lvspark

Thought that would get your attention

I was out this weekend taking some photos and when I was done, decide to test out my new video tx/rx from tinywireless.
The 600mw cased set worked excellent with no drop outs at all. The grain elevator in the video is 1.2 miles from the LZ.
I used the stock tx antenna and a 13dB patch on the rx. As you can see in the vid, not many humans around and from where I was located, I could see for miles and could hear GA comming from about 5-7 miles away.

http://www.rsnw.com/lcv12.wmv

2thDr

Mike,

How totally irresponsible of you! What if you killed some of the bugs flying over that farmland? Did you even think about that? How could you risk the lives of so many people? Do you think it's cool or something? And all this with standard consumer grade equipment? You need to grow up and just give up this "flying under the hood thing"..........



(All kidding aside,,,,,, great video, great editing, great music, great video reception, and ZERO risk to ANYONE.)

pocatosaras

Awesome. I hope you keep posting. Thanks

bugchaser

ZERO risk to ANYONE? You really believe that? If so you are a very ignorant person. I hope you are not representative of the mentality in this hobby. What gives you the right to decide if you are a threat to me or anyone else? Fly one of those things in my vicinity or near my airplane and the risk will be to you.

2thDr

bugchaser,

Whoa their chief, take a step back, cool down, reel in the insults, and take a deep breath. The sky is not falling.

kd7ost

I hope you’re not making threats here. We tend to see entire threads disappear when guys lose control of themselves. You picked the wrong place to fight people on this issue. Most of us advocate the utmost in safety. Like in your full scale ranks though, we also can't escape our share of “over the top� folks. None have posted in this thread yet thankfully.

If I’m flying my plane at 1000 feet agl and you approach, I will move. You won’t even know I had just been there. You should hear how loud those planes are from open areas. You couldn’t sneak up on anyone. There will be no close call. And you and I will live with that. Again, you and I will live with that. That is the way it will be.

If you want to fight guys flying in excess of 400 feet, you need to start with the AMA. They have thousands of members that do it daily. (Yep, me too) Most just don’t have the technology or interest to post their flights.

Nice video Mike. Very nice.

Dan

lvspark

. [sm=punching.gif] [sm=tongue.gif]

I will provide you with some insight:
I shared the sky with a few GA on that day (5 to be exact).. I heard them and started to descend as I scanned the sky very intensely to locate the aircraft. I could tell the general direction but could not see it... Then I saw it, it was a speck several miles away @ 1500'-2000'AGL. I resumed my AP while keeping track of the GA. It is surprising how much you can hear when there is little or no wind and no internal combustion engines running nearby... I could hear the hawks riding the thermal 2000' up and more than a mile away... Then I heard another GA... same procedure.. descend while attempting to get a visual... Ahhhh there it is right above my position.....
At 5000'-7000'' AGL.. If the GA cannot be visually located, and it's audible signature is still there, the decent becomes vertical dive to the deck.. I have used this procedure many times and I have never, never been close to GA .. It works.
Have you ever noticed the different frequency of sound from an object moving toward you vs moving away from you? It's called the Doppler effect and if you are aware of it, it also helps with location. I believe see and avoid is more easily accomplished from the ground looking up.... A ground observer does not have to rely on sight alone. Sound plays a large role for me and if a person uses that sense to locate aircraft frequently, that sense becomes very sharp not only to the sound of aircraft, but also the direction the sound waves are coming from. A person with average hearing will pick up the sound of GA long before their eyes will. The only time a GA passes without sound is if it is extremely high, or going extremely fast. We have an air-show around here once a year. Thats the only time I see a plane pass before I hear it.

I DO NOT suggest everyone go out and do this type of activity. Know yourself, and then become familiar with the various conditions that apply and if you are of sound mind and feel comfortable doing so..Great. If not, thats fine too but don't cut me down until you walk a mile in my shoes (or even fly with me).

