Flight Log: Tell Us Bout Your Flights

Michael Fenimore

Michael Fenimore

Well-Known Member
Thanks Jackson.
Yeah, I was a little concerned about the battery weight, but it seems to be doing OK so far.
Did a full flight test on one of them today and it was a little over 13 minutes.
The Syma was fighting about a 15 mph wind with some heavy gusts. And it was cold!
But if one or more of the motors goes bad, I'll just pull the flight board out and put it in the new crash kit body and install the new motors in that.
Build up a new one. :) It'll be good practice for me. And give me something to do.
 
Michael Fenimore

Michael Fenimore

Well-Known Member
Here's the video of that 13 minute flight.
The entire thing is 16 minutes of me fighting a strong wind. Back and forth. To and fro :)
I thought it was a decent practice for me.
At least there's some 1/2 way decent music in the background. LOL
 
Michael Fenimore

Michael Fenimore

Well-Known Member
Today was a good day for flying. Overcast, but warm enough.
This past Tuesday I got a new kit to build. LHI210 from Amazon (Crazepony).
Essentially it's a QAV clone. Decent parts.
Emax 2204/2300kv
CC3D (Replacing it with a SP F3)
DalRC 12A BLHeli Oneshot ESCs
I replaced the PDB with a Matek 5 in 1 with low battery alarm. It works. :)
Still waiting on the Runcam Swift camera. Should be here next week. Then I can finish the build and then squeamishly put on my face box. :rolleyes:
AUW is around 325 grams with a 3S Tattu 1800mAh 45C.
I got about 8 minutes per flight flying LOS around an open field.

Here's the video from today.
Happy International Drone Day!

 
sailorsam

sailorsam

occasional user
haven't flown (or posted) since December!

got a Stryker; glow-in-the-dark green, otherwise pretty much a Syma clone, same batteries, cheap camera. took out for night flights last two nights, nice and still, full moon...great flying. had to adjust the trim first flight each time (2 batteries) but after it few great.
works best to keep it in front of me, sort of a sweet spot in front and about 10-11 o'clock high.
the stryker lights up nice, back lights green, front red, so just remember green is good. recommended for starter unit.

the whole battery thing annoys me. I've been scared to death to leave the batts on charge in case they pop or whatever. this one, I just put them on charge and set the timer for an hour (wind-up kitchen timer, nothing fancy) and walk away. so far so good.
 
sailorsam

sailorsam

occasional user
Michael Fenimore said:
Here's the video of that 13 minute flight.
The entire thing is 16 minutes of me fighting a strong wind. Back and forth. To and fro :)
I thought it was a decent practice for me.
At least there's some 1/2 way decent music in the background. LOL
Click to expand...
13 minutes! is that with the upgraded battery?

I really wish Syma would make a unit with a better camera, love how it flies (and looks)
 
Michael Fenimore

Michael Fenimore

Well-Known Member
sailorsam said:
13 minutes! is that with the upgraded battery?

I really wish Syma would make a unit with a better camera, love how it flies (and looks)
Click to expand...

Yeah. Using Turnigy 950mAh 1S 15 or 20C I think. I was concerned that maybe the motors wouldn't take the extra current, but so far this little beast has done well with the extra oomph.
I never did use the camera after the first few flights. The video quality was essentially useless IMHO. So I removed it and never looked back.

Haven't really flown it lately since I've focused my attention to racer class quads. A 250, 210 and 180 have me hooked!
But I'd say any increase in the power plant will make a difference in flight time and flight characteristics.
 
Chuck

Chuck

Well-Known Member
Took my Ai Freedom II (mechanically a Syma X8-series) out to a nearby high school soccer field to fly last Sunday. Clear, sunny, very little breeze. Wanted to test extended flight time with a 7.4v 2500 mAh onboard battery, and a 3.7v 1200 mAh battery in the throttle controller. Launch went smoothly, same with hovering about 20-25 feet off the ground. Flying around went well over the open area. Landing not so well. Everytime I try to land, I can get it relatively close to the ground. But the slightest incremental reduction in throttle results in cutting thrust to the point that it drops like a rock for a hard landing. Mechanically, everything is intact and functioning. But it has a couple of cracks in the lower shell of the fuselage that I have to repair. I know that Syma just introduced an X8 model with altitude hold capability, which I hope I can retrofit that flight control board to mine. But in the meantime, is there a way to introduce some old fashioned throttle delay and inertia, to slow the "jackrabbit" reaction to slight throttle changes? I'm considering buying a Yuneec Typhoon G sometime in the future, but leery of laying out that kind of money that could be seriously damaged or destroyed by excessive throttle input.
 
