Rory Gillies

I kind of thought as much - a bit of research online seems to indicate there's nothing out there (in the UK anyway) for hobbyists but commercial craft insurance is available. I suppose if you were putting £20K plus of multicopter and camera equipment into the air you'd be daft not to have insurance for the craft. I suppose I think of the Phantom 2 as more of a tool rather than a RC model. Yes, it's fun to fly but I get a lot more pleasure out my conventional models and gliders. I bought the P2 for taking aerial video, an extension of my RC hobby (I also do a lot of filming from my gliders and seaplanes). The P2 is an affordable platform with thousands of users worldwide, but once you strap over £550 of gimbal and GoPro to it plus £150 worth of FPV gear (for framing video, not FPV flying), it's not just the £500 aircraft that you're flying and at risk of losing. It's not crashing that's the issue - I don't intend to crash it - but the so called "flyaways" and dropping out the sky issues that plague the DJI forums and threads. I know that these are unrepresentative of the satisfied user base; for every one problem flight (which in many cases can be attributed to pilot error or complete lack of any pre-flight procedures) that appears on a forum there are likely tens of thousands of perfectly normal flights that will never be reported. But reading these threads has put these issues in my mind every time I fly it, even though I do very thorough preflight checks (including checking local magnetic conditions and solar weather) and wait for GPS lock confirmation and satellite status before flying. Due to the nature of Shetland if my P2 did decide to "flyaway" it would almost certainly end up lost at sea - in fact filming coastal scenery was one of my prime reasons for buying it in the first place. Sometimes I wish I'd never read any of the Phantom threads out there, I'd probably be flying around quite happy not thinking it's going to drop out the sky or head off into the wide blue yonder at any moment! Rory

Hi Folks, I'm just wondering if anyone is aware of any insurance policies out there that actually cover a model in flight? I'm not concerned about my fixed wing, gliders and floatplanes but I've invested rather a lot in a Phantom 2 and camera setup. The loss of this would amount to around £1,200 including the Vtx, antenna and iOSD mini. Cheers, Rory

Posted by Tony Read 2 on 20/06/2014 12:34:25: Sure is a beautiful place you fly Rory! I've come back from Normandy with about 35gb of video files and want to edit them into something around 30 to 45 minutes long on my PC. I've started to use GoPro Studio but when I export the 5 minute long test file in HD it gives me a 8gb file!!! At this rate I'm looking for a minimum file size of 45gb for the finished item and that's without audio tracks! That's ginormous! How the heck to I share that with friends/family etc? Is there a better way to do this? Better software editing prog perhaps? Do I need to settle for lower resolution? Is there a formatting that will be easier to work with but still retain quality? So many questions and I've only just started!! Any advice will be most welcome. Hi Tony, I've only used GoPro Studio a couple of times and only to process ProTune files, but I'd be very surprised if it can't export compressed video. I usually import the GoPro video clips directly into the video editing app (in my case iMovie and more recently Final Cut Pro X, both Mac applications). Not really sure about PC video editing apps, but I'd imagine most if not all all consumer suites will export compressed video. For example, you could import the GoPro Studio video into Windows Movie Maker (a free download from Microsoft) then save it as a .wmv file which will be much smaller, but not much use if any of your friends or family use a Mac! I tend to work with 720p files which are perfect for sharing and viewing online but reasonably sized: e.g. a 06:52 minute video exported from iMove at 1280x720 is 526.4MB, a lot more friendly for uploading to Vimeo or YouTube than 8GB (or 45GB for that matter)! Hope this helps a bit, Rory Edited By Rory Gillies on 22/06/2014 17:15:01

I used iMovie 9 until recently but switched to Final Cut Pro X (a Mac man). It's an amazing piece of software, as simple or as complex as you want or need. They put together full movies with it but I'm happy putting my aerial stuff with some music just getting into FPV with my Diamond 2500, and there's a DJI Phantom 2 with the Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal on the way for some GoPro video Rory My Vimeo Channel   Edited By Rory Gillies on 26/05/2014 22:17:59

Yes please! My thin CA was bought in 2008, still works but I probably should get some new stuff! Rory

The prop that's on her is a JXF electric, so very light and no worries. It's very well sealed and the aluminium will protect the tips from splashes. cheers, Rory

