freedom in air

Just documenting the flight this time, no deep edits. I was going to shamelessly title this "the 14er", but have decided to leave that title for folks that actually do 14ers. I can't imagine any of them are watching this so, for the unschooled, #14er is a term used by outdoorsy #hikers and #climbers for when they summit a mountain at least 14,000 feet high. This flight is from the first of two off days I had in Colorado. Flying @FalconRadFPV's #falcon7 frame with @gorillalink's #900mhz #diversity #elrs receiver. My original plan was to hike six or so miles to somewhere close to Abyss Lake where I'd skim Mt. Evans and the mountain next to it. The problem with my plan for that day was Abyss Lake is somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 MSL and I'm not acclimated to that altitude. I made it four and a half, or five miles in to about 9,000 MSL. Either way I've never put any of my gear up that high and so this was a test to see how well the Gorilla Link RX would do, and the #caddx #vista with no #rf to interfere. To that, all I can say is the Vistas are now all sold off and #hdzero is now my #vtx system. I've already ordered another Gorilla Link diversity receiver for my next long range drone. The thumbnail is a glimpse of Abyss Lake. You can see on the descent I did not get remotely close. Flight characteristics are really different at that altitude as there is so little air for the props to work with. I have not yet selected motors for my next long range build, but they will be beefier, lower #KV, and for high altitude I'll put pitchier props on. I run whatever FalconRad recommends Freestyle Setup: QAV-S 5" Frame (non-JB Edition) Mamba F7APP Stack 2.4Ghz ELRS RX 2405 1800Kv Xing2 Motors iFlight Nazgul 5140 Props Goodbye DJI, HDZero is now installed. Cinewhoop Build: Luma30 Frame T-Motor 2203.5 1850Kv Motors Iflight Beast AIO ELRS 900mhz RX Long Range Falcon7 Frame Mamba F7APP Stack ECOII 2806 1500Kv Motors GorillaLink ELRS 900Mhz Diversity RX Goodbye DJI, HDZero is now on the rig GPS is the smaller flavor of the two sizes

What a wild ride the last bits of Summer have been. The Lake flight from a previous video was taken after I returned from a 10 day trip to Denver where I took a late work assignment. I was super excited to go to Denver. There were two off days with which I could get up into the mountains and fly my first flights at true altitude. What a different experience, and flight characteristics, at 9,000 MSL and above. The flights in this video are over the course of my two off days. I hiked five or so miles into the mountains two hours outside Denver, CO for one of them. The other I took a very scenic drive three hours northwest and parked off the side of the road. Had I been a thinking man I would have picked out a truck for a rental vehicle instead of a car and taken a turn on some logging roads like I see @FalconRadFPV do. There aren't any great dives or crags I'm taking on, just glad to have gotten the quad back. Music is by Lexin_Music via Pixabay.com. Freestyle Setup: QAV-S 5" Frame (non-JB Edition) Mamba F7APP Stack 2.4Ghz ELRS RX 2405 1800Kv Xing2 Motors iFlight Nazgul 5140 Props Caddx Vista VTX for now...looking to switch to HDZero Cinewhoop Build: Luma30 Frame T-Motor 2203.5 1850Kv Motors Iflight Beast AIO ELRS 900mhz RX Long Range Falcon7 Frame Mamba F7APP Stack ECOII 2806 1500Kv Motors GorillaLink ELRS 900Mhz Diversity RX Caddx Vista VTX for now...about to switch to HDZero GPS is the smaller flavor of the two sizes

Some friends of ours offered an invitation to spend the day with them on their #shared, #private #island; accessible only by boat. I couldn't resist taking the #longrange #drone with me and chase some boats. Only took two flights, and have enough for a couple edits. Maybe I'll save the second edit for later when the snow flies and folks need to be reminded of what summer looks like. Like I said, this is my long range build. The #DJI #caddx #vista is not long for this quad. I have a snippit to post of #vtx #loss at less than a mile in full #lineofsight. Unacceptable. Going to put #HDZero in it like I should have done and give that a go. @gorillalink going strong, even with multitudes of boat traffic #rf, #wifi galore and lots of #celltowers I have no issue with the #diversity 900mhz #elrs. Music is Smooth Waters by SergePavkinMusic. You can find him on Pixabay. Link below: https://pixabay.com/music/beautiful-plays-smooth-waters-115977/ ============================================================= Freestyle Setup: QAV-S 5" Frame (non-JB Edition) Mamba F7APP Stack 2.4Ghz ELRS RX 2405 1800Kv Xing2 Motors iFlight Nazgul 5140 Props Caddx Vista VTX for now...looking to switch to HDZero Cinewhoop Build: Luma30 Frame T-Motor 2203.5 1850Kv Motors Iflight Beast AIO ELRS 900mhz RX Long Range Falcon7 Frame Mamba F7APP Stack ECOII 2806 1500Kv Motors GorillaLink ELRS 900Mhz Diversity RX Caddx Vista VTX for now...about to switch to HDZero GPS is the smaller flavor of the two sizes

