fpv for general aircraft use

[bradl4648]

Hi every one I thought we would start a FPV topic. Please bring out what you use what you like or do not like. I think we can have allot of fun plus do allot of learning from each other since I'm just learning to. Thanks

[fhhuber]

I can see FPV done right as a lot of fun... a bit expensive to set up though.

FPV done wrong is why we are having issues with the FAA imposing new regulations on the hobby.

Keep it line of sight of the operator. If you can't point the camera at yourself and see yourself its too far.
Its best to have a spotter to warn of other aircraft approaching from a direction the FPV operater might not be able to see through the camera. (another reason to keep it line of sight)
KEEP AWAY FROM FULL SCALE. Don't even think of trying to use your FPV to photograph full scale takeoffs and landings. That is now a good way to go to prison and to be prosecuted as a suspected terrorist.

[bradl4648]

Hi fhhuber for the response and your thoughts on this. For me I just want to stay 200 yards around the pattern and just enjoy this for myself.

[martmichals]

I've seen racing quads at my local field and met the guys flying them. They really seem to be having a ball flying fpv at speed around 50 mph. The only negative that could result is their flying out of LOS and crashing into people, which is a real hazard, as the field is located in a forest preserve. FPV doesn't have to be expensive, either. The guys at the field showed me a hobbyking fpv setup that cost less than 150 dollars.

[bradl4648]

So an update I put this on the pandora up in the canopy area. I thought this would be perfect place to be! Well I was wrong the horizon was about 4-5 inches to low so I could not see the ground most of the time that was bad. Go into a turn you had no idea were you were. Of course I had a spotter who also had the main radio I had the dumby box LoL. Since then I moved the camera to the under side of the plane just in head of the gear. That was much better I need to give a little tweak of down to it but this worked close to perfect! I will have to admit this is different to do not as easy as I first thought it might be. I have not done any landings or takes off thus far and still using a buddy box. I am going to hook up a battery checker to the googles my google battery went dead and had to surrender to my spotter to take over or I would have lost it. I am going to press on!

[Flygirl]

Brad, are you using Fat Shark goggles? The goggles should beep when the battery gets low. Mine do at least.... It's a very faint beep though and easy to overlook. I too used a Mobius dock on my Pandora and had it mounted up on top of the canopy with a slight down angle. It was okay but I got a lot of engine cowl and prop in the shot. I have since taken it off the Pandora (it was just double sided tape stuck on) and made a permanent mount on top of my Freewing Seagull. That's a much better result as I have no part of the plane in the camera view. I just tried that last weekend on a very windy day. It was probably not a good idea as I hit a pretty big gust about 10 secs in. LOL! Live and learn I guess... Got it back in one pieces though.:) Here are the two flights....

[Flygirl]

Seagull flight...

[PappaBear]

I've been flying FPV for about three years. As well as the FPV glasses, I also use a Black Pearl monitor as well. I fly both fixed wing and multi-rotor with on board cameras. The following is my experience and what I would recommend. I have a couple of DJI Phantoms, one with GoPro Camera. The other one has nothing, just a flying quadcopter. I fly it around the back yard for practice.

I use a Fat Shark Teleporter system for transmitting the images from the camera to the monitor or FPV glasses. It is possible to have the image sent to the glasses and a monitor at the same time. Simply by having both on the same frequency.

The same Fat Shark transmitter is fitted to the both the Phantom and the fixed wing plane, and both work very well.

If you use FPV with glasses, you should always have a spotter/observer/lookout. Two reasons for this, first you should have all round visibility, and secondly if you have a problem and you loose the picture you will have no clue where you actually are. Another useful piece of advice is to have a chair and sit down. Looking through FPV goggles at a moving image feels very strange and it would be easy to fall over if you are standing.

You will not have a full field of vision, you will only be able to see straight ahead unless you have the camera on an all moving controllable gimbal. Landings are a different perceptive as well and do require a lot of practice to get right. The position of the camera is also important. It should be as close to the cockpit position as possible.

