Production Logs: 4-25-2019 Project Aerospace and Photations

4-25-2019

Project Aerospace

            Today I returned to Creasey Bicentennial Park. This time my goal was to fly over the medium sized prairie. This prairie is right next to the soccer fields, but I did not have enough battery time to fly at both places. Also the previous flight’s crash landing needed to be repaired at home and could not be done in the field.

            This was a remarkably peaceful flight. I started off by taking photos and video of this exercise hill. People use this steep hill for running up and down. Nothing bad happened during this flight and it was extremely calm winds. The weather report was that there would be clouds but no rain, this was a lie. Driving to the park there was a little rain but I decided that I would get to the park and see if it was still raining. Once I got to the park the light drizzle of rain had stopped. 

            After finishing from the exercise hill I moved to the back of the park where the prairie was. I used two of the smaller 1800mah batteries so the last two small batteries I used for line of sight flying. Unfortunately the camera mount had become a little lose. I tightened it in the field but I was worried it might get loose again during a flight.

            During the line of sight flights, I was very slow and cautious not making any quick movements with the drone. Both flights on the smaller batteries went extremely well and the 3 min timer was very useful. I always made the landing before the batteries power began to run out and become unstable which added to the relaxing nature of this flight.

            The two last flights were the FPV gear. Confident with the previous four flights I set up my video goggles and began the flight. The signal was clear the entire time. There I found a dead zone while flying. It wasn’t a real problem because I was flying extremely slow and smoothly so when I noticed signal problems I quickly brought the drone back towards me and the signal was stronger again. The second flight on the larger 2200 mah battery went well until the end. I was flying behind myself and hit a second dead zone in a different location then the first. Because the drone was close to me and no one was around I decided it was best just to land it there.

            The Landing was a little fast and hard and one of the drone motor arms cracked off. This may sound like a big problem but it is actually a motor arm that cracked off before. It was still a clean break and the only part that snapped was the wooden popsicle stick that was there just for re-enforcement. Meaning it will be a quick and easy fix.

            What I learned from this flight is don’t fly behind yourself with a FPV flight (First Pilot View). The dead zone isn’t so much from the environment but from the direction of the transmitter. Different Transmitter antennas have different problem areas. Dipole antennas have a good range in all directions except for directly above the antenna. The dead zone for this transmitter seems to be at angles behind the transmitter. To be fair the transmitters antenna is internal and small at that and this is the first two time I ever ran into transmitter problems within the 3 years I’ve been flying the drone. To be honest I believe that It is interference from the FPV transmitter on the drone that makes the drone’s receiver to the controller have difficulty receiving the signal. I’ve only had this problem since I increased the FPV transmitter power. I did this so that I would have a stronger more reliable video downlink, now I just have to stay with in this new shorter range of the remote.

            I packed up and made my way to the Genesee health park. I made sure to take my tripod and packed it by the front door. However, I forgot something and went out the back door and left the tripod. I found this out once I got to the parking lot. This was okay I just attached the camera to my cane chair that I use when flying with FPV. It took a little duck tape but it worked.

            This was an easier shoot because I was just reshooting what I had failed to before due to me recording with the wrong setting. It was very relaxing hiking with no backpack and just one camera. It did however still take a long time. This was because I would set up the makeshift tripod then record for 30 seconds then walk 15-20 feet down the trail see something interesting then repeat the process.

            I took about 2 hours to film this reshoot and the footage came out okay. There is still one more trail at this location that I need to film and take photos of but that will have to be another day. It’s one of the longer sections and would be about 4 miles of walking.

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