FPV flight gone a bit wrong

by Shaun_Mileson | October 15, 2012 | (4) Posted in Just Fun


Anyone able to shed some light on what went wrong? posted the question in the forums(http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?2878-RC-transmitter-being-locked-out) , input is greatly appreciated.



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COMMENTS

bear3103 on October 16, 2012
Shaun , what frequency is your fpv gear running on as I have read where the fpv 2.4ghz system cause the same problem. As in it interferes with your 2.4ghz radio. Just a thought.


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chipgt on October 15, 2012
I think I may be able to help you out. First I need to know the specs of your A/C. What transmitter/ Receiver are you using and do you have any fail-safes? (Such as eagletree's data recorder/ OSD) First I fly FPV planes for a living through the Air Force. I can honestly say its one of two things. First there are railroad track near you I see. One of the biggest problems we have for my professional job is that there are in-fact railroad tracks next to the base I fly at. They have been known here to cause interference with our $3.5 M A/C. An investigation of why this happens is still going on. However, we have several fail-safe's to counter this. Such as an auto pilot that will level us off and even fly the plane back to our ground station in the event we have radio issues. This is available to you as a hobiest from eagletree with the combo of data logger, osd, and gps you to can have an auto pilot that will take control of your plane in the event of transmitter issues. It is something I highly recommend but, is pricy. Or you could go cheaper and just not fly over the railroad tracks. The other thing it could be is that you flew out of the operational range of your transmitter. This happens to me with some blue core foam planes I have built using micro receivers for my DX8. Then end result is exactly what happened to you. Most receivers are set up to maintain the last known input until link is reestablished. Check your radio's instructions to see how to change this. If you have any other questions let me know.
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Shaun_Mileson on October 16, 2012
Hi Chip, thanks a lot for your input! I am flying using a Hitec Optic 6 sport 2.4Ghz rx/tx going thru a DJI Naza flight controller that has the autopilot/self leveler (I was already in this mode when it happened). The Tx doesn't have a (to the best of my knowledge, maybe I should RTFM-read the f.... manual.) failsafe mode. It kinda makes sense about the railway lines, as all the other flights that I have done FPV have had no issues even at a longer distance, could it be that I was one side and the A/c was on the "wrong side of the tracks"? As for flying out of range of the TX, highly unlikely as I was flying it maybe 200m away los and I have taken this craft basically out of sight with no issues. I think you are very correct in blaming the railway, and thank you again for your input.
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chipgt on October 16, 2012
No problems, happy to help. I don’t think your radio is the problem. It is a very solid system. I talked with some of my coworkers tonight about your situation. They all agree with us on how its the railway. One of the guys said he saw a program on Discovery that showed how railroads a maintained and upgraded. In some cases technicians would place fiber optics and even radios under the tracks in some railways/ rail roads. This allows trains to communicate with station masters and throw switches leading to other places across the country. In some cases its a very complex network that have been known to mess with low flying maned A/C. The bottom line is that this is and has been a standard for most railways for some time now. I'll look for the video and see if it is on you tube or something and let you know when I find it. Hopefully your A/C didn't get too damaged and will be operational again soon.
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Shaun_Mileson on October 16, 2012
Thanks Guys for the feedback, @bear3103, my FPV system is a Fatshark 5.8GHz system, I ordered that frequency in the hopes this wouldn't happen. But like Chipgt says I reckon it was the railway causing the Tx signal to get mixed up and bounced off the track, I fully believe that there are radio networks on or around railways for communication purposes and even though this particular track has been unused for a number of years I'm certain the signal is bouncing off those big pieces of steel and getting distorted.

Thanks again for the insight and this is the reason I love this sight and community!
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FPV flight gone a bit wrong