daemn42
Daemon Relay - World first 2 quads, one transmitter, below-line-of-sight FPV
updated
I flew the 3 fixed wing flights in the same day.
Plane: Reptile Dragon V2
FPV gear: DJI HD FPV 25Mbps mode @1000mW
Camera: Hero7 - Superview + Hypersmooth - Protune ISO 100, WB 5000K
It had rained to the east of the divide earlier in the day, and then the wind came up from the east blowing moisture back up toward the divide, the clouds started forming low on the east side, then warm wind pushed in from the west and caused a convergence zone where the clouds were forming, rising a few hundred feet, and disappearing in only a few dozen seconds.
Flown with Reptile Dragon V2 w/ DJI HD FPV, and filmed with Hero7.
Flown with DJI HD FPV and filmed with GoPro Hero7.
0:00 Cruising the continental divide
3:12 Crossing to Pettingel Peak
5:00 Diving 2000ft down into valley
5:38 Valley Run between the trees
7:16 Climbing out of the valley
8:18 Proximity run home
9:41 Down the East side
10:38 climbing straight up mountain
11:00 Messing around
14:29 Approach to landing
The camera is a mounted low, so it appears a little faster than I was going, and I kept it down a gear to let this 3 cylinder motor on my Tiger 800xcx sing. I was experimenting with where to record the sound to catch the exhaust note, with less wind noise.
Low level proximity over the snow and dark green vegetation.
Flown with the Reptile Dragon V2
Video: DJI HD FPV and Hero7
Yes, about 20 seconds of the video is sped up to cover some ground to match the length of
the song. The run down the drainage was not sped up.
For all those of you who just stumbled on this vid in your feed. I don't know how it got there, but please enjoy. This is a fixed wing FPV aircraft. A small plane carrying DJI HD FPV video gear (which I pilot through), and a GoPro Hero7 to capture the footage you see here. The plane has two motors and enough power that it can climb straight up at about 50-60mph, and when I throttle back, it dive straight down at 60-70mph.
One of the things it can do that an FPV quadcopter cannot is pitch down and move closer to the cliff.
A quadcopter can fall straight down, but can't get closer to the cliff without first rolling rolling 180 degrees.
With a plane I can push the nose down and get closer to the cliff, or follow its contours while flying knife edge across the face.
I would liked to have flown even closer to the cliffs, but the wind was blowing 25-30mph up at about a 45 degree angle to the cliff there so it was pretty rough, and if I strayed even a few feet behind the lip the plane would get thrashed.
Finally got my 400+mph goal!
I bought this big fat plane 7+ years ago specifically to up my PB over 400mph.
It'd be easier with a thinner/higher aspect K130 or Transonic but I just can't see them very well.
So I truck the D130 back and forth between Colorado and SoCal every couple years trying to land on week with wind big enough to pull it off, and this is the first time it's even been possible for this plane. Some years there's not enough wind to get it in the air (or land safely), and others I'm lucky if I get to fly it once. This day I flew it 5 times (self launched 3 of them) so the conditions were pretty good. I probably could have gone a few mph faster, if I'd stuck with it on this flight, but people splat planes when they keep pushing when the conditions just aren't giving it up.
If you listen to the speeds in the background, Bruce called out 400 or 401 several times so it wasn't just a momentary fluke. There was someone on another gun just behind him, that got the 403mph reading you hear at the end.
This vid is just snippets from about a 15 minute flight. I spent a lot of time churning in the 350-370 range.
And yes, I have flown behind/below the big thumb. It blanks the video out completely for about 2 seconds, which is pretty scary.
Bunch of low level cruising with the Reptile Dragon V2, on a nice sunny, mostly calm day, with my new high-iterm iNav Profile 2 settings.
I'm really liking this plane. Easiest launching plane I've ever had (point any direction, engage acro, throttle up and throw), is stable, forgiving, reasonably quick, and can land on a dime almost anywhere.
Just a nice mellow proximity flight up and down a segment of the Dakota Hogback with the Reptile Dragon V2. The wide angle lens flattens it out a bit, but that climb at 3:27 is extremely steep. I've overpowered this plane to the point that it can climb straight up, if needed. More of that later this year.
Flown with DJI HD FPV video and TBS Crossfire RC.
Filmed with Hero7 - Superview + Hypersmooth, Protune On - min/max ISO 100, WB 5000K, GoPro Color. Absolutely zero post processing.
@COFPV doing some epic chase flights of my DC5 up and down Red Mountain.
