Here it is folks, the video from the first few flights with my newly built Skywalker 1900 mm EPO. I love this plane :)

Our weekly thursday FPV-meeting went out great. After hours and hours of build I finally got my new Skywalker 1900 mm airborne. Maiden flights are always exciting since you don’t know if you’ll have to carry the plane home in more parts than one :) I got exactly the same setup as I did with with my old Skywalker V4 except that I’ve installed a GPS-tracker into my new plane.

I made the first flight visually and made a couple of turns around the field. The new wing profile takes air a lot faster than the older version did which equals easier take-off’s. The plane behaved very good in air and I think it behaves very similar to the older Skywalker except that the ailerons are different. On the 1900 mm version the ailerons are smaller but placed further out on the wing. Turns/banks with ailerons are a lot smoother and more calm than before (which I like) but it’ll probably take a few more flights to get used to. I got the advice to change expo on the aileron channel to make it reply more quickly and that improved the flight experience a lot.

I flew 5 times with my plane and I liked it more and more after each flight. It’s a great plane – no doubt about it.

Resting in the grass …

Pretty good weather, don’t you think? :)

Framegrab from Gopro Hero 2 video. Chasing after my friends’ Multiplex Funjet.

I’ve read a lot about the Parrot AR Drone (a quadcopter that you control with either your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad) but I’ve never seen it fly live. Recently one of my friends bought one and I got the opportunity to have a closer look on one of the most well-known quad copters out there.

Once plugged in the Parrot AR Drone generates its own WI-FI network to which you connect your Apple unit to control. All you have to do after that is to press the ”Take off” button on your iPhone and it takes of and stabilizes at 80 cm altitude. You steer it with either the accelerometer or with controls on the touch screen. On the screen you’ll be able to see what the Drone sees from two different cameras, one is located in the front and the other one is aimed to the ground (bomb view).

Even though my friend’s Drone had some pretty bad props I truly could see the potential of it. It’s super stable, very easy to fly and a great way to get into the basics of multicopters and FPV. It’s quite limited though since it’s not possible to fly further away than 50 m …

Parrot AR Drone on ground.

Airborne :-)

Latest picture of my new Skywalker 1900 mm. I’m really looking forward to try it out :-)

Each thursday me and my friends meet up to either fly fpv or to build and modify our models. Down below is a framegrab from the last recorded video. Everything went great and nothing was harmed. The platform I used was my Easystar with EZOSD.

Since my old and loved Skywalker is still gone I decided to buy myself a new one. I really liked the plane so I decided to go for another one. The new Skywalker has the new wing design with enlarged wings (1900 mm instead of 1680 mm) which means more lift and less current :-)

I’ve come quite a long way with the build and I hope to get it airborne next week.

I’ve hid the hinges and painted all rudders fluoroscent red :-)

I’m sorry by the way cause I havent wrote anything in here during the last couple of weeks. The reason for that is that we’ve bought a house with a big garden! It feels great but it takes quite some time to get the hang of everything. We’ll be moving in on 1 of June 2012.