FPV slope gliding.

[Wayne]

Just some notes about what I am doing with this.. It is something I have wanted to do for a long long time.

Last Sunday I flew my first slope glider session with FPV. I'm using a DJI setup and I'm currently using a Zohd Drifter as the airframe as I had one and thought it would be an ok glider. I'll have to take some pictures. Using the DJI O4 Air Unit.

I have not done any drone or FPV in many many years. I have done only a small amount of fixed wing FPV, and nearly all was on old analog stuff. I was pretty comfortable with it and was taking off and landing under goggle was the norm. With the DJI I have not had the same confidence. While the picture quality is great I don't seem to be able to get a good feel for how far I am from the ground. The focal length of the DJI seems to be very different. Probably take a few flights for me to adjust to it.

As for reading the slope lift, I had no clue. Short of visually seeing if I was closer to the ground I could not judge the lift strength at all. Again, not at all used to the Drifter airframe, and I had no additional sensors, just a voltage sensor for the lipo pack. Running a vario sensor with some audio from the transmitter might help me judge the slope lift. Something I will have to test out. For now I just add some clicks of down trim to avoid any surprise stalls. The Drifter is not a great airframe for the slope as the plane gets tossed around a lot. I'll probably install everything onto a Bam Bam, a nice simple EPP combat wing that I have a lot of time on, and no fear of hurting.

After a while I had some feel for the model and was working some stall turns back and forth along the slope (Sunset) and could cuddle up with some birds that were flying by, but the Drifter was too fast and would overshoot the birds. The birds didn't seem to care about me being in the area. I don't think I was all that close to them. This was a cool surprise.

I could see the other gliders on the slope, and I could give chase for a little bit, but was easy to lose sight of them. If we were flying towards one another, I could not see them until it was too late for evasive actions. I was surprised I could not see them sooner. Again, the focal length with this camera just doesn't seem to be good for this application, more focused on pretty scenery? (They were flying very small models at the time)

The one big success was it was easy to fly much further. At Sunset the life guards hang out on the hill to the North of the slope. I was easily able to slope up this taller hill and beyond. Exactly what I wanted to accomplish. I also went way further South than I have ever flown, but chickened out going to far as the lift can get a little weird where the beach access road is cut in. I didn't want to do a big walk on my first outing with it. LOL But it had every sign that is was fully possible. Grad an extra 100 feet elevation for the next attempt.

I tried some landing approaches, but had zero confidence I could pull it off while under FPV, so landed via line of site. (And I still messed up and hit the fence.. lol)

So at best a partial success. I think a lot of this will come down to more flying with the system. For now I'll do some powered flights with it and see if things improve. I feel lost with it as a powered plane too.. The issues are not related to the a slope glider environment, just seems to be the focal distance of the camera.

Anyone else do any FPV gliders?

 

[jure]

Anyone else do any FPV gliders?

I did, as my first FPV experience.
Very gently crash landed without damage at all ,
and had to hike down and back up the hill.
in summary , not much fun ,
I need to learn much more , and also fly with a spotter on the side .

 

[Wayne]

Yeah, having a spotter is a big help. I wear glasses and don't trust to pull the goggle without handing the plane off to another pilot first. With this said, Rafael here is a very good drone pilot and does exactly this all the time.

I do have a flight controller and GPS we will be installing soon, and that will allow me to do the google transition on my own.

I would very much like to be able to launch from Tick Point and then work the lift up Mount Tamalpais. In terms of lift it should be a seamless flight. Since aircraft as not allowed to fly in the lower airspace here, no worries about them. I doubt I would ever be more than 150 feet AGL anyhow.

 

[jure]

I didn't even have a flight controller onboard , no gyros , flew it by myself !

this could have made things even more difficult

 

[JustinMader]

I've seen some folks use head trackers for FPV sloping, so the camera turns as your head does. Neat idea in theory but it wasn't for me. I prefer wide angle lenses for lateral vision. On my Volantex Phoenix I have a 180° Horizontal FOV with a lens like this:

Amazon.com : PATIKIL CCTV Camera Lens F2.0 FPV Security Lens 5MP 185° Wide Angle Board | 1.7mm,M12 Threaded Dia,for IP Camera Panoramic : Electronics

Amazon.com : PATIKIL CCTV Camera Lens F2.0 FPV Security Lens 5MP 185° Wide Angle Board | 1.7mm,M12 Threaded Dia,for IP Camera Panoramic : Electronics

www.amazon.com

Short clip of how that looks:

I also prefer flying pure manual... always feels like I'm fighting against a flight controller or stabilizer.

 

[Wayne]

I do not have the flight controller in the model yet, so flying manually. I would like the flight controller for 2 things:

• Allow me to put the goggles on and off.
• Return to home should I encounter fog or radio loss.

I lost a drone once when flying "under" heavy fog. I screwed up and got into the fog, that was the end, never found her.

The Drift has the camera up in the nose, and this might be a part of my issue, I don't get a reference off the nose of the glider. All of my FPV on fixed wing had the nose of the plane in the camera view.

I currently am borrowing Jarrons receiver for this plane and it is a stabilized unit. It is not setup for stabilization, but this little airframe would very much benefit from it. It gets tossed around even in smooth air. The wing on this plane is a noodle, very bendy, very thin and very light. Also all of the video stabilization is turned off, so you get to enjoy all the little shakes the plane is experiencing, it is not at all pleasant when flying through turbulence, but paints a more accurate image of what the plane is doing.

 

[JustinMader]

I do not have the flight controller in the model yet, so flying manually. I would like the flight controller for 2 things:

• Allow me to put the goggles on and off.
• Return to home should I encounter fog or radio loss.

I lost a drone once when flying "under" heavy fog. I screwed up and got into the fog, that was the end, never found her.

The Drift has the camera up in the nose, and this might be a part of my issue, I don't get a reference off the nose of the glider. All of my FPV on fixed wing had the nose of the plane in the camera view.

I currently am borrowing Jarrons receiver for this plane and it is a stabilized unit. It is not setup for stabilization, but this little airframe would very much benefit from it. It gets tossed around even in smooth air. The wing on this plane is a noodle, very bendy, very thin and very light. Also all of the video stabilization is turned off, so you get to enjoy all the little shakes the plane is experiencing, it is not at all pleasant when flying through turbulence, but paints a more accurate image of what the plane is doing.

I've got one of those collecting dust. As you noted, small/light planes get bounced around too much and it's not a pleasant experience under the goggles.

For the Drift in particular, I never got it to fly well. Seemed the the factory CG was way off, never found the smooth spot.

The Matek F405 WSE and a micro GPS are about as light a setup you'll find (that's reliable). Avoid SpeedyBee flight controllers. Have had two bad crashes from their servo BECs failing in the air.

 

[Wayne]

Yeah, I flew the Drift as normal line of sight and dialed it in some. But it is not a very good FPV platform IMHO. It has some cool features and all, but just not a stable plane.

I might tape a piece of carbon to the bottom of the fuselage so it sticks out into the camera view and see if that helps me any.

 

[JustinMader]

Yeah, I flew the Drift as normal line of sight and dialed it in some. But it is not a very good FPV platform IMHO. It has some cool features and all, but just not a stable plane.

I might tape a piece of carbon to the bottom of the fuselage so it sticks out into the camera view and see if that helps me any.

That could work. Or even just a zip tie or tooth pick. Whatever's handy. The more time you spend under the goggles, the easier it gets. Took me several years, but eventually got to the point where I could ditch the lawn chair and just stand up to fly.

 

[Wayne]

LOL _ I do stand and fly.