Provo's 2016 FPV adventures

by Provotroll | January 9, 2017 | (7) Posted in Just Fun

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Last year I moaned about how little I flew in 2015. Although I didn't do a lot more flying in 2016, I consider it to be a good FPV year for me. Quality over quantity: not a lot of airtime, but those days that I managed to do some flights were just great.

 

It started great in early January 2015 when I did a weekend trip to the Bavarian Alps to do some nice flights above the snow covered mountains.

 

 

 

Over the year I got visited by several FPV friends from around Germany and we did some flights in my neck of the woods: the Black Forrest.

 

 

We also did a short day trip to France to fly near the village “Neuf Brisach”. The hexagonal village with it's star shaped town walls is a very distinct sight.

 

Another nice day trip was to the upper Danube with it's unique canyon.

 

But my highlight in 2016 definitely was the three day trip to Switzerland. An awesome landscape, a handful of friends, camping and FPV from dawn till dusk – those are the days to live for.

If 2017 comes even close to 2016, I'm happy :-)

 

 

COMMENTS

Air-headed Aviator on January 21, 2017
The literal heights your going with these wings are insane. Are you like hitting 10K ft? This really wants me to expedite my travel to FPV.
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Provotroll on January 21, 2017
Yes, around that height. The highest peaks we flew to were in Switzerland and just above 3,000m.
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Air-headed Aviator on January 21, 2017
Thats spectacular. Do you have an article with the specs of the gear you use?
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Provotroll on January 22, 2017
You can find out about my setup in an article on my favorite wing the Z3:
http://flitetest.com/articles/autumn-sun-z2-vs-z3-comparison
Hope that helps. Should that not answer your question don't hesitate to ask.
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notsane on January 19, 2017
Reall phenominal footage. Great flying, too!
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Provotroll on January 21, 2017
Thanks :)
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steadfast4life on January 19, 2017
Absolutely gorgeous footage. And those wings are extremely stable. just wow.
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Provotroll on January 21, 2017
Thanks. Yes, the Z3 and Guigui86' Drakbee offer great stability.
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PenguinWings on January 18, 2017
Is this GoPro footage? It looks so clear!
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Provotroll on January 18, 2017
Yes, most of it is GoPro 3 Black. Some parts are Xiaomi Yi.
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HilldaFlyer on March 5, 2017
Great year in review. Love the mountains, scenery and diving. I know you've posted the electronic setup for you stuff previously. Could you recap the control radio and link frequency, FPV link, flight controller etc. Thanks,
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Provotroll on March 13, 2017
Hi!
Thank you for your comment. My setup is still the same as last year:
On the wing I use the following setup: Ritewing midi MG servos, OS OMA 3820 1.200kV, 10x6", YEP 80A, EZOSD, EZUHF, Boscam 2.4 VTx (stock antenna), Sony HAD2 600 TVL, GoPro 3 black, 4s6.600mAh

On the ground: Lawmate 2.4 VRx, high gain (11dbi) yagi antenna, Fatshark Dominator V1, 7" monitor as a back up to the goggles

I prefere to fly without a flight controller. No autopilot, no stabilization. A simpler setup is a safer setup. With a flight controller the complexity is increased dramaticaly and also with that the amount of possible failure points. I'm actually thinking about writing an article about that topic. Would you be interested in such an article?
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HilldaFlyer on March 13, 2017
I sure would, even a discussion in the forums. You present a good point. I guess the reason I would use a flight controller is for the purpose of aircraft recovery in the event that control signal was lost - it would have the capability of "return to home". So tell me, flying in the mountains like you do, would it be almost be a complete loss of aircraft if your video or control link failed? I guess I'm asking if you're a mountain climber too?

Flying long-range FPV really excites me to imagine all the places you can go with out being there.
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goatboy29 on January 20, 2017
Beautiful! Well done!!
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Provotroll on January 21, 2017
Thank you :)
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Provo's 2016 FPV adventures