Posted by Martyn K on 11/03/2014 15:49:02: After nearly two weeks of settled and mainly unseasonable warm weather we can safely say that someone has put the jet stream back where it belongs. The forecast for the next week is looking good, so no excuses. What have you crashed because you have forgotten how to fly and how many maidens have you bowled over? Spare those blushes and say goodbye to winter. Erm, excuse me! The jet stream is now over us poor mortals in Shetland.... 45mph forecast today, and I have three aircraft that have had extensive work done on them over the winter ready to (re) maiden. My Hangar 9 ¼ scale J3 Cub now sports a set of floats, but until the wind calms down a wee bit there's not a chance of flying her. I did have my Luna E-V out in 25mph winds on Wednesday lunchtime though. The sun was shining and it was a blisteringly hot (for Shetland) 9.5°C, but the gusts to 35mph kinda took the fun out of things a bit! I ordered a wee Vortex 400 EDF from Wheelspin Models the other day, looks like it might enjoy being chucked into the air on windy days for a bit of fun. but, in answer to the question of the thread, WIND!!!! Rory

Hey Rog, it would be great to see you and the Missus in the summer and get our Luna's up together. I'm going for a stem cell transplant (second one, I had one in February 2009) hopefully mid-May, so should be well into R&R by the middle of June if all goes to plan. I'll be off work for about 4 months and planning on getting a lot of stick time! Back on topic, the Luna maiden! The Maiden The forecast was excellent for Wednesday 19 February so I booked the morning off work. The day dawned as beautiful as forecast, clear skies and no wind, perfect conditions for a glider maiden! I charged two Gens Ace 3S 2200s, packed my kit and loaded the Luna with her wings on into the car. I chose the Ness of Sound as the flying site, a peninsular just to the south of Lerwick that juts out into Breiwick Bay. This site has slopes facing east, south and west, and the fields are short grass that runs down to the sea. It can be quite muddy in the winter, especially the west facing slope. Although conditions were flat calm the forecast wind was from the east, so I set up in the middle of the east facing field (thankfully free of sheep) complete with GoPro on a tripod and #16 keycam Velcro'd to my hat to catch the action! The range check was completed without issue, in fact it's the furthest I've walked with this radio and I could still hear the aileron servos operating from the far end of the field - no worries there. After a final preflight she was ready to fly, and there was nothing else to do to put off lobbing my shiny new glider into the sky. I'm used to launching my Radian Pro and D-2500 gliders at around half power with my right arm, just slightly up from horizontal, so I adopted the same for the Luna. Half power certainly produced a lot of wind from the Hyperion motor compared to my foamies! A good throw had the Luna taking to the sky, although she wasn't ready to climb at the launch power setting. I quickly got may right hand on the aileron/elevator stick, added some more power and off she went with a respectable climb, although she did roll a fair bit to the left as I added the power.   Short video of the first launch and landing I took her up to about 500' and set the normal condition. Once into the glide she required no trim adjustments and I spent some time doing lazy circles. I must say I'm very impressed with the glide ratio, she floated along at a graceful pace in the calm conditions. I tried a stall which comes on very quickly, dropping the left wing and dropping out the sky. Recovery is quick and she was gliding again, just above the stall. The dive test was almost bang on neutral, I couldn't really discern any change. This is what I expected with the CoG right in the middle of the range and no trim on the elevator. I tried the reflex and camber conditions, both doing what they said and again without any trim changes required. The camber condition allowed me to slow her to a snails pace, I'm amazed she was still flying at such a slow speed. I was still up around 300' from the first launch, so tested out the crow condition before coming down for a low pass. The proportional crow showed no change in pitch, and with full crow I pointed her 45º down; she descended beautifully at a very slow speed and in full control, excellent stuff! I brought her down to about 50' for an overhead pass and selected the motor condition. As I powered her up she violently rolled to the left and I ran out of aileron to correct her. At about 5' above the field I killed the power and managed to straighten her up and land her into the mud without damage. Five minutes spent removing mud from the spinner and tail and she was ready for launch number two. This again caused a violent roll to the left as I applied power and she was into the mud again! Another few minutes of cleaning then the third launch I used a bit more power and a slightly higher launch attitude. This was very messy but once I got her under control and added full power she went up like a rocket, reaching 500' in just a few seconds. I spent the rest of the flight exploring the flight envelope and trying a few loops and stall turns, then work beckoned and I had to pack up - all good things come to an end! Final Thoughts Well I can honestly say I'm delighted with the Luna. She's very different to what I'm used to, but once I master the launch I think she'll quickly become my soaring fix of choice. I think she'll really come into her own in a good breeze on the slope, and the motor and battery will become expensive ballast! This is my first venture into composite high performance gliders, and it's a journey I've really enjoyed. I've learned a lot about this side of the hobby, and made some new friends on Model Flying and beyond. It's a shame we have such a bad forecast for the next few weeks as I'd love to get her up again, at least I have the Spring and Summer to look forward to, I think the Luna is going to spend a lot of hours in the air! Cheers, Rory  Edited By Rory Gillies on 09/03/2014 10:56:12

