So now the story moves on to the second flights.
As I reported in the first saga the day after promised to be just as good, and it was. Now that;s somethig of a record for us here on the Isle of Man, but the forecasters didn't tell us porkies this time. Blue sky and now a cloud in sight and no wind..
All was ready so we loadeed the car and set off. It was not far to the second site, well it's not far to anywhere here on the rock, and we were expecting to see several cars and people there it being such a nice day. To our surprise we were alone. The site is one of several old disused mine shaft buildings More just monuments to a time when minng was a big employer, now all gone.
Because the surronding ground is now cntaminated with a lot of the old waste it is considered unsafe for development, and so has become a haunt for many of the local off road bikers, to come a have a great deal of fun.
Still very nervous I set up the H pad set theBreeze on it and turned it on. Had the iPad ready in the car and wifey ,who is now getting into this flying stuff, set that going and made the WIFI connection.
Still thinking caution we decided to stay in Selfie mode , both of us liking the sliders for control.
Took her off and just let her hover for a while so that the HOME point is well remembered, This time I remembered to sstart the video running and made sure the numbers were climbing. We studied the iPad screen noting all the readouts, number of satellites 17 as it happened. battery levels etc etc, Then just some very simple moves. up a bit. down a bit. out a bit back a bit rotate a bit and so on. We were so engrossed by all this that time flew by and the battery level started dropping. Not at the danger level, but as I had other batteries I felt that prudence was the best course of action this time.
Touched the RTH button and as expected this time up she went hovered and the landed close to the H pad. Changed the battery and off again. Now this time I tried the PILOT mode.
Ah !!! this is different. I think it will take some time to become used to the virtual sticks. For me there is NO tactile feeling, and you can wander very easily. I tried the various moves with Wifey watching which way Breeze was in fact going. I think that as a stranger to the virtual it was best to just try to go in a traight line towards a fixed point. It is odd how it is difficult to judge where you are when nearing an object, looking at a screen. something to get used to I guess. How FPV racers do it is way beyond my poor brain to accept. So very slow and steady, and keep tjhe Breeze close. Another FPV (I just like that bit) and time to call it a day.
This time I did get quite a lot of video and am mightlily impressed with the way the camera handles it. I decided to downlload it to the PC On playing it back just raw it is excellent. I use an editing software called Sony Vegas Pro which is a great way to edit . I took out most of the boring stuff, but there is still possibly too much left, So I added some music and did a voice over and the result is this
I prefer Vimeo as it compresse better than Youtube methinks.
I know ot is not a blockbuster, but I hope that when the weather permits I will be able to move along the learning curve and come up with something much better.
Hopefully more in the near future. comments good or bad are always welcome as it is the spur to do better next time.
Cheers
Drew
As I reported in the first saga the day after promised to be just as good, and it was. Now that;s somethig of a record for us here on the Isle of Man, but the forecasters didn't tell us porkies this time. Blue sky and now a cloud in sight and no wind..
All was ready so we loadeed the car and set off. It was not far to the second site, well it's not far to anywhere here on the rock, and we were expecting to see several cars and people there it being such a nice day. To our surprise we were alone. The site is one of several old disused mine shaft buildings More just monuments to a time when minng was a big employer, now all gone.
Because the surronding ground is now cntaminated with a lot of the old waste it is considered unsafe for development, and so has become a haunt for many of the local off road bikers, to come a have a great deal of fun.
Still very nervous I set up the H pad set theBreeze on it and turned it on. Had the iPad ready in the car and wifey ,who is now getting into this flying stuff, set that going and made the WIFI connection.
Still thinking caution we decided to stay in Selfie mode , both of us liking the sliders for control.
Took her off and just let her hover for a while so that the HOME point is well remembered, This time I remembered to sstart the video running and made sure the numbers were climbing. We studied the iPad screen noting all the readouts, number of satellites 17 as it happened. battery levels etc etc, Then just some very simple moves. up a bit. down a bit. out a bit back a bit rotate a bit and so on. We were so engrossed by all this that time flew by and the battery level started dropping. Not at the danger level, but as I had other batteries I felt that prudence was the best course of action this time.
Touched the RTH button and as expected this time up she went hovered and the landed close to the H pad. Changed the battery and off again. Now this time I tried the PILOT mode.
Ah !!! this is different. I think it will take some time to become used to the virtual sticks. For me there is NO tactile feeling, and you can wander very easily. I tried the various moves with Wifey watching which way Breeze was in fact going. I think that as a stranger to the virtual it was best to just try to go in a traight line towards a fixed point. It is odd how it is difficult to judge where you are when nearing an object, looking at a screen. something to get used to I guess. How FPV racers do it is way beyond my poor brain to accept. So very slow and steady, and keep tjhe Breeze close. Another FPV (I just like that bit) and time to call it a day.
This time I did get quite a lot of video and am mightlily impressed with the way the camera handles it. I decided to downlload it to the PC On playing it back just raw it is excellent. I use an editing software called Sony Vegas Pro which is a great way to edit . I took out most of the boring stuff, but there is still possibly too much left, So I added some music and did a voice over and the result is this
I prefer Vimeo as it compresse better than Youtube methinks.
I know ot is not a blockbuster, but I hope that when the weather permits I will be able to move along the learning curve and come up with something much better.
Hopefully more in the near future. comments good or bad are always welcome as it is the spur to do better next time.
Cheers
Drew
