scott cuppello

I hate to also bring up duration but given the time to get into position and locate the subject, you will be flying back for new batteries......and that's if you can find the subject in less than 10 minutes? If you really are wanting to get closer to the subject to assess a situation, surely a zoom camera on a fixed wing would do the job?

Twinstars are really popular for FPV, very good platform.

Which do you reckon is the best platform FPV Raptor, Skywalker 1680, EPP-FPV or a glider (i.e. Phoenix 2000)? Got an AXN clouds flyer as part of a deal of FPV stuff I bought (at a ridiculously cheap price) - but it flies crap imo. Not too bothered about not being foam as I very rarely crash nowday's. Hate trying to launch wings too. Cheers, Si. Thing is that they all have their pro's and con's, Skywalker is probably the better all rounder, especially if you are not keen on wings but then the FPV Raptor is the better glider. Stabilizer makes it academic to a degree in terms of how well they fly but for me either the Skywalker and FPV Raptor have the edge because they are designed for the job, . You could go non-foam like the the Raven UAV airframe (as used by the US Military) but I think you have to be pretty confident with regard flying sites when it comes to composite/balsa hand-launch models, I would expect the Raven to penetrate better and have a better wind tolerance than foam obviously but foam has that all round tolerance to abuse.

There are several airframes out there capable of carrying huge payloads (up to 20,000mAh 4s + FPV equipment) which are specifically designed for the job......launching wise I use a portable bungee/ramp for some aircraft, others can be hand launched, what is certain is that they ALL have to be modified to carry out a certain task. For the task you are talking about, you might be suprised what can be achieved with something like the FPV Raptor (take it from me, MUCH better than the Bixler) fitted with a Flight Stabilization System (which needs careful setting up)....I have one with a similar set up, it can carry a basic FPV set up (camera on pan/tilt, TX and OSD) and 3300mAh 3s packs with no issues at all. With this set up I can stay airborne for 40 minutes and still land with 30% left in the pack on a windy day (Getting the glide set up right combined with the stabilizer and flap system is the key) it is stable even in windy conditions (probably maxing out at 20mph) and can obviously be hand-launched and landed almost anywhere (very tough blow-molded plastic fus)....and mine is only the 1600mm version, the 2 metre version would be even more capable. I suspect you are right, both fixed wing and multi-rotor would provide the best all round set up and it's suprising how cheaply it can be done.

I have been doing some work in this area......thermal imaging is the biggest headache really in terms of cost and the hand held units are still not that light, you would need a decent size rig to cope with the extra weight. I came to the conclusion that you also need fixed wing for Search & Rescue as their flight duration and payload capability is vastly superior, multi-rotors offer superb video platforms but will always be severely limited by duration for lot's of tasks.......my fixed wing platforms can fly for up to two hours which I think speaks for itself.

Traditionally you have to learn to fly an RC heli or model aeroplane and it is a long and sometimes expensive process that requires dedication, the RC Industry is trying to expand the appeal and therefore customer base of RC flying by inventing shortcuts to this process, Multi-Rotors (aside from Commercial/Industrial rig's, which are a totally different kettle of fish) are part of this strategy.........as are stabilization systems, etc. I think an experienced RC pilot would stuggle to get much out of a multi-rotor on it's own, it's the aerial photography and FPV aspect that we find appealing, although there are different configurations (like tri's for instance) that can expand the appeal from a flying point of view. Edited By scott cuppello on 21/10/2013 12:04:57 Edited By scott cuppello on 21/10/2013 12:08:03

Saying "I bought loads of cheap motors and they work for me"......is hardly fact! They work for me too......but then working is not the same as working efficiently! On small models I have always used cheap end myself, as I said, you don't tend to notice efficiency issue's.......but start moving up to big 1kw + set up's and it becomes a very noticable issue, I want my motor at that size to be reliable and efficient. Speaking of reliability, as a tester, I have had lot's of cheap motors throw magnets, kv's are often way out, they are equipped with Chinese bearings (which speaks for itself) yes, shafts are generally soft and magnets of a poor quality......which OBVIOUSLY affects performance......as for reliability, as I said, long term the cheaper motors will not last as long as the better quality option......however......they often outlast the airframe (with the exception of high performance motors perhaps) so nobody notices. So....back to the original point, OS Motors are NOT the same as Turnigy and you would be fooling yourself if you were to believe they were. Edited By scott cuppello on 08/10/2013 09:43:50

The difference between them is reliability (long term) and efficiency........this is something that really becomes noticable on larger motors in particular and high performance applications such as EDF (and these days, top end multi-rotors)....as for reliability, well that is self-explanatory.

Let's just say they come from the same factory......however it's not that simple......as the customer, you choose the spec of the motor, you have a choice of bearings, windings, magnets, etc to choose from......so although two motors from two different suppliers might look the same, in reality, the bits that matter may be totally different quality. Edited By scott cuppello on 04/10/2013 15:08:35

Strange that DA has not been mentioned? They were the market leader until not that long ago.......I rate the new(ish) JC 60 and for the price, the DLA 56 isn't too shabby.

Why the unit was over-amping I can't say without seeing it, needless to say, it would explain the combined fan failure and a pack that discharged quickly......the only thing I will say is timing, regardless of what anybody says, I would not use high timing on that fan.....I have owned that Hunter with that fan installed, it was always a joy to fly.

