bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

This past weekend, I had an opportunity while on travel to visit a public flying field. There is a local club that establishes the field rules, but they have very little authority to enforce them. It was a very popular flying site, being open to the public and free. While there, I met a gentleman that offered to take me up on his wireless video equipped plane and fly the plane FPV. He was on the master box, and allowed me to fly the plane from the buddy box. He is a licensed HAM operator for the 2.4 ghz video equipment.

This public field has two ends, clearly separated by Heli and Fixed wing flyers. The vast majority of the Heli flyers had switched to spread spectrum radios so as to be able to fly more people at once without worrying about frequency control.

A few weeks ago, my new found friend had occassion to believe that a DX7 radio at the field may have been causing interference with his video down-link, and the DX7 flyer had a minor glitch. Although it couldn't be proven to be from the video equipment, my new friend was concerned. Consequently, on the day we flew, he walked down to the other end of the field where the heli pilots were flying, and warned them that he was going to be flying the VR Plane. They said they were going to be taking a break in a few minutes, and thanked him for the warning.

We did the VR flight, and took about 15 minutes total from the time the video transmitter was turned on to the time the video transmitter was turned off.

As we returned to the pit area, there were three heli pilots waiting for us. One was polite, but stern in asking the owner of the planes not to fly this gear on Sundays. One was extremely angry because he couldn't fly his helicopter during the 15 minute period we were in the air. He believed that since he had spent so much money on Spread Spectrum, he had a right to fly whenever he wanted. My friend was very polite to all, and explained that Sunday was also the only time he got to fly, and that he had tried to be responsible in coordinating with the heli flyers, but they didn't want to hear any of it.

About an hour later, my friend offered to allow me to fly his plane (no video this time). He took off with the plane, and as he was coming around before he gave me control, he suddenly took a radio hit which cause the plane to go into a very tight, full throttle loop. Knowing he didn't do this, he was concerned about a radio hit. We called out the channel number, but no one spoke up. He landed the plane safely, but the high G maneuver had caused the wing to bend (not break thankfully). As we returned to the pits, and his radio was off, we discovered that there was another radio signal on his channel. We were convinced it was one of the heli pilots trying to teach him a lesson. Not being able to prove it, we didn't say anything.

I'm interested in what others think about the situation. To my way of thinking, my friend did everything responsibly, warning the heli pilots about his equipment, waiting for them to take a short break, keeping the flight reasonable. Subsequent research would indicate to me that the video downlink shouldn't cause a problem with the Spread Spectrum.

Were the heli pilots out of line with the way they treated my friend?

Brad

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

You bet they were.

BUDMAN27

I don,t get it I thoght that Spectrum raideos would serch out an open chanle befor it would lock on to it. [sm=confused.gif]

ira d

I think if you supect your equipment may be conflicting with radios at a flying site you
should not use it when other flyers are present that use 2.4 ghz radios.

ClemenTang

from what I've heard:

Spread spectrum radios are cheaper than many heli radios. Even if you're using a 14MZ that doesn't give you priority over others.

DX7 searches for a few (4?) frequency bands when powered on, establish a duel link with 2 and does limited hoping among the 4.

Depending on how your video equipment works, it is possible that it might hope around and take up a few channels and causes interference with other 2.4G equipment. We need to learn more about how these things work to come up with ettiquette and rules that are secure for us.

Clement

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

I think kindly asking for a few moments of flying time is polite, courteous, and safe. If the fellows asked can't bear to sit down for a few moments, or worse, attempt to dial-a-crash, then the problem isn't at all related to the technology being used.

Red Baron Dave

My Feedback: (13)

what a bummer that boys with their toys are still no better than 2 year olds in a sandbox
it is called sharing and nobody 'owns' the sky - but common manners should prevail. I see this all the time at 'pirate' fields and with park flyers. 15mins is NOT the end of the world.
Again the SS stuff is so new what happens when the board is gone the way of AM radios and where the 'typical' pattern is a bit full at 4/5 planes imagine what 10 or 12 would look like
SS will not stop a mid-air

And yes next year I will be buying one as well after a few more reviews are out there, until it is PCM for me and my Polk III for my fun fly stuff

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

Sounds to me that your friends with the SS radios mistakenly think that just because they are flying SS it gives them free reign to do as they please. Spread Spectrum, while a nice invention, does not give license to the pilot to have unlimited air time. They still need to share airspace with others at the field. You have just as much right to a un-interrupted glitch free flight as they do.

There will come a time when a majority of the pilots will be flying SS type systems, and I can foresee that the frequency board will be replaced with a time slot board to prevent others from hogging the airspace.

15 min for one flight is not an unreasonable request. Had they not been using SS systems, they would have had to wait for the frequency to be available anyway.

If this situation causes problems in the future, you might want to take the issue before the club. As it stands now, it seems as though its an isolated incident. Hopefully things will work out.

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

These two statements are what bothers me about the whole write-up. 2.4GHz equipment should not be interfereing with each other, I think that is legally required. Has your new aquaintence checked HIS equipment to ensure that it is operating properly and not the cause of said "possible interfernce"?

On the second one, you must have had a frequency checker to know that someone else was on the transmitter frequency, I would have checked everyone's radio to see who was holding one on that frequency. You could be correct that someone was doing something intentional. On the other hand, you could be wrong, there may be someone flying at nearby location on the same frequency.


Edited to ask: Also, you mention that you were doing VR flight, are either of you licensed UAV operators?

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

p-51,

The video enabled plane wasnt on SS it was probably on 72mhz or ham bands....the video downlink is on 2.4ghz. Its been widely reported that some Spektrum radios will cause interferance on a 2.4 ghz video downlinks. Not vise versa.

ClemenTang

if your equipment aren't supposed to interfere with other people's, then it is really a non-issue. No one needs to stop flying.

if it does, then the g'ole rule applies, ask and take turns. You owe it to each other.

if the status quo is everybody's equipment aren't supposed to interfere with each other (say, if in the future we're all using SS, which I guess allows 70+ to fly at the same time), or you need to ask a dozen others to land (and wait), maybe you should get a different equipment. You may still ask, but polite or not really isn't the point.

Clement

Boeing727

My Feedback: (1)

re-read the post guys :

He "discovered" upon shut down that there was "another signal on his channel" .

He flew through an offending signal , that still existed when he was on the ground ?


Think about it

Ken Erickson

It was accomplished by another person on my channel.

I was flying a gold box Futaba, 91 upgrade, but still AM. Went down. Took the radio, still on, out with me to find wrechage. (not good, in old days) Came back, found out other guy was on my channel with an FM radio. Did not bother him. We think he moved the pins.

Ken Erickson