Hello from Seattle

[Chris Duncan]

Pretty new to the whole FPV thing and flying RC in general although I did do some RC dirt car racing a few years back.

This vid got me interested.

and this vid got me hooked.

Being a long time shade tree engineer and SW drafter I'm wanting to design and build something myself. It's taking quite a while just to observe a good selection of what's been built up to now, much less absorb all the details. I keep finding new ideas I haven't seen before.

Anyway it's just in the design stage so far. It's called Velocikoptor and it's flying in the virtual world. I had a little problem yesterday though, I think I might have strayed into restricted airspace, someone over-rode my RC signal and I was forced to land. I'm going public in the hopes my craft doesn't' get "disappeared" by the black ops.

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I'll start a build thread if it doesn't get confiscated.

 

[Roger Ramjet]

Hi Chris and welcome aboard!

I think that you are very fortunate to have found this forum. As you will quickly discover, all the members I have talk to so far are absolute passionate enthusiasts and very generous with their time and advice. There is a incredible amount of information on this site and it has helped me very much so far, even with 30 + years of RC experience.

The 2 videos you are showing are indeed very nice and give me the need to go flying despite 2 feet of snow and a temperature of 20F. Powerful stuff eh! Stick around, look around and learn all there is to know about any type of multi rotor flying right here on this site.

By the way, what is a shade tree engineer and SW?

Rodge

 

[Chris Duncan]

Hi Chris and welcome aboard!


By the way, what is a shade tree engineer and SW?

Rodge

Thanks for the reply and the welcome. "shade tree" is slang for no formal schooling, but maybe a lot of experience. It's more commonly used as "shade tree mechanic". Like someone who can't afford a garage so they work under a shade tree, although I do have a garage. I've been building kit cars from scratch for a long time so have a lot of hands on engineering experience.

SW is SolidWorks, From Dassault, a French software company. It's the most popular solids based CAD program for mechanical drawing. Solids basically means a solid virtual 3d model. The screen grab of the quad above the Pentagon was taken in SW.

 

[Roger Ramjet]

Ok, I understand. I think this is very good for the type of challenges ahead in designing, building and flying your own design. Quite a way to enter the hobby!

I may suggest to you one important thing: you got to get flying! After all, your ability to familiarize yourself and develop skills with a multi rotor is the ultimate goal of any projects, ideas and design you may have. To do so, many small MR (multi rotor) are available and would get you started, indoor and outdoors, for relatively cheap. It is also a great source of motivation for your project. Check out the videos of a small but great MR called Ladybird made by Walkera. It is sturdy, cheap and flies great. An excellent plateform to hone your skills before getting to the full size MR.

That may also influence your design that would be based on your own, real time, flying experience. A complete Ladybird, batteries and charger can be purchased for less than 80.00. I would strongly suggest that you get a Devo 7 radio controller with your quad as it has DUAL RATES (possibility to REDUCE the quad manoeuvrability). This is very important for indoor flying and learning how to fly. The Ladybird, despite the name..., can be quite a performer when flown at full rate and much more difficult to fly when you are beginning.

Of course there are other models, but I have purchased this exact set up and I know it works great.

Cheers and happy New Year as a soon to be quad pilot!

Rodge