No margin for error as going down most places on this mountain would be unrecoverable.
I was flying my trust iFlight DC5 and he was flying his XL7 and XL5, all DJI HD FPV equipped, running at 50Mbps. Having and HD view is what makes it possible to fly this low in the trees.
For those interested, here's the goggles DVR for one of the tree slot runs.
youtube.com/watch?v=2HJimfUcUTc
#COFPV
Tonga's main island will sometimes show as a little white blob around coordinates S21.2 W175.2 and the eruption is just above and to the left of that.
On Friday 14th can see there is an ongoing earlier eruption spewing ash clouds over the whole area to the ENE. This is the eruption you'll see in some videos claiming to be from navy or research ships and it is responsible for destroying the center of the two islands joined back in 2014-2015 eruption.
To be clear, this is the day before the big eruption.
By Saturday 00:00 UTC that ash cloud has dissipated entirely and the skies are clear, and the volcano is visibly quiet.
Near 04:00UTC it starts with another medium sized eruption that spews another big ash cloud out for about 35-40 minutes, spreading it fast enough to appear over Tonga 40 miles away.
Between 04:30 and 4:40 there are two larger explosions, then a couple minutes later the big KABOOM that put a shockwave all the way around the globe.
The audio from Tonga itself indicated a bang, then another bang a few seconds later, then a couple minute pause, then some rumbling, more rumbling, and then a big KABOOOM.
Animation created by the GOES 8 West viewer, but because you can only stretch the start time, and it always extends until *now*, the further we are from the date the harder it has to work to create the animation. Wait a couple more days and it'll just blow up trying to create the animation.
Please let me know in the comments below if you find this useful. Thanks.
And yes, I get that is not my normal FPV content, but I do post vids on other topics from time to time. If you don't understand why I did this one, put your hands on a Hero9 or 10 and try to open the door. You'll understand.
The Dragon V2 is not slippery or super fast (it was doing 55-70mph at 20-25A for most of the flight) but because it's so stable and practically unstallable at high angles of attack, I can fly it very low, and turn hard wherever/whenever I want so it feels pretty fast. It's also very quiet so I'm not bothering other people too much.
Powetrain is stock PNP Dragon V2 with 7x5x3 multirotor props and 4S 4000mAh pack.
This day I flew 3300mAh, 4000mAh and a 4S2P 7000mAh LiIon Pack. I'm sure it would work fine with a 5000mAh pack, but not climb as fast.
Video is DJI HD FPV with full sized AU at 1000mW and 25Mbps.. I love 50Mbps mode, but 25Mbps has better penetration and overall stability when flying low and NLOS (which I do a lot of in this vid).
Few laps with friends on two different days at Jones Pass.
Just prior to this I had been flying my sailplane on the west side of the ridge, and immediately after this, the wind switched to coming from the east side, and continued on the rest of the afternoon.
I sometimes like to stop beside the highway and fly this 100 year old quarry.
This ridge has an interesting history. It's part of the Laramie Formation which contains sub-bituminous coal. In addition to quarrying rock and clay the first coal mine was near the surface at the south end of this ridge, where this layer is tipped up vertically. Then the nearby Leyden Coal Mine went straight down into the deeper horizontal strata and supplied 6 million tons of coal to Denver for 50 years.
I really like to throw my quad in the tail bag of my motorcycle, go ride some twisty or dirt road, and find find some fun cliffs to bomb the quad down. Here are a few of my favorite cliffs from 2020.
Flown on my trusty DJI HD FPV equipped iFlight DC5 V1.
Filmed with Hero7 + Hypersmooth
And yes, did something different with the music. Wanted a tighter edit, and this pop song forced that.
Song: Fallin' (Adrenaline) by Why Don't We
Just buzzing around low at the old stomping grounds with my DJI FPV equipped AR Wing Pro.
Recent changes are an 8x6 prop, and some really crazy iNav settings (Iterm windup limit maxed out, I-term itself set at 50, with FF at zero) to handle windy conditions better.
In the end I suspect I'm going to have to rewrite iNav's core stabilization loop to make it work more like Vector.
Cruising on the motorcycle checking out the fall colors. We had an early snow so some of the trees popped off a bit early and some still waited, so not our best year but still nice to get out of the house into nature.
This is first in a Bike-n-fly series (technically the meadow flight was also from my bike).
Will post some cliff diving, mountain bombing and big meadow runs.
Some low level cruising over a big beautiful grassy meadow at sunset.
