Today was a special day for me. I both cracked the 1km and did my first fully solo fpv session. I've been trying to find a nice FPV spot with a good landing platform, away from urban areas and preferably with some water about. I had thought that Point Hut might be a nice spot, but I didn't notice on previous scouting missions that there were a few power cables about. I headed out past Point Hut Crossing and took the road to Tharwa. Part way along, I came to Lambrigg Lookout, which overlooks the Murrumbidgee River and the Lanyon Homestead. There is also a nice little plateau for a landing strip and two dams close together to help navigate for landings. The area is grazing lands and isn't too thickly wooded, so if the plane went down I should be able to find it.
I hadn't flown FPV with the new 5.8Ghz gear yet, so wasn't sure how it'd perform. I got pretty much rock solid picture except when directly overhead with the 900Mhz setup. I also hadn't really tested my home-made cp antennas either - I don't have calipers, so the measurements on these aren't as precise as I'd like. My first problem however was the GPS. Usually they lock on straight away, but they refused to do so this time. I'd moved it behind the camera instead of in front, and it didn't like this at all. I experimented with more positions and sat it on the wing. It worked straight away. However when I stuck the wing camera next to it and turned it on, the satellites dropped off again!
Once that was sorted, I did a couple of flights without the wing camera. I wanted to see what I could do with the 5.8 system first. I did a few long, wide circles, trying to see what range I could get - the tx started beeping at me at about 800m, so I turned around and brought it in. I then put it up again and had a look at the hills. The picture blinked a lot less and the tx didn't beep at me until I reached 1110m away. Knowing the sort of capabilities I'd get, and having purged some nerves, I brought it down again and stuck the camera on. I moved the GPS to the other wing.
Being fairly windy (about 15-20km/h) I didn't think I'd get great video, but would be able to pull out some nice stills. Unfortunately I'd forgotten to switch the camera back to HD (I'd been playing around with the settings while trying to get it to double as a flight cam last weekend)! Anyhow, here are some pics of the area:
Another shot of the plateau that forms the lookout
Heading south along the river - I was about 80m high and 1200m away. It was getting a little fuzzy on occasion at this point.
Looking east. You can see the homestead and a little of the southern suburbs of Canberra
Looking north along the river
Looking south along the Murrumbidgee River toward Tharwa
Some great rock formations in these hills. I wish I'd caught this with HD footage
The two dams made it so easy to navigate back to my home position
I hadn't flown FPV with the new 5.8Ghz gear yet, so wasn't sure how it'd perform. I got pretty much rock solid picture except when directly overhead with the 900Mhz setup. I also hadn't really tested my home-made cp antennas either - I don't have calipers, so the measurements on these aren't as precise as I'd like. My first problem however was the GPS. Usually they lock on straight away, but they refused to do so this time. I'd moved it behind the camera instead of in front, and it didn't like this at all. I experimented with more positions and sat it on the wing. It worked straight away. However when I stuck the wing camera next to it and turned it on, the satellites dropped off again!
Once that was sorted, I did a couple of flights without the wing camera. I wanted to see what I could do with the 5.8 system first. I did a few long, wide circles, trying to see what range I could get - the tx started beeping at me at about 800m, so I turned around and brought it in. I then put it up again and had a look at the hills. The picture blinked a lot less and the tx didn't beep at me until I reached 1110m away. Knowing the sort of capabilities I'd get, and having purged some nerves, I brought it down again and stuck the camera on. I moved the GPS to the other wing.
Being fairly windy (about 15-20km/h) I didn't think I'd get great video, but would be able to pull out some nice stills. Unfortunately I'd forgotten to switch the camera back to HD (I'd been playing around with the settings while trying to get it to double as a flight cam last weekend)! Anyhow, here are some pics of the area:
Another shot of the plateau that forms the lookout
Heading south along the river - I was about 80m high and 1200m away. It was getting a little fuzzy on occasion at this point.
Looking east. You can see the homestead and a little of the southern suburbs of Canberra
Looking north along the river
Looking south along the Murrumbidgee River toward Tharwa
Some great rock formations in these hills. I wish I'd caught this with HD footage
The two dams made it so easy to navigate back to my home position