Some very low light hero3 black FPV flying

[martcerv]

Here is a video just mucking around in the trees just after sunset, I used zinger 9x5 props here as I broke my prefered triblades on an earlier flight.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIg-orY4I8E[/youtube]

Was a bit of a test of how my video link and fuataba radio can deal with a few trees in the way. It did quite well here with no video issues and surprisingly flying in protune with cam raw the image is very flyable even in virtually no light. The final video not so much :lol: but it has been graded to match the look at the time and some noise reduction, I also tried out the cineform fishey removal which works ok but has made the already soft image even softer around the edges.

Here is a flash photo I took as I landed with my phone to show how low the light was



Here is a screen grab of the raw image as it was seen to me which made it very easy to still fly in this light.

 

[djidan]

Like the video Martcerv... been following your informative and helpful posts for a while now. I now this is a bit off topic with regard to this thread but i just wanted to ask for your advice regarding balancing tri blades. I have just acquired some, the same as what you recommend, and a Du Bro Balancer. Do you use the sand paper or tape method?

 

[martcerv]

The gws triblades are pretty soft and thin so tape is the only real option I think. I got a 4 more sets of the gws props along with my mini osd and pmuv2 so I will need to get the balancer out again. I thought I only ordered 2 sets but got 4. They should last me a while but they do break quite easily if you hit the ground. Not a bad thing really as they save the motors from some impact that way and props are much easier to replace.

I rate my crashes by how many blades survive lol, the worst one so far was a loss of control at high speed flying low and fast in manual. This could have been much worse but it hit a big bushy tree and it was left with 6 of the 16 blades. Had it not hit the tree and hit the ground I would have had a bag full of little pieces but then if the tree wasnt there it wouldnt have crashed lol. So not sure if I got lucky or unlucky on that one, I did change my radio after that though. Also the reason for the slow tree test flying here. This is to see how the radio goes behind a few trees and the futaba is doing much better then the stock radio could so I can get a little more creative next time flying in the trees.

 

[djidan]

The gws triblades are pretty soft and thin so tape is the only real option I think. I got a 4 more sets of the gws props along with my mini osd and pmuv2 so I will need to get the balancer out again. I thought I only ordered 2 sets but got 4. They should last me a while but they do break quite easily if you hit the ground. Not a bad thing really as they save the motors from some impact that way and props are much easier to replace.

I rate my crashes by how many blades survive lol, the worst one so far was a loss of control at high speed flying low and fast in manual. This could have been much worse but it hit a big bushy tree and it was left with 6 of the 16 blades. Had it not hit the tree and hit the ground I would have had a bag full of little pieces but then if the tree wasnt there it wouldnt have crashed lol. So not sure if I got lucky or unlucky on that one, I did change my radio after that though. Also the reason for the slow tree test flying here. This is to see how the radio goes behind a few trees and the futaba is doing much better then the stock radio could so I can get a little more creative next time flying in the trees.

Is there any chance that tape could effect the air flow around the blades?

I just recently replaced my stock radio with the Futaba T8J and I am really pleased with it. I decided to replace due to fly away concerns and reliability of the stock controller. I know there is no conclusive proof but there does seem to be more cases of fly away with the stock controller.

 

[martcerv]

Use some good sticky elctrical tape and either place it just under the blade or fold it over the leading edge which will not allow it to come off. I have done both ways and it gives a cleaner look and likely less disturbance to the airflow if you put the tape only under the blade. Folding over the leading edge will likely be safer as there wont be any chance it could come off in flight thiugh I have never had any tape come loose or off either way.

I went futaba for safer flying less likely to lose the radio due to the much longer range, much more flexibility in how you set it up with more channels to add extras too also.

Flyaways isnt a big concern for me, Ive put in 100's of flights and all issues I have had were pilot error. The NAZA is surprisingly very solid and I pushed the stock radio way beyond what is intended for. Having got the DJI mini osd also will be interesting as it gives you some live info on what the naza is doing. This will make it even safer to fly with this info.

Stock radio is also pretty solid just a bit weak range wise, and limited functionality. Most fly away issues are due to gps or compass. If you can fly manual mode then as long as you have good radio and video link you can always fly it back if the NAZA freaks out. Expecting to much of the gps I think is what gets most people into trouble.