Yet another reason to #hate on #digital #fpv. Can someone with a knowledge of what this might be comment? Running the #caddx #vista. On this #tuning flight snippit #video is all messed up, corrects itself, goes bad again, then corrects itself for the rest of the flight. On a subsequent flight the video starts bad, corrects itself, then stays bad. After that it starts bad and stays bad. Swapped the coaxial cable with the same results. Swapped #vtx #antenna same results. Really do not want to buy another camera.

First off, it is really hard to find a good emotive piece of classical, patriotic music so my apologies for the flatness of "My Country 'tis of Thee". But, a #huge #thanks to @kbrasee posting the most emotive version I could find. Also, thanks to @RobertoBerrocal for his rendition of "America the Beautiful". There's nothing special about this July 4th Neighborhood Fireworks flight or edit. The flights I did last year were a bust...still can't figure out how to get my #dji #mavicair2 to do #hyperlapse without running out of battery. But at least I've figured out the #motion #tracking feature which needs light to work properly...a necessity I discovered after going up in the air after dark. The display flights were all in #manual mode, the lead up to the finale posted here for posterity.

The lab is beginning to function like a lab.

The description says it all. Trying out #finalcutpro after using #davinciresolve for the longest time and really not being completely happy with it. Taking #8bit #gopro #hero8 footage and cross converting #rec709 to #rec2020. Someone with a real monitor will yell at me. If it's horrible I'll replace the footage with something more suitable. Flight testing the swapped #900mhz #elrs RX on @FalconRadFPV's #falcon7 frame for @gorillalink's diversity solution. And a short commentary on #remoteid is in there because it needs to be. Thanks to @BOTGRINDER for the call to action and plugging Gorilla Link.

My last flight of the day in the Red Rock area. Same music as last week. It fits the landscape too well to not use again. Love @FalconRadFPV 's #falcon7 frame. I was all excited to get to true long range territory, apparently 4Km or 2.5 miles? Then I watched my DVR back and only made it to 2.2 or 2.3 miles. 100mW of #900mhz #expresslrs TX power starts breaking up at that distance. Will boost the power level in my next flights.

Work took me to Las Vegas, the first three weeks of the 2023 @PFLMMA season is held at The Virgin. Being from a relatively flat place in the USA, I like to take the opportunities to fly mountains whenever reason dictates. The next set of posts will be from my time in and around Vegas. My #900mhz #expresslrs setup was powered at 100mw which gets me to about 2.3 miles before the signal starts degrading. My goal over the summer is to venture in to true #longrange which apparently begins at 4Km (2.5 miles)? Thanks again to @FalconRadFPV for making the #falcon7 frame. I love the lower, forward positioned #fpv camera and #gopro mount. Thanks again to @lexinmusic1675 (hope that's his handle) via Pixabay for the royalty free music.

Another week of spec/pitch #fpv footage shot for @PFLMMA during their #Challenger series in Orlando, FL. The drone is @jacuzzijay's #Luma30 build with a #hero8black and #camerabutter ND filters. It was super windy up there on the roof, I did not have the time to fine tune my #gyroflow settings or re-export some of the bumpy shots to remove all the wind hits. Pixabay is my music source. Youtube should be able to pull the artist.

Sometimes the only way to communicate an idea is to put together a demo. Music is from Pixabay.

Part 2 of the airplane chase from last week, the true purpose of that day's mission. I refitted my long range with DJI's Digital FPV system but hadn't tested its reaches because of cold weather and wind. I didn't feel like chasing a possible failsafe or vtx loss in snow and high winds. The system I have is used with iFlight stubbies and a Crystal patch. The DVR shows VTX degradation about .75 miles out, and again at 1.2 where my ExpressLRS link began to get flakey. I couldn't figure out why until I looked at a map. VTX degradation was due to being 45-60 degrees off axis so the Crystal patch antenna was on the edge. My RC link loss with the 915mhz band had more to do with lack of LOS, I didn't have enough altitude. The next test will address RC Link output power and refresh rate, the goggles will be set to 25Mbits/sec and maxxed output power on the VTX side. I will also get the WTFOS command line sent to enable Betaflight OSD record on the DVR.