Radio Setup She's fitted with a Futaba R617FS Rx which is tucked away in front of the tail servo tray. Tony installed a wiring loom with two 4-pin Deans micro connectors which is very neat, and just two connectors to the wings. My original intention was to have the wing servos connected directly into the Rx as I'll rarely remove the wings, but this is a much neater solution. The antennas are taped to the side and across the fuselage under the wing. The recommended throws are 16mm up/down for the rudder, 10mm up/down for elevator, 16m up / 9mm down for the ailerons, and for crow 35mm down on the flaps, 16mm up on the ailerons and 7mm down on the elevator. I'm using a Futaba 14SG and the Luna is set up with five flight conditions: Normal: the normal flying condition, control throws as listed, -25% expo on aileron and elevator and motor disabled Motor: motor active on J3, 40% differential on ailerons, 50% aileron to rudder mix, -25% expo on aileron and elevator Crow: motor disabled, proportional crow on J3, no expo, 60% aileron to rudder mix, 40% aileron differential Reflex: as normal, 1mm up on flap and aileron Camber: as normal, 3mm down on flaps and ailerons The Motor and Crow conditions take priority over any other, and conditions are selected using just two three position switches: switch 1 selects Motor - Normal - Crow and switch 2 selects Reflex - Normal - Camber. For normal flying both switches are in the centre position. The trims are separate for each condition allowing fine tuning. The conditions all worked fine in flight, but I've since added 10mm down flaps controlled by the two position switch in the Motor condition only, used during launch. This is the third full house glider I've set up on the 14SG so I'm pretty familiar with it, but I'd strongly recommend Malcolm Holt's great ebook on this radio which helped me get my head around function based programming and conditions. There's also examples of programming various scenarios including a four wing servo glider, although it uses the motor on a switch and I prefer a joystick. With the radio programming all complete she was ready to fly! With an AUW of 1640g (57.8oz) she's a bit heavier than the published weight, but the motor pulls 380W on a fully charged LiPo providing a very respectable power to weight ratio of 133W/lb. The maiden follows in the next post Cheers, Rory

Hi All, Well the Luna is finally finished and maidened in very calm conditions! I didn't complete the build myself as due to the treatment I'm on (I have a rare cancer of the blood called myeloma which has relapsed after five years remission) I find it very difficult to manipulate small objects such as wing control horns. I have no problem with the transmitter sticks however! I packed her all up and sent her off to Tony Fu at Sloperacer. He did a fantastic build on her, complete with Fu-Fix external bearing kits on the wing servos. These make the links really solid with no slop at all, and as they are fixed to both the upper and lower wing skin there's no skin flex, I'm really impressed! He also sanded the nose to the thrust angle so there was no offset gap when the spinner was installed. I had tried 36mm and 38mm Aeronaut Cool Nose spinners and neither of them were an ideal fit. Tony installed a very lightweight RFM carbon spinner which is a perfect fit, and also gives me a few more RPMs from the motor. The Luna resting after her maiden flight One of the flap servos showing the external bearing kit ​RFM carbon spinner is a perfect fit, and the nose was sanded to the down thrust angle so no gaps Under the canopy with the battery in place When I installed the tail ball links the elevator linkages were causing the pushrods to bend, caused by the ball links being too high for the servo position. Tony set them lower which also helps with the geometry - there was far too much servo movement for the required travel leading to more slop and less torque. Tony reconfigured the ball links and soldered them at a lower position. He also added a former half way down the fuse to guide the pushrods as they were quite bendy in compression. I now have the required control surface travel without any binding. The reconfigured tail ball links, no binding at all with the recommended control throws! I had to add 10g lead to the nose to get the CG within range, and by moving the battery back and forward I can get the full CG range of 95 to 102mm. I'm absolutely delighted with the Luna build. Even though I could have completed her myself had I not had medical issues I now have a very solid e-soarer with a much higher build quality than I could have achieved myself! The next post has a full account of the maiden... Cheers, Rory Edited By Rory Gillies on 05/03/2014 10:49:24 Edited By Rory Gillies on 05/03/2014 10:49:51