More Quadcopter fun :)

I went back to the soccer field this morning, but about an hour later than I did last Friday, so the sun had time to burn off the mist that was around this morning but had also had time to whip up a bit of a breeze. The wind would have made flying my old, toy quad completely impossible, but was not problem for this one- though it did make it interesting 🙂

I’m still just doing what I call “circuits and bumps”: flying around and getting more of a feel for it and then landing and doing it again. I’m still also mostly flying in what is called “self level” mode, which means that if you let go of the sticks on the controller it should just level off and hover (not exactly what happens- especially in this wind!); but I did try a few times flying it in “rate” mode, which means that if you have it tilted forward to fly forward and let go of the sticks it will stay tilted forward and moving forward. It’s much more responsive in this mode, but much less forgiving.

And what a difference balancing the props made! The video is so much smoother and the motors sound less angry- though I have noticed that there is a lot of buzzing from all the loose-ish wires and cable ties etc… I need to go over the whole quad and neaten and tidy everything up. But I flew for over an hour and didn’t break a single prop- amazing! Though I will admit they were pretty chewed up and out of balance by the end of the session and should have been changed at some point, and one of my heavier landings must have knocked the lens of my little recording camera as all the last few videos are out of focus. I will try and fix it, but a guy I met on one Reddit (where I posted last week’s video) is sending me a much better camera anyway 🙂

So, another very successful morning! What I really need is the chance to fly every morning for a few days, or to be able to stay all day and recharge the batteries as I go so I can really start to learn, but even doing it like this is great fun.