I got #gopro'd today. Glad I recorded #DVR. This is Part 1 of today's flight spent proofing the #DJI #digital system that replaced the #analog #VTX on my long range build. I need to enable the #WTFOS hack to record #Betaflight #OSD.

I recently converted my @FalconRad #Falcon7 long range build from #analog to #DJI's digital system. I won't lie, it's definitely clearer, as the lower right box shows my goggle feed. Like flying with the output of a #GoPro instead of watching snowy television broadcasts from the '90s. Remember that? Anyway, I got about a mile out into windy conditions (10mph, gusting to 20mph) and had some obstructions which degraded the video signal, and it was sunset, so I turned around. It was a successful test. Items to work on: My RC link output power will increase to at least 500mw and refresh rate drop to 50mhz. My goggle link will drop from 50Mbits to 25Mbits which will allow greater VTX power and quality, and enable spectator mode on my i-devices.

I converted my @FalconRadFPV #Falcon7 frame to #dji and just happened to catch the #sunset while waiting for #GPS lock. I think that's a good enough reason for a post by itself.

The weather has been the antithesis of ideal for flying lately. I've been keeping busy building a drone out of spare parts for a buddy and converting my long range to digital. I had hoped to test out the results with buzzing the neighborhood light display but the storm had other plans. Instead of a flight I set up a time lapse to catch the changes over 24 hours. It's just a Hero8. I had an ND-8 on it I think with exposure set to auto. It was sealed in a Ziplock bad and hooked to house power to keep it going. I'm honestly surprised it didn't break or shut off from the cold. The temperature was -6f this morning. Music is from one of Beegie Adair's Christmas albums.

From my second day getting out into nowhere in particular.

Getting back into flying after healing from a broken foot. Flying last week's location, launching from seven or eight thousand feet, and this one around five or six thousand, made me tremendously aware how altitude affects propeller efficiency.

Been a while since my last upload due to a broken foot. Finally healed enough to venture a little bit into the wild and surf some mountains. A group of motorcyclists let me fly them on an off-beaten road. Hope they had great travels on the rest of their trip.

Been in the FPV hobby for two years now and finally had my first chance to do some true mountain surfing and diving. What a rush. Granted, it isn't some place exotic like the Swiss Alps or Italy, or even where @FalconRad FPV gets to go, but this guy from the midwest will take whatever he can get. I also set a personal best distance on one of these flights, 2.6 miles at the farthest with meandering on the way out and return. Not sure what altitude I launched from but the highest peak I topped was over 6000 feet. Thanks to FalconRad FPV for the development of the #falcon7 frame. I've got my own mix of gear on it but love the solidity of his build. Hope to return to more spots like this in the future. Music is "Cinematic Middle East" by Lexin_Music via Pixabay.com. Hope to support some of these artists one day. Find my normal postings on Rumble.

The final edit of some of the best shots from the flights I was able to take while working in England a few weeks ago. Find my regular postings on Rumble. Thanks to the musical artists on Pixabay.com. Hope to send some support so the regulars soon. SFX via Pixabay as well.

The work calendar changed while I was in the UK and lost some time to go flying. I found a quite part of a park and took the chance to discharge the unspent batteries that were charged when I thought I would have time to explore Cardiff's bay and beaches. Music is Uplifting Summer by alex_makemusic via Pixabay.com.

Find my regular postings on Rumble. This day was too good not to share on YouTube. I've always wanted to see the White Cliffs of Dover. They did not disappoint. This is @FalconRad FPV's Falcon7 frame. My personal choices of electronics are the Diatone Mamba F7APP, 50 Amp stack, ECOII 2807 motors, @RaceDayQuads LLC's surprisingly good VTX running at 1W. Radio link is HappyModel's ELRS915 TX&RX at 500mw/250hz update. Music is the closing credits from Apollo 13 simply because the landscape warrants a huge feel. Soundly is my SFX provider.

I've always wanted to see the White Cliffs. They did not disappoint. Music: Apollo 13 End Credits Sound Effects: Soundly

Shenanigans with the kids ahead of the neighborhood fireworks display which is not included. My hyperlapse did not work out so well. Practicing chasing and following with the #Luma30 #JacuzziJay build. Lots of fun with the broski and visitors who hung out all day. Music is from Pixabay.com, "Tropical Summer Beach" by Alex_MakeMusic.