Fixed wing aircraft featured are
Skyhunter
2x Chimera
2x Mini Drak
E-flight Opterra.. (I think)
Sonicmodell AR Wing (RMRC Recruit V2)
Here's Justin's cut featuring quads and motorcycles too
youtube.com/watch?v=-nmYiVY6dPs
#fpv #cofpv #fpv #cofpv
Was out motorcycling and flying this afternoon, and struck up a conversation with this nice group of people about my quad, so I showed em what it could do.
Gave em my YT channel and they said they'd comment if I posted.
Just chasing some trains out in the plains with the RMRC Recruit V2.
It bobs around in the wind quite a lot but Hero7 Hypersmooth cleans it up.
This video is straight out of the camera running 2.7K@30fps Superview+Hypersmooth, Protune On with WB fixed at 5000K (daylight) and ISO MIN/MAX both set to 100.
A couple short clips were shot from my quad. The rest are the wing.
Spent an afternoon flying up and down various avalanche chutes with my DJI equipped iFlight DC5. It's feeling pretty dialed in now and Hero7's Hypersmooth makes it pretty much perfect despite the fact that it was blowing 15+mph at launch, and more up high, all afternoon in the mountains. I just wish I could sort out my 7incher so I could make more than one trip up and down per flight, and/or reach out further.
The HD feed really does allow me to fly so much lower and faster. There are so many little bare trees sticking up in the middle of these chutes (the avalanches knock most over, but leave some standing bare) and I would never be able to see them with analog.
A nice low smooth proximity flight covering some familiar and not so familiar terrain.
Flown with an iFlight DC5 4S setup on a 5S pack with DJI FPV air unit and R9M Lite Pro and R9MM OTA.
Got out to the beach on a recent Florida trip and flew the Beta95x with Caddx Vista.
This video is from 720p@60fps ground recordings (4:3 aspect converted to Superview). Unfortunately there wasn't any sun all week, but still fun flying low over the ocean.
It's a bit bumpy because it was quite windy (10+mph) but not bad for a 165g quad.
Pushing my DJI Digital FPV equipped quad hard through the forest.
It is so liberating to have a video link that lets me see every little ghost branch, bare branch, and even tall blades of grass.
There are parts of this flight that are below LOS (blocked by solid ground) and I can just keep pushing forward.
DVR recording of the flight here
youtube.com/watch?v=nONxfl0r4So
Cruising over the tallest part of the Dakota Hogback before and after the big Colorado snow storm.
Been wanting to pick up a larger, GPS equipped, possibly long range quad for a while. Something that'll comfortably carry the Hero7 and/or maybe digital FPV gear. Giving the GEPRC Crocodile 7 Pro a try. Here I'm putting it through its paces in my usual stomping grounds.
Like most larger quads it gets bumped around by the wind a bit more, but Hero7's Hypersmooth takes care of that. Hope to be able to do some mountain bombing with it.
I flew it with some 4-5S packs in the 1500-2300mAh range, and it just felt a bit limited. 3300mAh 4S felt heavy and a bit mushy.
Here I'm running Turnigy 6S 3300mAh 30-40C packs and it feels very good. Solid, fast, but with enough punch to do a little mild acro and to pull out of a dive or long drop with authority.
(Best viewed at 1440p for max detail, even on 1080p display)
It's only about a 6 mile long stretch, but it's smooth and fast, with relentless banked turns. Definitely in my top 10.
My dad and I were returning from the north end of the WABDR, and came down from Packwood via NFD-25 (w/ detour to Mt. St. Helens), NF-90, Curly Creek Rd, and then NF-30 when we came upon this road. We passed a couple sport bike riders pulled off at the top of Oldman Pass talking to each other in "twisty" hand gestures. We were moving along at a good clip and I suspected they might follow us down the hill. Sure enough, a couple minutes later my dad says "those bikers caught me up, I'm going to let em pass". He did, and then I picked up the pace a bit. Fun was had by all. The 2nd biker gave me a thumbs up as he passed at the bottom. Anyway, it's a fun and memorable road, and would be even more fun not loaded down with heavy Panniers.
Bike: Triumph Tiger 800 XCx
Tires: Motoz Tractionator GPS (barely WABDR capable offroad, surprisingly great onroad)
It's much faster to edit and render from Insta360 studio than it is to use the Insta360 Premiere plugin, but there are some serious limitations. Here I try to streamline the process as much as possible. Don't think of this as a video editor, but simply a tool to create a bunch of video clips which you can bring into a traditional non-linear editor.