I'm sorry to see that you have suffered a fan failure Martin.....but I think you are playing down my suggestion that you should have returned the model, I am fairly sure I suggested you return it more than once, I thought you had "fallen out with it" and returning the model was the best course of action.........I would have prefered you returned it and have your money back, difficult to see how I could be any fairer. As for the current situation, I can not comment but I can tell you that the replacement fan you require is in stock and uses the following Products Id: 107000009.

That was an honest response.......containers are due to arrive "around" a certain date......they are then subject to inspection and delivery.......the last thing I want to do is to give a date that is false! I can give you APPROXIMATE dates therefore only for the Bixler 2 re-stock in the UK Warehouse.....container is due 14th May, hopefully will be with us around a week later.....as good as I can do I am afraid......as I said, "soon"! Edited By Scott Cuppello - HobbyKing on 13/05/2013 10:02:16

It won't be long.

So the headline for this thread should really read....."IS this mode filter in the wrong place"?......to which the answer would be no,

Being involved is no more difficult than making a donation.......part of the benefit for the Vampire Preservation Group in terms of this project is the publicity via Social Media, hence I fail to see what possible contributions any negative comments make? This aircraft is going though a major inspection right now and needs every penny it can raise......at the end of the day gents, the main beneficiary of keeping WZ507 flying is you, the British public.

This auction isn't all we are doing for the Vampire Preservation Group........to be honest......should I really be having to justify this? Disappointed in the attitude on here toward this to say the least.

I think you are missing the point.....it's a donation toward keeping a historic aircraft flying on the UK show circuit.....not a money making exercise for Hobbyking.

Posted by Mowerman on 27/03/2013 09:59:07: I ordered parts from UK warehouse but they were out of stock and apparantly passed the order to the Hong Kong warehouse, Took 52 days to arrive, would have been quicker by mule train. We don't do this......our system does not allow this.....can you give me the order number please to confirm your statement?

Posted by Olly P on 27/03/2013 15:16:04: Scott- I was unaware and as a returning customer to HK, I keep an eye on these threads! I 'specialise' in warranty/Quality and complaints system as a day job, and find this sort of international business model very interesting, most of my work is B2B sales, very little B2C, and even less is int'l B2C (if any). I suggest the key in all the warranty cases is communications, and while I appreciate that a very small proportion of the warranty claims develop into complaints, there will be a multiple of those which do where the customer is 'unhappy but idle' to quote a lecturer of mine, and don't persue the claim further. If the response to the specific case above had suggested returning the model to the UK warehouse for investigation, rather than jumping to store credit, I don't think we'd be having this discussion. I am a satisified, repeat, customer of HK, but as I say, this sort of thing is my living, and it irks me when good companies (like HK) make simple errors in internal processes which cause out of proportion responses. Olly Returns & refunds If you are not happy with your hobbyking.com® product you may return it back to the any of our warehouses for a full refund on the products price. Likewise......??????

Posted by Phil Brooks on 27/03/2013 15:21:54: Scott, can you explain why , when the HK office is satisfied that the servos are faulty they will not even pay postage on the replacements, but if the UK warehouse is satisfied they are faulty then I'll get (eventually) an entire replacement plane shipped at the company's expense? As Jeff says, a little more openness on the web-site would be helpful. At no time during my contact with customer services eas I given the option to return the faulty items to the UK warehouse for investigation. As I said in my original post, I appreciate that Hobbyking do try to keep costs down, and do seem to pass on those savings to their customers. I did not object to the request for video evidence, and would have been prepared to send any further evidence required to the UK warehouse, but I was never asked to. However, I'm now reluctant to take this matter any further, and will remember in future to shop very carefully when visiting Hobbyking. Edited By Phil Brooks on 27/03/2013 15:39:19 See quote below from the support tab ........it took 30 seconds for me to find this in the Hobbyking site: Returns & refunds If you are not happy with your hobbyking.com® product you may return it back to the any of our warehouses for a full refund on the products price. So......much as I am sorry it wasn't mentioned to you by CS.....they would assume that you had read this and simply didn't want to return the model....people often don't. Edited By Scott Cuppello - HobbyKing on 27/03/2013 16:01:39

This is probably because in the vast majority of cases, a complaint can be resolved without the need to return the product in question and therefore the bonus points system works (I rarely get any complaints about it)....... let's put this into perspective......the UK Warranty Department deals with the whole of Europe.....and barely see's 20 returns a week.....remove the unwanted items, the damaged in post items and I think you start to get the picture.....and that's without going into how many times items are returned to the customer as no fault found due to user error.

In a move to improve & speed up Warranty Claims, products purchased at warehouses outside of the UK can be returned to the UK Warehouse, this has been the situation for some time and has been made clear more than once on this forum. I am sorry to hear about the OP's servo issue but the only other option to the credit given was to return the complete model to the UK Warehouse and await a replacement to arrive once our warranty department had agreed that the parts were indeed faulty, not unreasonable and fairly standard practice. These threads are not at all reflective on the fault/sales ratio, which has again been discussed to death on this forum.....the warranty/sales ratio is typically 2% and out of that figure, we get a small number of complaints.....to say that the complaints shown above are truly representative of our products and us as a company (quote......."that's what you get from Hobbyking"....unquote) is way, way wide of the mark.

Please send me the order number and I will look into it, if it has been ordered from the correct warehouse and was in stock, there is no reason for us to delay it.

No worries at all Colin......just explaining the decision, I can understand somebody being a little puzzled when we went to so much trouble with the rest of the model.