-arm is broken - easy to fix).

But the bad taste of a possible radio glitch again doesn't taste so good...

Readers

Hello RC interested friends!
Please take some time to try out the new "Readers" feature in the sidebar. It would show me who's viewing my work. Also please don't be shy and comment on the vids if you have something to say. Either on vimeo.com or directly here on the blog.

Thanks & Greetings,
RCSchim

Cularis @ Eichberg

This was the most beautiful flight with the Cularis so far. The conditions were great up on the hill and she flew well.
Flighttime over 22mins with only 5mins of motor-useage.

The landing looks a bit rude - I have to work on that. But with butterfly deployed it's really easy to land her.

Greetings,
Mario

Conrad Quadrocopter

This was my second flight with the new rarely available Quadrocopter. It's ready built and has quite decent flight abilities as you can see in the vid.
The QC has plenty of power and should be able to carry some FPV equipment (cam, TX). The flighttime is good - I have no exact measurement yet but it should be around 10mins with 2000mah 3cell lipo.

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Das war mein zweiter Flug mit dem schwer verfügbaren und schon lange angekündigten - Fertig-Quadrocopter von Conrad. Man braucht nur mehr Rotoren montieren, Quarz rein (35MHz Empfänger nicht tauschbar!) und nach einer kurzen Setup Routine geht's los.

Die Power genügt sicher auch für FPV Ausrüstung.
Über die Flugzeit kann ich noch nichts Genaues berichten - ca. 10min mit einem 2000mah 3cell Lipo würd' ich schätzen.

Greetings,
RCSchim.blogspot.com

Twinstar flying - just for fun

One flight without FPV:

This was a day after my Cularis crash. I just wanted to be back in the air quick - without problems. Just enjoying the landscape. Alltough it was quite windy it was fun. Especially the landing approach with full flaps against heavy winds!
And without FPV on board the Twinstar was so lightweight - I could soar a great ammount of time.

and two with FPV equipment:

(quality could be better - but it was great fun to fly there)

Cularis - Better Starts!

Cularis Wingmounts, Start and Landing By Mario Schimanko
View in HD  Download 720p HD Version  Visit Mario Schimanko's ExposureRoom Videos Page

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
View in HD  Download 720p HD Version  Visit Mario Schimanko's ExposureRoom Videos Page

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!).