Breeze and the first flight.
It arrived in the pouring rain and a good half gale of wind. On opening the parcel there she was, pristine and unused.
Now remember that I had not flown anything for the last three years so was well out of practice. I had studdied as many videos and tutorials as possible over the recent weeks. so felt moderately sure that I knew what I was about to do.
When it was all unwrapped and the battery fully charged and with the iPad Pro (Which will be the controller) to hand, I fired both up (In the correct order of course) and found the WIFI cpnnection and so they were talking to one another.
Went through the set up procedure, renamed her and set all the other parameters to what I felt would be OK. But when I got to the callibration part I had to stop because there would be just too much possible interference here.
So today we went to my prefered place to try it out. As it is winter and cold, me being a oap wimp I slid the passenger seat as far back as I could and set up a small folding table .It fitted a treat, so I could put the iPad there facing out through the windscreen. When I fired it all up and the wifi was OK I carried the Breexe away and away and still the connection was OK. Wifey was looking at the screen and signalling that it was OK.
Came back a bit and she knew I was going to do the calibration. That also worked well.
I have a take off wooden pad with an H painted in the middle as a take of spot, and hoping that the satellite lock would be accurate in the Breeze.
We had decided to just use the SELFIE mode this time, as it would be easier to control things with the sliders this time, and maybe more times as required. The iPad was now showing 16 satellites and so we were good to go.
Deep breath, and take off. Up she went nice and slowly to the required height and stopped. We both watched, heart beat raised somewhat. After about 15 seconds she started drifting a bit up. OH crap, what's going on. I checked it with the height slider and it came down but again after a while it did it again. I did not know it at the time but it seems that the GPS creates a sort of bubble inside which the breeze can drift about.
Anyway, I did the go away and come back, rotate and move the camera up and down. all that seemed fine.
I had looked at the screen as she rose up and saw the RISING and hen the CAMERA button. Checked that it was in video mode and thought I had pressed the START red button. I forgot to se if it was in fact recording. Later I found out that it wasn't. so tough luck with that. That will happen properly next time.
Time was passing so we said... Land it. I tried to position it over the landing pad as best I could then pressed the land button.
OH CRAP. Wrong button. It was the RTH one. As the Breeze rocketed skywards, wifey and I chorused some naughty words. I hung out of the car and there she was happily hovering at the 30 ft mark. WHEW!!!!! I realised then what I had done. Sure enough after a few seconds down she came, slowly and gracefully to a soft landing about three feet from the take off spot.
So what have we learned. This one is OK. It was only because my previous encounter three years ago with what turned out to be a complete lemon that I abandoned quad flying. So now my confidence is slowly returning but it wil take several more very slow and easy flights before I feel secure enough to move on to the next step.
Tomorrow is suppsed to be another fine and wind free day, so the batteries are being recharged and hopefully we will be able to do it all again. This t ime with the recorder working. Would you like me to tell how it goes?
It arrived in the pouring rain and a good half gale of wind. On opening the parcel there she was, pristine and unused.
Now remember that I had not flown anything for the last three years so was well out of practice. I had studdied as many videos and tutorials as possible over the recent weeks. so felt moderately sure that I knew what I was about to do.
When it was all unwrapped and the battery fully charged and with the iPad Pro (Which will be the controller) to hand, I fired both up (In the correct order of course) and found the WIFI cpnnection and so they were talking to one another.
Went through the set up procedure, renamed her and set all the other parameters to what I felt would be OK. But when I got to the callibration part I had to stop because there would be just too much possible interference here.
So today we went to my prefered place to try it out. As it is winter and cold, me being a oap wimp I slid the passenger seat as far back as I could and set up a small folding table .It fitted a treat, so I could put the iPad there facing out through the windscreen. When I fired it all up and the wifi was OK I carried the Breexe away and away and still the connection was OK. Wifey was looking at the screen and signalling that it was OK.
Came back a bit and she knew I was going to do the calibration. That also worked well.
I have a take off wooden pad with an H painted in the middle as a take of spot, and hoping that the satellite lock would be accurate in the Breeze.
We had decided to just use the SELFIE mode this time, as it would be easier to control things with the sliders this time, and maybe more times as required. The iPad was now showing 16 satellites and so we were good to go.
Deep breath, and take off. Up she went nice and slowly to the required height and stopped. We both watched, heart beat raised somewhat. After about 15 seconds she started drifting a bit up. OH crap, what's going on. I checked it with the height slider and it came down but again after a while it did it again. I did not know it at the time but it seems that the GPS creates a sort of bubble inside which the breeze can drift about.
Anyway, I did the go away and come back, rotate and move the camera up and down. all that seemed fine.
I had looked at the screen as she rose up and saw the RISING and hen the CAMERA button. Checked that it was in video mode and thought I had pressed the START red button. I forgot to se if it was in fact recording. Later I found out that it wasn't. so tough luck with that. That will happen properly next time.
Time was passing so we said... Land it. I tried to position it over the landing pad as best I could then pressed the land button.
OH CRAP. Wrong button. It was the RTH one. As the Breeze rocketed skywards, wifey and I chorused some naughty words. I hung out of the car and there she was happily hovering at the 30 ft mark. WHEW!!!!! I realised then what I had done. Sure enough after a few seconds down she came, slowly and gracefully to a soft landing about three feet from the take off spot.
So what have we learned. This one is OK. It was only because my previous encounter three years ago with what turned out to be a complete lemon that I abandoned quad flying. So now my confidence is slowly returning but it wil take several more very slow and easy flights before I feel secure enough to move on to the next step.
Tomorrow is suppsed to be another fine and wind free day, so the batteries are being recharged and hopefully we will be able to do it all again. This t ime with the recorder working. Would you like me to tell how it goes?