If you have a multirotor machine with a DSLR camera and a full controllable gimbal. Then ideally you should have a pilot, observer, and a camera operator. The camera and gimbal will be operated by a separate transmitter. All flying should be within line of sight to stay within the remit of the FAA rules as they stand.

The fixed wing plane I use is called an FPV Raptor, with a wing span of around 80". A foam wing and tail with a plastic fuselage. A hand launched motor glider. The motor is mounted on a pylon with a pusher prop. The camera is mounted in the nose of the plane. I also have a full autopilot system with way point capability as well as FPV facility on board.

The quality of the pictures and the reception will depend on the quality of the equipment you are using. The quality is proportional to money spent.

Martin.

[Flygirl]

Martin, I also have an RV Jet that I fly with RVOSD autopilot. Wish I had gotten a different autopilot though. Which are you using? The RVOSD menus are so extensive it's almost, or maybe is, too much. The plane flies great but it is a handful to launch so I don't fly it much unless my friend Jeff is around. He is the only one who can launch it right. It's big and it's powerful and it's got a huge pusher prop that would chop your hand off so we can't or won't do the normal fuselage held toss. Just too dangerous.... We tried a PVC ramp which sort of worked but we need to work on the angle more. Heres some pics and video....

[Flygirl]

The RV Jet....

[Flygirl]

RV Jet in plane video (GoPro)

[rtwatkins]

Love the video and info Flygirl & Martin!

I've got my P-38 rigged up for FPV now... done a couple shake-down flights with it while having someone else use the headset. Martin is exactly right when it comes to rigging for flying via FPV however. You want a position on the plane that will give you reference of what the plane is doing in relation to the ground. MANY people think an internal view from the plane's cockpit is ideal, but often it's far from it because of the glass & other obstacles... you DO, however, want the camera in that vicinity both for weight reasons as well as for that reference point :) Ideally you also want, at the very least, a single axis gimbal so you can turn your head.. with the 2 & 3 axis gimbals making it even easier & more natural.

I've flown some flying wings via FPV, but I must admit I'm a bit nervous to fly the P-38 take-off to touchdown yet :P I actually picked up the FliteTest Cruiser to use as a practice platform.... figured it would be better to get used to it then to crack up the 38 learning to takeoff/land via FPV :P

Oh, and some words of warning.... unless you specifically get an FCC certified FPV rig, you need to get a HAM radio license to technically be legal. Chances are you won't be bothered if you don't have a license, however, if you fly outside an RC field and a police officer comes by asking questions you can get in trouble. One of the nice features of the ImmersionRC OSD system is that it will broadcast your callsign, which is technically required as well ;)

[PappaBear]

Hi Lauren,

I'm sorry I haven't repiped to your question before now. However i will do my best to answer now. With regard to the autopilot system. I've tried one or two, and some of them are quite complex to set up and get working. I'm using the autopilot system in a fixed wing plane called a FPV Raptor, I believe I mentioned that in my post above. The first one I tried was called "My Fly Dream". It worked very well when I actually got it all figured out and set up. The instructions make a lot of assumptions.

The one I am currently using is the FeiyuTech FY-41AP Lite Autopilot. It has a lot of useful features, and at the moment I am still working through it to get it to work correctly. You can find details of it at the following link. http://www.feiyu-tech.com/products/21/

To get the best results with regard to the plane, it really has to be a pusher prop type arrangement. However as many people are finding a flying wing with a pusher prop at the rear can be a dangerous prospect. The plane I am using is a conventional layout with a fuselage, wing and tail assembly, but it has a pusher prop mounted on a pylon on top of the wing. This makes for an easy to launch and operate model without the danger of being caught in the prop on a launch. It can easily be launched and operated by the pilot.

The more stable the plane in flight the better the quality of the pictures or video. Almost all autopilots are equipped with some sort of in flight stabilizer to help with this, and the ones I have used work very well.

The information in the post above above with regard to the HAM radio license is correct information.

I hope this is useful to you and anyone else who want to get involved in FPV and autopilots.

Martin.

