W4UAV

I made it to over 3000 feet today. The GPS overlay board measures the altitude in meters.
It read at its peak 1068 meters. Our field is at 32 meters above sea level. I didnt fly by
video but I had someone watch the video monitor and call out the altitude, I told them not to
stop till it reached four digits! The plane was visible, barely, my eyes were glued to it.
The orange panel on the underside of the wing I added really helped! Its white with an orange
stripe on one wing, orange with a white stripe on the other.

The plane is my faithful SIG LT40 Heavy Lifter (I mean heavy!) The 1072 sq inches of wing
really hauls a load, the OS 46 FX really helps!

I mounted the dipole externally via RG174 coax pointed up and the 1 watt transmitter put out
a clean signal, I am sure it would have gone higher!

ADDED 2 NEW GRABS 1-27

Rotcivv17

Oh my god dude[X(] I can't believe a plane can go so high, and how could you see that at 3,000 feet?!?!? Wow thats insane, nice work. How did u bring it down? Idle throttle and straight down?
Victor

W4UAV

It was pretty small. After hearing 1000 meters, I cut the throttle to idle and lazily
circled the plane down and brought it in nice and smooth, the LT 40 is a great camera
ship!

BP5589

My Feedback: (4)

Mike,
Great job! How long did your flight last?
Bill
[link]http://www.bp55899.com[/link]

W4UAV

Actually that particular flight only lasted 8 minutes!

I flew three camera flights today, mainly testing the externally mounted
antenna vs. it being mounted directly to the transmitter. Outside worked
out better!

PlaneKrazee

My Feedback: (14)

Hi Mike,

Good job.

What transmitter/camera/gps are you using?

W4UAV

Thanks guys!

Heres the skinny:

Transmitter: BlackwidowAV 1000 mw, stock dipole mounted outside on fuselage.
http://www.blackwidowav.com/bwav241000tx.html

Camera: Supercircuits CCD camera 380 line res mounted on servo to look ahead and down (proportional)
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...geid=88269&ck=

GPS: Garmin OEM board GPS with GA27 amplified antenna mounted on fuselage tail before vert. stab.
http://www.garmin.com/products/gps15h/

GPS overlay: Intiutive Circuits OSD-GPS unit
http://www.intuitivecircuits.com

W4UAV

Heres the inside of the LT40
I like to keep a neat cockpit!

Second pic is the transmit dipole-in-a-duck and GPS antenna.

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

Very nice, very clean. I might try that antenna install for my KSA with the 900mhz gear.
My BWAV experiments have been geared towards a strap on kind of setup for different planes but my KSA is a dedicated video platform. Got a feeling that that antenna setup with a patch antenna on the ground would be a real winner. Just gotta get a patch antenna for 900mhz.
Didnt get a chance to retest the BWAV today since we actually had some of that rain stuff.

I dont think I got the cajones to take my KSA up that high tho...

W4UAV

Thanks Dan,

I thought long and hard where to mount it externally. I did an extensive range check
with the transmitter on to make sure it wasnt interfering with the front end of the receiver,
even thought its PCM, front end overload is possible any time theres RF present. All it has
to do is interfere enough to shortten the range a bit, then its fail-safe for sure!

A patch antenna on the ground would work wonders!!!
I dont think youd regret it.

IA-Flyer

That’s a very clean layout and I like your GPS antenna, very aerodynamic!
That’s an amazing video signal coming from the bottom end of a dipole, what were you using for your video receiver antenna?
I like that GPS module, does it have waypoint capability, or do you use something different with your u-nav setup?
Thanks!
P.S. Aren’t you ever tempted to fly using the video?
Jim

W4UAV

I dont use the PDC-10 or even a Copilot on this plane, thats the UAV demonstrator
plane I have all that on:
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...upid=88932&ck=

No, the GPS OEM15H just sends out data, Im pretty sure they use these units in the Onstar
system for vehicle tracking.

The biggest thing that amazed me was the difference the view was from 1000 meters over the usual
300 meters I was used to flying at, it really looks different. I have flown by video for short periods
at the 300m level, but Ill have to get used to the view from way up there to keep from getting disoriented.
I thought of since I can see the GPS position in the top left corner, creating a virtual box try to stay in
using the coordinates.

Heres the receive setup, thats an 8 db patch antenna.

Ensignnolo

Mike,
I took a look at your website, it's nice. Regarding your patch antenna, did you special order one with the correct connector for the BWAV receiver?

Ensignnolo

bobo_54501

My Feedback: (19)

Thats pretty cool ..!! But it made me think .. Is there a legal limit on how high we can fly ?? Just wondering ??

W4UAV

Yes, it has an SMA male already installed.

http://www.blackwidowav.com/patchantenna1.html

PlaneKrazee

My Feedback: (14)

Mike,

Thank you for posting your equipment and installation. It looks very good. What frequency do you fly on and what do you think the range of your r/c gear is?

Regards

W4UAV

I fly on several frequencies in the 72 mhz band, I really want to switch everything
over to 50 mhz PCM because Im the only ham at my field. That would entail getting a
50 mhz module for my Futaba 9C and changing all five of my PCM receivers!

The rule of thumb has been you can fly further than you can see, well yesterday was right
there just in visual range, but Val (Cyberflyer) went well over 20,000 feet on standard RC gear
so.....?

Thanks guys for the kind remarks, Ive learned alot on this forum and others like RCCAM
and have skipped some of the pitfalls others have fell into, so I try to help when I can,
like saying skip the TV/VCR route, go to a Digital camcorder with analog inputs if the budget allows.
and try to stay away from ebay for camera gear, its junk! If yours is not, your one of the lucky few.

HoboDog

My Feedback: (1)

Wow, I'm impressed.
Just remember controlled airspace starts at 18,000 ft. Above that you will need to file an IFR flight plan with your local Air Traffic Control Center and be monitored on radar. [sm=lol.gif]
I do say this kidding of course. Let me know when your getting close. I'm a full scale pilot too.
Regards.
Doug
KB7VNE

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

If flying by eye, at 18,000 feet I think you would need to use a telescope. Wouldnt be landing aftwards either, more like performing a re-entry.

So bummed I couldnt run some more tests this weekend!

IA-Flyer

LOL, yep Florida is looking pretty good right now!
Mike, take your plane to 4000 feet and point it northwest, you should be able to see all the snow coming down!
snow snow snow.......[]
build build build.....

kapowboyz

pretty cool. But one question. How waas your engine after the flight. Was the engine really hot(Because its so lean) or did the air temperature compensate for the heat. See if you can make it a mile into the sky.

W4UAV

I added 2 more screen grabs on the first post of this thread on 1-27.

PlaneKrazee

My Feedback: (14)

kapowboyz,
Would it not go rich if the air is thinner higher up?