I can tell you that when I first started into this, at times, I could have made better choices. Looking back I would have done some things differently. Even now, I slip-up and get lucky now and then. Through all of this I have gained wisdom and I now for the most part, I use my planes and technology for the better of mankind. This was not just some stunt for fun. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but I was testing a product that may someday save someones life or property. I would rather have problems while testing on my own time in the middle of nowhere than to have it fail when it is really needed.

This flight and the 20 others I did last weekend collecting over 500 images was at no risk to anyone.

If you have more questions or concerns, please voice them in a civil manner and I will do my best to explain. If I find any of your concerns revealing of something that I am doing unsafe or wrong, I welcome them and they can help me. My flight procedures are continuously evolving in an attempt to be a safe as possible while still being able perform effectively. [sm=thumbup.gif]

To the rest of ya, Thanks for the comments and the tinywireless (Lawmate) 600mw unit works well. I flew it this eve and it was rock solid (untill the battery died)[:@] I have heard various comments about dealings with tinywireless, but I know who/what the company is and decided to try and save a few bucks.. I was a little worried at first, but shipping was fast, service was good, and I will buy from them in the future. I plan to do a full review with tech specs a little later on.

EDIT: spelling correction's

radobahn

Another awesome video.. keep em coming! That makes 7 videos of yours I've added to my "Aerial video" collection. FYI..when my wife asked I blamed YOU for my purchase of a 600mw BWAV setup Later, Dan

aaron2874

That is a very nice video. The quality of the video is outstanding. Can't wait to see more.

As for the heated debate... that not so veiled threat was way out of line. I think points can be made in a more civil manner. I also don't think that GA aircraft own the sky. I don't see anything wrong with ppl flying r/c that high with good equipment. I do recommend that it be done at known r/c fields. I detour around r/c fields when I fly so you ground-pounders can have fun too. I think that is a common-sense pilot rule (at least that's what my instructor said). But at the same time, you can't expect a GA pilot to be on the lookout for an r/c plane out in the middle of nowhere.

Fly safe, have fun, and bring on the vids! Yaarrrrr...... [:@]

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

Nice stuff!

kd7ost

Good story Mike,

I had a similar experience last night. I had tapped into my planes primary system power and fed a sample to a 3.3 vdc switching regulator connected to my digital camera. I was doing some flight testing at my Dry Lake bed. (It’s really just a huge holding pond that’s left dry) big enough to land ultralights but not full scale. I had just gotten airborne and headed out to take pictures of my favorite nearby field full of artifacts to make some comparisons with. I hear a high performance GA plane off in the distance so I locate it and see he’s way far away but heading in my general direction. I bring my plane back overhead. I was 1000 feet agl and ½ mile away when I first spotted the GA plane. He was perhaps 5 or 6 miles and I estimate 4,000 agl. I could see my plane better than him. He zooms past while I am now well clear and flying like I’m at the local park. Low and slow. I start to head back out but the plane turns back so I pull mine back in again. He starts to loiter directly overhead and starts turning circles around the lake bed and descending. I immediately land and shut down. I don’t know if he has an emergency or not but want to give him the whole space. He drops his gear once he’s about 2000 agl and after a few more descending circles starts to initiate a landing run. I’m watching and wondering what’s up as he has throttled way down but is much too high on his approach to set down. He passes over me at about 300 feet, throttles up, retracts his gear and shoots away. I figure he’s training or practicing emergency procedures. He was too big and too fast to have set down where I was. This whole process took about ½ hour and I lost my daylight to finish testing. I de-fueled my plane loaded up and went home. I’ll test another day and will do that same process anytime GA is in the area. I mean even in ear shot. I am an advocate for doing what we do in a safe and sane manner and I think everyone else here is the same way.

Dan

iflynething

WOW, now that is a video. I haven't seen a wireless video of that quality. Amazing quality. I might have to check them out. I'm looking to get some video of some sort going with my helicopter.

