Bonzo Moon

Posted by Martyn K on 28/11/2018 11:42:52: If this video was taken in September 2018 then at 3000ft above take off height then that flight was illegal.. IMHO that is reckless and you are jeopardising all the hard work that the BMFA has carried out to gain us the height restriction exemptions..   Edited By Martyn K on 28/11/2018 11:43:54   As I was flying a paramotor and not a drone or rc model, it was not illegal!   My post does say 'I was hand holding the camera' too. I thought pretty clear that it wasn't a model flight. I do know the drone code and CAA regs and I'm pilot rated as a paraglider pilot so amongst other things have studied air law I was flying VFR and there is no restricted airspace at that location.   Had it have been a drone flight it would have indeed been very stupid and reckless!   Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 12:01:22 Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 12:02:05 Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 12:05:23 Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 12:21:51

I know in the past my other personal flying videos have gone down well on here, here's one from late summer. (I have a motor now!) This time the SJCam SJ7 Star action camera. I was hand holding the camera, so a bit shakey at times! 3,000 feet asl. Great views.

Another test I've made the last couple of weeks. Micro FPV camera and tx combination from Hawkeye Firefly. Good lightweight camera. 8 gms. tx 2 gms. Switchable output 25 - 200 mW. 25 mW is UK max. Haven't tried it in flight yet as too wet and windy but I hope to soon.

I don't know how big your quad is but I have tried various cameras on my drone. Currently favourite is a Firefly 7S camera on my much modified Bayangtoys X21. (There's no way I'm going to shell out hundreds of pounds for a Mavic Pro!( I also added a motorised gimbal. Firefly Q6 also has great quality 1080 video. It's smaller and lighter than a 7s. Similar size to a Mobius. Cheaper still.  Matecam X1  and GitUp Git2 are also excellent. There's aerial video from them on my channel too. I tested all of these cameras are on my YouTube channel, plus there's a lot more aerial video too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_lM_-wLmDEAdOkZ-_LbZww?view_as=subscriber Costs? x21 probably £130 nowadays. 2 gps. Good position hold. RTH . failsafe etc. Firefly 7s will also do FPV. £60 And gimbal was £30 (though I ended up paying duty on it Here's one of my aerial vids. Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 11:03:13 Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 11:19:02

Unboxing and a short test flight of the new mini quad from ThiEYE who are better known for action cameras. Quite a clever little quad and very stable for a small drone. Barometric sensor holds altitude well and an optical flow sensor looks at the ground and maintains horizontal position surprisingly well. It records 1080 30 fps to an onboard microcard. (not supplied) . Quality was OK but not stunning. and it streams FPV to your smart phone. You need a smart phone as control is by wifi. I'm not a great fan of phone app wifi control, much prefer a proper controller but it was a fun gadget and would be good to slip into the car or suitcase for a holiday. You can buy an optional external charger and spare batteries. Flight time about 8 minutes. About £60 with voucher code or Black Friday deals.   Edited By Bonzo Moon on 28/11/2018 10:50:22

Thanks Mark. Yes, it seems a great little heli for the money. Re the advice, unfortunately you couldn't get the right angle on the servo lever to just unhook it and put on the other hole! I'd have done it had it been possible. And as far as rates goes, the manual is next to useless, top right is gyro debugging, top left has no effect at all on rates as far as I can tell. Normally changing rates on a model has an obvious effect on how lively it is? It's controllable now and I can fly it indoors without crashing! It was very very twitchy before. Certainly appears to be durable , I pranged a few times early flights, but always make sure I kill the throttle if I see it coming. That's the secret. I have some little choppers (the easy fly type) that have survived a few years at my hands now! It's trimmed well now, climbs vertically when you open the throttle but there is still quite a large null zone and once in the air it needs tweaking to keep it from drifiting some direction. And it's not that it always drifts in the same direction or I'd have trimmed it out more. Maybe the gyro isn't that precise, or the engineering.     But for £30, with tx included,  you don't expect precision engineering! Edited By Bonzo Moon on 15/09/2018 14:39:29 Edited By Bonzo Moon on 15/09/2018 14:40:22

Unboxing the v911s. Budget price heli, around £30 including transmitter on my link. It was a bit twitchy (as another reviewer described it) but after a few tweaks I can fly this indoors now. Tweaks are on the 2nd video. A bit nerve wracking to do as you could damage the chopper if heavy handed! So do them carefully at your own risk! Banggood link with more details.     Edited By Pete B - Moderator on 11/09/2018 18:15:54