095 A Radian Christmas tree

Hobby-King-Guy question: Can we please have sprung suspension metal RETRACTS on all future Durafly and Avios? Freewing / Motion RC et al (!) are gaining me as a customer BECAUSE their landing gear manages the more common grass fields that MOST of us fly from so much better. Both Chris and Andre, it seems to me, have been vocal about their disillusionment with plastic and un-sprung retracts. Horizon Hobby seem to be as bad if even the big Carbon Z T28 seems to have crappy plastic retracts: what were they thinking ?!?!?
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So now that winter is on the way, how many of you guys have tried the turnigy mitt with the heaters? would you guys recommend it? I know Andre has them.
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Hi Rappy. I have my Verizon mifi Jetpack set to low range(power). Also, I have 2W signal booster attached to my Futaba transmitter. I know the Raspberry PI can use a 4g dongle(probably the best setup) but I haven't been able to make that work (yet..lol). Thanks for the link, that cellular phone module looks really cool and prob a little lighter. $45 is a pretty good price.:-)
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Well, this year, you don't have anything under the Christmas tree, you have something OVER the Christmas tree.
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Tech question for David------ I have been flying fpv with my output of my GoPro hero 3+ and may have accidentally shorted something in the output recently. My tx wiring is individual micro plugs for each of the wires. I may have connected the ground wire from the tx to the GoPro video output and and the tx video input to the GoPro ground output shorting that option out completely. The camera works fine recording, wifi, remote, light emitting diodes etc. just the video output stopped working completely. Here is the question for David ...... Can this be fixed easily? Did I burn something simple out? Please help. I love the color and quality of the output video for fpv. Very little delay and way better than any board camera. Thank you. Brad
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Great podcast, enjoyed thoroughly Great addition of Andrew, circumstances sounds like storybook tale. Keep the pcasts coming, much appreciated.
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But flying in your backyard is flying on your own property so what is the issue then?
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I feel the same way as you about the DJI update, Chris: there's some good and some bad. I think it's great that DJI is offering this capability, because I think the majority of the incidents that have made the news are just a result of ignorance. How would Joe Phantom Flyer know that there's a TFR in effect in a particular area. Yes, as aviation minded folks, it might seem obvious to us that you don't want to fly your quad around when there's firefighting planes in the area, but to the average guy, his quad is just flying around at "100 feet" and the firefighters are all flying at "a few thousand feet". A person who is not aviation minded might have no concept of how airspace deconfliction works (hell, most of us don't, either, if we are arguing that anytime a "real" plane is in the air all of our quads "have" to be on the ground).

So yes, I think it's great that there is now a system that alerts you if there is an active TFR in the area. Yeah, it sucks that an internet connection is required, but how else would you get the data?

Where I disagree is in taking the decision out of the users' hands. Yes, it is absolutely a CYA so that when a Phantom crashes on the White House lawn again, and the picture of the thing is in the newspaper, and everyone on earth recognizes that white quad as a Phantom, DJI can be covered and say "we told him not to fly out there, it's on him." And then I assume with that "verified user account" thing, they can say "here is at least one guy that declared he was flying in that area". And now they will come prosecute you when it might have been some dude with a Versacopter or Discovery that has no built-in DJI or 3DR no-fly-zone protection system. Great.

So, yes, I think it's great that DJI is building the situational awareness part of the system into the app. I think there should be more apps like that (I think there's one called Airmap that anyone can use?). I would even be OK with saying "You are required to check such an app before you can fly". That's just good situational awareness and care for your surroundings. But if I want to fly, it's on me. Otherwise you are letting someone at DJI make the decision on what is and is not safe. They could decide that anything within 100 miles of human population is unsafe (and so other than Alaska and Wyoming and maybe Montana, you couldn't fly anywhere). That would suck. Or they could decide that everywhere is safe, and then I could crash or cause some problem and say "But DJI said it was OK to fly here!" I think that's even worse.
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Amen, Wayne! The AMA was a part of this "task force." They have always rubbed me the wrong way, but I capitulated and joined so I could fly at FTFF. Now I belong to a club, which is awesome. But, I DO NOT trust AMA.
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I am actually pretty surprised that the hot spot 2.4Ghz doesn't interfere with the 2.4Ghz for the Receiver. Pass the link below to Andrew, it's a GSM phone module... he can get rid of the hot spot and miniaturize :)

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fona-mini-gsm-gprs-cellular-phone-module/overview

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