(Note: Best viewed at 1440p)
Can you spot the baby deer?
And check out Ezikiel121212's take youtube.com/watch?v=3Uq4CughSk8
I almost always end up being the lead plane in formation/chase flights (high vis plane, and consistently low flying) so I threw an Insta360 One X on the plane so I could follow the action behind me. We had a lot of good formation flying this year so I caught some fun stuff. Also had less windy than average conditions so we got to play in among the trees a lot more.
Forward looking formation footage provided by Zangetsu57 from a wing, and Mini Drak.
I'm looking back at Goblin, Drak, Mini-Drak, Chimera and a couple other wings.
The plane carrying the Insta360 One X is another one-off prototype from the designer of the Graugans/Goblin/Nano-Goblin, called the Edelweiss. 75 inch wing span, and has flaps to slow down (although it really doesn't like to fly slow at the 9000ft elevation of this event).
I'm generally pretty impressed with the Insta360 One X's stitching ability. I had it oriented sideways for low drag so the chase planes are flying at the very edge of the FoV of each lens and back and forth through the stitch line all the time, and *most* of the time you can't see it. Calibrating in the Insta360 Studio for One X application helps a lot and is worth doing multiple times until the stitch line disappears. #fpv #cofpv
Best viewed at 1440p for highest detail on any display.
See Ezkkiel's uncut version of the Graugan's flight here.
youtube.com/watch?v=nh3De72H2kc&t=1s
He's much better at chasing than I am.
BTW, the real star of this video is the GoPro Hero7 and Hypersmooth. Both of us were shooting at 2.7K Superview with Hypersmooth, and we did zero stabilization in post. We had 15-20mph of wind for both flights, and you can see the lead plane getting kicked around a lot (chase plane just as much), but the video is silky smooth.
Hypersmooth is what the fixed wing FPV community needed years ago. It allows us to make decent looking videos in not ideal flying conditions (which describes Colorado weather most of the time). #fpv #cofpv
See my 369mph PB video youtube.com/watch?v=dtzdNPxSOHo
to understand why we're out flying in the desert.
I really enjoy this particular set of long sweeping turns.
Recorded on Hero7 with Superview and Hypersmooth at 2.7K@30fps.
Instead of mounting camera to my helmet, I've got it mounted low on the bike so you get to see how much I'm actually leaning over in the turns, and it also gives a higher sensation of speed (I'm not going as fast as it looks).
I also used the sound recorder on my phone to capture audio from near the exhaust, and combined its mid/low frequencies with the GoPro's high frequencies. I need to sort out a more permanent audio solution before summer adventure rides.
Also here's a vid on the 2nd channel showing what it looks like off pavement on a bumpy dirt road with more of the tire in view
youtube.com/watch?v=KlyEdSBTQmg
And for those wondering, yes there will be some more COFPV fixed wing content coming this summer, either here or ezikiel's channel or both.
Video is slowed to 1/4 speed, but audio is original 1x.
Filmed with Galaxy S7.
Video recorded with Hero 7 at 2.7K@30fps Linear FoV, stabilization on, and cropped further in post.
Audio from Zoom H2 recorder with dead cat windscreen, and compressor applied in post, to pick up a bit more of the plane on the far side of the circuit.
It's a long twisty motorcycle ride to this location so had some fun getting here. Last time I flew here it was very windy, and my GoPro Session had conked out, so had nothing but DVR footage. Today the wind was light, the sun was out, but slightly diffuse lighting up the crags and cracks, and the quad was flying great on 5S. Made 2 flights on 4S, and 2 on 5S, and this is the best of the bunch.
(Best viewed at 1440p for increased bitrate)
Arctic cold (11 degrees F or -11.6 C) and snow in the air, but I really needed to get out and fly.
It's cold enough that snow doesn't stick to the camera lenses or electronics so just had some fun cruising around with the quad.
Prevailing upper level winds are from the west over the mountains with low level easterly wind causing upslope lift along the foothills.
It started snowing about a half hour after the end of this timelapse.
Locations
"Big Mesa", between Delta and Hotchkiss CO
Squaw Pass Rd, CO
Highway 133 near Redstone, CO
Highway 14 near Grangeville, ID
Point of the Mountain, Sandy, UT
Cliffs near Helper, UT
Sunlight Bridge, WY
Cliffs on far side of Burnt Fork Reservoir, MT
Quarry off Lost Horse Rd, MT
Narrow canyon off Highway 14 near Cody, WY
Skalkaho Falls, MT
Leyden Ridge, CO