Posts: 423
Joined: 1/23/2003 From: Gainesville,
FL, USA Status: offline
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
< Message edited by KE4UVQ -- 1/27/2004 6:03:05 PM >
Oh my god dude 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
Posts: 423
Joined: 1/23/2003 From: Gainesville,
FL, USA Status: offline
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!
Posts: 423
Joined: 1/23/2003 From: Gainesville,
FL, USA Status: offline
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!
Posts: 1774
Joined: 3/1/2003 From: Canyon Country, CA, USA Status: offline
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...
quote:
ORIGINAL: KE4UVQ
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.
Posts: 423
Joined: 1/23/2003 From: Gainesville,
FL, USA Status: offline
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.
Posts: 305
Joined: 8/29/2003 From: Whiting,
IA, USA Status: offline
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
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.
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?
Printable Version
All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> Aerial Photography and Video >> 3000 feet video flight 
3000 feet video flight - 
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? 