GJH105775

GJH105775

Off and on
Moderator
Chuck said:
Took my Ai Freedom II (mechanically a Syma X8-series) out to a nearby high school soccer field to fly last Sunday. Clear, sunny, very little breeze. Wanted to test extended flight time with a 7.4v 2500 mAh onboard battery, and a 3.7v 1200 mAh battery in the throttle controller. Launch went smoothly, same with hovering about 20-25 feet off the ground. Flying around went well over the open area. Landing not so well. Everytime I try to land, I can get it relatively close to the ground. But the slightest incremental reduction in throttle results in cutting thrust to the point that it drops like a rock for a hard landing. Mechanically, everything is intact and functioning. But it has a couple of cracks in the lower shell of the fuselage that I have to repair. I know that Syma just introduced an X8 model with altitude hold capability, which I hope I can retrofit that flight control board to mine. But in the meantime, is there a way to introduce some old fashioned throttle delay and inertia, to slow the "jackrabbit" reaction to slight throttle changes? I'm considering buying a Yuneec Typhoon G sometime in the future, but leery of laying out that kind of money that could be seriously damaged or destroyed by excessive throttle input.
Click to expand...

Don't drop throttle on landings then hahahaha. It is a very common mistake that I did for a little while, but if you reduce throttle until it starts dropping, and then let it drop at that same rate (so only apply yaw and right stick corrections) you will have a nice and smooth landing. If you come in too fast you can give a short burst of the throttle to keep it from being too hard. After you get comfortable you can get sued to fast landings where you apply a bigger corrective burst. This allows you to get on the ground faster without the bounce and roll hahaha.
 
Jackson

Jackson

USA member at large
Chuck said:
I'm considering buying a Yuneec Typhoon G sometime in the future, but leery of laying out that kind of money that could be seriously damaged or destroyed by excessive throttle input.
Click to expand...
Those things (and many others) have auto-takeoff and auto-land.
 
Chuck

Chuck

Well-Known Member
GJH105775 said:
Don't drop throttle on landings then hahahaha. It is a very common mistake that I did for a little while, but if you reduce throttle until it starts dropping, and then let it drop at that same rate (so only apply yaw and right stick corrections) you will have a nice and smooth landing. If you come in too fast you can give a short burst of the throttle to keep it from being too hard. After you get comfortable you can get sued to fast landings where you apply a bigger corrective burst. This allows you to get on the ground faster without the bounce and roll hahaha.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking about adding a thin strip of lightweight sheet metal beneath each pair of landing struts with the leading end curved up similar to those on full-sized copters, to reduce the potential for tipping over forward on landing. An alternate option I looked at, is a pair of Yuneec Typhoon G landing struts, that are for sale thru eBay.
 
sailorsam

sailorsam

occasional user
night ops with the Stryker this week. one night took a plastic chair out to the neighbors and made myself comfy.
tonight I tried a new place, a little country church five minutes from me. paved parking lot, pole light, and nice grassy overflow area (and no power lines). a few cars went by but nobody intruded. (neighbors' cats fighting but not my problem)
parked the pickup under the light, lowered the tailgate, and commenced quadding.

nice still night, no wind, a bit of moon. the unit was practically hovering.
I set the fine-tuner to go back, zoomed it forward, took my hands off the controls, and watched it drift back to me. did that several times.
good flying. next weekend there'll be a big moon, looking forward to.
might try a few pix but doubt I'd get anything in the dark.
 
RENOV8R

RENOV8R

Well-Known Member
Just got back from a nice morning flight, dang I can't feel my hands. It's taken me most of the fall getting my 650 Sport how I want it after a couple fails with the ZYX-M FC and quite honestly being a little gunshy. But with the Naz-M V-2 it's flown perfectly with no glitches for quite a few flights. So, I finally got up the nerve to flick on the oh crap switch and it functioned flawlessly. Took it out to about 500 metres and turned on the RTH and it went up to 20metres, turned around and came back directly above me. That was the most nerve-wracking part as it was directly in the sun and I really couldn't see what it was doing on the descent. But it landed exactly where it took off and shut down. Pretty awesome when it's the first time, but then I guess that's what it's supposed to do. Put a couple batteries through the new F220X and with all the problems I had with the motors cutting out, all I did was switch from 5045 to 5040 props and all is good.
 
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