Anybody flying in Berlin?

pungbjoern

Senior Member
Hello everybody!

Even though I'm living in Germany, my German leaves a lot to be desired, so I'll be sticking to English.
I'm in Berlin, and I've only just gotten my first quadcopter, a Blade Nano QX. I'm having a lot of fun indoors and in the park in my inner yard. However, my previous RC experience tells me that constantly flying or driving alone gets a bit dull after a while. Thus, I was wondering if there are any other enthusiasts who might want to get together and fly some time? Alternatively if you know about any clubs or something.

Living right inside the city, I don't have access to a car, but I'm sure we can find somewhere inside the city to fly. Tempelhof, if nothing else, is wide open.

Drop me a line or post in this thread if you'd be interested in flying together sometimes!

I also have a bunch of RC ground stuff that is currently grounded (*ehumm*) due to broken parts. If you want to drive together as well, that's fine too =)

See you in the air! =)

Markus
 

JayArr

Member
Hi,

I'm very new to the flying thing and only have one quadcopter that is currently, let's say being examined very thoroughly, but I'm also looking to really get started with it.
Tempelhof is probably best, I live a bit further north in Wedding, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Also I can recommend the RC section at Conrad electronics at Herrmannplatz. I bet that's a great place to get in touch with some pros.

If you want, I'd love to get in touch and start some flying sessions.

Cheers,
Jay.
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
I'd love to get together sometime. I've found out that templehof is the place to fly, apparently. However only certain parts of templehof are allowed.
These guys have a location, though it is somewhat inofficial: http://www.tempelflieger.de/

It's hard to know ahead of time what the weather will be like, however. If it's windy, it becomes very difficult to fly, especially if you have a light flier.

I don't have any particular plans this weekend, so maybe I'll go to tempelhof, if it's not too windy.
 

JayArr

Member
guess I'll have to go to the store soon. I kinda wanna get into planes. I was only interested in indoor copters, tbh.
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
Indoor flying is ok, but without access to a larger space, it simply can't beat outdoor.
I learned to fly my quadcopter in our living room. I had maybe 20 packs through it before I took it out the first time.
There are issues flying outside as well (mainly wind), but I still prefer it to indoor.
 

JayArr

Member
I just was about to order a speed build kit from the shop and power pack C isn't in stock right now. Just my luck..
where'd you get your quad from btw?
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
I got mine here: http://www.modellhobby.de/Staufenbi...&SessionId=&a=catalog&t=23012&c=23012&p=23012
I just walked in and bought it one day. It's been great so far, and they're nice and helpful, too.

I went to Tempelhof the other day, btw. It was a calm day in the city, but it was impossible to fly something that light there. I think I'll have to get a heavier rig to be able to fly in those winds. I'm going to have to do some research into what kind of size I'll need, and if it's even possible to get proper wind resilience.

What are you planning on buying?
 

JayArr

Member
yea a nano is a bit small for outside I guess. I have a Hobbyking KK2.1 flight controller board laying around here if you're interested. also a few other parts of a 50x50cm drone I had, but I kinda fried the power distribution board :/

I just ordered a bunch of speed build kits. the mustang, the blood wonder (which I think will be my first plane) and the ft 3D.
If nothing goes wrong and I don't have to order additional parts or tool I hope to be ready in 2-3 weeks.
you interested in building stuff as well? I hear they have kind of a community shop at Conrads in Neukölln.
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
Building is actually what originally got me on to the hobby as a child. I used to love building these plastic models of cars and airplanes and stuff and painting them. I knew there were "real" thing in the hobby store that actually ran, with remote control, so one christmas I asked santa for one, and santa delivered. To be honest, the building is easily 50% of the fun. If someone would pay me to just build RC gear, planes, cars, helis, boats, whatever all day, I'd gladly do it! Most things comes RTF today, which is understandable, but I still prefer having a kit, if possible.

I've heard of Conrad from colleagues here in Berlin, but I've always discarded it as some big box store who only carries like the one token model car or something. I haven't looked in to it, but if you say they're cool and they've got good stuff, I'd certainly be interested in checking it out. Got a link or something?

I'd really like to get something bigger for use at Tempelhof, but I just need to make sure I'm not going to drop the hobby after a month =)
I think I'll wait for summer to really arrive before I take the plunge =)
 

JayArr

Member
yea I agree, making things is fun. I got into drones through arduino and programming actually. unfortunately it turns out that you still don't have enough power to just code away. instead one should be using assembler and really low-level languages in order to be effective.
so now I want to start with something more simple to maybe one day use some GPS on planes and that kind of stuff until we get 32bit controllers that support multi threading.

I've been to the conrad shop in kreuzberg and they have like 50 square meters for drones and planes. It all seemed a bit expensive though.
http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/category/SHOP_AREA_894257/RC-Modellflugzeuge
I couldn't find a link for that community workshop though. Might have been some other store, not sure.

If you're going to custom-build I guess it'll take until summer anyway ;)
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
Looking at that page, it seems like they're a strange mix of wanting to be serious, but only carrying toy brands. They seem to have enough things, but it's like they didn't bother to research which the "hobby grade" brands are, and they just bought whatever their distributor was already selling. It's kind-of the same for Staufenbiel, but as they don't sell anything else than hobby stuff, I'd trust them more. Plus, they're just around the corner. It's good to know that there are other places, though, when hunting for space parts.

I'd like to get in to planes as well, but I have a feeling you require a lot more space to fly a plane. With a quad/hexa/helicopter, you can at least fly slowly, in a relatively small space. With a plane that's not really possible. Would still love to try, though.

