Roswell Flight Test Crew

Social Media Links

Connecticut quadcopter video for Memorial Day

One of our longest-running correspondences has been with a gentleman named John who lives in Bristol, Connecticut. A professional photographer, he built a quadcopter with the specific goal of using it to capture aerial imagery and also as a potential tool for news gathering.

John recently moved his machine over to the NAZA and used it to record a moving Memorial Day tribute at a military cemetery, when veterans and volunteers placed more than 7,100 American flags by service members' gravestones. Check it out:

 

Nice work, John! You really showed the potential of this platform and created a unique tribute that I'm sure will mean a lot to everyone who participated and the families of the fallen who are interred at the cemetery.

-Lucidity

FPVers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your buddy box!

Exciting news this morning from our friends over at FPVLab.com. Along with every other member of the forum, I got an e-mail from Sentry. It included two web links, which I would urge anyone with an interest in FPV to follow up on immediately:

First, the Academy of Model Aeronautics has released a survey, asking about FPV RC flying. If you fly FPV, or aspire to, I'd suggest you complete the survey. Hopefully, this will motivate the AMA to take a more permissive view regarding FPV operations – and we'll benefit from the $2.5 million in liability insurance they provide.

Second, Patrick McKay out of Parker, Colorado, has put together a petition on Change.org, calling on AMA President Bob Brown and the executive council to eliminate two of the most onerous rules governing FPV flying: the “buddy-box” requirement and the “visual line of sight” rule. Go check it out and add your name.

-Lucidity

POSTING VIDEO: 2012 Winthrop Balloon Roundup

Earlier this year, we traveled north from our home base in Portland, Oregon, to the tiny town of Winthrop, Washington – the literal end of the road. One day during our visit, we drove a couple of miles past the cabin where we were staying and found a prominent warning sign posted right in the middle of the road that read, “Not maintained by the Department of Transportation during the winter months,” or words to that effect.

Fortunately, what we came to see was in the air, not on the ground – the 2012 Winthrop Balloon Roundup. Here is our video:

 

We've had a great relationship with the local ballooning community since the Tigard Festival of Balloons last year, which inaugurated our YouTube channel – and especially with Captain Crystal and her crew at the Morning Star Balloon Company.

She invited us to attend the roundup this year, and you can see from the video why it was such a treat for us: brightly colored balloons drifting over snow-covered valleys, friendly people and a beautiful, rustic town.

-Lucidity

POSTING VIDEO: Horyzon HD FPV Camera Unboxing, Setup and GoPro Comparison

When FoxTechFPV promised “The BEST 1080P Full HD FPV Camera in the World,” you had to know we were going to pick one up to test out. As you'll see in our latest video, there is a lot to like:

  

It costs $100 less and weighs half as much as a GoPro, it can take power directly from your control receiver, has a built in screen and is plug-and-play with many common video transmitters.

By comparison, the GoPro is extremely robust – and I'm a big fan of robust – so I don't think I'll be changing over my birds anytime soon.

However, I can definitely see a place for the Horyzon HD on smaller, lightweight birds – including one that Techinstein is putting together right now, and another one we have on the drawing board. Overall, it's a pretty sweet little package.

-Lucidity

POSTING VIDEO: A Beginner's Guide to Building an FPV Quadcopter

Fair warning – this is a very long video. I expect that only the most dedicated and hearty souls will see all of it. There is no new aerial footage, just Techinstein and me sitting in dark with a PowerPoint presentation, talking about the fundamentals of FPV multirotor operations.

We gave this talk at Norwescon 35 in Seattle last month under the title “Own a Drone: Build and Fly Your Own UAV.” It was aimed at a novice audience – people interested in getting started, but without any RC or FPV experience, so we cover the basics in depth. We also took a lot of questions from the audience. Check it out:

 

We owe a huge shout out to our friends at MediaFX Video Production in Beaverton, Oregon, who captured this talk and spent hours editing it down from a rambling 55-minute presentation into a much more concise 26 minute package.

Just in case you ever meet us in person, I don't want you to be disappointed – we're not nearly this articulate. The editor told us that she took out two solid minutes of “umm's” and “uhh's,” on along with all of the other detritus.

Don't worry – she left in enough “war stories” and inside jokes that you'll definitely come away from this video feeling like you've been to a con, without having to slip on a skin-tight Na'vi body suit or sweat it out inside a stormtrooper helmet all day.

-Lucidity

Hail, Spawn of Raven!

Wherever you are, hoist a glass to our friend Richard in Seattle. He has joined the ranks of multirotor pilots with a successful flight test of his own home-built hexacopter. We've been corresponding with him for some time via e-mail, and we had the opportunity to meet him in person at Norwescon.

He brought along with him the airframe for his bird-to-be, based on our successful design for RQCX-3 “Raven.” Now complete, you can see it fly for the first time on his YouTube channel:

 

Richard has a wry sense of humor that I've come to appreciate during our exchanges, and you got a taste of it in his video. We also enjoyed the commentary offered by a woman watching from off-screen, especially that foreboding question: “Do you mean to go that fast?”

