Ok, I will follow the trend and introduce myself. Since that is the socially acceptable thing to do. 

I live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I fly in my own 1 acre backyard. Yes I belong to a flying club that I help started back in 1986. However the field needs a lot of maintenance and is 15 plus miles away. It rains a lot over here (we are about the rainiest city with a population of over 25,000 people). A lot of times by the time I get to the field it is raining. Where as if I fly at home I can dash out and put up a flight in between rain storm.

I am actually looking into getting a DarwinFPV Hulk to fly in the rain.

I started flying RC when I was 13 years old back in 1968. I flew 60 size pattern planes and even dabbled in some competition. I also did 10 years of aerial photography for local realtors. First with an RC helicopter (electric) then I started to dabble in multi copters when the flight controllers became a bit more available. Yes I used to run down to the local store to buy up all those Nitendo Wii conrtrollers and Nunchuks so I can harvest the gyros and accelerometers. However the MultiWii controllers had what I called the "wobble of death". Then there were other flight controllers available like Hoverfly, KK, AutoQuad and Open Pilot. I finally settled on the Pixhawk for a long time.

I never did FPV. I was flying the multi copters line of sight. However I did have an FPV camera on board for the camera operator. That became a bit cumbersome.

Now that I no long fly for money because of the FAA regulations I just fly for fun.

My new year resolution is to start to learn to fly FPV in earnest. So I started playing with the flight sim on the computer. Then bought my first whoop (Mobula 8) back in February 8th. I was backing up into trees a lot. Then finally I got the hang of it and my collection exploded. Now I am up to 8 quads and wanting to collect more.

My focus is still on sub 250 grams and fly in my backyard. I like to create quiet machines so I don't bother my neighbors early in the morning or late at night. 

Analog is still a lot more fun for me than digital. I have a lot of hardware to collect and test in analog which gives me purpose. 

So I will be sharing some of my experience with these hardware I tested and I read everything I can to learn about different things involving FPV. 

I am glad the flight controllers for the multi copters are getting so good nowadays. They are inexpensive and even if I don't bother (which I don't) to do any PID tune the flight controllers just flies. No more wobble of death. 

Plus ExpressLRS really opened the door to more reliable radio protocol. I also have something like 12 different transmitters. A lot of them were FrSky only because they were the first to provide PPM connection to the flight controller with one single cable before Futaba came out with sBus. However I think I have lost more airplanes and multi copters because of FrSky so I am weaning myself off from them. 

Awesome backstory and welcome to the forum mate!   You've got a nice little collection there.

Just wait till you go digital, and you will 

(10-Apr-2024, 01:33 PM)ph2t Wrote: Awesome backstory and welcome to the forum mate!   You've got a nice little collection there.

Just wait till you go digital, and you will 

I did. Two of the quads in the picture are Walksnail. Then said I still like tinkering with analog. I do fly the Walksnail quads but I don't mess with them much. I like to tinker.

Welcome      

Yeah, I was born in 1952 and fly just for fun (legitimate Recreational Exemption).

I am more of an endurance pilot and primarily fly in ANGLE (STAB) or HORIZON
fly modes. I have flown in ACRO, but really don't care for it. Well, I don't do stunts
as that just makes me dizzy and disoriented. Just me, I guess.

All of my gear has analog video. Since I don't do anything with the video, don't
post it, and no one sees it but me, the analog feed is certainly good enough to
fly with.  

I don't generally tune my quads as they all fly just fine on the default, stock, 
factory tune. Before I touch any of the tune, I fly the quad to get a baseline.
If it flies fine, then I am done. If it ain't broke, Then Don't fix it. 

Welcome to the best forum for FPV.

Later, iFly 

Welcome! There is another member here from Hawaii and always nice to see him post his beach flights.
If it is not too windy in your backyard, you might want to consider a 2" 2S open prop flyer. They are great fun in smaller spaces and pretty quiet as well, and even a Walksnail build will make a nice agile cruiser. If you like doing a lot of acrobatics, then maybe add a more traditional 3" toothpick to your mix.

(11-Apr-2024, 01:07 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Welcome      

Yeah, I was born in 1952 and fly just for fun (legitimate Recreational Exemption).

I am more of an endurance pilot and primarily fly in ANGLE (STAB) or HORIZON
fly modes. I have flown in ACRO, but really don't care for it. Well, I don't do stunts
as that just makes me dizzy and disoriented. Just me, I guess.

All of my gear has analog video. Since I don't do anything with the video, don't
post it, and no one sees it but me, the analog feed is certainly good enough to
fly with.  

I don't generally tune my quads as they all fly just fine on the default, stock, 
factory tune. Before I touch any of the tune, I fly the quad to get a baseline.
If it flies fine, then I am done. If it ain't broke, Then Don't fix it. 

Welcome to the best forum for FPV.

Later, iFly 

 Thank you. I guess we are the old men league. I told my daughter that I have reached God's age. She asked me: "How old is God?"

Yup we are on the same boat. I have done enough loops and rolls with my pattern planes to last me a life time. I don't want to see my video image going upside down. I get seasick or is that air sick but I am still on the ground.

Yes I do enjoy the clarity from my Walksnail systems. I can see the leaves and the tree branches and even the chickens running around (I cannot really identify them though). However I can swap cameras and VTX's and antennas faster than I can change my under pants.  

I am intimidated by the mipi cable on the digital systems. Yes I can and did change them but I needed magnifying glasses to see what I was doing.

Analog system is just so much easier but I do give up on image quality. Even with the better cameras like the Caddx Ratel Pro and the Runcam Phoenix, the details are just not there. I am getting a bit better now with the RapidFire and SpeedyBee VRX over the Skyzone Steadyview. 

All of quads flew so nice out of the box (including the ones I built from parts) that I don't really need to tune them. Compare to the old MultiWii and KK flight controllers I used to fly these are heaven sent.

Thank you and this forum is a bit more informative regarding all things FPV and I like it.

(11-Apr-2024, 02:29 PM)mstc Wrote: Welcome! There is another member here from Hawaii and always nice to see him post his beach flights.
If it is not too windy in your backyard, you might want to consider a 2" 2S open prop flyer. They are great fun in smaller spaces and pretty quiet as well, and even a Walksnail build will make a nice agile cruiser. If you like doing a lot of acrobatics, then maybe add a more traditional 3" toothpick to your mix.

Thank you. I was a SCUBA instructor for quite a few years back in the late 70's and early 80's. I have enough salt water and beaches. I stay up the mountain and look at trees now. When I was shooting aerials for realtors they all wanted "ocean view" of the properties. I could never see the benefit of the "ocean view". 

I have a few 2" flyer but they have prop guards so a bit heavier and nosier. The small open prop I have is the T Motor Feather 120 which has 3" props. 1S and very light and very very quiet. Great for in the morning when I don't want to wake up the neighbors.

I am starting to collect some toothpick parts to build a couple smaller 2" and 3" machines. I do have a 1S Walksnail setup waiting to be put into a machine.

I also don't mind a good water proof quad to fly in the rain.

No, I don't see the point in doing aerobatics in FPV. I get seasick. Plus I am so into doing the perfectly "round" loop with my pattern planes I cannot see the shape of the loop with the quads. At least until I hit the ground.  Even with flying helicopter line of sight the loops can get a bit more difficult than with a fixed wing. Problem is the top of the loop. It is so easy to over do the negative pitch and it turned into a flip instead. That takes a lot of practice to do it right.