Bay Area?

I have had one for a month or so now.... I usually fly in the evening at the fairground parking lot in San Mateo.
Great for night flying too.....
 
I don't have a Phantom yet, but I am really interested in getting one. I'm in Los Altos. Is there anyone who would be willing to let me tag along and watch or maybe try a simple liftoff? I tried clicking on a couple of names here and the contact line in the profile, but it is not an active link so I don't seem to be able to contact you directly. Maybe I have to have a few posts or something before I can contact others via pm. I'll check here for replies, but if you can contact me, go ahead and do so.
 
we should al meet up some where. just flew from skyline college to pacifica other day. not a bad flying spot
 
Im in Marin...
 
I'm in San Leandro, can anyone recommend any near by large areas for my first flight? My FC40 should be arriving any day now and I want BIG space to test it out in just in case something goes wrong.
 
I would be down for a meetup .. im up in tahoe right now. just did some test flights.. small raw clip..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYudZ6Ytn1o[/youtube]
 
I just thought of this -- are the controllers uniquely keyed? In other words, if we're all together flying our Phantoms, will yours obey my controls and vice versa? I know RC planes have to set their frequencies different when sharing a field, but I don't know how to do that if it's possible on the Phantom. I would think they could key each one digitally to avoid interference.
 
We're shooting an event and need some aerial footage with the Go-Pro. (I have one)

Shoot Day is this Sat April 12th., starting at11am. We're shooting an egg hunt on at waterfont park (next to Vallejo Ferry building), should be less than 2 hours, I can discuss the specifics with you.

Please e-mail me your rate and links to your work. I would love to see your work.

[email protected]

Thank you.
 
Finding good places to fly in the S. Bay is a problem. Flying a bit in the smaller parks (e.g. soccer field size) has not been bad, but how many times can you do that without getting bored with it. Also, the wind is a considerable problem throughout the Bay Area, especially lately. I went out today and had to come back without flying. Many of the larger, more open parks or open space districts ban model aircraft. I, too, would like to get together but I'm at a loss as to where to recommend meeting. Also, I still haven't heard whether these controllers interfere with each other. Does anyone know? I would expect they all use the same frequency and if two are in the air near each other at the same time it could be disastrous. Rancho San Antonio has a good spot for RC airplanes, but helicopters (probably quadrotors included) are banned there and there are strict rules about the number of craft allowed at one time and registering your frequency. I've heard that Sunnyvale Baylands Park has a space for quadrotors, but I haven't confirmed it. Concrete proposals for meeting would be welcome.
 
RussA said:
Finding good places to fly in the S. Bay is a problem. Flying a bit in the smaller parks (e.g. soccer field size) has not been bad, but how many times can you do that without getting bored with it. Also, the wind is a considerable problem throughout the Bay Area, especially lately. I went out today and had to come back without flying. Many of the larger, more open parks or open space districts ban model aircraft. I, too, would like to get together but I'm at a loss as to where to recommend meeting. Also, I still haven't heard whether these controllers interfere with each other. Does anyone know? I would expect they all use the same frequency and if two are in the air near each other at the same time it could be disastrous. Rancho San Antonio has a good spot for RC airplanes, but helicopters (probably quadrotors included) are banned there and there are strict rules about the number of craft allowed at one time and registering your frequency. I've heard that Sunnyvale Baylands Park has a space for quadrotors, but I haven't confirmed it. Concrete proposals for meeting would be welcome.

I don't know this for sure, but I think they are all keyed separately. Like garage remotes. You can't open up someone else garage with your remote even if their the same brand, but knowing how sensitive the Phantom is when a similar signal comes around I would still be worried. I've just seem posts where when the phantom gets disconnected from the remote (like if you go to use another remote) there are certain steps you most follow to re "pair" it. So its not as simple as one works for all.

As far parks. I looked on the parks department website in my city (San Leandro) and found Marina park near my house which a huge wide open space. I forget the exact size, but there are often 3-4 soccer matches going on there at once (casual not real games) so its THAT big and San Leandro is a relatively tiny city. I would go on the parks department site for a city like San Jose and they should list all the parks and their acres and amenities (like grassy fields) and I bet you'll find something HUGE. If I'm not mistaken San Jose is actually the largest metropolitan city in the US acreage wise, meaning its the largest city in terms of space that is actually filled with people instead of cows and bare land.
 
I just checked out Sunnyvale Baylands Park this morning and it seems ideal. It has an area designated for electric powered RC aircraft. There were some guys with fixed wing planes there doing aerobatics. I flew around them and had no difficulty with the controls. I took video, but it was extremely windy today and the Phantom was fighting the wind so much the video isn't good, either slanted (even hovering the Phantom had to tilt into a roll position and my camera doesn't have a gimbal mount). That, plus I was yawing fast a lot to try to keep the planes in the field of view and I was reluctant to get too close. But I got some good still shots out of it that show the park. I spoke to the guys flying other planes and they said it was not normally this windy there and recommended coming in early morning. The only downside is that it costs $6 per car for a day pass, but you can buy a season pass for $25. There is no charge at all during the winter/off season.

I suggest we meet there on May 17, a Saturday, early, say 8:00 or 8:30 AM if the weather looks good. I figure some of you work during the week. I'm retired and am open to a weekday meeting if others are interested, but Silicon Valley commute traffic around there is horrible, so I don't recommend it. I'd suggest even earlier but the gates don't open until 8:00. Please respond on this thread if you're interested.

Here are some shots from today:

SV%20pilots.png

Baylands1.png

SV%202%20planes.png
 

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