YAY, I won't have to go above 400' and be rideculed by bugchaser if I video with my helicopter. I have a thread about the 10,000 ft cub and he was talking about the same thing. All of your comments are uncalled for. Bugchaser, you just need to cool down. I know everyone's top priority is the safety of people when they are videoing. If you will look, and what other people have noticed is there were no other people in this great video. I didn't see more than 5 housees within the safety zone of the plane if it lost power and had to glide down.

I was hoping the comments in post #4 were just going along with the joking posts before and after that, joking around, then I noticed it was bugchaser who was the typer.

Just cool down and realize we are all about the safety of others, bugchaser!

Again, that video was a great one. Where are your other 6 that I hear about. I'd like to see them! Keep em coming!!

~Michael~

W4UAV

Nice video, lets discuss setup details, the receive antenna in particular. I tried originally
the flat panel phased array 15 db gain antenna fron Hyperlinktech down here in Boca Raton
(great source for 900mhz, 2.4ghz stuff) I found the beamwidth too narrow for my close in
flying, closer in than usual lets say, I saw your patch antenna on the mall night flight,
I guess my question is, have you had any issues of flying out of the beamwidth of the
panel/patch antenna? Longer flights further out would seem to be ok, I switched to a smaller 8db
gain patch that has a 75 degree beamwidth, works great.
Just curious..
Hurry up and answer before this thread disappears!!

W4UAV

BTW, after looking at the video again, the terrain looks like a flying site
on Realflight G2!! Especially on the return leg.

iflynething

Sho nuff does. Really hight up. What terrain though?

~Michael~

lvspark

Not really, It works pretty good up to about 70°-80° then drops out pretty quick.
Knowing that , I try to set-up in a corner of the flying site rather than in the middle.
I can live with the directional properties because the trade off's for range and solid signal is so much better for me.



As far as those other videos??? Geeze there is so many spread around...
this index has a few... http://members.hscis.net/~janeneg/

A couple more:

[link=http://www.rsnw.com/idaho1.wmv]Idaho Flight[/link]

[link=http://www.rsnw.com/jsun.wmv]To the Sun[/link]

[link=http://www.rsnw.com/m1.wmv]high res Idaho[/link]


[link=http://www.rsnw.com/ss1.wmv]Backyard Flyer[/link]

[link=http://www.rsnw.com/sss.wmv] SS control by Laptop/Joystick (20mile range)[/link]

[link=http://www.rsnw.com/tvm.wmv]Thermal Imaging SS[/link]

[link=http://www.rsnw.com/umaf.wmv]Range Fire[/link]


Enjoy!

balsabuster2003

Good price on the Tinywireless. What camera are you using?

lvspark

most were shot with this in various stages of dis-repair and abuse...
http://www.honeywellvideo.com/produc.../md/25952.html

JettPilot

My Feedback: (6)

Thanks to everyone who posted here supporting lvspark [sm=thumbup.gif] ! Just as I have previously said, the paranoid people can be shut down if good people speak up. The paranoid types are only brave and encouraged when they outnumber eveyone else. They like to be popular and like attention. As is evidenced here, when good and rational people speak up and dont tolerate the chicken little "the sky is falling" bashing of video flyers, they are quickly silenced.

That was a great video, but I would have liked to see more of the flight, not quite so edited out... That was an awesome job of putting it together, but I would have just liked to seen the "cross country" part What kind of glasses are those you are using LVSpark ???

lvspark

The HMD's are IGlassesLC by Virtual IO. Thery are an older pair but the price was right and they work well.

More of the cross country video is just a waste of bandwidth IMO. Just pause the movie and make motor noises and wiggle your head for 12 minutes.. It's about the same thing LOL

I really don't think most of the "paranoid" as you put them are really that over the top, but have genuine concerns about safety and want some questions answered.

JettPilot

My Feedback: (6)

How is this not over the top [X(] Just reading this threatening post tells you that there is something really wrong with this guys thinking... If you had read the bashing of the 2.2 mile flight, most of the post showed the same blind, ignorant paranoia and it was just as obvious that these people had no interest in having "questions answered"... Im not trying to bash you here lvspark, I just have to respctfully disagree with your analysis of these people.