[Flygirl]

RT, I don't blame you for being leery about flying the P-38 with FPV BUT......... it's gonna be sooooooooo cool! LOL! Martin, I haven't seen that autopilot before. The pin outs seem to be a lot like my RV OSD autopilot. The thing I don't like about mine is that there are 5 pages of menus. Two of those 5 are in-flight menus but jeez I'm busy enough watching where I'm going much less trying to navigate menu screens. I'd like something a bit more simplistic I think. I almost would rather just use a stabilizer instead of a full blown autopilot. I don't think I'm going to use waypoints or heading hold etc... I'll use that sort of stuff with my multirotors but with fixed wing I just want to fly around and look at the scenery. RT, I have an Immersion OSD on my 450 Flamewheel multirotor. I have a couple of MiniOSDs I haven't used yet which just show voltage. As for video transmitters I have several Immersions, several RMRC Crickets, and one Mobius docking station. I have a Radian XL glider on order that I'd like to put FPV on as it has AS3X on it. Should be fun!

[VOODOO]

First of all, I admit to never trying FPV, but I feel uncomfortable flying at the same time as an FPV flyer. Why? There is no peripheral vision when flying FPV, so the only avoidance of other traffic you can manage is what you can see on the forward facing camera. In our club of 37 members, we have two members who fly FPV quadcopters. When they fly, every one else elects not to fly. Not only can the FPV flier not see the other fliers, but quadcopters can be very difficult to see in time to avoid collision. Not trying to stir up an argument, but just present a safety consideration using FPV. None of us in our club resent the members who choose FPV.

[bradl4648]

Hi

The real issue is flying fpv you really want to have a spotter all the time not good to do with out. I am not going with what the FAA wants us to do I am going by what is truly safe. as far as my googles they are the bigger ones and their is no beep indicating low voltage. The only thing it does is to start getting fuzzy then goes out. I guess that's my warning. But I know use my field checker that worked! Thanks for leaving all these great comments keep them comeing.

[PappaBear]

Anyone flying FPV should ALWAYS have a spotter or an observer with them to keep an eye on the things the pilot CAN'T see. Preferably some one who is a pilot, so if the person flying FPV has a problem, such as a lost signal and a blank screen in the goggles then the observer can take over the flight and land the model.

Martin.

[Flygirl]

Hi

The real issue is flying fpv you really want to have a spotter all the time not good to do with out. I am not going with what the FAA wants us to do I am going by what is truly safe. as far as my googles they are the bigger ones and their is no beep indicating low voltage. The only thing it does is to start getting fuzzy then goes out. I guess that's my warning. But I know use my field checker that worked! Thanks for leaving all these great comments keep them comeing.

That's a bummer Brad about no beep on low battery. Before I realized mine beeped I used to put one of the field tester cheapie buzzers plugged into the balance lead and oh my GOD that thing almost blew my ear off the first time it went off.

As for FPV with a spotter, I hate flying alone so there is always someone there.

Voodoo, is it more that the multirotors sort of hang in the air over the field and becoming obstacles? My club flies anything and everything but most of the multirotors are the little 250 quads which are always moving. Most everyone in our club is flying FPV which ends up being a problem with who is on what video channel. :)

[rtwatkins]

Agreed on a spotter!!! visuals go out, things can get ****ty really really quick... so it's worthwhile to have someone there who can spot traffic as well as take over if issues occur.

As for field of view... while it's true that you're limited there's ways that it can be alleviated. A spotter again, but also using a gimbal on the camera helps A LOT.... turning your head to check blind spots can go a long way with not only looking for traffic but also checking your turns, cleaning up your maneuvers and the like.

[Prowler901]

I just had my very first FPV experience, and it was AWESOME! I set it up on my old Airfield Skytrainer. A fairly stable platform and I'm familiar with how it flies. I had my oldest son with me. He got the first go at wearing the visor. I flew the plane while he kept me updated on the picture quality. Next flight was mine. Seated in my chair, with my son hand launching. Up into the wild blue yonder! It was amazing. I'm still all giddy and excited about it. I can't wait to do it again!