Based on the name only, I'd guess these guys do arduinos for flying: http://flyduino.net/
I haven't have the opportunity to do any arduino project,s but I very much like the concept. All these smaller and more affordable boards are opening doors to all kinds of cool stuff =)
 

JayArr

Member
I'd like to get in to planes as well, but I have a feeling you require a lot more space to fly a plane. With a quad/hexa/helicopter, you can at least fly slowly, in a relatively small space. With a plane that's not really possible. Would still love to try, though.

yea especially when you get into the ones +50cm wingspan, which are flying nicer and more stable. How big is the flying space at tempelhof?

Based on the name only, I'd guess these guys do arduinos for flying: http://flyduino.net/
I haven't have the opportunity to do any arduino project,s but I very much like the concept. All these smaller and more affordable boards are opening doors to all kinds of cool stuff =)

I actually bought mine from a friend who bought it from someone else who built it from flyduino parts. As mentioned it has a KK2.1 board. Other nice boards that I know of are the ardupilot mega (pretty big) or the naze (pretty small but I imagine restricted in customization).
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
The space at tempelhof is ok in size, but it's far from the entire airport. Have a look at the outlined area here: http://tempelflieger.blogspot.de/p/platzregeln.html
No idea how "official" this is, though. When I was there, there were people everywhere (though nobody flying anything). It certainly isn't restricted. The kite flyers are further down the runway, though, so you won't have to worry about getting tangled up in their lines, I don't think.

I remember watching videos from TBS (Team Blacksheep) about FPV a couple of years ago, and they flew flying wings. The wings looked super cool, so I'd really like to get one one day. One day, when I live out in the suburbs perhaps... =)
 

JayArr

Member
I just checked out some videos from the tempelflieger website the other day and it looks as if a couple people just made this their getting together point.
If you have insurance you can pretty much launch planes and quads up to 5kg on fields and open spaces without worrying. they'll insure you for damages up to 1.5million for like 40€ a year. I'm definitely gonna get it. It's for all your planes, quads etc at once, too.
Still I'd like to give Tempelhof a shot. It would be nice to meet some people who are a little more advanced in the hobby.

Wings are nice. Mostly fast and easy to steer, but if you want rudder you gotta have a tail. Maybe I'll get one for combat because they look really robust. Also you can put the motor in the back and make it a pusher which will minimize damage if you crash nose first.
But since I don't know someone to combat with... yet :)
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
I saw that thing about the insurance, too. For 40 EUR it's worth it, provided it's actually insurance and not just some scam.
If I get a bigger quad (I'd like to say "when", but I'm being cautious), I'll definitely get some insurance. You can cause a lot of damage with those things. If you do pick up some insurance, I'd love to hear about the details so I can do the same. Since I don't speak German, it's always a pain in the ass to do these sort of things.

While aerial combat sounds like fun, it might be a bit too dangerous with all the other humans around. I think it's easy to lose sight of things, and suddenly you're flying your blender of death into somebody's face =(
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
I just placed an order for parts for a 450-sized quad. I also joined the DMFV to get their insurance, now that I'll be flying something large enough to hurt people.
 

JayArr

Member
Hey cool my planes will be delivered tomorrow, as well as the hobbyking stuff. So I hope to have them built by this weekend, although it'll probably take me until next weekend to get everything ready to fly.
I should also get insurance first, but I'll probably go with the DMO. I felt they explained everything much better on their website. Like up to how much damage you're insured etc.

Where did you order yours?
 

pungbjoern

Senior Member
I ordered all my stuff at hobbyking. I'm hoping it'll be delivered today, but we'll see. I'll be on vacation in the near future anyway, so it's not the end of the world if stuff arrives later. I realize that I forgot to order some things, like an alarm for the low voltage and some extra zip ties, but maybe I can bodge something together. I did get a Spektrum DX6i, so I should be able to hook some telemetry in to that. But that'll happen later, I think.

As for the insurance, I know that there are two places to get it, but I think I just went with the first one I remembered. Admittedly this is one of the times I didn't read the entire 28 page contract, in German, before signing up. I chose to go with the highest insurance amount, 'cause you never know. They said they'd send me the paperwork, so I guess I'll have to wait to fly in public until that's all paid for. Hopefully that won't take too long. Considering they can't have many sign-ups per day, I wasn't expecting them to accept paypal or something equally simple. It would have been nice, though.

I can't wait to build this stuff. I just hope that the components I've put together will work harmoniously with each other. I'm a bit scared that the PDB won't be able to handle all the juice, but we'll find out. If that's the case I can just create a wire harness for it. I plan to use bullet connectors on damn-near everything, so I have some flexibility.
 

JayArr

Member
it seems all my stuff ended up at the customs office so I'll have to wait until at least monday, probably more mid-week with the mail delivery strike and all -.-
The spektrum ones seem nice. I have a 6-channel made by OrangeRX, which is great, but I guess for compatibility reasons a Spektrum or Futaba will be unavoidable in the future.
I saw this video about easy OSD, which is kinda the most popular I guess. it seems pretty expensive for a little chip with a gyro and a few other sensors on it. kinda makes me wanna make my own :D

I did send an application to that other company but they haven't answered yet. Mine just works with Bankeinzug.

I feel ya.. I got all the tools from amazon, ordered batteries and everything you could need for building... Such a tease.
As for the PDB, if you got in in a kit with a frame it'll be one that can handle a common motor for the size of the quad. I thought I fried mine, but the builder I got it from soldered some LEDs on the arms and the thin wires couldn't handle the 3 cell..