I watched all your videos lvspark, you did some really really cool stuff. The FLIR was really cool technology. I didnt know those cameras were made that small nowdays. It used to be they needed liquid nitrogen cooling etc which I doube would fit on the slow stick The computer control with Joystick is a real technical acheivement with some great possibilities. I salute you for advancing and expanding the technilogical limits of our hobby [sm=thumbup.gif]

iflynething

Thanks for those links, I sure love DSL. They don't take no time do d/l. They are great videos.

Thanks again

~Michael~

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

JP....BugChaser did apologise for that remark Remember, we all tend to get a little hot sometimes.....everyone except me.

rollmyown

Hi, I am new to this thread, I have wanted to do what you are doing for years. I have been flying R/C on and off since the 1950s and have held a Pilots license since 1970, so I have an idea about what is being said on this thread. I have flown over model airports where friends were, and had their models, I am talking 6 foot wingspans, and at 1000 feet above the ground, you could barely see the models if at all. We knew where to look, we had a paved field at the time. So, does anyone have altitude reporting capabilities from a model, in other words, how do you estimate the altitude of a model. I know that it is awful tough without an Altimeter. If you get a model anywhere near 1000 feet above the ground you better have eyes like an Eagle or at least Binoculars. There is no doubt that a model can climb that high, but in the past you would not know which way it was heading. Your 3D hood gives you the view from the model and lets you know which direction you are heading, so this proves times are changing, but it is still a very vague guess, in my humble opinion, to estimate the altitude of a model from the ground. If you are actually getting as high as GA aircraft are flying in the area, this could be a concern, for everyone, and a subject to take seriously, by everyone. Flying off the handle is not going to help anyone. I have seen Jets up there with me, a couple of times on a collision course, I had a MU-2 getting ready to run me over, he never saw me, but I saw him. Flying any kind of airplane is fun, thats why we do it, but nothing in this life is risk-free. This is similiar to many other activities, it will always be disliked by someone. If we fight among yourselves then this helps them work against us and to try and stop what we are doing. Airports, model and full scale, can be lost easily enough without us fighting among ourselves. I don't want to write a book here, I just want to try and help moderate any temper flare-ups. One possible idea if this becomes popular is to spread the word, let GA Pilots know what goes on in the area, maybe get an aircraft receiver of somekind to monitor GA activity. Even something like Unicom procedures could be used one way or another. This can be a learning experience for everyone, can be made more interesting, and increase safety to boot. General and Civil aviation usually waits until some Tombstones can be counted before they act, lets be smarter and work together. Communicate and learn, that is the intelligent way, and Pilots and Modelers are intelligent people. I will follow this thread to learn about video technology and maybe ask some guestions too. Sorry about barging in, but I wanted to help. One more point, that any Full scale Pilots on here will know is, a full scale Pilot will not likely ever see a model, so as a model Pilot please don't expect him or her to do so, always assume that you are a Stealth aircraft to them. I was told by control towers to watch for homebuilt GA aircraft and never did find them, that bothers any Pilot, and a homebuilt is generally a whole lot bigger than a model. I said enough, especially for a first post, I won't do it again.

lvspark

Thanks for postinging rollmyown and welcome to the forum..[8D]

In answer to your question about altitude, several of us have GPS on the aircraft and the altitude ASL and alot of other data is transmitted to the ground while we fly. Some recieve the data to a laptop like I do most of the time. Others have the data inserted into the video that is transmitted the ground ( I am building one now) , and others use eagle-tree type systems that present the data on a small screen at the RC TX.

Safety is mine and most others #1 concern and we do operate in a see and avoid manner just any other model flyer. We don't want any trouble that's for sure..

Sample of On Screen Display by www.icircuits.com


Link to Eagletree http://www.eagletreesystems.com/

and screenshot from my laptop

EDIT: added credits to OSD image....