We're glad that Raven now has a cousin flying in “our sister city in misery and drizzle” and honored to be cited as his inspiration. We're really looking forward to seeing where he goes next!

-Lucidity

What was that hovering over my awards ceremony?

Over the past two evenings, we tasked RQCX-3 “Raven” with an unfamiliar assignment: flying indoors at the Portland Art Museum with a lighted sign slung beneath her undercarriage. The occasions were back-to-back awards ceremonies, starting with the Oregon TechAwards 2012 on Wednesday, followed on Thursday by the Daily Journal of Commerce Top Projects of 2012.

The Roswell Flight Test Crew was asked to come out and lend a little magic – and a little prop wash – to both events. Apart from the fact that we kept blowing out the candles scattered artfully around the centerpiece on each table, everything went off perfectly. Kudos to the service staff who chased after Raven, patiently re-lighting them after every flight.

We built our flying sign in a mad rush on Tuesday evening using foam core, strips of LEDs, construction paper, hockey tape and wishful thinking. It was powered using an auxiliary battery secured to one of Raven's legs with, you guessed it, more hockey tape.

-Lucidity

ALERT: Flight Operations Planned for 06-May-2012

BE ADVISED! The Roswell Flight Test Crew anticipates conducting flight operations on Sunday, May 6 at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. Drones expected to participate include RQCX-2 “Galaxian” and and RQCX-3 “Raven” with RQCX-1 “Little Bird” in reserve. Operations will be conducted in conjunction with the first day of The West Coast Session. END MESSAGE.

Own the crew!

...okay, maybe it would be more accurate to say, ‘Rent the crew!’ You probably wouldn’t want to own us, anyway – between food and spare parts, we could deplete the mightiest of personal fortunes in a matter of weeks...

That said, we are being auctioned off this Saturday at a fundraiser being held by Tribute to Honor in Oregon City. Tribute to Honor is a non-profit organization, dedicated to helping emergency responders and their families through crisis and loss.

Given our dedication to public safety, we’d have been honored to participate regardless of the details, but this particular event is raising money for a woman and her baby caught up in the midst of an almost unspeakable tragedy.

The baby was born a twin, but when he was less than three months old, his brother was killed and now his father, the woman’s husband, is awaiting trial for the murder. You can read an article about this heartbreaking story in the Oregon City News.

For our part, here is the write-up we supplied to Tribute to Honor, describing what you get for the high bid on the “Roswell Flight Test Crew:”

"As the winning bidder for this unique lot, you will have UFOs at your command. The Roswell Flight Test Crew operates multi-rotor drone aircraft. Disk-shaped, they can hover, pivot, and fly in any direction all while recording high-definition video and transmitting live images to a remote ground station.

"Featured on KATU Channel 2 and KOIN Local 6, the Roswell Flight Test Crew is exploring how these Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems can be utilized by the public safety community, providing real-time reconnaissance in high-risk situations such as: large structure and wildland fires, tactical call outs, search and rescue missions, crime scene investigation and hazardous material spills.

"Make the winning bid and you won't need to wait for disaster to strike to see this cutting-edge technology in action. Take a virtual aerial tour of your neighborhood. Provide your child's school with a science lesson that they will never forget. Document a personal or professional achievement from a perspective that cannot be matched.

"If you choose to have the crew fly over a noteworthy public event or participate in an emergency services training exercise, they will even create a video to be featured on their YouTube channel."

Here are the details:

Saturday, May 5, 7 p.m.
The Tumwater Room
211 Tumwater Avenue
Oregon City, Oregon

 Be sure to bring your checkbook..

-Lucidity

A very close shave...

One of our upcoming projects – very cool but still top secret – will require Techinstein and I to have our birds in the air simultaneously. We've been having some trouble with video interference, so we headed out to Graham Oaks Nature Park to try out our latest solution.

The problem has been that ever since I installed my new 5.8 GHz TX-V585X transmitter along with a set of BluBeam skew-planar antennas from HobbyWireless.com, I've been getting crystal-clear video from my craft – and so has Techinstein.

When I get within 50 feet of his receiver, also on 5.8 GHz, suddenly all he can see is the video feed from my bird. Personally, I think it's cool, but he's been complaining that it makes it hard for him to control his craft. Whatever.

We tried changing channels and so forth, all to no avail. I think that transmitter is just so powerful and with the skew-planar antenna is indiscriminately spraying video in every direction, I'm just swamping the entire band.

So, Techinstein has moved all the way to the other end of the spectrum. He's now transmitting at 900 MHz, and we're able to share the sky without our video signals running into each other. The problem is, our birds almost did.

As you can see in the photo above, we got very, very close – and that wasn't on purpose. I was flying along a trail when I saw something in the distance. By the time I could make out that it was Techinstein's bird and it was headed right for me, it was almost too late. I pushed the throttle to the stopper, and I'd be surprised if his floppy 72 MHz receiver antenna didn't brush past my undercarriage.

With his camera aimed slightly down, he never even saw me – although he did say that his bird dipped as it passed through my prop wash.

That, my friends, is a close shave...

-Lucidity