Green Fpv Gates. Environmentally friendly solution

We live in deep environmental times. We are obliged to go for more friendly solutions or our precious supply of fossil fuels will quickly run out. Anything to help then is a bonus.

As me Charlie and Henry have now got mini quads and fpv we decided that (because were always arguing) that we would need something that would test our skills and see who really is the best. We decided that we wanted something like air gates or a course to race around. 

There was two problems at this point, 1 we didn't have money to burn on Air gates and 2 we didn't have any form of course but then I had a stroke of genius and said why don't we use the hedge down the side of out flying field as an airgate. It would meen some slight pruning would have to be done but anything is better than spending surely.

Here is the hedge down the side of the field,

We could see a couple of potential options so we came back 5 minuets later armed with some loppers and set to work. This is what we did,

We do stress that it is very important that you check for landowner's permition before you do this. CHECK FOR LANDOWNER'S PERMITION!!!!!

The way that we made our green gates was to get rid of any high or dead grass first. The sort of anoying stuff that mini quad motors love to get tangled in. Then we got rid of some smaller branches (ghost branches) so we didn't hit them when we were flying. We also pruned back the branches so we had quite a large gate to hit and to be fair the gap was quite big to start with.

When pruning down to a stem make sure you get right into the stem as this will minimise collision chances and stop the tree or animals being harmed as they pass through. Technically don't let anything stick out. 

Anyway we completed two in the video which included a small and a large gate. We have opened up another now and are looking for another possibility. The thing we like most about this is that we have saved so much.

A coventional woggle or air gate can cost up to £90 although most are around £30 or about $40. So you can easily see that a course is going to be an expensive thing. But the hedge and trees are already there so you don't have to pay for them. Also the loppers are a normal piece of DIY equiptment so everyone normaly has them for Tree pruning. And why not do something with the environment. 

A picture of our smaller gate and the other that we opened up,

Apoligies for the darkness on the second one

It is a genuine solution and another perk is that you don't have to set anything up.

We have another video of mine and henry's first timed race featuring a green gate (and an unsuccessful power loop by Henry)

Close call but I'm pretty sure the the Flags are for going around. Not there as an orniment! Anyway to kerb arguments further we plan to change the first flag into a woggle so then you can either go through or you can't. Also as our pilot skill levels improve we can hit the smaller gate instead of having to go over the top of the hedge.

I will say though that this is not just for mini quads. Race wings like the mini arrow could also use these although it may be a little sketchy!

Anyway I would like to thank you for reading this article and would like to hear about some of your FPV solutions aswell whether it be DIY woggles or any other innovative solution.

Thanks, Dan from PS/RC